A recent innovation in the United States—and most commonly associated with dairy operations—anaerobic digesters have been creating green energy in Europe for decades. The technology for creating biogas from organic matter is well proven. Simply put, organic material, (in this case, fruit and vegetable matter) when placed  in anaerobic conditions in large mixed tanks, produces biogas. The methane-rich biogas is used to fuel a combined heat and power (CHP) system (a process also known as “co-generation “). This method of energy conversion has very little energy loss and is thus highly efficient. Thermal energy and electrical energy are produced at the same time— an ideal situation for food production which requires both.

The Biogas plant supports the goals of minimizing our carbon footprint and gaining energy independence through the creation of renewable, on-farm energy . Already a leader in sustainable farming nationally, the company believes that their new BioGas Plant will firmly establish Stahlbush Island Farms, Inc. as an international leader in the Sustainable Food Production movement.  Please ask questions!  Tell us what you think!

The Great Blue Heron rookery at Stahlbush Island Farms is an example of how we farm harmoniously with the environment.  We eagerly await the return of these giant birds, and we enjoy watching them pair up and then watch the young birds fledge in the coming months. We will update you with photos over this time so you can track their progress right along with us.

Here is what the rookery looks like in early March. The small dark spots at the top of the trees are our paired herons readying their nests.

One of our customers and neighbors to the north is the very delicious and decadent Ruby Jewel Treats of Portland, Oregon.

Ruby Jewel’s handmade ice cream sandwiches are made with local ingredients, and our organic pumpkin was featured in this fall’s seasonal flavor: Ginger Cookie with Pumpkin Ice Cream.

I visited Ruby Jewel at the beginning of what promised to be a good season for this holiday treat. And yes, it tastes as good as it looks.

This is just one of many ways our organic pumpkin is used as an ingredient — you can find our pumpkin in pies, soups, and more. Stahlbush and the Willamette Valley as a whole benefit from wonderful soil and growing conditions that suit a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, and by producing quality food for others we act as a hub of a better food system. For Stahlbush, that has always been a compelling reason to value and protect our resources by farming sustainably.

But as I looked at our garden last night, this collection of little green sprouts got me thinking about how the act of planting is an essentially hopeful one. I am waiting eagerly (anxiously?) to see how our at-home plantings progress and hoping that we’ll have some edibles come fall. It seems so incredible that these tiny hardened seeds become tender little sprouts that will grow, flower, and fruit into something many thousands of times its original size.

Even with all the knowledge that our farm team possesses and the preparation they go through in the winter, we still must work in concert with nature — we make predictions and we respond to what really comes our way in the natural world. Tracking the progress of our crops is a huge task accomplished by a team of field scouts and farm managers. Digital photographs are visual data that inform our farming techniques, and soil testing tells us what nutrients are present (and lacking) so that we can see with great precision how to prepare the soil for the needs of a crop.

Despite these and other very precise farming methods at Stahlbush, those orderly sprouts poking up through the ground and reaching for the sunshine are always a joy and a surprise in their own way — though they are expected they are still newcomers, and we can delight in the newness, the greenness, the fragility that demands we welcome them with care. To me they are the reward of an optimistic and hopeful enterprise.

First of all, blueberry bushes take time to come into full production… anywhere from 6-7 years to really yield highest quality and quantity of fruit. Blueberry bushes can then go on to produce fruit for nearly 30 years. We grow many varieties of blueberries so that the fruit ripens over a little longer period of time and doesn’t overwhelm our ability to harvest the fruit at its peak. The Stahlbush blueberry fields are coming into their prime fruit-bearing years and take a lot of love and attention year round with trimming and tying up, weeding, watering, and feeding the plants nutrients.

Once the bushes set fruit, our “birds of prey” sound machine keeps flocks of birds from coming in and feasting. A few deer wander through, but in general, the deer don’t care for the openness of the fields and prefer to hug the perimeters along the Willamette River. The ripe berries are harvested by hand, early in the day if possible to prevent harvesting during the desiccating hours of hot sun (it’s 90 degrees here today in Corvallis). Machine picking technology is available and we may go to this method at some point. But for now, hand picking is the best way to get the most high quality fruit and care for the bushes. The flats of picked berries are brought into cold storage right here at the farm and queue up to be sorted, washed, and frozen.

This morning I walked into the chiller and the first thing I noticed was the blueberry-infused air….an absolutely delightful aromatherapy moment. The blueberries are poured onto a moving berry-ladder and then dropped into a large bin where they are air cleaned. This removes leaves and twigs. Next the blueberries gently roll over a de-stemmer and past an optics system that hunts for and rejects any imperfect berries, i.e. under ripe, mashed or misshapen. Then it’s off to a cool water wash that removes any remaining dust particles. They are then carried past a team of inspectors looking for any blueberries that might have snuck through unripe or still wearing a stem (this morning we saw a couple blueberries that had a tiny bit of blueberry flower bud attached. Didn’t hurt the taste a bit!)

After a final rinse, the berries are ready to enter the freezer tunnel and be flash frozen individually (we call this IQF or Individually Quick Frozen.) You might think that these processing steps would in some way damage the fruit, but as I looked at the finished IQF Blueberries this morning coming off the line, I was astounded by how perfectly formed the fruit is. A perfect frozen blueberry takes masterful, sustainable farming and an exquisitely high level of expertise at the plant processing level. The blueberries are dropped in a bag and shipped to your store and all you taste is Oregon sun, rain and the terroir of the region. Full disclosure: I work here at the farm, so my high opinion of these blueberries may sound biased. But nevertheless I am a berry aficionado and these are the best blueberries on the planet! (And for further evidence here’s one of my kids grazing like a bear cub out in the Stahlbush blueberry fields…)

And those long summer days. In the Willamette Valley we have an extended rainy season from fall through spring, and we rejoice in the warm days and clear skies of summer.

Here’s some of our rye grass cover crop, shimmering under a bright June sun and cloudless blue sky.

These are plants that receive years of care and tending before they are fully mature. Farm managers call the young plants “baby berries,” which aptly expresses the kind of nurturing it takes to raise them.

And just by their nature, the perennials have a distinct and continuous effect on the farm landscape. With our annual crops we practice crop rotation, so we see different plants in the field each season. Our perennials have more permanent ties to land and location, and though we watch their growth and their transformation as they flower and fruit, they are definitive elements of the landscape from year to year.

Our berry fields are full of honey bees at this time of year, both volunteers and draftees borrowed from professional beekeepers. You can hear a steady and surprisingly loud hum around the blossoms when you stand in the midst of the rows.

We rely on these incredible pollinators in growing a variety of fruits and vegetables. The one you see here is pollinating a cane berry blossom in our test garden.

There’s also been some important news in the past few years about the disappearance of honey bee colonies– a little understood phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

Here are some links for the bee geeks out there.

• Can you do the waggle dance?
• NRDC’s tips for bee friendly gardening
• National Agricultural Library’s collection of articles on CCD

One of the pleasures of being right at the farm headquarters is getting to taste and try and eat Oregon fruits and vegetables nearly every day. Last year we compared tastes of 5 different Oregon strawberry varieties. Below are our informal tasting results. (Note: every one of these strawberry varieties is scrumptious so we are really talking about flavor notes!)

Shucksan~ my personal favorite, pinkish red center. Perfect balance of sweet tart complexity and nice dense flesh. Put me in a thoughtful mood (like a sip of great pinot noir, also grown right here in the Willamette Valley…)

Honeoye~ first to ripen (a virtue in itself) classic strawberry shape and most straightforward strawberry taste

Tillamook~ largest and slightly hollow center, candy-sweet taste, extra juicy

Red Crest~ beautiful blood red interior, tilts toward tanginess, tomato notes

Totem~ richest tasting. Right on the edge of sweet-as-possible