Going to the Source

Across the Heartland – It’s not like the old days. Only about two percent of all Americans work in professions directly involved in agriculture.  It’s created a yearning among many of the remaining 98% to make stronger connections to the farms and fields of the Heartland that are the sources of their food. 

In many places, farmers are there to help them. One method they’re using is the “you-pick farm.” It offers the farmer a way to get more for his or her produce – and it offers none-farm families a chance to harvest their own produce fresh from the field.The you-pick phenomenon is growing in places as unlikely and far away as Alaska’s Matanuska Valley – where, in August, customers can pull cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, and potatoes out of the ground at the base of snow-capped mountains. Orchard visitors in Maine fill their baskets with apples; well-irrigated farms in Arizona provide many a family with both a few hours of togetherness in the fields, and fruits and vegetables for their meals. 

It’s a new experience in many areas, but in eastern Washington State, the you-pick way has already become an institution. Under the rubric “Green Bluff Growers,” more than thirty individual farms have joined together to make their region a favored destination among you-pickers. Some of them have been running their farms as you-pick spots for more than a century. 

Green Bluff Growers publishes a guide that helps its customers figure out where to go, what to pick, and when.

Gordon Beck’s Harvest House sits in the middle of the region about ten miles north of Spokane.

“It’s just a farming community. We’re on a high plateau up here above Spokane.  We have cool nights, warm days which is good for fruit.”

Beck enjoys showing off his apple trees. “In my orchard, I grow 50 varieties of apples. This is one called Zestar, and it is a good eating apple.  All of your early apples tend to be on the tart side.  As you get to October, they sweeten up, and then the later apples are tart again.”

At Walters Fruit Ranch, farmer Mark Merrill carries customers into his orchards on a miniature train he has named “The Fruit Loop Express.” When people are new to “you pick” his staff shows people new to the you-pick experience the right way to go about it, avoiding damage to the fruit. 

Many come for what he calls the “bendover peach.”

“See how it’s soft? The reason it gets its ‘bendover" you bend over so you don’t get it on your shirt. That is juicy.”

Like many of the farms at Green Bluff, Walters Fruit Ranch offers a seasonal range of fresh produce. Most of the farms here are only a few acres in size. They’ll offer berries in the spring; peaches, apricots and cherries in summer; apples in fall. 

There are in-house bee hives, wine tasting, a seemingly endless selection of fruit pies.  With Spokane just over the horizon, the Green Bluff concept has proven a powerful attraction for urbanites and suburbanites seeking fresh air and a taste of the world of agriculture.  Patti Skinner brought her grandchildren to Green Bluff for a day of peach-picking.  “It’s amazing to see the wonderful things that have been given to us by our Creator,” she says.

Produce prices at Green Bluff are roughly equivalent to those at local supermarkets. But Green Bluff farmers say prices are beside the point. They believe they’re selling much more then fruit. 

Says Beck, “We sell the experience of coming to the farm. Parents bringing their children up. Showing them how to you-pick. How fruit is grown. That whole farm experience. And people like, people love that.”

FUN FACT:
As you-pick farms gain popularity, many states have programs to encourage both growers and consumers to “buy local.”  And you-pick farms aren’t just fruit-and-vegetable operations.  Shoppers also can harvest other goods like flowers and Christmas trees.