Happy Day Farm, a farm in Ashland, Oregon, was the site of the first-ever berry harvest, which produced an estimated $1.7 million in revenue in 2017, according to the Oregonian.
Happy Day’s owner, Mike Tinkler, said the berry industry is in a good place.
“The world is changing, and we’re in a very good spot right now,” he said.
“We’re just getting started.”
The farm, which was sold to Tinklers family for $100 million in 2016, is the third-largest farm in the United States, according a 2018 U.S. Census report.
It also holds the distinction of having the fewest employees of any Oregon farm.
It employs about 1,600 workers.
The farm has an annual harvest of about 1 million pounds of berries, Tinkles farm manager Dan McAllister told The Oregonian in 2018.
That’s about 60 percent of the Oregon harvest.
Berkus Farms, an Oregon-based producer of wild berries, produces the berries that are used in some baked goods, including cookies and pie crusts, and has the largest berry inventory in the world.
The berries are harvested from the Oregon-Washington border by berry picking crews known as “farming” and shipped to the Northwest.
B.B. Farm is a subsidiary of Berkes Farm in Washington State.
Tinkling said B.C. has its own berry farmers, which also sell the berries.
Tinkler said he hopes his berry business can be a model for others to follow.
“We have a huge opportunity here to help grow the industry in the Northwest,” he told The Associated Press.
“And this is a very unique opportunity to be able to work with a great industry like this.”Read more: