An article in a recent edition of our local newspaper suggests that until researchers devise an effective affordable organic control for the recent exotic pest, Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD), that there may no longer be raspberries available for picking at local farms--at least not raspberries that consumers would want to pick or eat.  NOT TRUE!  There will be beautiful raspberries, free of SWD larva AND toxic pesticide residues, to pick this summer--at HIGHLAND VALLEY FARM.

SWD has been a concern to the fruit industry since its arrival in California from Asia in 2008.  By 2010 the pest was being detected in soft skinned berry crops from coast to coast throughout North America.  In 2012, berry crops in Michigan were severely damaged--especially the highly vulnerable raspberry crop.  But much has been learned about SWD since 2012, as horticultural crop researchers and cooperating fruit farmers shifted into high gear to understand the new pest and to devise effective strategies for control.

Spotted Wing Drosophila is fruit fly--a close relative to our common "vinegar fly", that tiny pest that hovers around your kitchen during the summer months as you process your dill pickles. Vinegar flies normally only "attack" soft over-ripe or rotting fruits.  What makes SWD different is its unique serrated ovipositor, which enables it to saw its way into the stronger skin of healthy fruit to lay its eggs.

One of the challenges for controlling SWD is the fact that it is a multi-generational insect, able to mature from an egg laid, to an adult fly capable of laying eggs, in a ten day cycle.  Population increase is logarithmic, and can become explosive during the later summer season.  As the produce industry maintains a "zero tolerance" for the presence of insect larva in fresh fruit, only the most diligent farmers will likely be able to meet the standard for marketable fresh berries--especially raspberries--given the current presence of SWD in the surrounding environment.  It is true that some farmers across the country are choosing to get out of the raspberry business, unwilling or unable to rise to the SWD challenge.  Others, however, choose to tackle the problem, work with the researchers, and apply what is being learned with a willingness to modify their management practices and harvest/marketing strategies in an effort to control the pest.  Many are succeeding.

At HIGHLAND VALLEY FARM, a first step was to abandon plans to grow late fruiting or fall fruiting raspberry varieties.  Early fruiting raspberries are less pressured by SWD.  A second step was to learn how to best scout for the pest, a management tool that has been refined and improved almost annually by researchers as they continue to develop better traps, more effective lures, and modify threshholds for injury.  We also control the pest habitat by keeping thoroughfares closely mowed, hedges well pruned and open to sunlight using a "vee" trellis to spread the canes. When scouting indicates an increasing pest presence, we spray.  Both organic and benign conventional chemical controls are available with zero or one day re-entry or harvest restrictions.  

ALL raspberry fruit is harvested on an every other day basis at our farm.  If pick-your-own customer turnout is light, we will pick any ripe fruit left in the field.  Raspberries we pick are immediately cooled and refrigerated, and we advise our PYO customers do the same.  Refrigeration will immediately arrest any SWD eggs that might be present, preventing those eggs from hatching. During the harvest period, raspberry fruit is sampled in the field several times a day.  As soon as a single live lava is detected, the raspberry pick-your-own harvest is curtailed for the season. Our late season raspberries are then machine harvested on an every-other-day basis and immediately frozen for later processing use.

If you want to pick raspberries this season, they will be available--as delicate, sweet, and attractive as you remember them.  My advice to would-be raspberry pickers is know what your farmer is doing to manage Spotted Wing Drosophila, come early in the season, come early in the day, and refrigerate or, better yet, consume or process your harvest as soon as possible.  There is no fruit more special than fresh red raspberries!

​After an absence of more than a year, I recently had an opportunity to return to the former Soviet Republic of Georgia.  USAID's Farmer to Farmer program asked me to provide a berry production training program for farm service center extension consultants who will work with Georgian berry farmers in their various districts of the country. 
 
Since 2003, I have been a part of efforts to introduce commercial berry production as a high-value hand-harvested cash crop for Georgian farmers in desperate need of economic opportunity. Some of the first North American Highbush Blueberry plants to be introduced into Georgia arrived in my suitcase on one of those early assignments.  “Berry Production” was identified as a priority sector in 2004 as part of USAID’s five year AgVantage development mission in Georgia.   During that period, I made as many as five trips per year to Georgia: presenting seminars, establishing replicated cultivar trials, shepherding demonstration farms and a plant nursery development, creating curriculum for an agricultural technical college, and encouraging efforts to form a Georgian Berry Growers Association.  In 2006 we succeeded in bringing nine Georgian farmers, including a Deputy Minister of Agriculture, to the United States for a two week “study tour” of Upper-Midwestern berry production farms, university berry research stations, and examples of berry marketing, distribution, and processing efforts.
 
Following this most recent experience, it is difficult to express the full measure of my joy for what I see happening as a result of efforts begun nearly 15 years ago to assist this brave determined little country.
 
During the past year, the Georgian government increased support of their high-value fruit crops by implementing a new program to stimulate national fruit production--including berry production.  70% of the costs for perennial plant purchases, and 50% of the costs for the purchase of irrigation systems, are now provided by the government to qualifying land holders and entrepreneurs.  In the past year more than 800 new or expanded family fruit farms of all kinds--nuts, pome fruits, stone fruits, and berries--representing 8,000 acres of new production were initiated.  50 acres of raspberry, 100 acres of blackberry, and 450 acres of blueberry production is now well established.   Israel has become a major recipient of Georgian fresh blueberry exports.
 
In addition, a new USAID agricultural development mission, ZRDA, has been launched to provide technical assistance and grants to farmers for the next five years.  Independently owned farm service centers, established with Millennium Fund assistance nearly ten years ago, and now supported by ZRDA, are now well established in all parts of the country and expanding their services to these family farmers.  I had opportunity on this assignment to both reconnect with stakeholders from earlier programs, some not seen for more than ten years, and to meet numerous new "back-to-the-landers"--an eclectic mix of urban professionals, recent university graduates, and existing rural residents.  Their excitement for the opportunity to establish or expand their farms is palpable.   ZRDA has asked me to assist their efforts to support and expand the Georgian berry industry through the remainder of the USAID-ZRDA mission.  I will return to Georgia in September.

In a mental fog I wake too early.  It is the wee hours of a Monday morning.  Although I arrived here Saturday evening, my body and my mind are still trying to catch up to the surrealism of jet travel.  I have crossed nine time zones in a little more than 20 hours to return to the Republic of Georgia.  

The sky has started to lighten in the east as I step out on my balcony at Betsy's Hotel on the mountainside overlooking Tbilisi, the ancient capital. Street lights twinkle across an otherwise dark city.   The air is fresh and cool, but the day promises to be clear and warm. The neighborhood is quiet as most residents have not yet begun to stir. Even the dogs are silent. The dominant sounds of this pre-dawn hour are the gentle cooing of pigeons and the crowing of an urban backyard rooster. There is only occasional traffic on an at-any-other-time bustling Rustaveli Avenue far below me in the city center.  I should be sleeping as well, but I have not yet fully adjusted to the time and place to which I have come.

There can be no coffee until the hotel restaurant opens for breakfast at 7:00, so I dress and head out the door for a long morning walk.  Beyond my hotel on the same street is the grey Russian Orthodox cathedral with its illuminated ornate domes and spires.  Passing, I turn and descend a pedestrian stairway into the narrow winding streets and alleys that lead down to the heart of the old city.  It is still quiet when I reach Rustaveli. The street sweepers are out now with their quaint brooms--mostly elderly women in long black dresses, the uniform of widows, but all wearing official blaze-orange street worker vests. Beyond the Opera House, I consider popping into the historic Tbilisi Marriot for coffee. The lighted windows of the coffee shop beckon--but I decide to continue on as I know it would be unreasonably expensive.  Perhaps the kiosk will be opening at Pushkin Park on Freedom Square.  

I pass the honey-colored limestone Parliament building where a young Mikhiel Saakashvili and his followers faced down the troops during the "Rose Revolution".  A single military policeman parades on the broad steps.  I come to the end of Rustaveli Avenue and Pushkin Park. During Soviet times, Freedom Square was dominated by a larger-than-life statue of Lenin standing on a cold granite pedestal.  Now the central island of the traffic round-about features a tall gold capped Doric column, lifting up St. George mounted on his steed, as he slays the dragon under hoof.  The kiosk at Pushkin Park is still shuttered.  I continue to descend a gently curving boulevard towards the river, past the now-excavated foundations of the ancient city walls, past the puppet theatre with its comical clock tower, to the walled terrace that backs Sioni Cathedral.  A bearded Georgian Orthodox priest is performing his walking-meditation slowly circling the church as his wife dutifully follows several steps behind.  At Metehki Bridge, I stop and gaze across the river at the drum-towered church on its vertical bluff above the water.  On the precipice of the bluff stands the equestrian statue of King Vakhtang, medieval founder of Tbilisi, one hand raised as if in greeting.  

​By now the sun has risen.  The city is waking. Traffic is picking up. My mind has cleared.  I have fully arrived.   I hail an approaching taxi: "First time to Tbilisi?" asks my driver searching for words in English.  "No-- I have been many times before."  I respond.  “It is good to be back.”  Up and up the cab climbs the winding cobbled streets taking me back to Betsy's where I will find coffee, colleagues, and the reason for my coming.

In the summer of 1976, a local contractor completed a small concrete basement for us on rural land we had purchased near Bayfield, Wisconsin.  Janet, and I with our first son, then five years old, arrived the following spring to live in a tent, while building the 16' x 24' "core" of what would become our house: a kitchen, small living room, and two loft bedrooms over that tiny basement.  The original intent was that this structure would eventually be our "honey shop" for the processing and sale of products from our future apiary enterprise.  

We soon came to realize, however, that we were not yet in a position to afford the larger house we planned; while at the same time, the cost of the "shop" had been paid entirely from savings.  Raising children and the capital needs of establishing a farm business would prioritize our resources for the next three decades. During those early years we would make do with a smaller space and an outhouse.  Barn-sash windows and varnished sub-floors would suffice, as needed machinery was acquired, additional farm buildings constructed, and berry fields planted.   Over time, to accommodate our growing family, additions were made: a proper bathroom, a third bedroom, a pantry, and expanded living space--but many of the improvements languished in varying stages of completion.   Still later, some original features of the house began to show wear or were in need of re-purposing.

Finally, now that our children are grown and the farm is complete, we are able to return our attention to finishing the house. Our son Jon, now an accomplished carpenter, helped to enlarge the master bedroom, remodel the bath making it handicap accessible, finish floors with tile or native oak hardwood, replace the barn-sash with energy efficient windows, and install substantial new cupboards and cabinets in the kitchen.  Outside, gutters and down spouts were added and the entire building was re-stained.  Late this fall we began the final project that will complete our home: a large open porch across the front of the original "core"--an outdoor space for Kennedy style rockers, a patio table and chairs, and a "bench railing" to provide informal seating for a gathering of the entire family or a party of friends.

Forty years in the making and very near to completion.  Recently in my reading I came across a quotation that gives expression to my sense of fulfillment.  In a meditation he recorded at Cadiz in 1587, Sir Francis Drake mused, ​“There must be a beginning of any significant endeavor, but the continuing unto the end until it is thoroughly finished yields the true attainment.”

Dear Gio

... My personal regret, looking back, is that I did not vote for Bernie Sanders in the primaries.  I was not an enthusiastic Clinton supporter from the beginning--in fact before the primaries I was telling my friends that I hoped she would decide NOT TO RUN:  She was too old--she carried too much political "baggage" for her detractors to exploit (which is exactly what they were able to do!)--and she was too much a part of the "political machine" that is disconnected from the concerns of many ordinary people.  I had hoped she would step aside for a younger Democratic Party candidate--a fresh face with new ideas and new energy.  But she was qualified--especially in the area of foreign policy, which I feel to be the most important issue we currently face as a nation--and she did decide to run.  

Bernie Sanders represents my values--my beliefs--but I failed to stand with him.  Like many other American progressives, I didn't believe that Sanders could possibly win being the "outsider" that he is.  Against Trump, I reasoned, progressives needed to be united behind the "strongest" Democratic candidate.  I compromised my ideals and voted for the one I thought was the most "electable" acceptable candidate.  I have been pursuing "impossible dreams"--jousting with windmills all of my life--but when it might have mattered the most, I played it "safe" instead of following my heart. 

It is a very scary world right now.  You and your family are on my mind a lot.  I remind you that you have strong friends on this side of the ocean.  You take care.

Love Rick 

Dear Sasa,

Good to hear from you. Thanks for news of family and blueberries.

I am certain that you must be shaken by recent destabilizing events--in Ukraine, Africa, Syria, Europe and most recently the USA.  God help us all!  Needless to say that we, like the majority of rational American citizens, are shocked and deeply concerned for the outcome of the national elections here--especially the results of the contest for president.  It is truly troubling.  I worry that our world, driven by fear, inequality, unrest, and anxiety, may be returning to the tribalism, extreme nationalism,"scapegoating", intolerance, and militarism that marked the politics of the 1930's.  

How could we elect a Trump?  We know him to be a racist, a misogynist, a liar, a narcissist, a bully, a con-man, and a megalomaniac--a man with NO real friendships--a man with NO governing experience--a man with serious personality disorders--a man unfit for ANY public office. While he obviously spoke to the deep frustrations and anger of a working class that has felt
​increasingly marginalized and excluded by the global changes taking place in the world, I don't want to believe that Donald Trump is a reflection of mainstream American values, belief, and ideals. How could so many be so foolish and so reckless as to express their protest in a way that now endangers not only their own future, but also the future of a very fragile world?

Our hope must be in the American tradition of "peaceful transition of power" and in our strong democratic institutions with constitutional "checks and balances" to hold those in power accountable.  Trump will be the new American president.  He will be given his opportunity to govern, but he will be watched very closely--and held accountable.

Our love to all of you,

Rick 

"Dad...Look up!"  Jon called to me over the clatter of the blueberry harvester.  It was past Labor Day, but the boys and I had returned to the fields one last time to gather in what we could of a bounty of late ripening berries.  As a "river" of blue fruit continued to flow into the lug I was tending at the back of the machine, I raised my head to see a perfect "vee" of Canadian Geese--flying low in the sky north to south above the creek--directly crossing the path of our tractor.  

Our harvest season is finally approaching its end.  Coming out of winter last spring we had reason to hope for the "good harvest" we needed to recover from the short yields of the prior year. With rededicated effort; dead, damaged, and excessive cane was pruned to balance the bushes.  Careful attention was given to nutrition, damaging pests, and weed control. Copious fruit buds had survived a relatively gentle winter and the bloom had been abundant. An unsettled early summer threatened hail and wind, however as roads were washed away and crops ruined in southern portions of the county, Bayfield fruit farmers were blessed mostly with welcome rains.   Eagles were frequently seen wheeling high in the sky above the farm. ​

The 2016 blueberry crop has turned out to be one of the most bountiful ever.  Picking began early allowing two extra weeks of "high season" summer visitation at the farm resulting in a record number of "pick-your-own" customers.  An excellent summer crew picked and packed a steady inventory of berries for our fresh and process seasonal wholesale markets.  As summer ends and harvest resources thin--berries, seasonal customers, and employees--our freezers will be full to support "bonus" out-of-season sales.  

Farmers are known to be optimists despite the fact that their risks are high, the work is long and hard, and often rewards can be disappointing for reasons beyond human control.  Perhaps it is because we live by the seasons--close to the cycles and creative powers of nature--always with an eye on the sky for the signs of hope and renewal.  

"Locally produced food" has become a tenent in the planning of groups and individuals who are concerned for restoring healthy and sustainable rural economies.  However, I believe there is a disconnect in our thinking regarding both the realities and the possibilities for the contribution agriculture can make to the local rural economy.  The reality is that very little economically viable agricultural enterprise remains in Ashland/Bayfield Counties, i.e  enterprise with the capacity to provide even a median income to the farmer.  The possibility of renewed viable local agricultural enterprise  is often "self-limited" in our planning efforts by small thinking, misconceptions, and unrealistic expectations arising from the present state of our disconnection from farm experience.

The industrialization of American agriculture is now nearly complete.  Many rural communities have been severely impacted as a result of this fact.  Farmers now represent less than 1% of the national population. 75% of national food production is produced by only 9% of American farmers. Of the 91% of farms categorized by the USDA as "small farms",  60% report sales of less than $10,000 annually at a net income loss of $4,500 per farm.  The wealth of American agriculture, which was once broadly distributed among many producers on farms averaging less than 300 acres each, is now concentrated in the hands of a very few, very big, often absentee farm operators.  The threat of the CAFO is not just to the quality of a sacred body of water, it also degrades the economic health of rural agricultural communities by displacing smaller farmers, depleting rural populations, and weakening the local institutions and infrastructure that support family farms.

That is not to say that middle sized  resident owner-operated family farms can not be viable. Bigger is not necessarily better.  Most of the economic efficiency gain realized by increasing economy of scale is captured by the moderate sized family farm--and if resource consumption is the standard over cost of production, it has been demonstrated that industrial farm consumption of resources per unit of production rises as the industrial farm "factory" grows ever larger.   But family farms in significant numbers will not be restored to a rural economy of 30,000 residents through any "buy local" program--as much as I will support it.  At 245 pounds of dairy product, the current national per capita consumption of milk, three modest family farms milking 100 cows each could supply the two-county annual need of 7,350,000#.  My point is that farms need to be able to "export" to more densely populated urban communities if our farms and rural communities are to be viable and our cities are to survive.

We have the available land and natural resources to produce--to bring wealth from "outside" into our local economy.  Agriculture was once the economic backbone of the Bayfield County economy.  Over time it could become a major contributor again.  What will be required first and foremost will be people with the desire and the will to stay put--to commit to this place.  Farming is a long term development proposition and a life-long vocation.  To save what production we already have, we need to enable beginning farmers to become economically viable, and enable retiring farmers to transition their operations to the next generation.  Beginning at home, we need to stop denigrating this place where we live by convincing our children that their future opportunities for vocation and fulfillment will be better found elsewhere.  We need to return or strengthen Agriculture programing in our public schools and technical college to include agricultural entrepreneurialism. The existing family farms that have survived the assault of industrialization, and more recent farms in our community that have established and proven themselves, provide the best models for sustainability.  We need to support cooperative efforts as the best means for growing farms.  Our concept of "local food production for a local population" must be stretched to allow local farmers to seek additional markets beyond our county lines.  As much as farming should be a lifestyle, it must also be a business if farmers, their families, and their rural communities are to survive and prosper.

It was a short blueberry crop last year (2015) at our farm and across much of the upper Midwest. It caught us and many others by suprise.  We were not expecting a repeat of the very heavy 2014 crop, but we also did not expect that it would be only 33% of our 10 year annual per acre average! People have asked us repeatedly, "Why?--what happened?"  The short "simple" answer to that question is almost certainly weather related "winter injury."  Hearing that explanation, most will assume that the problem must have been a period of excessively cold temperature that might have occurred during the preceding winter.  The fact is that winter injury can result from a complex of factors--some known and others less studied.

"Winter injury"  (cold injury) is generally understood to result from four causal affects:  
1.)  Ambient cold temperatures that exceed the known hardiness limits for particular temperate  zone perennial plant varieties (approximately -25F for most of the blueberry varieties we grow).
2.)  Desiccation due to dry soils, cold dry air, and excessive wind exposure.
3.)  Widely fluctuating temperatures following a sufficient dormant chill that can cause perennial          plants to lose hardiness, e.g sub-zero temps following a prolonged midwinter thaw.
4.)  Late freezes after spring bud break or during blossom. 

Other than the bloom itself, fruit buds are the plant parts most susceptible to cold injury--especially those buds wintering above the snow line.  The tips of canes, the last green growth of the season, are also susceptible to die-back especially when winter comes early or suddenly. Older fruiting canes can also be killed by cold injury--especially following an "open" winter.  In the absence of protective snow cover or deep mulch, frost in the ground can cause damage to roots which are needed to support more demanding older canes.  The effects of winter injury do not always reveal themselves immediately following the break of dormancy in the Spring.  Often the die-back or collapse happens well after bud break, flowering, or even fruit set.

All of this discussion however, does not seem to fully explain what we experienced with the 2015 blueberry crop failure.  By my record and recollection, the four causal affects of winter injury described above were not observed in our fields--at least not to any extreme.  There were no ambient temperatures that even approached -25F.  We tested good soil moisture in the Fall and maintained irrigation schedules to leaf-fall.  Snow cover seemed adequate through the colder periods of the winter and we did not experience any frost during the bloom period.  Our raspberry field exhibited NO winter injury and fruited well.  Tips of blueberry canes exposed above the snowline of some of our more tender varieties, e.g. "Nelson" and "Duke", fruited and did not show any die-back.  Blueberry blocks that had been more recently pruned (within the last three years) fruited best.  It was older fruiting canes in more neglected blocks that were most severely affected.  

​Winter 2014-15 undoutedly played its part, but I believe the conditions resulting in the losses experienced in 2015 began with the winter of 2013-14--a winter of excessively heavy snowfall.  By February of that winter the snow pack measured nearly four feet deep in our fields.  Any cane standing less than vertical became trapped in this mass of snow and was bowed to the ground.  An extremely heavy fruit load in 2014 did not allow stiffer older bowed fruiting canes to "bounce back". Although harvest was heavy in 2014, it was difficult to access.   Following harvest, older canes in this bowed condition began to die.   By spring 2015, these older canes were dead in huge numbers. Those misshapen canes that did survive began to sprout "water shoots" from the tops of their arched shape--new growth that would not fruit that year, but whose leaves formed a canopy of shade over those canes that might have fruited--or that did fruit and couldn't be accessed.

We know that tropism has a large affect on the production of fruit trees.  Obtaining consistency in apple production is in part the art of pruning and limb training to balance the vegetative vertical tropism and the fruiting horizontal tropism.  What do we know of the effects of tropism on blueberry fruiting?  Could it be that these canes that had been deformed by a heavy snow load were now performing abnormally because the effects of tropism?

My strongest suspicion, though I am not a scientist, is that a 1-2 inch diameter hardwood cane can not be doubled over in a bow without some internal cane damage taking place--some slippage between the bark and the cambium layers, or the cambium and the heartwood--or even between the growth rings.  Could this have been the beginning of demise?

When I was younger, I had ready answers for those who asked concerning the events affecting our crops.  Now with experience, while I may be more knowledgeable, I am less sure. The longer I continue to farm, the more I come to respect the complexity and the mystery of "Mother Nature." 

​Abraham Lincoln proclaimed "Thanksgiving" as an American national holiday in 1863, during the darkest days of the American Civil War, as "a day to reflect, to celebrate, and to offer Thanks for the blessings of the recent harvest and the events of the past year."  Now, as then, we live in troubled times--in ways corporate and in other ways individual.  Despite challenges, uncertainty, fear, violence, sorrow, and loss there is still beauty and hope to be found in the world. Life is a gift to be lived and shared every day.  We need to stay focused on our reasons to celebrate.