Vancouver Food Network

For folks who cannot wait to get started on jams or shortcake, the Sunrise Rotary club of Vancouver is having its annual berry sale just now, with quantities of berries immediately available for souls who wish to get started on gluttony (or processing) straightaway. In addition to strawberries, raspberries and marionberries are also available this year. Fort Vancouver Lions are also taking orders for local strawberries through June 17, for delivery on June 20th.

Strong History of Berries in Southwest Washington

With its seeds on the outside of its fleshy hypanthium, the strawberry is a delightful food, and every local knows that the most flavorful berries are from nearby. Tender flesh and natural sweetness cannot be shipped hundreds of miles and survive.

Strawberries have long been a staple of Clark County agriculture, and residents over forty can often remember the early-morning busses that would collect schoolchildren and other works for the fields of Erickson and others, when Fruit Valley was an obvious name. The rich soils deposited by the Missoula Floods provided a moist medium to grow berries, which could then be processed into jams and other products for distribution throughout the year. Strawberry season, however, usually begins around the first of June, with commercial harvest before the "u-pick" season.

Although it doesn't match the pleasure of getting out with the family to pick berries directly, bulk sales by civic organizations such as the Lions and Rotary provide a quick and simple way for folks to jumpstart the eating season, while providing a slightly better profit margin for growers than conventional bulk sales to processors.

How Bulk Sales Work

Like other civic organizations, Sunrise Rotary of Vancouver takes advance orders for produce in quantity, then delivers it on a specific day at various "drop points," much as a CSA might. Berries come pre-cleaned and ready to use, with sizes this year from Rotary Club Sunrise as follows:

• Fifteen-pound bucket(s) of STRAWBERRIES at $30 per bucket
• "Convenience packs" of six three-pound buckets STRAWBERRIES for $38
• Thirty-pound bucket(s) of STRAWBERRIES for $44 per bucket

• Fifteen-pound buckets of MARIONBERRIES for $30
• Fifteen-pound buckets of RASPBERRIES for $45

Strawberries are normally available mid-June, with cane berries (raspberries and marionberries) in the first week or two of July. Fortunately for us, though, the berries get to decide when they are ready, with proceeds going to fund various community programs.

2009 Pickup Locations

• Fisher's Landing @ Beacock Music, 1420 SE 163rd Ave, 98683
• The Heights @ the corner of MacArthur and East Mill Plain, 98661
• Downtown @ Red Lion parking lot at The Quay, 100 Columbia St, 98660
• Orchards @ Minuteman Press, 10705 NE Fourth Plain Blvd, 98662
• Hazel Dell @ Alpine Auto Repair, 7631 NE Highway 99, 98665
• Portland @ Lloyd Center, Corner of NE 13th Avenue & Multnomah, 97232

For Further Information

Vancouver Sunrise Rotary

Post Office Box 1734
Vancouver WA 98668

http://VancouverSunriseRotary.org

Download a PDF order form online, telephone (360) 281-0053 or fax orders to (360) 750-4404.

Woodland-grown strawberries are also available from the Fort Vancouver Lions, (360) 281-6766