Gambling on organic
Trained as an engineer, Greg Berndt never dreamed he’d be a farmer until he saw Chileans growing raspberries on terrain that looked a lot like home.
Back in Washington State, Greg planted a few rows of raspberries around the edges of his Dad’s apple orchard. As Greg watched the sun fry his brambles, he realized two things: one, he needed to find a way to work with the punishing desert temperature and soil conditions; two, conventional farming methods weren’t going to help.
(Raspberries are so sensitive to humidity, wind stress, and local air circulation that there are actually very few growing regions in the world capable of delivering sustainable yields. We were thrilled to find an American grower willing to take on these challenges in the U.S.)
Undeterred, Greg embarked on a four-year odyssey that involved gaining organic certification, and making peace with an arid patch of ground.
Thanks to his persistence, Greg is now the proud owner of the first organic raspberry farm in the Yakima Valley. One man’s experiment has morphed into a thriving small business that supports his family and produces some of the world’s sweetest and most succulent raspberries.
