U-Pick Musings

by Amber Sciligo, Guest Contributor

A colleague whose parents are CSA members told me about the blueberry u-pick event at High Ground Organics. I was very excited to attend because: 1) I adore blueberry picking: My husband Jeremy and I used to regularly pick blueberries during the short season in Christchurch, New Zealand, where we lived for many years. And 2) As a postdoc at UC Berkeley, I’ve been working with Steve and Jeanne since 2011, conducting strawberry pollination research on their farm at the old Redman house and more recently, at their home ranch. I was excited to support them and their operation, especially if it meant I’d get to eat blueberries.

The goal was to get an overabundance of blueberries to make pie, cobbler, jam, smoothies, and pack some fresh ones in our lunches, but we knew the more likely reality was that we would make one pie and then consume the rest as fresh berries within that week.

Upon arrival, I was surprised to find the parking areas were packed with a steady stream of customers flowing into the field. There were lots of families with young children. As Jeremy and I approached the blueberries (almost giddy with anticipation) I was staggered by the length of the checkout line. And there was Jeanne, all by her lonesome, welcoming customers who needed baskets for picking, pre-weighing containers people brought, and checking out those who had finished their picking adventure (using all their willpower to keep from eating handfuls of their fare before paying).

Jeremy and I walked into the netted area and both scanned for our starting point. Jeremy and I had opposite picking strategies: I would kneel down close to the ground and look up, while he would stand above and look down. It didn’t seem to matter how many we picked, there was always an infinitesimal number left on the tree.

Jeremy is a chef and part-owner of two restaurants in San Francisco. An offspring of Chez Panisse, he has a special appreciation for high quality ingredients, grown in a loving and careful way, which usually results in the high quality of a product. He values the story behind each product and also places a high monetary value on the product itself, recognizing the true cost of growing organic food in a way that supports the environment, the farm workers and the farmers themselves. His relationship with food is as an end user. My experience is with the front end. Coming from a rural community and a family that grows almonds, I’ve always had a connection with agricultural production. Though I tried to get as far away from it as I could (obtaining my PhD in New Zealand while studying pollinator-prey conflict in carnivorous plants), I couldn’t escape my relationship with, and appreciation for, the process of growing food. It’s hard work. It’s skilled work. It’s often thankless work that is hugely undervalued. My research now concerns ways to grow food that are sustainable in terms of renewing the environment, providing financial sustenance and allowing farmers to live a lifestyle that will keep them in the game.

As we picked, Jeremy and I heard lots of plans for baking and laughed to ourselves about the likely outcome of those goals. We heard a young boy schooling his mother on how to find just the right berry to pick. We heard singing and laughing and the excitement when someone found the perfect bush for picking. But we also heard some disheartening things as well. One person compared the price of organic berries at Costco to the price here, indicating a disconnect from knowing how the scale, type and costs of an operation that sells to big guys like Costco and Walmart allows smaller, direct market growers like Steve and Jeanne to be undercut on price for their produce (the fierce competition in the wholesale market drives down the price for these bigger organic farmers too, who should also receive higher prices than they often do). Organic food should cost more because production costs are higher, but these days you can find organic produce for nearly the same price as conventional. We should be asking ourselves why that produce is so cheap compared to the price of the pick berries today.

As I finished filling my bag with blueberries, I wondered how I could help change that perspective in my current role as a researcher. How could Jeremy do the same at the restaurant? We both feel like we’re trying. Perhaps this road is longer than we hope and our small contribution is as big as it can be. Perhaps the road will surprise us and be shorter than we thought. After all, it has been less than only 5 years since the public fell in love with pollinators and now federal initiatives are in place to restore resources for them in our agricultural systems.

By the time we got in line, Steve was up front helping Jeanne and we moved forward quickly. I was happy to see them both and say hello, and to remind them that I was planning to pin them down for another pollinator sampling round this summer. We bought $50 worth of blueberries; way more than we needed to buy, but we just couldn’t stop putting those berries in our bags!

This time, we ate every one of those berries fresh.
I didn’t even make a pie.