Check out our new website! It has been reorganized and a completely new feel, see for yourself and check it out! We are also going to be at the winter market in not only Corvallis, but also in McMinnville. The Corvallis winter market will be located in Guerber Hall at the fairgrounds, starting on January 16,2010. The market will be happening for every Saturday after that, from 9am to 1pm. The McMinnville farmers market has already begun and is every Saturday from 9am to 3pm. Our Farm office is open on Mondays from 9am to 12pm. If you are wanting to come by on another day just give us a phone call to set up an appointment.
The end of berry season is drawing near. It has been two months since we opened our farm stand with fresh berries, out lasting other blueberry farms in the area. We will be closing the farm stand on Saturday, August 29, 2009. It is fair to say that we have had more U-Pickers this year than any other year. Along with the fresh farm stand closing we are also wrapping up our frozen market berries. This means that we wont be open every day. We will be open 9am-12pm on Mondays, and by appointment.
We thank everyone who has bought berries from us this year, and in years past, and are looking forward to seeing you next season.
~Sunset Valley Team~
Quality is an important part of what we do .
In our packing house we wash, destem, color sort, and pick out all the bad berries, then the good ones go into 30 pound boxes for cold storage.
Who oversees the quality of all this?
Who makes sure that the water levels and all the regulations are being met?
I do, Jenni Wilt. I make sure everything is running smoothly and oversee the maintenance of the facility, meaning that I check our cold room temperatures, that the metal detector is working properly. I also take grades of our berries every 10 minutes, which means I take a pound of berries off the line and sort out all the ones that don't meet our quality standards. If there are too many below grade berries, we correct the machinery. If the berries all are surpassing grade, then we know we can speed the line up (the grades have standards that are regulated by the USDA). Our farm standards exceed USDA standards.
At the end of the day I oversee line clean up and do an in house self audit, along with loading and inspecting the truck that takes our berries from our cold rooms (once in the 30 pound boxes) to a cold storage facility.