South Coast blueberry industry bursting with opportunity

By AMY MOSS STRONG The World

SOUTH COAST — Bandon, Langlois and Port Orford are known for their cranberry farms, but there's another berry growing in popularity along the South Coast.

The Oregon blueberry industry has experienced more than 100 percent growth in less than 10 years, going from fewer than 20 million pounds of blueberries harvested in the late 1990s to nearly 40 million pounds in recent harvests.

Fresh Oregon blueberries are a hot commodity these days for many reasons — incredible taste, the highest quality and peerless nutritional value being just a few. And Oregon's South Coast is ripe with opportunity for those interested in growing blueberries.

...

Heather Valentine, 24, of Valentine Blueberries, a family business offering U-pick and pre-picked, understands the value of the berry. Her father Charlie, a building contractor and heavy equipment operator by trade, planted 7.5 acres of blueberries on Sydnam Lane, 11 miles south of Bandon, eight years ago.

"We didn't know what we were doing getting into it," Heather Valentine said. "It's been a learning experience."

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This used to be the Lions Club building in the 1970's.  Then it was an appliance repair shop (world famous 'Frezzers') and then someone used it to grow hot house tomatoes.  It was pretty funny with a sign on the front saying 'Not Marijuana - DO NOT STEAL'.  It was just accross from the Post Office and was painted gold (which you can still kind of see).  It was in pretty bad shape and had to go.  RIP old fella

The premise of my debut novel, The Great Birthright, is that a Los Angeles developer wants to privatize Oregon's publicly owned beaches, and only one washed-up detective and self-published writer can stop him. That writer would be me, writing about myself in the third person just like Norman Mailer and Caesar! Read more about The Great Birthright:: The Great Oregon Army and Return of the SOBs