This year’s Loganberry Festival will mark a significant anniversary as Greenbank Farm celebrates its centennial.
In addition to the wine tasting and music that highlight the two-day festival, a reunion is scheduled for all the people who have picked berries over the years.
“There’s 40 years of berry pickers out there,” said Laura Blankenship, executive director for the Greenbank Farm.
The berry pickers will have a chance to reconnect and share their memories at a reunion tent featuring memory boards that highlight their history on Central Whidbey Island.
Many families on the island spent part of their summers picking berries that would eventually go into making several varieties of wine.
“Sometimes we’d have three generations of family members picking berries,” said Gary Ando, who spent approximately 10 years as the Greenbank Farm’s general manager before it went into public ownership in 1997.
He often hired teenagers to pick berries while their parents and grandparents came to pick some for their personal use.
Ando paid the pickers by the pound. He pointed out that many teenagers’ first paying job was picking loganberries at the farm.
Back then, the Greenbank Farm produced loganberries that were used in three brands of wine that were produced in Seattle.
Originally a dairy farm, the Calvin Philips family switched to berry production in the 1930s. By the early 1970s, the Greenbank Berry Farm was the largest loganberry farm in the United States, according to information from the Greenbank Farm.
In 1995, the Greenbank Farm was put on the market. However, the 522-acre farm was sold to Island County, the Port of Coupeville and the Nature Conservancy in September of 1997 for $2.8 million.
Since then, the officials have been working to make the farm a center for the community and local business.
The farm still has a loganberry patch on its property, and resident can still stop by and pick some ripened berries.
Ando said he always wanted to hold a reunion for the berry pickers while he worked at the farm. He said he plans to stop by during the festival to see familiar faces.
While the berry pickers schmooze, visitors can watch performances and enjoy the food and wine that highlight the annual festival.
“It’s our neighborhood party for the community,” Blankenship said.
Local musicians will be performing during the two-day festival, including the Pickled Herring Band, the Janie Cribbs Band and, of course, the Shifty Sailors.
In recognizing its ties to wine, a wine tasting featuring area wineries is scheduled. Approximately three dozen varieties from wine makers on Whidbey Island, San Juan Island and the Olympic Peninsula will be on hand both days of the festival.
The Loganberry Festival will also feature a broad selection food and children, 12 years old and under, are encouraged to participate in a pie-eating contest. Such competitions are scheduled three times a day on both Saturday and Sunday.
While the Greenbank Farm is celebrating the loganberry this weekend, it looks like it could be slim pickings for anyone wishing fresh-picked berries.
Due to the hot, sunny season, the loganberries ripened early this year and folks have already been out in the patch to pick berries.
Blankenship said she hopes enough will remain in the field to get through the weekend.
For more information about Greenbank Farm’s Loganberry Festival, call 678-7700.
Festival schedule
Greenbank Farm’s Loganberry Festival is July 24 and 25 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The farm is on Wonn Road off Highway 525 in Greenbank. For more information, go to www.greenbank
farm.com.
July 24
10 a.m. — Pickled Herring Band
11 a.m. — Charlie Patnoe Trio
Noon — Shifty Sailors
1 p.m. — Bahia
3 p.m. — Janie Cribbs Band
July 25
10 a.m. — Island Strings
11:30 a.m. — John Thompson
Noon — Swords into Plowshares
1 p.m. — Danny Ward and Reality
3 p.m. — Da Sharks
Oil painter and long-time Whidbey resident, Rob Schouten, is opening his painting studio to the public Saturday, July 24, and Sunday, July 26, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. His studio is near the farm’s Jim Davis House, just north of the Main Barns.
Schouten will display original oils and etchings, and limited-edition gicleé prints, as well as laser prints, journals and greeting cards featuring his work, all at special Loganberry Festival prices.
“The images I paint, through surprising juxtapositions, offer a moment of insight into the archetypal nature of our shared human experience,” Schouten said.
“I hope to evoke a simultaneous sense of mystery and recognition, to invite the viewer to discover the sacred within the ordinary.”
Schouten was born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, moved to the United States in 1979, and has been a Whidbey resident since 1983. His oils and watercolors have been exhibited across the country. He is currently represented by Miami gallery, “Dharma Studio”.
In addition to the performances, a variety of food booths, wine tastings and a loganberry pickers reunion highlight the two-day festival.
