By
John Schmitz
Western Correspondent
If you can’t
find it at Bauman Farms, it probably doesn’t grow in western
Oregon.
That’s stretching it a bit but not far off base when you consider
that Rick and Barbara Bauman’s country store offers almost every
fruit and vegetable grown in the Willamette Valley. The store also
sells more than 100 varieties of annual and perennial plants, just
put in Christmas trees, has its own small hazelnut orchard and even
a small bakery. To top it all off is a petting zoo.
What makes the operation even more impressive is that practically
all of the items sold, which include value-added products like candied
hazelnuts and preserves of all kinds, are grown by the Baumans. What’s
more, nearly all of the production is sold only through the store.
Located in the diversified Willamette Valley, between Salem and Woodburn,
Bauman’s came into being close to 20 years ago. The store was
founded by Rick’s father, Clyde, who was primarily a vegetable
seed grower at the time and still raises hogs.
“Before I did this I also grew seed, but I got so busy with
the store that he took over the seed end of it,” Rick said.
Starting out small and growing slowly, Rick and Barbara have expanded
their operation to be one of the largest and most diverse of its kind
in the Northwest. In the last five years the store has grown at an
impressive clip of around 15 percent a year, Rick said.
While the Bauman’s are surrounded by large grass seed and row
crop fields, ornamental nurseries and hop yards, their farm, from
the air, looks like a colorful vegetarian quilt made up of a patchwork
of dozens of neatly bordered crops.
Rick said that one of the reasons that Bauman Farms is so successful
is that word has gotten out that the store grows almost everything
it sells.
“Very few of them (other farm stores in the valley) do what
we do. There are probably 50 in the area and I know of only two or
three that do,” he said.
Another reason Bauman’s has become so popular is the owners
don’t have much patience with fruits and vegetables that don’t
move quickly.
“We think that’s the key to our success,” Rick said.
“If something doesn’t look quite right, we throw it,”
Rick said.
Bauman’s has also caught on with the public, too, because of
its display gardens, where shoppers can taste test a fruit or vegetable
before they buy it.
In 2003 Bauman Farms began staying open the year around, which is
a rarity in the valley. Before, Rick and Barbara closed shop February
and March.
During the holidays, when things normally slow down in the valley,
the Baumans depend a lot on gift packs consisting of processed berries,
nuts and other items that ring the till. The couple recently planted
four varieties of Christmas trees, which will be offered on a choose
& cut basis when they mature several years down the road.
Unseasonably warm weather in March and April brought Bauman’s
out of winter hibernation about two weeks early in May. The first
fruit product to go in the produce section was an early ripening strawberry
called Honeoye, which first gained popularity on the East Coast.
The Bauman’s raise and sell four different varieties of strawberries,
two of the others being Totem, which is the signature processing berry
grown in Oregon, and Bentons, a good jam berry which is the last to
be harvested.
“Everything is early,” Rick said.
Close to 40 different varieties of apples, including heirlooms like
Spitzenberg are grown on seven acres. Not too far from them is a tiny
orchard of peaches, which are difficult to grow in Oregon’s
soggy Willamette Valley.
About the only berry the Bauman’s don’t grow is the blueberry.
“We actually grow 14 different kinds of caneberries but we don’t
raise blueberries,” said Rick.
That doesn’t stop Barbara and him from buying from their neighbors,
and shipping part of the purchase off to be made into preserves in
nearby Newberg by Wilhelm Foods.
Another crop the Baumans have given up growing, but possibly only
for the time being, is sweet cherries, which are subject to rain damage.
The Royal Anns the Baumans took out still continue to be the variety
of choice, however, for Oregon’s maraschino cherry makers.
The Baumans now buy dark red cherries, such as Bings and Lamberts,
from growers in Hood River on the Columbia Gorge. Barbara said they
go through a tote a day.
One relatively new crop the Baumans are keeping an eye on is baby,
or hardy, kiwifruit, a small, smooth skinned berry much smaller than
its fuzzy cousin, which is also grown on the farm, that you can pop
in your mouth.
One of Barbara Bauman’s favorite activities is zipping around
the 200–acre farm on her three-wheeler, giving tours or picking
a particular fruit or vegetable that just ran out of stock in the
store.
She said she loves to show visitors the vegetable operation, where
many crops start out on a little table where workers bury seed, purchased
off farm, in tiny plug trays. While most of the crops eventually end
up in the field, there are some, such as peppers, that are grown entirely
in the greenhouse.
“Every two weeks during the season we put out a new planting
of every lettuce variety, broccoli, cauliflower and corn,” Barbara
said.
The greenhouse is also home to huge hothouse cucumbers and tomatoes.
A new product this year that Bauman Farms is having good success with
is mixed salad greens, which are prepared on the farm in a little
salad spinner. One crop that has fizzled so far is boc choy.
If there’s one product the Baumans have become known for it’s
their u-pick pumpkin patch, Barbara said. In addition to their pumpkin
of choice and at no extra cost, customers are also allowed to pick
an ear of indian corn and a gourd, which also grow in the pumpkin
field.
The Baumans depend on a small crew of 15 workers from season to season
who manage to keep busy in the diverse environment.
“We have a crew that comes in in the morning and picks strawberries
for a few hours and moves on,” said Rick in May. “They
just got through thinning peaches and now they’re in the apples.”
Word about Bauman Farms has spread far. Rick said that several customers
come all the way from eastern Oregon, more than 300 miles away.
“Lots of them will bring a truck and pick orders for their neighbors,”
he said.
As for the future, “We’re thinking of expanding and actually
have an architect coming in today,” said Barbara.
She and Rick recently leased 70 acres of former peppermint and wheat
ground across the road to give them more growing space for rotating
vegetable crops.
