Farm Practices
COVID-19 Protocols:
Please do not come out to the farm without a scheduled pickup. There are no walk-up sales this year.
Royal Blueberries is always committed to high standards. We follow food handlers sanitation protocol and expectations for our employees to ensure the blueberries are ready to go from our fields right to your mouth. Additionally, this year further measures are being implemented to make sure that our customers, workers, and residents all remain healthy.
Certified Organic:
Royal Blueberries are 100% certified organic by Oregon Tilth under USDA standards. Oregon Tilth is a member-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit certifier, educator and advocate for organic agriculture and products since 1974. Its mission is to make our food system and agriculture biologically sound and socially equitable, balancing the needs of people and planet through focus on core areas of certification, conservation, public health, policy, and the marketplace.
What makes Royal Blueberries so great?
Many factors make our berries so good. Our pickers closely monitor the fruit, only harvesting when the berries are gloriously plump and perfect for tickling off the bush. Full ripeness ensures they have the very best flavor. Once picked, the sorters remove any damaged or unripe pink berries to freeze and sell as seconds. Only the premium berries are sold fresh. Additionally, Blueberry farmers have a constant battle with the hungry birds. Royal Blueberries protects our entire crop under bird-exclusion netting that results in a harvest free of damage from marauding flocks.
How We Harvest:
We take great pride in knowing the berries we deliver to our customers are consistently of the highest quality. Our harvest is a three-step process:
1) Our pickers visit each bush three to four times per season, tickling off only the ripe berries each time. Many of our picking crew have worked with us for many years.
2) The berries are next cooled for several hours in trays to ensure firmness before handling.
3) Our sorting crew then pulls out stems and leaves as well as all of the under or over-ripe berries. Any berries that are not for the fresh market are flash-frozen within 24 hours for availability throughout the year.