For the Joy of the Work - Living and Working on Sauk Farm
“ . . . If I would have bought a yacht, they would have said “how cool, look at all those bathrooms.” People put different values on things. Our work is our joy. A farm is a good deal for people who like to work.”
The Concrete Sauk Valley Road winds along the Skagit River’s south side, into the upper valley, a mix of well-kept and run-down homesteads with huge stretches of forest and pasture between them.
Sauk Farm is near the upper end of the road a few miles before it joins State Highway 530, and stands out with its 8-foot tall elk fencing and 10 acres of neatly trellised apples, grapes, plums and peaches. Set against Sauk Mountain across the Skagit to the north, the farm is easily one of the most picturesque in Skagit County. There is a quaint homestead and numerous barns. Every piece of equipment is kept tidy and orderly.
On a cool fall day, Griffin Berger, 26, sorted and polished Cosmic Crisp apples.
The Cosmic Crisp is a firm red apple that’s the product of 20 years of breeding research at Washington State University, and growers hope this variety will become a staple in the grocery store to compete with the popular but high-maintenance Honeycrisp.
Berger, with curly dirty brown hair and a fit physique, has run the farm as Operations Manager since it was established in 2016. He is high energy, and enthusiastic about organic local agriculture production systems. Berger graduated from WSU in 2016 with a degree in Integrated Plant Sciences. What was once a disused cattle farm has been transformed into a productive organic fruit farm. The Berger family has built out much of the infrastructure on the farm, from fencing, to a large walk-in cooler, as well as drying and juice processing facilities.
The farm has raised eyebrows in the agricultural community, because many struggling farmers in Skagit County had to slowly build their farms one piece of used equipment at a time. However, the history of Sauk Farm goes far beyond its “shiny” edge. (Berger protests this depiction, and points out that they bought mostly used equipment, here locally in Skagit County.)
Griffin’s parents, Jesse and Carol Berger, were an instrumental part in its creation – pouring the proceeds of a lifetime of work into their dream of having a place to produce nutritious food for the community. Jesse, who spent his summers at his uncle’s farm, ran away from home at age 15. He opened his first car shop in his teens, in a place so decrepit that he had to jack the building up to even to get cars in the shop door. His business was located in what was then the run-down Queen Anne neighborhood in Seattle. Eventually, Jessie was able to buy his own shop on 5th and Denny, Fat City German Car, which became a well-known institution in Seattle. He sold the business, and later the real estate, finally accumulating the financial capital to do what he really wanted to do – be a farmer.
The family had a cabin in Rockport and was familiar with the area, so when they saw the 100-acre piece of land available in 2006, they jumped on it. From the onset, Jesse, Carol and Griffin wanted to do things right. The farm is certified organic by the WSDA and focuses on environmentally sustainable practices that replenish the soil and prevent environmental harm. Composting, cover cropping, insect monitoring, lab testing, and a water saving drip irrigation system than can both irrigate trees and “spoon fed” nutrients as required. They have the good equipment, and they maintain it meticulously.
It’s clear the father-son pair has a strong work ethic. In just a few years, the farm has built a solid customer base from Bellingham to Seattle, with products in the Skagit Valley Food Co-op, Community Food Coop, Haggen Northwest Fresh, and the Puget Consumers Co-op (PCC). The success has come has come not only from hard physical labor, but smart marketing, cold calling and boots-on-the-ground relationship building.
Dave Sands, produce manager of the downtown Community Food Coop in Bellingham was the first to take a chance on Griffin, and Sauk Farm. He remembers the young farmer coming into the store for the first time, a year in advance of when he planned to have apples to sell.
“It was really impressive,” Sands recalled. “It seemed like he had it all together before even producing product.”
Griffin had a full presentation with photos and graphics, delving into the science of how his apples are grown. “It was almost overkill for a produce manager to get into agricultural needs,” Sands laughed. “TMI, but in a good way.”
Jesse Berger said his son has always had an intellectual knack. He was a straight A student from 8th grade on. The skills have helped him master the more complex side of farming, such as organic certification and all of the food safety paperwork for their cider and apple powder (used as a supplement additive), as well as the food safety paperwork for the other farms for which they processes product.
He has figured out an outlet for every part of the apples they grow (the farm’s main crop). “The whole idea is to have no food waste,” said Griffin.
Griffin is now working on getting the farm regenerative organic certified – even more rigorous and environmentally responsible than organic.
In the meantime, he continues to plant more unique tasty varieties to continue to be on the cutting edge of the orchard fruit grown in Washington State.
Between the land, infrastructure, plantings, buildings and equipment, they say they have about $2.5 million into the farm.
Jesse and Griffin both said some people have told Griffin “you’re crazy” for spending so much of his life savings on the farm.
“If I would have bought a yacht, they would have said “how cool, look at all these bathrooms,’” he laughed. “Or, lots of people buy million dollar homes on golf courses - but I don’t golf.People put different values on things. Our work is our joy.A farm is a good deal for people who like to work.”
Story and photos by Tahlia Honea: info@skagitonians.org