Black Raspberry Pruning 2016

This machines attachments we designed and build over this past winter. We made them so we easily prune our Black Raspberry planting.

For more of our adventure in pruning black raspberries check out our album on Facebook!

January 2016 Newsletter

Happy New Years!

News From Around the Farm

We hope everyone has had a great holiday season. We spent the majority of it relaxing and spending time with family. Now we are back in the office and starting to get ready for another great year.

2016 is going to be another big year for us. This coming year we expect to have our freeze dried powders back in stock. This summer we will be harvesting black raspberries and aronia berries for the first time. Then this fall we hope to have freeze dried powders of those two berries available for purchase. 

In the immediate future it's time for us to work on pruning our blueberries. We have had our blog post about pruning blueberry plants, and we will be posting a new video about how we prune our blueberry plants coming later this month. 

We Need Your Help!

We are in the mists of making changes and gearing up for new projects. But we need your help! We would appreciate it very much if you could fill out our survey. At the end there is a coupon as a thank you for helping us out. (The link has been fixed since last month)

Click this link to help us out.

Freeze Dried Powder Update:

This month we expect to be reciving our freeze dried powders, & we have packaging on the way. Once those two are here we will be ready to sell our powders! (yay!) We will not have raspberry, or strawberry powders still. When we recieve our powders we will be calling anyone who has been on the waiting list, as well as posting on our socials about it. We would like to thank everyone for their paiotents while we have sorted this whole process out. When our freeze dried powders are out, please use POWDER for 10% off. This coupon will be good for 30 days once we make our powders active on our website. 

Food For Thought

In recent weeks we have seen a rise in nutritional information articles about Black Raspberries, and Aronia berries. Information about Aronia berries is still a bit vague but Black Raspberries have been more and more in the news, and we are delighted. The more information that is out there about their health benefits the better! 

We will be sharing all articles we find on our Facebook and Twitter accounts. But these are a couple of articles that we really like that have been posted recently. 

The Superfood of the year is the black raspberry

Black Raspberry May Be New Superfood: Other Best Superfoods For Weight Loss

We will have Black Raspberries + Aronia Berries available to purchase in the Harvest of 2016. 

Cold Weather Shipping is Back!

We know a lot of you guys have been waiting for our cold weather shipping to come back. For those of you who are new to our site, every winter we are able to offer better shipping prices on our frozen berries. We are able to do this by shipping by ground rather than by 2-day air, which is standard in our store online. To take advantage of our ground shipping this winter, give us a call at 541-752-0460 (10 am to 4 pm, PST). 

Winter + Holiday Office Hours

Our Winter hours are Monday to Friday 10 am to 4 pm PST. 

Blueberry Oatmeal Crumble Bars

An easy, one bowl, no-mixer recipe that takes just minutes to make. The crust and crumble topping are one in the same so there’s one less step and one less bowl to wash. Cook Time 30 Minutes Total Time 45 Minutes

Ingredients:

Crust and Crumble Topping
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup old-fashioned whole-rolled oats (don't use quick cook or instant, they're finer and behave like flour and will make mixture too dry)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
pinch salt, optional and to taste

Blueberry Layer
12 ounces (2 cups) blueberries (fresh or frozen; I used frozen and didn't thaw)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons cornstarch

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8-inch square pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray; set aside. Lining the pan helps with cleanup and is recommended.
2. Crust and Crumble Topping - In a large, microwave-safe bowl melt the butter, about 1 minute on high power.
3. Add the flour, oats, sugars, optional salt, and stir to combine. Mixture will be dry and sandy with some larger, well-formed crumble pieces.
4. Set 1 heaping cup mixture aside to be sprinkled on later as crumble topping.
5. Transfer remaining mixture to prepared pan, and using a spatula or your fingers, hard-pack the mixture to create an even, smooth, flat crust; set aside.
6. Blueberry Layer - In a large mixing bowl (same one used for crust and crumble is okay), add all ingredients and toss to combine. If sugar hasn't dissolved fully that's okay because it liquifies while baking.
7. Evenly distribute blueberry mixture over the crust.
8. Evenly sprinkle with the reserved heaping 1 cup crumble topping mixture. Before sprinkling, I squeeze the mixture in my palm to encourage bigger crumble pieces to form.
9. Bake for about 55 minutes, or until edges are set and center has just set. Crumble topping should appear set and very pale golden. I used frozen berries without thawing and the pan was very cold going into the oven. If using fresh berries, baking time will be reduced, but I'm not sure by how much, I'd guess at least 10-15 minutes, possibly less. Bars may take longer than 55 minutes if blueberries are very juicy. Watch your bars, not the clock, when evaluating doneness. Place pan on a wire rack and allow bars to cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving. If you try to slice bars before they've cooled completely, they'll be extremely messy and could fall apart. Bars will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, in the fridge for up to 10 days, or in the freezer for up to 6 months.

Harvest Update: U-Pick Blueberries, End of Raspberries + More!

Well its finally here, the most exciting time of the year! We are happy to announce our U-Pick Blueberry field is now open! 

Yes we are opening a touch earlier than expected, but it's great for you guys! That much sooner you can get your hands on delicious Blueberries! We are open everyday from 9 am to 6 pm. 

Our first U-Picker of the season!

Our U-Pick is only for Blueberries.

The variety is Blue Crop, they are huge, sweet berries. 

Our U-Pick price is $2.75 per pound.

Please bring your own containers to take the berries home in. 

Dogs aren't allowed in the field so please them at home.

(left) Red Raspberries (Right) Black Raspberries

 Please Note: On Thursday, July 2, 2015 + Friday, July 3, 2015 we will be closing our 
U-Pick at noon for watering due to heat (there is a possibility for this to happen on Wednesday, July 1, 2015 as well). The field will remain closed for the rest of the day. We will be cooling the field through the use of water so ensure the berries do not get sunburned due to expected temperatures of 90+. Thank you for your understanding and sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. 

We still have red raspberries, today, Monday June 29, 2015 and tomorrow June 30, 2015 will probably be the last days we have them. So please come and get them while we have them fresh. We will have frozen but those be ready until the end of August/early September.

We also still have some Black Raspberries (aka black caps) for sale. If you have never tied them come and get a sample, they are super yummy and really high in antioxidants. Click here to read more about Black Raspberries. 

Blueberries, Red Raspberries, and Black Raspberries

We also of course have blueberries pre picked and ready for pick up at our farm stand. The great thing about having three different types of berries right now is we have cute little flats you can get all three or two types of berries in!

I would also like to take a moment and remind those of you who have not signed up for our monthly newsletter to do so. Our newsletters contain news like what your currently reading, coupons, what we are up to around the farm, events you can find us at, and more!
Signing up is easy, just click here.

May 2015 Favorites

Whew! What a busy month we have had! It feels like May just started, this month we focused on healthy living, and health awareness.Each week we had delicious recipes that were super healthy, and could be made by anyone. We also started selling our products at Tyee Wine Cellers. A local winery, that is just down the road from us. 

We started and finished trellising black raspberries. 

We had a huge announcement about our strawberries, click here if you missed it. 

These are some of the articles we found most interesting this month:

Vegan Diet Eases Nerve Pain of Diabetes

How A Cell Knows Friend from Foe

Cold, Flu, or Allergy? 

And this was our favorite recipe:

Rustic Strawberry Peach Tart 

from Sally's Baking Addiction 

Ingredients:

FILLING

• 2 ripe peaches, peeled, pitted, sliced (not frozen)
• 2 cups (about 300 grams) sliced fresh strawberries (not frozen)
• 2 Tablespoons (30 grams) granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

CRUST

• 1 and 1/2 cups (190 grams) all-purpose flour (careful not to overmeasure)
• 3 Tablespoons (45 grams) granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick or 115 grams) cold unsalted butter, cubed*
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) ice water, plus more as needed
• 1 egg, beaten for egg wash
• additional sugar for sprinkling

Directions:

1. For the filling: Mix the peaches and strawberries together in a medium bowl. Add the sugar and vanilla, tossing well to coat the fruit. Set aside and allow the mixture to soak as you prepare the crust.
2. For the crust: In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, and salt together in a medium bowl. Using a pastry cutter (or your hands), cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse, pea-sized crumbs. Add 1/4 cup of ice water, stirring with a fork until the flour is moistened. Add up to 2 more Tablespoons of ice water if the dough seems dry. Gently knead the dough a few times in the bowl until it all comes together. Shape the dough into a ball and flatten it into a thick disk, as pictured above. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 425F degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Set aside.
4. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a 12-inch circle. Trim the rim of the circle to make a clean cut if desired. Transfer dough to the prepared baking sheet.
5. Spoon the fruit (not the juices) into the center of the dough, leaving a 2-3 inch border all around, as pictured above. Gently fold the edges of the dough over the fruit, overlapping the dough as necessary. Press gently to seal the edges. Pour most of the reserved juices over the fruit, leaving about 1-2 Tablespoons behind. Too much juice and the dough will become soggy.
6. Brush the crust with the beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until the crust is golden brown, Remove from the oven and allow to slightly cool before serving.
7. If you wish to drizzle with vanilla glaze, use the glaze recipe from here. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Additional Notes:

*Make sure your butter is very cold. I like to chill it in the freezer for about 15 minutes ahead of time.

Trellising of Black Raspberries

As we have previously stated we will be having black raspberries starting in 2016. We are so excited about it but in order to get there we have a ton of work to do. In the early spring we planted these cute little guys. Now that they are wanting to grow and get some energy going we need to put in some trellising. We planted 20 acres of black raspberries and we have to put trellising on all of it! What a task! Luckily we have an excellent crew who has worked very had and done a fantastic job. 

Here is our quick look at the process of how we put in our trellising:

If you would like to see more photos check out our Facebook album! 

Black Raspberries & Their Benefits

So earlier in the year we said big things were coming, and we meant it! We have planted a crop of black-raspberries that we will be adding to our line of fresh (available only at the farm during harvest), frozen (offered year round while in stock), freeze dried powders, spreads, and even dried lines of products. We will not have any product available until sometime in 2016. In the mean time we want to start spreading the word, and share why we thought this would be an excellent berry to add to our farm. 

Black Raspberries basically are not grown organically in the United States. We will potentially have the largest Certified Organic planting once production starts. They are not grown in the United States, not because they are difficult but because no one really relizes their untapped potential. Like their counter part the Red Raspberry, they are extremely high in vitamins and minerals. Black Raspberries are thought to help in these specific health problems: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, inflammatory bowel disease, metabolic syndrome, alleviate pain, preserve eyesight, and protect against the development of cancer. 

A study published in Nutrition and Cancer in 2013 found through tests on human cells demonstrated that anthocyanins extracted from black raspberry may help to suppress the growth of colon cancer. In another study published in Gynecologic Oncology in 2011found that black raspberry extract may help prevent cervical cancer, though the use of black raspberry extract inducing apoptosis (a type of programmed cell death essential for stopping the proliferation of cancer cells).  Additionally there is evidence that black raspberry extract can help prevent skin cancer when applied directly to the skin, however there is more research being conducted about this theory and evidence. 

The Black Raspberry has show promise in the treatment of metabolic syndrome (this is a group of risk factors that occur together and increase the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes). A study published in 2014 in Phytotherapy Research found that people with metabolic syndrome were given black raspberry extract for about three month and showed a decrease in total cholesterol. Black Raspberry has also appeared to reduce inflammation and improve function in the layer of cells lining the inside of blood vessels (a factor that may promote better blood pressure control). 

Black Raspberries are one of many plants that contain anthocyanins, this is a class of compounds thought to play a major role in potential of health benefits in a plant, other top sources of these compounds can also be found in blueberries. 

We at Sunset Valley Organics are always looking out for our customers health, and want to provide choices that are healthy, but we are also wanting to supply ourselves with more healthy choices. We are excited as our venture begins with Black Raspberries. 

For all news about our Black Raspberries be sure to subscribe to our Newsletter, Blog, Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook Page. So you never miss a thing!