By Ashley Griffin
Illustration by Eben Dickinson

Growing up, my sisters and I would creep outside to the blueberry bushes in our backyard and sneak swelling berries past our eager lips before Mom realized we were stealing a vital ingredient for that night’s dessert. Quite often, we cleared those branches before she caught us in the act.

Years after my first foray into berry thievery, I again find myself perched in a position to snatch sweet, sun-ripened berries from the vine. Only this time, I am being encouraged to do so.

These tantalizing berries before me are not yet available to consumers. I am visiting the North Willamette Research and Extension Center with a diverse group of writers who received an invitation to attend a two-day berry camp centered on the history and future innovation of Oregon’s berry industry. Located just 20 miles south of Portland, the research center is our first stop of many, and a key one, as it will inform everything we learn about the industry from this stop forward.

As part of Oregon State University’s Agricultural Experiment Station and Extension Service, the staff conducts research focused on strengthening and sustaining communities, economies, and natural resources. One field of study focuses exclusively on berries, as evidenced by the berry plots that fan out from the center’s offices. It’s here that researchers test hundreds upon hundreds of berry cultivars as well as growing and harvesting techniques. Their goals: address changes in consumer taste and growing technology, and help push the margins of the berry industry forward to ensure that berries remain a food source in Oregon.

As we wander through the plots, our tour guide stops often to encourage sampling of the variety of new cultivars and crossbreeds growing in the plots. This early in the game — new cultivars can take more than a decade to make it to market — the staff has tagged them only with numbers, my favorite being cultivar 1523-4. Later, our guide says, they’ll receive names, which is how I learn that a blackberry is not just a blackberry.