Courtney Miller feeds Daisy Mae, left and Mack, right, two of her five llamas she keeps on her Berryblue Lllama Farm in Salkum.
Courtney Miller checks over one of her raspberry patches, which have two ripening seasons: once in early summer and once in early fall.
Courtney Miller takes a break and gazes across her 7.5-acre BerryBlue Llama farm on Friday in Salkum.
Courtney Miller picks some plums off one of her trees at Berryblue Llama Farm in Salkum.
Editor’s Note: The Chronicle is working to assist local businesses suffering from the effects of the COVID-19 virus spread and associated government orders to close or limit commerce. There will be a feature on a local business in each edition of The Chronicle and at chronline.com moving forward. To be considered, email reporter Eric Trent at etrent@chronline.com. Additionally, The Chronicle will continue to offer its coverage of the coronavirus and its effects across the community, state and nation free outside of our paywall at chronline.com.
ONALASKA — A mahogany rooster scurries out of a barn when the door slides open; A long-haired barn cat rolls around in the dirt, taking in the summer sun; a team of ducks honk somewhere beyond a stand of fruit trees, scooping up whatever remains of fallen plums. And five llamas, Mack, Daisy Mae, Sorpresa, Fin and Toro, curiously and cautiously approach the sound of grain rolling around in a bowl Courtney Miller holds in her hand.
It’s just another day on Miller’s 7.5-acre farm on Gore Road, located a mile north of Salkum. The day Miller planned to move to this farm was the day Mount St. Helens blew. It’s safe to say her moving day had to be postponed.
Miller, who used to breed llamas for a living, wanted to start a blueberry farm 40 years ago, so she named her new farm Berryblue Llama Farm. It didn’t take long before she started adding other fruits. Eventually she began selling blueberries and raspberries to a health food store in Chehalis owned by the Wildhaber family in 1995. She even brought a couple of llamas to the grand opening and showed them off in the parking lot.
She’s been selling to the Wildhabers, who now own Jeremy’s Farm to Table restaurant and Jeremy’s Fruit Stand, ever since. And now her small farm also produces raspberries, apples, plums, pears and even a mulberry tree.
“It bears absolutely the most exquisite tasting berries — it’s like candy, except it’s fruit-flavored,” Miller said. “It’s that sweet. They’re just phenomenal. I have to fight the birds off for them and then the ducks.”
Her raspberry patches are thick and full of giant caps and currently in between crops. They bear two cycles of berries, first in early summer and again in early fall, and even on Friday there were stalks full of green, unripened berries for future harvest in two to three weeks.
“A lot of people are surprised when they see me walking in with boxes to Jeremy’s like, ‘You have raspberries this time of year?’” Miller said.
Most of Miller’s fruit sales that don’t go to Jeremy’s will come from locals and word-of-mouth. Her business is listed on the Lewis County Farm Guide, which has a brochure and is online. Many of the locals around Salkum and Onalaska have their own apple and pear trees, but she’ll get calls once in a while asking if she has a certain kind of pear or apple that they don’t have.
“It’s far from a fortune but it’s certainly worthwhile,” Miller said. “I like to share and I certainly have more than I need.”
Miller also sells chicken and duck eggs word-of-mouth and has a little “eggs for sale” sign at the end of her driveway. She has seven ducks and their eggs sell for $4.50 to $5, depending on the time of year. She has 18 chickens and their eggs run $3.75 to $4.
Everything is organic on her farm; nothing is sprayed. She is not certified organic, however, as it is a costly certification to get and being that she runs the farm by herself.
“I’ve been organic since day one, so that’s been an extra attraction for a lot of people,” Miller said.
There are no set hours for Berryblue Llama Farm and it does not offer u-pick, but it does offer on-site sales. Anyone interested in purchasing fruit or eggs can contact Miller by phone at 360-623-9532, or by email at camseven.miller@gmail.com.
“I’m not that interested in waving a flag for people to stop, necessarily, but certainly word-of-mouth and people coming,” Miller said.
•••
Reporter Eric Trent can be reached at etrent@chronline.com. Visit chronline.com/business for more coverage of local businesses.
