Thousands of blueberry bushes currently sit in Centralia, brimming with ripe berries. As harvest season comes to a close, though, farmer Sean Sherman has no way to harvest them.
When Sherman’s intended harvesting machine fell through just before the season started, Sherman began scrambling to find an alternative. He still holds out hope for completely harvesting the berries, but his main objective is salvaging what he can.
“Right now, I just want to cover my investors — that’s all I am worried about,” said Sherman, who leases the land and bushes from National Frozen Foods Corporation. “These are friends and family that have put out a lot of money for me and put their faith in me that it would work. I never dreamed my problem would be getting (berries) off the bush and getting (them) where (they) needed to go.”
The 15-acre blueberry field is located near Goodrich Road Pumpkin Patch in Centralia, with large signs to indicate fresh blueberries.
The farm, called “Uncle Sugar Farms,” stemmed from a nickname Sherman’s nieces
and nephews gave him about having a sweet tooth. He is originally from Yakima, but moved to Centralia two years ago to lease this land and run the blueberry farm.
“I had a friend that has a blueberry farm and National asked him if he would be interested in taking care of it,” Sherman said. “He was just too busy and he thought it may be a good opportunity for me.”
He explained that blueberry bushes require water the previous year to produce fruit, so this is the first year he expected a significant harvest from the bushes. Just before harvesting season began in mid-July, Sherman’s harvester fell through.
Since them, he has been scrambling to harvest, salvage and sell as many blueberries as possible.
A few weeks ago, Sherman met Barbara Finlay and her two daughters, Rebecca and Mariah Chamberlain. When the three saw Sherman lose a cart-full of old flat boxes to the wind in a Safeway parking lot, they stopped to help.
“He introduced himself as ‘Sean the blueberry man,’” Finlay said.
At the time, Sherman needed help running his stand.
“We started talking and I noticed she was kind of religious and they were very nice people,” Sherman said. “I was looking for someone to watch the stand so I could come sell blueberries in Seattle. I asked her what she was doing the next day.”
The trio began running the stand and selling berries while Sherman was away. The blueberries are $4 per pint, $24 for a half flat (5 and a half pounds) and $48 for a full flat (11 pounds). The stand is also open to individuals who want to pick their own berries for $2 per pound.
Aryah Vonwald, who is 4, went blueberry picking for her first time on Thursday afternoon with her mom, Neli Vonwald, and her sister, Leila Vonwald.
“I love blueberries,” Aryah said, mentioning that blueberries are one of her top-two favorite fruits. Aryah said she has wanted to pick blueberries since her birthday in October.
“I like to pick blueberries,” she added.
Neli heard about the blueberries from multiple Facebook groups.
“There are all these blueberries out here and $2 per pound for fresh fruit is a super good deal,” Neli said. “I personally think that blueberries are one of the best fruits in the spectrum because they have so many antioxidants. Blueberries are just so good for us and they grow so well here in the Northwest.”
The family planned to freeze their blueberries, along with some cherries they picked last month.
“We are going to freeze these blueberries and make blueberry crisps with cherries we picked earlier this year,” Neli said. “We just saw the Facebook outreach for this farmer and heard that they were local, and all natural, and that’s important to us.”
Finlay said that since she and her daughters began working at the stand a few weeks ago, there has been a huge outpouring of community support.
“We heard (people) praying, walking down this way, coming around the corner, and I said, ‘I think someone’s praying,’” Finlay remembered. “(We) introduced ourselves and it happened to be a minister and his wife. They put the word out to every single church in the area, shared it on Facebook, and there have been 4,000, or 5,000, shares, and posts and comments on it now.”
Finlay said she has seen between 50 and 75 families coming to pick blueberries every day, but Sherman is still working to get a harvester. He said that he counted the number of blueberry bushes — there are 7,111.
Sherman originally expected to make between $60,000 and $80,000 from this year’s blueberries. However, he still owes $30,000 to investors. This week, he had a mini stroke. When he spoke with The Chronicle on Friday, though, he was already selling blueberries again.
“I’m not even messing around,” Sherman said. “I don’t have time. I have $30,000 I’m trying to get back to people.”
Sherman doesn’t describe himself as a religious man, but he said he began to choke up when he saw the outpouring of love from the community.
“I am probably the least religious person on the face of the earth, but they have gone out of their way to help me on this,” Sherman said. “I’ve been battling this for two years … I just moved to Centralia and I didn’t know anybody but my friend — and all these strangers are coming out of the woodworks. It has restored my faith in humanity...I just want to thank all the people that have come out to help me.”
