This weekend you will find a new vendor at our market! Emily Schott Christensen is coming to Hillsdale with four varieties of blueberries, all grown at the Schott Family Farm in Woodburn, OR.

Emily’s parents bought the farm with its fields of mature bushes back in 1986 and the family has been in the blueberry business ever since. The bushes are now over sixty years old and produce up to 20,000 lbs. of fruit every summer. To simply say that these plants are unique undersells them dramatically. The Schott Farm includes nearly an acre of five to sit foot tall vintage bushes, each its own shape and structure, stretching out beneath the Oregon sun. The vista is simple and striking, exactly as one might imagine a family’s farm.

Schott Family Farm grows four different varieties of blueberries – Blue Crop, Early Blue, Berkley, and Coville blueberries. Blue Crop is the most popular variety of blueberry and known to have a tarter taste profile. Early Blues tend to be sweeter and juicer. Berkley blueberries are a common home garden variety, light blue and firm. Coville berries are soft and sweet, akin to the Hood variety of strawberries. Because of these qualities, Covilles are limited and rare in the marketplace. If you are a Coville fan, Emily suggests pre-ordering your pints or flats ahead of market day, so she can be sure to meet your needs. In the early days, Emily remembers aunts and uncles coming out to hand pick all the blueberries. The while the cousins ran between the bushes, helping (and “helping”) to bring in the harvest. Emily says her mother had a passion for farming, always treating the vintage bushes with care, thoroughly vetting every product used, and dedicated to cultivating clean and nutritious fruit.

The Schotts began by their business by selling their blueberries wholesale. As the country turned towards more and more commercialized farming, the Schotts found that all their home-grown bounty was not enough for wholesale purchasers. When Emily took over the business in 2017, she had a different vision for their fruit. Emily, with the help of her husband and siblings, began to sell their berries at local farmers’ markets, believing it was the best way to bring their crop to the community. The response was resounding. “The first year I got into just a couple markets and I got there and people loved our berries. The people around the markets were just so supportive. I just thought – ‘I want to do this.’”

Schott Family Farms are now in seven Oregon farmers’ markets, and beloved by their customers. Scrolling through their social media reveals comments from shoppers like this one: “Holy moly, I picked up a pint of your blueberries and they are SO delicious. It's kind of blowing my mind. They taste like candy and have kind of a sparkling sour flavor.”

Emily’s hope is to raise her young daughter as she was raised – amidst the blueberry bushes. She is a self-proclaimed “berry nerd” and is eager to talk about her farm, her varieties, the fruit they grow, and the value of small family farms. She’ll join us this Sunday and would love to meet you.

When asked how she likes her blueberries, she smiled shyly and shrugged. “Fresh, straight from the bush. Nothing on them. The less they are handled, the better.”