Home Grown: A celebration of local culinary enterprise

Marcus Griggs & Bart Clennon, the Orondo Ruby Cherry

Washington grows two-thirds of the nation's sweet cherries on 35,000 acres of orchards, on the sunny hillsides of the Yakima Valley and overlooking the Columbia in the Wenatchee basin. And as the cherry season begins, so does demand, especially in Asian countries. Freshly-picked Washington cherries-airlifted to Japan-can sell for up to $40 a pound in Tokyo. At a Seattle QFC in early July, a 12-ounce plastic clamshell of the first cherries, a new variety called Orondo Ruby was going for $6.99.

Acknowledged by his peers to be one of the best-most careful, meticulous, successful-of the 2,500 fruit growers in the state, Marcus Griggs (right in photo above) is a fourth-generation farmer. A decade ago, in an orchard of Rainier cherry tress overlooking the Columbia River at Orondo, Griggs noticed that the fruit of one tree had more color than the others, a scarlet-red-0blused skin. The yellow flesh tasted sweeter than Rainiers, too. Now, most growers would have shrugged it off as a random variation; not Griggs. He had the tree tested by Washington State University scientists, and it turned out that its DNA was, in fact, unique. Twenty percent more sugar, twenty percent more acidity. Griggs filed for a patent, named it the Orondo Ruby, and began propagating seedlings. By 2010, he was ready to take it to market.

Rather than sell cuttings and licensing the fruit (the usual route for patent-holders like university research stations), Griggs and his brother-in-law Bart Clennon decided to retain exclusive rights to the Orondo Ruby. But they needed what you might call "critical mass." Enough product on the supply side to satisfy the demands of the fickle, time-sensitive fruit industry. If people pay attention to cherry varieties at all, they remember two names: Rainiers (yellow) and Bings (dark red).

The brothers-in-law had owned a fruit-packing company called Orondo Fruit, which they sold to a packing house so they could concentrate on their own orchards. They recruited their family: Griggs's son John, and daughter Char, both work in the business, as do Bart's son Cameron, and daughter Cory. (She calls them "Ka-Pow!" cherries.) They also hired a market-research outfit in Chicago called The Perishable Group to run taste tests nationwide, with positive results. Locally, QFC and Fred Meyer became customers, Kroger and Sam's Club nationally.

The Rubies mature a week before the Rainiers, two weeks before the Bings, and last week was their moment. It's a short window, to be sure, but the Rubies have an additional advantage: they keep well (up to four weeks) under refrigeration.

The traditional cherry business requires lots of land and lots of patience. You can plant maybe 250 trees to the acre, and your yield per tree is less than 100 pounds. Most growers are at the mercy of the weather; cool spring weather just delays the harvest, but early summer rains are disastrous. (Griggs and Clennon have helicopters standing b to blow rainwater off the fruit before the skin splits.) They have planted their Rubies along a V-shaped trellis, a system that allows for almost a thousand trees to the acre. Smaller trees, sure, but fairly similar yields. By now, their company has propagated over 100,000 trees; their field crews will have picked 60,000 boxes by mid-July.

One box holds fifteen pounds of cherries, so the Ruby harvest this year will be close to a million pounds, double that within five years. Even after paying the packing house bout 20 cents a pound to process the fruit, that's a pretty good payoff. Ka-Pow!

Erik Liedholm, Master Distiller, Advanced Level Sommelier

Erik Liedholm (left in photo), whose day job involves running John Howie's (right in photo) beverage programs, grew up on Wildwood Street in East Lansing, Michigan, where his parents were both on the faculty of Michigan State University. He found his way into wine and was recruited into John Howie's fold. "I have no real experience as a distiller," Liedholm admits, but he did know about Kris Burglund, a biochemist at MSU who's considered the expert's expert.

Meantime, Howie's next project was starting to take shape between Bothell and Kenmore, at the under-served north end of Lake Washington. To be called the Beardslee Public House, it's envisioned as a high-class tavern and brewery that will make its own charcuterie and cheese. And, why not? Distill its own gin and vodka as well. ("Not so fast," said the Liquor Board. Exact assignments of space and ownership are still being negotiated.)

Five years ago, on a trip to Portugal, Liedholm bought a nine-liter copper still and promptly made a batch of grappa from petit verdot grapes that he sourced from the Ciel du Cheval vineyard. Add homemade grappa to the Beardslee project, yes! Use the best red winter wheat from TriState Seed, yes! Ship 15,000 pounds of the wheat to Professor Burglund, yes! Learn the elements of making beer and turning it into vodka (saccharification, fermentation and distillation), yes! Get your equipment from the master, CARL. And because vodka is essentially the tofu of the spirit world (colorless, odorless, virtually flavorless), uses that vodka to make your gin. Use a dozen or more botanicals.

Wildwood's vodka is known as Stark Vatten, "strong water" in Swedish. The gin is called Kur, pronounced "cure." It's so good it will convert folks who think they don't like gin. "We think there's room at the top end, and for spirits made with Washington products," says Chef Howie. "It's a step into a whole new arena."

There's a bit more work to be done at Beardslee before the brewpub opens (you can follow the progress here). The original shipment of gin and vodka, for its part, is being held up by red tape and paperwork (no surprise). When it does reach Seattle, the shelf price will be well under $30. Next year, Wildwood should produce 2,000 cases, and after that, it's just a question of demand.

As for Liedholm, after the final exam in the summer of 2014 and he added "Master Distiller" to his resume.

July 2014

Ronald Holden is a Seattle-based journalist who specializes in food, wine and travel. He has worked for KING TV, Seattle Weekly, and Chateau Ste. Michelle; his blog is www.Cornichon.org.