SEQUIM — While July may be the month of lavender for many, June always has been strawberry month for the Cameron family.
But husband and wife Dave and Sidne Cameron said this season was their last to grow strawberries on Wheeler Road off Woodcock Road.
“I made the decision about two years ago,” Dave said. “I didn’t replace any strawberry plants. We’re done.”
“It’s a business decision,” Sidne said. “It’s not because we want to be out of strawberries.”
The couple took ownership of Cameron’s Berry Farm in 1997 following the death of Dave’s father, also named Dave Cameron, who managed Blue Ribbon Farms in Dungeness.
With his cousin Stan’s help, Dave Sr. began growing his own strawberries in 1973 on leased properties near the berry farm’s last location, Dave Jr. said.
Shirley Cameron, Dave Sr.’s wife, was an integral part of keeping the farm running, too, the Camerons said. Her sisters also often helped out, Sidne said.
The Camerons fondly remember Dave Sr. bringing in school buses filled with children to visit the farm.
“Many of [our regular customers] were parents of kids who rode the school bus here,” Sidne said.
“There are a lot of memories for people out here.”
However, the Camerons saw Sequim’s strawberry market fluctuate over the years. At one point, it was the only strawberry U-pick farm. At another, it was one of five.
Through early July of this year, it was one of two U-pick strawberry farms. Graysmarsh Farm is now the only one in the area.
Dave said the shift away from U-pick strawberries could be that Sequim’s demographics are changing and/or there is growing competition from California and Mexico, both of which produce year-round strawberries for grocers.
“Demand has changed, so families have changed,” Sidne said.
Sequim’s strawberry season is about June 10-July 4, Dave said, with some fluctuations either earlier or later, depending on the weather.
When the Camerons took over the family farm in 1997, they primarily were focused on cannery berries, Dave said.
The couple got into a rocky start, though, after an acquaintance contacted Dave about purchasing all 30 acres of strawberries to sell, he said, but the buyer couldn’t sell them for a year, so the Camerons paid to put the berries in Seattle in cold storage.
Learning his lesson, Dave said he reduced his efforts by growing strawberries on 20 acres instead for a few years.
The Camerons kept U-pick berries on 10 acres of their leased property for years and sold fresh strawberries to local grocers. But this year, the Camerons devoted less acreage to strawberries with only 4 acres of berries available this year. They sold only about half of the strawberries on the plant, Sidne said.
Over the years, they’ve seen their workforce decrease, too, going from 30 people to only five this year, including their cousin Peggy Adams.
“There is a market, but there aren’t enough workers,” Sidne said.
Dave contends Sequim is “one of the best places to grow strawberries in the Northwest.”
“We don’t get the tonnage per acre, but our quality is unbeatable,” he said.
Looking ahead, the strawberry fields will be converted to hay, and Sidne said it’ll be hard come next June for strawberry season.
“We won’t know what to do with ourselves,” she said.
“We have friends that we’ve made in the berry fields. They’re very dear to us.”
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
