<Begin Segment 5>

TI: Now was strawberry farming pretty lucrative? I mean, were people pretty prosperous because of strawberries?

YS: Well, depends on the year. That one year there was really good. And it wasn't really what you call high, but it was a couple times there pretty good. That's the time, of course, you get to buy something then, so they went to buy a car or something.

TI: Did the strawberry farmers form like a cooperative or anything to sell the berries, or was that controlled by the canneries, or how did that work?

YS: Yeah, that was lot of it, controlled by, you just take it to the cannery. But then we used to sell some on the market, too, people come.

TI: So how would you know, how would your family know that you were getting a fair price from the cannery? I mean, they kind of have like a monopoly, right?

YS: Yeah. No, I guess they must have talked it over and decided how much they wanted to charge, I think.

TI: But what's to prevent the cannery from just paying a really low price?

YS: Well, yeah. You just take it there and they give you a number and then they tell you so many on that number, you just leave it there. I forget how much they paid for it.

TI: Well, so the Japanese farmers must have trusted...

YS: Yeah, it was one cannery, and everybody goes there. That was cannery berries, too, so that's not stems, they're stemless.

TI: Right. Yeah, when I picked strawberries, the ones you kept the stems were what we called the market berries?

YS: Market the stems, leave the stems.

TI: Yeah, those were just the good ones, then we'd send them to market. I remember all that. Going back to the picnic, you talked about the food. Did they have things like games also?

YS: Yeah, they used to play games, I forget what it was now, whether we played baseball or whatever it was, but they used to have games, running and different things like that. It was running games and things like that.

TI: It sounds like a good time. And so after berry season, what would the family do? What would be next after you harvest the berries, you have the picnic, so what happens in August?

YS: Oh no, you work all the, work the berries all the time, weeding and setting runners or plant a new crop. See, you plant the new crop in... when was it? Toward fall I guess it was.

TI: But the hard part is you get one harvest, right? The strawberry season is just a few weeks.

YS: Probably two or three weeks, yeah.

TI: Two or three weeks, and that will make or break, I mean, that's all the money you get for the whole year, pretty much?

YS: Well, no, we used to have, like I say, peas, then he started growing vine berries.

TI: Okay, so vine berries meaning like raspberries?

YS: Yeah, raspberries or boysenberry.

TI: But strawberries was the main crop?

YS: Yeah, strawberry was the main crop.

TI: Okay. And for strawberry, was it pretty much Japanese or did the, like the whites or Caucasians, did they do strawberries, too?

YS: No.

TI: Now why was that? Why did the Japanese only do strawberries?

YS: I think because they must have started all over, I think, even in California I think they started strawberries.

TI: Yeah. No, I was wondering why it was always such a Japanese thing.

YS: I don't know. [Laughs]

TI: Because every, a lot of communities I go to, the Japanese did a lot of the strawberries.

YS: Yeah, strawberries, they did. You talk to people in California, they had strawberries, too. Well, I was reading in that Nisei book and stuff, but they said that's where a lot of it was started. But then a lot of them, they raised potatoes and other stuff too in California, but we never did. Well, that Queen of England says they want only Bainbridge Island strawberries.

TI: Yeah, so I was going to ask you, is there a particular climate or place that produces the best strawberries?

YS: Well, they like strawberry, Bainbridge Island, because it's rocky and then it's sweet, they say. Because if it's too hot, they get big and get ripe, but the Bainbridge, cool weather, they say that's why it gets bigger and juicy because of the rocks, they say. See, the island had a lot of rocks. There were a lot of rocks.

TI: So like in Ontario, did people do strawberries here?

YS: Well, they tried it.

TI: It wasn't as good?

YS: No, because it gets too hot. Like I say, it gets too hot, and it gets ripe before they get big, so they're small. And they weren't that good either, I didn't think. Because the Moris, they raised it here, few of them, Wakasugis raised it, too. But it didn't do that good.

TI: So some of the cooler climates like the Northwest...

YS: Yeah, and then they're sweeter, too.

TI: Yeah, I was curious.

YS: Even California berries, no comparison to the island or coast berries.

TI: They might be bigger and prettier...

YS: Yeah, they're pretty, but they're not juicy. Oh, yeah, I'd rather eat the coast berries anytime.

TI: Interesting.

YS: There's a lot of difference.

TI: Okay. I always wondered about that.

YS: Yeah, there's a lot of difference. Because we go to the store now, we don't buy it, hardly, unless we can look it over good and see if it's red inside. You know, most of the California berries, it's red outside, but inside...

TI: They're kind of whitish.

YS: White, yeah. They're not as sweet. But to get coast berries, even Portland, that way, their berries, it's sweeter.

TI: But you think Bainbridge Island might be the best?

YS: Oh, yeah. That's what the queen of England, she said.

TI: Well, that's interesting, because... well, because of housing price or land prices, most of the strawberry farms have all disappeared, you don't see them.

YS: Yeah.

TI: Vashon Island, Bellevue, Bainbridge Island, you just don't see the strawberry farms.

YS: There are very few. Oh, my brother, his place still, they've still got strawberries. He had that girl work for him for thirty years, and she's there, she's still raising that.

TI: Still raising strawberries?

YS: Yeah. Rainiers, I think.

TI: So when they raise strawberries, Bainbridge Island, do they sell them just on Bainbridge Island, or do they ship 'em out?

YS: Yeah, they sell what they can and then ship 'em out. I take 'em to Pike Market.

TI: Because now Bainbridge Island was such a wealthy community, I'm guessing people will just buy fresh strawberries.

YS: Yeah, lots of people there now.

TI: Interesting.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.