MARYSVILLE – Strawberry Fields are not forever.
Marysville knows that all too well. Even though it still has its annual Strawberry Festival, this year the 85th from June 11-19, it has lacked an actual strawberry field for about a decade.
That’s when Biringer Farms moved to Arlington. Dianna Biringer said June 1 that they miss the old farm, which the family started in 1948.
“We’re still there in our hearts,” she said, adding they decided to move when the city of Everett turned nearby property into wetlands.
The Biringers used to have an event called “The Pig Out” when in Marysville that coincided with the festival. While a bit smaller, they still have family friendly activities on the Saturday of the festival so they can still be a part of it.
“We try to keep it farmie for everybody,” Dianna said of her and husband Mike.
Help wanted
Biringer Farm is in desperate need of workers and u-pickers as the berries ripened weeks earlier than usual.
“We had drenching rain for about a week,” Dianna said. “The first day we opened (May 21) it rained, but that’s a given.”
She said the agricultural science behind it is the record-warm temperatures in April, followed by the rain.
“They’re laying heavy ripe,” she said. “I don’t know if we’re going to get all of them. I’ve seen some as big as a tomato.”
Dianna said it gets harder each year to find berry pickers, but there is good money to be made. She said there are some hispanics who make $30 an hour or more.
“You have to be motivated,” she said. “These people have picked before. You can’t stop them.”
The farm used to have about 100 workers, but now it’s down to about a dozen.
To get the most production they can out of them, the Biringers have picking machines. Up to 24 workers are able to lay down and pick. Those workers can often pick 100 flats a day. One was able to pick a flat in seven minutes.
Dianna said some Ukrainian families have been picking for them for years.
“We’ve bonded with those families,” she said. “But we’re getting down to the younger ones” who are still working.
Ievgenii Shaverda, 20, is one of those employees. He’s been working there since he was 12.
“He’s the boss,” Dianna said as Ievgennii oversaw 10 workers on a picking machine.
He said it is a good working environment.
“The better they get along the more money they make,” he tells them.
Kathy Usher has been working for Biringer Farms for 18 years.
“I’m retired, but it’s a way to get out of the house, and I really like the people I work with. They’re like a second family to me,” she said.
Usher said the early season is especially tough on local kids who pick for summer jobs.
“This is how kids make their money,” she said, adding some are coming after school for a few hours.
U-pick berries
Usher said she hopes people find out about the early season.
“They are going to be mad when Fourth of July comes, and there are no berries,” she said.
Because the strawberries are so plump, it doesn’t take long to pick them.
Krista Crowell of Arlington said she likes to come every year and stockpile berries to make frozen jam.
“They won’t eat store jam,” Shawn Sandberg said of his two girls. “We’ve got four strawberry lovers.”
Sandberg said he drives by all the time, and decided to join Crowell this year.
“You eat as many as you pick,” Crowell joked.
Sandberg smiled, adding: “They need a scale for people” to weigh themselves before and after.
Still working at age 79
Dianna said she wishes she had time to make jam.
“I’m too busy,” she said.
Dianna said she tries to bribe customers to taste test their jam.
“So far nobody’s taken me up on it,” she laughed.
Even though they are both 79, Dianna said she and Mike don’t play to retire anytime soon.
“We never thought we’d still be farming at 80,” she said. “But all of a sudden 80 doesn’t seem that old.”
Dianna said she knew what she was getting into when they got married 55 years ago.
“He said, ‘Don’t ever try to take the farmer out of me,'” Dianna quoted Mike as saying.
She also remembers him saying he never wants to retire.
“If you like what you’re doing it’s not work,” he told her.
