Back in 1935, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), working in Oregon, crossed two popular berries, the loganberry and the youngberry, and came up with a new berry they named the olallie, Chinook jargon for “berry.”
The new fruit quickly became popular, even though it is extremely perishable. Growers found that the new berry combined the sweetness of the blackberry with a hint of tartness. They were, in fact, half blackberry, because the loganberry is a blackberry-raspberry hybrid, and the youngberry is a blackberry-dewberry hybrid. The berries didn’t fare well in Oregon’s climate, but they flourished in California, especially in the Pajaro Valley.
Olallies, or olallieberries, were not only popular as a fresh snack. They were also the basis of a thriving berry wine industry centered in Soquel. Their product won gold medals at the California State Fair, and was considered one of the most “complex” of various berry wines.
That may soon be a memory. The olallieberry crop has dwindled over the past few years, and this year the Bargetto Winery will not be producing its popular drink. There simply aren’t enough berries to make it.
The problem, explains John Bargetto, is that the berries are so perishable. Most growers want to send their berries to market so that buyers can eat them fresh, but the olallieberries are so perishable that they cannot withstand the shipping. Even if they do, growers say, they have too short a shelf life to be processed and packaged. The few growers who continue to raise olallieberries do so for selling at roadside stands or pick-it-yourself ventures.
Fans of olallieberries in pies and jams will still be able to find olallieberries at these do-it-yourself establishments. But the olallieberry as a signature product of the Pajaro Valley may soon be a thing of the past. Read more at Santa Cruz Sentinel. Find olallie recipes here.
