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Berries & Christmas Trees

Harry Menser and Susan Moon with raspberry crop.  Bonner Daily Bee.

    The University of Idaho began to test alternative crops at its Research and Extension Center in Sandpoint as early as 1942.  That year, crews planted a variety of herbs but found the results "not especially encouraging."  The 1950s brought trial plantings of strawberries, blueberries, and Christmas trees. 

    By the early 1970s the back-to-the-land movement triggered new research in Bonner County.  Harry Menser, former director of the Research Center, recalled the change: "The University wanted some small scale agriculture research and extension programs developed to benefit the people who were coming here and buying some of this land that had heretofore been larger parcels but was being split up.  So what was the best solution?  Well, to look at high value crops which can be grown intensively on a small piece of land."    

    Raspberries looked like a crop with great promise, and a number of small farmers set out plants during the 1980s.  Only a few commercial growers remain, however.  Nursery crops -- trees and shrubs -- have proved to be much more successful in Bonner County, and the number of small nurseries has increased.