Kathy Usher corralled a group of men to a strawberry-shortcake-eating contest, her dangling strawberry earrings bobbing in the breeze.
“Come on, you guys, come to the last Slurp ‘n’ Burp ever at Biringer Farm,” she shouted, waving the men toward a picnic table.
They sat down, and girls wearing tiaras and Strawberry Festival T-shirts plopped plates of strawberry shortcake in front of them.
“Are you ready?” Usher shouted. “One. Two. Three. Eat!”
As they dove, face first, into the shortcake, Usher leaned back and watched history unfold.
After 20 years of shortcake, strawberry picking and sunny summer fun, Biringer Farm is preparing to close its north Everett farm. Owners Mike and Dianna Biringer sold the farm to the Port of Everett, which plans to turn it into a wetland.
The Biringers plan to grow and sell strawberries and raspberries at a new farm in Arlington, but they’re not going to replant other crops or move their goat climb, miniature chapel, or Wild West-inspired Deadwood Ranch, which have delighted kids for ages.
This was the last time the farm planned to fully participate in the Strawberry Festival, now in its 77th year. Next year, strawberry lovers should be able to pick fruit at the Arlington farm, but they shouldn’t expect the usual pony rides, horse-shaped swings and playhouses made to look like an old-fashioned town.
“I dealt with it already and I’m OK with it, but it’s a little bittersweet.” said Dianna Biringer, 71, as she walked into her strawberry fields during the festival Sunday. “We love the people.”
Mike Biringer learned how to grow strawberries from his parents, German immigrants who started farming in Marysville in 1948. Like most strawberry farmers in the Pacific Northwest, they grew berries designed to be processed, not sold fresh to grocery stores.
Unlike the more familiar berries from California and Florida, Marysville strawberries are picked when they’re ripe and should be eaten within a few days, Mike Biringer said.
Their sweet, juicy taste draws people from throughout the region to the farm. Customers have been calling for weeks wondering when the strawberries will be ready to pick.
And for the first time Mike Biringer, 71, can remember, the berries weren’t ready for the Strawberry Festival. The unusually cold, wet spring pushed back the harvest date and the farm had to import strawberries grown indoors in Mount Vernon for the festival.
The Biringers expect the crop to be ready in a few days.
Claudia Espinoza came to the farm Sunday hoping to pick berries. She drove all the way from Mountlake Terrace with her husband and two children because she wanted them to have a chance to pick strawberries straight from the vine.
They were disappointed, but Espinoza said she’s still glad they came. Her kids enjoyed seeing pigs, petting goats and riding ponies — all rarities in the city, she said.
“It’s time to spend with the family, and the kids are always just at home,” she said as her 6-year-old son, Rafael, patted a pony. “They want to come out and see the animals.”
In recent years, many of the strawberry farms that once defined Marysville have been replaced by housing developments and shopping malls.
In the late ’80s, more than 2,000 acres of strawberries grew in the town, Dianna Biringer said. Now, including berries grown at Biringer Farm, which is just south of Marysville, there are only about 40 acres left, she said.
Many worry that strawberries will soon disappear forever from north Snohomish County. But the Biringers say they’ll grow strawberries for the rest of their days.
“Mike knew when he was 5 years old he wanted to be a farmer,” said Dianna Biringer, wearing a strawberry apron. “When I married him, he said, ‘Please don’t ever try to take the farmer out of me. If you like what you’re doing, it’s not work and I have no plans to ever retire.’ “
Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.
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