The Noah family started farming in the Willamette valley in the fall of 1985. We grew walnuts, hazelnuts some cherries and prunes. For a number of years we were really bad at it. Over time we learned and the operating grew. In 1996 we expanded to a farm on Grand Island outside Dayton,Oregon. The Grand Island farm was focused on sweet cherries. We started processing our own crops and developed a maraschino cherry processing plant and another plant to process hazelnuts. These products were sold around the USA.

In 2000 we developed a maraschino type cherry that used elderberry juice to color the fruit instead of red dye. With the covid virus elderberry juice became in short supply and very expensive. So we started investigating whether elderberry would grow in the Willamette valley. What we found is it grows like a weed here. Three years ago we started planting elderberry roots and now we have so damn much elderberry that we cannot use it all in our cherry product called “Dark Reserve”.

So we are going to try something new: U-Picking of our elderberry. The farm on Grand Island is a working farm focused on three crops: sweet cherries, elderberry and asian persimmons (fuyu persimmons). Expect good fruit, friendly people but not a lot of flash.

Come to Grand Island, which is actually an island in the middle of the Willamette river and enjoy both the character of the island and the surrounding wine county. We will be harvesting fruit until the first hard freeze.

We look forward to seeing you.

About Us

Noah Grand Island Farm