We love Oregon cranberries, and we are especially pleased  to offer Vincent Family Cranberries at LifeSource!

Here is the Vincent Family’s story, in their own words!

Hello, we are the Vincent Family. Our ‘Cranberry Roots’ go back to 1957 when our grandfather, Elmer Robison, cultivated his first Cranberry ‘Bog’ on the beautiful Southern Oregon Coast. Grandpa Robison along with his wife Grandma Velna raised four children on his Cranberry farm.  Three of those children have carried on the family tradition with their own sustainable and responsible Cranberry farming operations.

In 1965, our parents Kay Robison (affectionately known as Golly) married Bill Vincent (papa) and set forth to build a family that is now the heart and soul of Vincent Family Cranberries.  As a successful commercial fisherman in what is now a lost, but special way of life, our dad along with Golly dove headfirst into the transition from hunter to gatherer.  The life of a small Cranberry farming family is also a very special.  Papa and Golly have fought hard to ensure that way of life will carry on for generations to come.  As their children we are forever instilled with the LOVE and PRIDE that they have so perfectly cultivated.

 

 

The location of our farm which is a half mile from the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean, offers a very unique growing environment for a Cranberry.  The Coastal climate is cool year around with salty winds whipping our Cranberry bogs.  Our growing period is long.  Our bees work harder to pollinate our crop.  We harvest later than most, going into the late fall months with it’s harsher weather.  This makes for a very hardy Cranberry.  Smaller than most with a deep red color that can almost look black as it floats on the water of our flooded Cranberry bogs.  These dark berries are sweeter and contain a higher than average natural sugar content, that requires less added sweetener before it hits the bottle.  The Bandon Cranberry is renowned worldwide for these special characteristics.  Those characteristics are even more dramatic with a Vincent Family Cranberry.  We’re very proud of that, and very excited to pull our Cranberries out of the anonymous pool of Cranberries that end up in so many different food products on the market today.  Take a second look at our Juice.  Notice that deep red unadulterated color, and taste the richness of it’s tart-sweetness.  We think you’ll agree that it’s something special.

Our Cranberry history is built off of the ‘blood, sweat & tears’ that surviving as a small independent family farm requires. The farm is more than just land to us. It represents a type of ‘sacred ground’. Nurturing this ground through natural and responsible farming practices is second nature to us. Small independent family farms are a rare find in today’s world. We’ve been that rare small farming family since 1957… and we intend to keep it that way.

Subject:  Vincent Family Cranberries – Organic Certification Announcement

Hello to you and thank you sincerely for taking the time to learn more about us and what we’re working towards.

We trust that at the very least you will see the value in a direct relationship with an actual farming family that just happens to make the finished product as it sits packaged on the shelf. We haven’t taken the time to try and find out but we do know it is an exceptionally rare thing in today’s world.

First and foremost our family grows Cranberries.  That’s what we do, and have done, for over fifty years here in Oregon.

Throughout those years, numerous technological and cultural advances have helped us grow more berries.  Our family has always strived to farm responsibly while working to evolve our practices with every opportunity given.  We’ve treated our land and our Cranberry vines the way you would expect our family to, after all these years.

With that same spirit that has shaped our farm, we are now proud to announce a bold, new undertaking.  We have initiated the process of Organic Certification for our 27 acres of bogs.

We are excited and proud to be able to hold up our farming practices to the scrutiny of the certification process.  Organic certification will be an important milestone and crowning achievement of years of hard work. Organic Cranberry farming is rare.  Only a tiny percentage of all Cranberries harvested each year worldwide are certified.

Here in Oregon, of the roughly 2500 acres in production, about 1% of Cranberries are certified Organic.  There’s a reason for that, and ‘it’s easy’ isn’t one of them.  It’s going to take some extra work and some extra dollars on our end to gain this certification.   But we think our timing is going to work out well.

As our juices and dried Cranberries have been so well received, it should allow us to use previously unavailable resources to do this right.  For example, as of the first of this year, we were fortunate to re-hire a former employee.   This achievement as well as our commitment to success are just a couple reasons we are confident that we have the right plan in place to gain certification.

We know as well as any, that a logo on our bottle won’t magically make our juice better.  So in the meantime we will continue to produce “the finest Cranberries in the World,” put them in our products, and offer them to you.

The great thing about being the only Cranberry juice company that also happens to be a Cranberry Farming family is that you can also come to the farm and we’ll give you tour of our farming methods for firsthand.  Better bring your work gloves though!

Thanks to all of our customers and supporters, who have helped make this all possible.  We love hearing from you and nothing is better than meeting you in person.

We won’t let you down.

From all the Vincent’s,

Thank You!

…and from LifeSource, Thank YOU, Vincent family!