Sun Basin Orchard sees growth with milk methods
PHOTO: Sun Basin Orchard owner John Chen shows one of the watermelons that he has grown using a milk method that he learned about in Taiwan and Japan.
Owner hopes to expose people to more natural fruit
Got milk? John Chen has.
That's a large part of his melon growing method, in fact.
Chen is the owner of the Sun Basin Orchard, and for the past several years he has been using a mixture of milk and assorted all-natural fertilizers on his watermelons and apples.
Now, he said, he is beginning to see results.
"Drop in about a hundred gallons every day, put in about three times a week, (the product) tastes much better," Chen said of his method. "In Taiwan and Japan, people do that kind (of treatment, but) it is very very expensive … But we have a lot of milk here. You can go buy supermarket expired milk. People don't want expired milk — you can go out to some place, it is very cheap."
Chen said his methods will help Washington farms because he is thinking about taste while everything else seems to be emphasizing technology.
His melons are not quite ready, he told the Columbia Basin Herald during an interview Wednesday morning.
"One more week, (and it will) taste excellent," he said. "Very thin skin, most watermelons not much skin. So it's including milk, you don't spend too much money and don't have a chemical. Very sweet, like sugar … It's natural. Helps the body."
Chen said he uses a milk-spray on his apples. He said that in another month, one apple could weigh about a pound because of the spray.
When he was in Japan and Taiwan, people taught him the methods, Chen said. One cantaloupe would go for hundred US dollars in Japan.
"A lot of farms are losing money, because the market, like apples, prices are down, so I just think how we can help," he said. "We just think working together will help."
In Japan and Taiwan, he said, the market is also very good for Washington dried cherries, another Sun Basin product. Dried cherries keep better than regular cherries, he said, and can often go for $30 a pound overseas.
Chen said that he has owned the Sun Basin Orchard for about 10 years, and been lived in Moses Lake for about 12 years.
Chen said he is trying to expose international markets to his product, which are not quite available commercially yet. Some may be sold later this year, but he is hoping sales increase as more and more people try them out.