From Blueberries Consulting we make a very heartfelt recognition in memory of Bernadine Strik, who will always be a benchmark, in the sense of permanently seeking greater knowledge to collaborate in the development of blueberries as a product and as an industry at a global level.

We join the mourning of the international blueberry industry and we want to highlight that Bernadine always had the special ability to connect with the producers, tour the farms, listen and observe every detail, identifying the problems that really concerned them in their production processes. After these field trips, he designed his projects and research studies, recognized for their scientific rigor, which got to the heart of these challenges, to then share the results and how to apply them with the producers and participants in the crop and its industry, because the decisions management and cost-benefit analysis have always played an important role in Bernadine's research.

A radical change

When Strik began his career at Oregon State University in 1987, the industry standard was to plant blueberries four feet apart, in rows that were covered with sawdust or had bare soil and no trellis. Today, as a result of Bernadine's research, blueberries are grown two and a half to three feet apart with the aid of trellises, and the use of mulch is common. The returns of the industry during these years with the development of this technology have increased exponentially.

Citizen of the world

Bernadine Cornelia Strik was born in 1962 in The Hague, the Netherlands, and spent the early years of her life on the family farm. When she was three years old, her parents decided to move to Australia, mainly out of interest in living somewhere new. Six years later the family moved again, this time to Vancouver Island, Canada, where Bernadine's parents started an ornamental nursery farm and retail nursery, and is where she Bernadine grew up.

From ocean to land

In the fall of 1979, Bernadine began university studies at the University of Victoria. Originally planning to major in marine biology, he fortunately switched his focus to botany after being inspired by an influential professor. He ended up specializing in plant physiology

His legacy began in Oregon

In 1987 she moved to Oregon State University (OSU) where she taught and conducted research and in 1992 Bernadine became the Berry Crop Research Program Leader at the North Willamette Research and Extension Center (NWREC) with with a view to developing better blueberry varieties for the Pacific Northwest.

He received the Outstanding Leader in the Blueberry Industry Award from the Oregon Blueberry Growers Association in 2003 for his development of the high-density plant spacing method, which greatly increased yields.

universal reference

Her research in blueberry production and nutrient management has had an impact few have equaled, and berry industries around the world have benefited from Bernadine Strik's research as well as her academic teaching work.

Bernadine has authored or co-authored more than 150 articles, many published in peer-reviewed research journals and others intended for members of the berry industry. She served on the executive board of the International Society for Horticultural Science and supported herself by researching numerous berry crops, as well as improving machine harvest efficiencies, fresh market production, and developing organic systems.

He was also a member of the American Society for Horticultural Sciences, recipient of the Duke Galletta Award for excellence in horticultural research, North American Blueberry Council; the Distinguished Service Award from the North American Raspberry and Blackberry Growers Association; and the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Oregon Blueberry Industry, among many other recognitions in her lifetime.

With Bernadine, surely, the wide meadows of Paradise will be dressed in blue very soon...