Oregon Blueberry Promotions Busy Last Summer

Leif Benson

The Oregon blueberry industry is fortunate to have a man like Leif Benson spearhead culinary-oriented promotions.

Not only is he one of the top chefs in the Northwest, Benson, aside from travel expenses, works pro bono.

In addition to blueberries, Benson, a native of Sweden who is now retired, has been putting out the word on 16 other Oregon commodities locally as well as internationally.

His association with the commodity commissions began when he was on an Oregon trade mission with ODA director Katy Coba and Oregon Potato Commission administrator Bill Brewer.

“Bill and Katy and I were on a ferry boat traveling from Hong Kong to Macao, and I was talking to Katy about this concept I have about creating a partnership between the (American Culinary Federation) Chefs de Cuisine Society of Oregon and the (food oriented) commodity commissions of Oregon,” Benson said. “She thought it was a great idea.”

The focus of the alliance is to use the kitchen to show TV audiences, newspaper readers and the like how to cook more deliciously using Oregon crops like blueberries, hazelnuts, potatoes, crab and beef.

Good Day, Oregon Blueberries

In the last several months Benson has appeared twice on Portland TV, two shows on KPTV’s/FOX Good Day Oregon, where he appears regularly, and one on KATU-TV’s AM Northwest.

He, along with some of Oregon’s leading chefs, also gave four performances in August at Portland’s Bite of Oregon at Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Appearing at the Gerry Frank Chef’s Table, Benson and the other chefs handed out hundreds of pounds of Oregon blueberries.

Bite of Oregon

Also appearing at Tom McCall Waterfront Park was the Ima Blueberry character, which on one day had visitors seeing double as Ima showed up as a twosome. It’s the first time two of the characters have appeared together. Tying it all together was a story and photo of the chef’s appearances in the online publication “Portland Society Page.”

Benson hopes to soon get Oregon blueberries into the pages of ediblePORTLAND, a national magazine with local editions.

All in all, Benson estimated that hundreds of thousands of people were exposed to Oregon blueberries over the summer.

Part of the promotional program involves introducing Oregon chefs to blueberries and how to cook with them. Benson said that lately more attention has been paid to advocating the use of blueberries in main dishes as opposed to just desserts. Some examples he gave are serving duck and chicken with blueberries.

Benson, who has travelled to numerous countries to promote other Oregon commodities, said that he hopes to be adding blueberries someday. He said that Vietnam, because it’s a “wide open” market with no tariffs, would make a good trading partner.

As for possible offshore promotional efforts, Benson said that there are a number of different nationalities represented in the chefs society that could travel to their native lands to espouse blueberries to foreign chefs and consumers.

Benson said blueberries are his favorite berry “from a chef’s point of view (because) they handle so well and are great in so many ways.”

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