Nearly 100 years ago, Bainbridge Island’s main cash crop was strawberries.
Japanese immigrant families pioneered strawberry farming on the island in the early 1900s, and by the 1930s and 1940s, Bainbridge Island had become known as the “strawberry capital of the Pacific Northwest,” particularly for the Marshall variety, which was considered one of the finest-tasting strawberries in the United States at that time.
Strawberries were the principal crop, with over 100 growers cultivating them, and large farms like Koura and Suyematsu dedicated most of their acreage to strawberries.
The success of the strawberry industry was supported by a network of local canneries and seasonal workers, including Japanese, Filipino, and First Nations laborers.
View pictures at https://www.walkthefarm.org/sakuma-farm and more history at https://bijac.org/history/bainbridge-island-before-wwii/pre-wwii-lives-of-bainbridge-island-nikkei-before-the-war/.
