Every year, as June rolls into July, excitement starts to build across Eastern Washington for thousands of wheat farmers and their families who are stewards of more than 2 million acres of land. Nearly all of Washington’s wheat farms are family owned and operated, and they are often passed down…
Nowadays, the Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG) is the main organization dedicated to legislative advocacy for Washington wheat growers, but it wasn’t always that way. Fourteen years before growers first met under the WAWG banner, it was the Washington State Farm Bureau (WSFB) that was performing those duties. In…
Farming has always played an important role in my life, considering I am the fifth generation being raised and working on my family’s farm near Davenport. Growing up on a farm has taught me many valuable life lessons, such as having a strong work ethic, time management and responsibility. Also,…
To be Ukrainian today is a huge challenge. It is a pain, but it is also a pride. The war in Ukraine has affected each Ukrainian family and even everybody around the world. I am pleased to share with you my survival story and tell about Ukraine first hand. I…
I am the sixth generation to raise wheat here on Nonnemacher Farms in Davenport. At about 6 years old, I started breeding, raising and selling pigs. During harvest, I got paid for washing combine windows. My father paid me in wheat, and I had to learn to observe the market…
Taking life day by day is how we roll up here on the Emtman Ranch. As I sit and read so much about everything going on in our country—all the politics, anger, protesting, finger pointing—I think of the man pictured here (and many others in his boots). My husband doesn’t…
Violence broke out. People were arrested; some were beaten. Shots were fired. Vehicles were damaged. A bridge was burned. This could be the news from last week, but I want to take you back to Washington’s “Fish Wars” of the 1960s and 70s. Sport and commercial fishing industries were competing…
It’s usually the items inside a sack that are interesting, but a new exhibition at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (MAC) is taking a look at what the sack itself has to say. Golden Harvest: Flour Sacks from the Permanent Collection will be on display through Oct. 30,…
Janet Walthew may live on the west side of the state, but her family’s legacy in Adams County runs deep as they continue to own and lease out the family’s fourth-generation dryland wheat farm. Recently, she came across photos of her grandfather, Henry Bauer, along with an article published after…
A few years ago, when I purchased my Ranger Tug, I started dreaming about the places I could visit beyond where roads and airplanes could take me! The breaching of the Snake River dams is in almost every Wheat Life issue. As a farm ground owner, I am quite familiar…
