“I’m hoping that we can keep a balance where agriculture will be part of the future of this region, and it would be a compliment of the things we have today — with some small-scale agriculture, some of the alternative ventures.”
Harry Menser, interviewed by Nancy Renk in 1996.
Looking back on a lifetime of farming in the Pend Oreille region, Virginia Overland observed, “It’s been a hard way to make a living. The people that are really making it now are those that bought the land from the farmers and held it for subdivision. They are becoming millionaires.”
Finding an outlet for crops is always difficult for small-scale farmers. The local Farmers’ Market provides a welcome forum for gardeners to sell — and local residents to buy — farm-fresh produce. Nearly fifty growers signed up to sell during the 1996 season, offering bedding plants, fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers, soaps, and baskets.
