Sumner has a long tradition with agriculture that continues today. It may look a little different than you’re picturing from the 1900s. As we mentioned last week, Knutson Farms has been farming daffodils and rhubarb in the valley for decades. Now, they offer more visitor-focused options like the Spring Bloom to take family photos perfect for the wall – or I guess, Instagram. They’re still growing and shipping out tons of rhubarb and are the presenting sponsor of Rhubarb Days coming up in June, but they have changed how they also engage you in their farming.
Similarly, this week, Ben DeGoede gave me and Sumner Rotary a tour of his operation just south of Knutson Farms. You know it as Windmill Gardens, with all the beautiful flowers, shrubs and trees in greenhouses – including the City’s own hanging baskets getting ready to go out on the street. Did you know that they’re also growing lettuce and fresh basil? On cloudy evenings, their warehouses can turn the sky south of Sumner a bright pink. Pink lights aside, this is an incredible operation. The plugs of lettuce are grown, floating in a huge bath of water. They can grow more lettuce with less land and less water. They can better control the nutrients going into the lettuce that you’re about to eat. And, they can better control pests, using marigolds, ladybugs and spiders to combat aphids instead of pesticides. This is definitely farming for the 21st Century.
We’re proud that these farms and more call Sumner home. We also have Van Lierop’s Garden Market and Sunne in Downtown, the mobile Woodland Park Greenhouse (featured a couple years ago on HGTV’s Unsellable Houses), and of course, McLendon Hardware and Fred Meyer. As you’re planting your garden, try out some of the local options. And to everyone changing up how agriculture continues in the valley, way to grow!
Mayor Kathy Hayden
