MAGAZINE
November 2022
Here's a look at some of the stories, columns and features in our November edition.
Pick up a copy at Brewster Marketplace, Rusty Relic (Brewster); Caso's, Okanogan IGA (Okanogan); Gene's Harvest Foods (Omak); Frontier Foods, Paw's Produce (Oroville); Grant's Market, Beyers Market, The Junction (Tonasket).
Werners harvests
Success, life lessons
By Brock Hires
Okanogan Living
Richard and Jill Werner know a thing or two about the agriculture industry in Washington state. In fact, the ground they harvest from has been in the family five generations.
With 40 acres of pears, 70 acres of cherries and 100 acres of apples, the work never seems to slow down at the Werner farm.
One thing that sets the Werner’s orchards apart from other commercial operations is their farming methods. They prefer farming freestanding trees at relatively low density. They do this because of erratic soils and slopes of the landscapes in the Okanogan Valley.
“It’s not for the faint of heart. There’s a lot of heartache and stress,” Richard said. “I’m not a simple farmer, but I do farm simply so that I can work effectively and live simply.”
And that simplicity is paying off.
“We’re picking about 930,000 pounds of cherries this year; and we’ve got a lot of young trees,” Richard said. “I think we’ll pick over a million next year.”
106 years with Verona Naught Reese
By Edna Mae Hinger
Special to Okanogan Living
(Editor's note: This story was written as recorded by Edna Mae Hinger. Verona passed away before it was finalized but left a journal of stories to fill in so most of her story is as she told or wrote in her journal.)
I was born in a little shack at Bickleton, Wash., on Dec. 26, 1913. Bickleton is about 25 miles south of Mabton and 25 miles north of the Columbia River, it's in the southern part of the state.
My parents were Edward and Della Warren Hooker. When I questioned my mother about my birth, she always said she found me in a cabbage patch and that's all she would ever tell me. No doctor attended the birth, but a midwife did, and she had no education except what she had learned herself by trial and error. I went all through school and graduated there; when I was eight years old, I was walking three miles to school can you believe it? I can still see that road.
Fall on the Farm
By Kate MacKenzie
Special to Okanogan Living
Fall on the ranch was the busy season. Getting ready for winter was no easy task. Fences had to be mended because the cattle were coming home, gardens had to be cleared up and put to bed, calves needed to be weaned, vaccinated and the cattle all needed to be sorted.
Bringing the cattle in was not easy. There were some of the old girls that could smell snow in the high country and headed for home. We would work daily to round up cattle and drive them back to the ranch. There was no fancy trailering available.
Once they were rounded-up (this was over a couple of weeks), then, the calves were weaned. You needed to wear earplugs for the cacophony and noise the mamas made looking for their babies and the babies looking for their mamas.