Welcome to Klickitat County

It’s always an honor and a privilege for The Sentinel to do the Harvest section each year, coinciding as it does with the annual Klickitat County Fair & Rodeo. For as long as the Fair has been around, The Sentinel has been part of its tradition and heritage. As a community newspaper, we’re glad to help bring information to the region—especially these days as we reach more of the county now that we’re the only newspaper based in

Klickitat County.

This year the Fair is an even bigger deal than it’s been in some time. Some are calling it the first real post-pandemic Fair, since last year we were just getting back on our collective feet. We can’t take Covid for granted, but it sure feels good to see life slowly getting back to something resembling normal. Get out and have fun!

Join us as we celebrate this magical time of year and close to a century of amazing events and showings at the Klickitat County Fair. And visit The Goldendale Sentinel online at www.GoldendaleSentinel.com. The Sentinel has been covering headlines and history in Klickitat County since 1879.

The Goldendale Sentinel

117 W. Main Street

Goldendale, WA 98620

(509) 773-3777

Info@GoldendaleSentinel.com

Tayler Bradley

For The Sentinel

Klickitat County is known for several different types of agriculture. Many of the farms and ranches are family owned and operated through many generations. And along with this type of business come a lot of different obstacles that can test even the best of them. These obstacles arrive in many different shapes and sizes, but people always make a way to help put food on the tables of families all over the county.

One of the amazing things about our county is it provides a wide variety of products. These include things like wheat, hay, peaches, apples, apricots, asparagus, barley, blueberries, carrots, cattle, cherries, chickens, goats, grapes, grass seed, pigs, potatoes, oats, onions, milk, cheese, and much more. Each of these different crops and products are grown, harvested, and shipped to different places to be made into new products or sold in farmer. These products all have different growing and harvesting times that can change with many different variables. For instance, cherries begin around Memorial Day

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Getting these products ready to sell is not always easy. There are many obstacles that these families have to overcome. Sometimes it’s the weather. If it is too cold and a late freeze comes, fruit and vegetables will be no good. Sometimes things are hot and dry bringing drought which means there is not enough water to help grow the products. Weather can be a huge factor for fruit growers like Gunkel Orchards because the heat and the cold can affect the fruit drastically. “Heavy rain can split cherries, strong winds can knock the fruit off the trees and bruise it,” Grant Gunkel says, “and extreme heat can cause the fruit to ripen faster than normal, which can affect the ideal picking conditions.“ As for the Thieles and Schusters, who harvest a lot of hay, temperamental weather can be challenging. If they do not get enough winter and spring moisture, the dry conditions can affect their crop, and on the opposite side of things, late spring rain can push back cutting and baling the hay. For dairy cows, the cold weather can give them frostbite, and the hot weather can cause stress on them. Weather can be tricky as it is always changing, but these farmers and ranchers work hard to adapt to what it

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All these products have to be harvested, and that means different machines that are used in the process. Just like any other machine, harvesting equipment breaks down. Parts for them can be hard to find; someone has to take time to fix them, or in the worst case the machine may not even be fixable. With the effects of Covid, the ranchers have seen some of their parts become a little more scarce and harder to find. The price of a lot of essentials for basic production has gone up as well. But one of the biggest jumps farmers have seen is the price of fuel. So many things these farmers use run on gas and diesel, and it is not something they can cut back on. Travis Pearson, with

Charis Way Dairy, says, “Hauling hay and milk to the places it needs to go is catching up with us because of the price of fuel, and we didn’t get very much of a raise on the milk.” With all of these price jumps in the farmers’ and ranchers’ essentials, consumers have also seen a jump in the price of the products they buy every day. It is like a domino effect. We need to remember they aren’t trying to make millions; they just want to make ends meet and provide for their families.

Family is what started each of these farmers’ and ranchers’ livelihoods. So many of them have been in business for multiple generations which started with great grandparents whose family has carried on the way of life they began. Each family, as they grow old, hopes to continue to pass it down to their kids for many more generations to come. For the Schuster ranch, the kids have to spend a lot of time riding and moving cows, especially now that they are bigger and can ride on their own. “These kids get a front row seat to the realities of life on the ranch,” says Lauren Schuster,

“and hopefully that prepares them to farm and ranch for another generation.” Grant Gunkel grew up helping his dad in the orchards and is now running the business alongside him. The Thiele kids grew up riding in bailers and tractors while their mom, dad, and grandpa cut hay. Ranching and farming truly are family affairs. These families hope that showing their kids how great it is to be a part of something and see the bigger picture, getting this up close and personal view of the lifestyle, they will have the chance to fall in love with it just like their parents did.

“Farming is a seven-day-a-week job,” state the Thieles. “The hours are not always during daylight and can be long and tiring.”

Many outsiders looking in don’t always understand what it takes to complete this job, and sometimes it is a thankless one, but they do it anyway because they love what they do. Grant Gunkel says, ”It is a blessing to work outside every day, and during harvest time it is fulfilling to see the fruit come off of the trees and into the hands of the consumer.”

So the next time you go to eat your favorite fruit or order something off of a menu at that fancy restaurant, remember: it started in the fields of a farmer, and they spent countless hours working to get it into your hands.

§ The End.