Washington Grown Magazine - June 2023

magazine

desert to the water bringing

INSIDE: AMAZING POTATO RECIPE

The agricultural impact of the Missoula Floods

The "Living Room" of Capitol Hill in Seattle

The family farm growing potatoes for McDonald's

Puzzles and games related to this issue!

the violent

FOR ALL RECORDED HISTORY, people in the Northwest have been puzzled by huge geographic features in a region known as the Channeled Scablands. This region is dotted with curiosities: giant waterfalls with no water, humongous boulders dropped in the middle of wheat fields, and massive canyons carved by an unknown water source.

the Northwest

In the 1920s, J Harlen Bretz, a geologist who surveyed this region, had a visionary moment when he realized that these features, as large as they are, could not have been formed by rivers or glaciers but by huge floods. The fact that there was no obvious source for these prehistoric floodwaters led many in the scientific community to view Bretz's theories with doubt and scorn.

In order to even begin to understand such a huge flood, Bretz had to envision the conditions of the region during the last ice age. Around 2 million years ago, the Earth’s climate changed. Glacial ice sheets as thick as 12,000 feet advanced southward and then retreated. These cycles repeated several times. Most of northwestern North America was covered by the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which extended south into present day Washington, Idaho and Montana.

In present day North Idaho, one of the lobes of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet would provide Dr. Bretz with his long-sought source of water for the floods. During the last ice age, the Purcell Trench Lobe, extending south from the main ice sheet like greedy fingers, formed an ice dam in the Clark Fork River, blocking the flow and creating Glacial Lake Missoula.

A geologist named Joseph T. Pardee had been studying evidence of a massive lake in the Clark Fork Valley. He documented high-water marks, seemingly out of place, high in the mountains of western Montana. He also found giant ripple marks, similar to a lake shore or beach, on the Camas Prairie.

When all the puzzle pieces gathered by Bretz and Pardee were finally put together, the mystery of the Channeled Scablands was finally solved.

Formed by ice dams on the Clark Fork River, Glacial Lake Missoula stretched more than 200 miles in length and reached depths of 2,000 feet. It held as much water as Lake Erie and Lake Ontario combined. And the evidence suggests that the ice dam may have formed and then ruptured approximately 40 times over the course of 2,000 years.

When the ice dam holding back Glacial Lake Missoula burst, it unleashed a violent torrent of water that raced through Eastern Washington at speed of up to 80 mph. The entire lake drained in the span of 48 hours. The flood discharged was 13x the volume of the Amazon River.

Within the first hours, the waters spilled east over Idaho and Washington. When they slammed against the Okanogan Lobe, they turned south, carving the features of the Grand Coulee in the process. At Wallula Gap, just southeast of the present-day Tri-Cities, the waters were slowed down and backed up into giant, temporary lakes.

As the incomprehensible amount of water flowed over the land, it carved deep coulees and deeper plunge pools in places where it formed temporary waterfalls. In the process, the mighty floodwaters also scoured the topsoil and carried most of it away in an instant. After the waters passed, the precious loess that had blanketed the region (in some places hundreds of feet deep) was gone.

Or maybe “gone” is the wrong word. More like “moved."

When that rushing water temporarily slowed down behind the Wallula Gap, much of that soil and sediment settled to the bottom and remained there when the water ran off days or weeks later. To this day, those basins are filled with deep and productive silty topsoil. Satellite imagery shows areas of green, productive agricultural land that matches the flood basins almost perfectly.

That productive soil, combined with Washington’s “Goldilocks climate” and the irrigation provided by the Columbia Basin Project (read more on page 6) have helped to make Eastern Washington into a powerhouse of agricultural production.

The path of the flooding (right) covered Eastern Washington in huge amounts of water.

When that rushing water slowed down temporarily behind the Wallula Gap (top left), much of that soil and sediment settled to the bottom and remained there when the water ran off days or weeks later.

To this day, those basins are filled with deep and productive silty topsoil. Satellite imagery (bottom left) shows areas of green, productive agricultural land, which matches the flood basins almost perfectly.

AS YOU MIGHT KNOW, most of Eastern Washington is a desert or semidesert climate (specifically a shrub steppe high desert). Most regions receive less than 20” of precipitation, so growing crops is already a challenge. In fact, each region of Eastern Washington has unique challenges to overcome. But despite the challenges, Eastern Washington is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world.

Much of the productive topsoil, called loess (a fine, mineral-rich topsoil), that was scoured from northeast Washington settled to the bottom of the temporary lakes that formed behind Wallula Gap. Not only did those basins benefit from new soil, but so did the land immediately to the southeast of them.

The cataclysmic flooding of Glacial Lake Missoula radically reshaped the land of Eastern Washington.

SOURCES

Once the water drained, prevailing winds of the region reworked this sediment into dunes of loess, blanketing the region southeast of the basin, known now as the Palouse, with meter upon meter of the rich topsoil. The steep hillsides of those dunes always meant harvest was a problem, until farmers developed tilting-head hillside combines.

If you’re familiar with wheat growing, you know that silty loess is an ideal soil for growing wheat. It provides soil aeration and water retention, and it allows for deep roots and easy cultivation. So it shouldn’t surprise you that Whitman County (home of the Palouse) produces more wheat than any other county in the United States.

In some fields in the northern Columbia Basin, farmers have to plant and plow around giant erratics – boulders of granite or basalt that were transported by advancing

Sweeney,

“Washington's Ice Age Floods.” Washington Department of Natural Resources, https://wadnr.maps. arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=84ea4016ce124bd9a546c5cbc58f9e29.

Ogborn, Callie. “Prehistoric Puzzles Exhibit.” https://www.callieogborn.com/wayside-exhibits.

glacial lobes or rafted on glacial ice during the flooding. Despite the desert climate, the presence of irrigation water from the Columbia River means the land now yields fruit trees, vegetable fields, grains and grasses.

And in the Channeled Scablands, where most of the topsoil was carried away, growing a crop is notoriously difficult. But farmers measure every drop of moisture and fertilizer in order to somehow coax a crop out of the stubborn ground. Wheat and barley fields produce a crop year in and year out.

The Ice Age Floods formed the Pacific Northwest as we know it. Even now, driving throughout Eastern Washington, you can still see their effects. You can probably also see that if farmers weren’t so good at growing their crops, nothing would grow there at all.

Even though most of the topsoil was swept away, farmers still find ways to grow crops in the desert.

Bretz, J Harlan. Washington's Channeled Scabland. https://file.dnr.wa.gov/publications/ger_b45_ wa_channeled_scabland.pdf.

Mark. “Eureka Flat How Glacial Outburst Floods Started the Dust Engine of the Pacific Northwest.” SERC, 27 Apr. 2023, https://serc.carleton.edu/index.html.

desert to the water bringing

The Columbia Basin Project is a modern miracle. But some farmers have waited decades to see the water turned on.

WHEN THE COLUMBIA BASIN PROJECT was first envisioned more than 100 years ago, it seemed like a fevered dream of industrial America. Damming the mighty Columbia River to generate electricity for the region was one thing, and surely that would be a monumental enough task. But to then divert a small portion of that precious water into a series of canals to irrigate more than a million acres, creating an oasis of agricultural production in the arid semidesert of central Washington? To many, that seemed impossible.

When the first phase of the Columbia Basin Project, Grand Coulee Dam, was completed in 1942, it was hailed as a marvel of modern engineering; one of the largest structures ever built by mankind, containing enough concrete to build a highway from Seattle to Miami.

In the second phase of the project, engineers set out to do the impossible. They engineered a network of canals, reservoirs and ditches to transport water from behind Grand Coulee Dam to irrigate more than a million acres of the Columbia Basin – a land of fertile soil and mild climate, but scant rainfall. Begun in 1946, the project was “an accomplishment larger in size, more complicated in engineering, and more costly than Grand Coulee Dam, the project’s key feature” (Paul Pitzer, “Grand Coulee: Harnessing a Dream”, WSU Press, 1994).

The project was so massive that the government split it into two parts, completing the first half by supplying irrigation water to more than 600,000 acres in Central Washington. Still, more than 300,000 acres remained dry. Farmers were guaranteed the water, so they waited.

And waited.

And waited.

In terms of scope and scale, Grand Coulee Dam (left) is one of the most impressive structures ever built by mankind. Large pipes located on the southeastern side of the dam (below) pull water out of the reservoir and carry it a mile and a half to Banks Lake to irrigate the Basin.

In the region referred to as the Odessa Subarea, the promised canals were never completed, and the water never came. Most farmers applied for special permits to dig deep wells into the Odessa Aquifer, drawing up groundwater from as much as 2,000 feet below the surface. Water from that deep can be laden with salts and minerals, which can create a crust over the soil surface, actually inhibiting the growth of crops. It wasn’t ideal, but the farmers had no other option.

That is, until the spring of 2021, when the EL 47.5 Pump Station officially turned on and began pumping surface water from the East Low Canal nearly nine miles into the Odessa Subarea, providing water to more than 10,000 acres. The EL 47.5 is just the first of eight irrigation systems planned to expand the reach of the Columbia Basin Project and bring the precious surface water to the Odessa Subarea.

“(EL 47.5) is a positive pressure pump plant, which means we're pushing water uphill,” said Caleb Vance, a ditch rider for the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District (ECBID). “Currently, we're moving about 80 cubic feet of water per second, 220 feet up a hill and delivering it to farmers on demand. It can deliver the exact amount of water they need with no waste.”

For many farmers, seeing the water turned on for the first time was an emotional experience, the long-awaited payoff of a decades-old promise. It also couldn’t have come at a better time, as individuals and communities try to reduce the strain on the rapidly depleting groundwater supply of the Odessa Aquifer. ECBID estimates that the EL 47.5 delivery system reduces groundwater depletion by up to 73 million gallons per day.

“We need irrigation to make these high-value crops happen,” said Dennis Swinger Jr., a potato farmer in the Odessa Subarea. “We're finally receiving water that my great-grandfather signed up for in the twenties. You're farming for the future, and it's neat to see that happen and be a part of it.”

Bringing water to the Odessa Subarea involved widening the East Low Canal, building more than a mile of large underground siphon pipes, and pumping water more than 200 feet uphill.

Watch the show online or on your local station

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Fridays at 6:00 pm nwpb.org/tv-schedules/

KTNW (Richland)

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Saturdays at 1:00 pm nwpb.org/tv-schedules

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Saturdays at 6:30 am and 3:00 pm kbtc.org/tv-schedule/

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Saturdays at 5:00 pm kimatv.com/station/schedule / keprtv.com/station/schedule klewtv.com/station/schedule

KIRO (Seattle)

Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Mondays at 2:30 pm or livestream Saturdays at 2:30 pm on kiro7.com kiro7.com

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*Times/schedules subject to change based upon network schedule. Check station programming to confirm air times.

ODDFELLOWS CAFÉ + BAR

Pommes

This is a recipe for which just a few ingredients –potatoes with butter and a bit of seasoning – come together to make something quite exquisite. At Oddfellows Café, the potatoes are weighed down with rice to ensure compact layers that cook evenly. You can use pie weights or another skillet set on top as a weight.

Ingredients

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

4 medium Yukon Gold potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds)

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves

About 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup crème fraîche

1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives, plus more for serving

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest

Chopped parsley, for serving

Pommes Anna

Complexity: Medium • Time: 1 hour • Serves: 6-8

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Cut a piece of foil a few inches larger than the skillet and brush the center with some of the melted butter. The foil will be used to cover the potatoes while baking.

Peel the potatoes and thinly slice them using a knife or mandoline.

Brush the bottom of a medium, ovenproof, nonstick skillet generously with some of the melted butter and sprinkle with a bit of the salt. Using about one third of the potato slices, form a layer in the cold pan, starting in the center and overlapping the slices (note that this will be the top when turned out to serve, so it’s good to be extra tidy with this layer). After one layer is formed, brush the potatoes generously with butter and sprinkle with a bit of the salt and half of the thyme. Add another layer using half of the remaining potatoes, then brush the potatoes with butter and top with some of the salt and the remaining thyme. Use the remaining potatoes to form the final layer, then brush with the remaining melted butter and sprinkle with a bit of salt.

Set the pan over medium heat and cook until the bottom layer of potatoes is lightly browned and crispy, 7 to

10 minutes, using a heatproof rubber spatula to carefully lift up an edge to peek at the progress. Take the skillet from the heat and cover with the foil, buttered-side down, pressed directly onto the potatoes. Top the foil with pie weights or another ovenproof skillet to weigh down the potatoes. Bake until the potatoes are tender, 15 to 20 minutes; to check, remove the skillet from the oven, lift the foil a bit, and test the potatoes with the tip of a small knife, baking a bit longer if needed. When the potatoes are tender, remove the weight and foil and continue baking until the top has lightly browned, about 15 minutes longer. (You can turn on the broiler for the last minute or two to help with browning.)

While the potatoes are baking, stir together the crème fraîche, chives and lemon zest in a small bowl.

When the potatoes are cooked, set a serving plate upside down on top of the skillet and, holding the two together carefully with hot pads, turn them over together, then lift off the skillet. Cut the potatoes into wedges, arrange on individual plates, spoon crème fraîche over, and sprinkle with chives and parsley. Serve right away.

ODDFELLOWS

“We walked in, wondering what the story was behind this place, because it feels like it has one.” Nestled in the heart of Capitol Hill in Seattle, Oddfellows is a historic and beautiful restaurant that holds a special place in the hearts of the neighborhood. With a comfortable yet vibrant environment and eye-catching culinary delights, there are so many reasons to love this special place.

As soon as you enter, it feels like you’ve stepped into a time capsule. The decor is vintage, and the building itself is old, giving it a lot of character. But it’s not just the ambiance that makes Oddfellows special; it’s the locally sourced cuisine and the energetic yet comfortable atmosphere that make it stand out from the rest.

cozy and full of character"

Whether you’re here for a special occasion or just brunch with a friend, it's easy to be enchanted by the delicious and eye-catching food coming hot from the kitchen. The menu is full of fresh ingredients, and everything is made with love. Oddfellows is also passionate about using local produce, and the culinary team makes the most of the variety of produce that Washington state has to offer. From stone fruits to potatoes to salmon, Washington Grown products are all over the menu.

“The food is just really fresh,” said one customer. “It's clearly made with love. My friend and I are just splitting everything so that we can try more!”

Though the restaurant has recently changed ownership, it remains a charming “living room” for the Pike/ Pine Corridor, where you can sit down, have a cup of coffee, and relax. New owners Joey Burgess and Murf Hall own a handful of other businesses in Capitol Hill, making them the perfect choice to take over at Oddfellows.

“When I think of Seattle, I feel like it's one of these iconic locations that you just have to bring people that you're visiting with,” said one guest.

Oddfellows is cozy, warming and full of character, making it the perfect place to start your morning or spend time with friends. The food is fantastic, and the atmosphere is one-of-a-kind, making it a must-visit for anyone in the area.

Grand Coulee Dam is the most powerful dam in the United States. No other dam has a higher capacity to produce megawatts of power.

Grand Coulee

Dam Canal Gallon

Flood Desert Glacier Acre Potato

DID YOU KNOW?

Grand Coulee Dam’s average annual output is about 2,300 megawatts: enough power to continuously supply two cities the size of Seattle.

ENTER TO WIN!

Visit our website and sign up to be entered into a drawing for a $25 gift certificate to Oddfellows Café in Seattle!

*Limit one entry per household

California’s Lake Oroville Dam can produce 819 megawatts. Hoover Dam can produce up to 2,080 megawatts.

Than Potatoes

WASHINGTON AGRICULTURE is only as successful as its dedicated farmers and their families who strive to improve their practices, feed the community, and raise the next generation of agriculturalists. Farmers like Jordan and Mia Reed of JM Farms in Pasco, Wash., are great examples of such farmers. Jordan, a second-generation farmer, admits that he was born to farm and would tag along with his dad to the field as often as he could as a kid. He says, “It didn’t matter what, I was going. He wasn’t leaving me behind.”

“I love the dirt,” Jordan shares. He and his wife are sharing that passion for potatoes with their children. The Reeds are raising three young farmers who will eventually make their own contributions to the farm. Reed’s son says, “I like working with my dad.” When asked what the kids don’t like about living on the farm, their only answer was, “There’s nothing I don’t like about it!” The family’s love of the land runs deep and will continue to fuel their work to grow the perfect potato.

JM Farms produces potatoes for direct delivery to processors in the Tri-Cities area, which are then made into hash browns, French fries and other potato delights. JM Farms' potatoes are high quality and fresh, never stored for long periods of time before being processed. This means it’s imperative that the Reeds keep their fields free of pests and diseases to meet the demand of the local processing facilities. Processors put in orders for a certain number of semitruck loads the day before, expecting them to be delivered to the plant by the next day. Those potatoes are turned into fries and hash browns within 12 hours of being delivered. Shortly after that, consumers like you are enjoying those potato products at a local diner or fast food restaurant.

“I love to be able to raise a crop that I can walk into a restaurant and say, ‘Hey, there’s a good chance we raised that,’” says Jordan. It’s this connection to the land, the crop and the final product that makes farming families so special. The Reeds are sharing important knowledge with their kids, and it’s trickling down to the next generation of consumers, too. One of the Reeds' daughters jokes that her friends even recognize

Growing Jordan and Mia Reed are teaching their kids about spuds – and about life – on the family farm. More

the connection between her family and the delicious fries they enjoy at McDonald's.

Washington is known for producing some of the best potatoes you can find. The state's infrastructure, natural resources and topography have created a perfect environment to produce the perfect potato. However, it takes a farmer who is willing to do the work to facilitate that process. JM Farms is one of many family farms in Washington that are raising the next generation of agriculturalists, instilling a passion and respect for the land and building a deep connection to the food they produce and eat. Washington's agriculture wouldn’t be what it is without families like the Reeds.

Their love for the dirt runs deep. It's not just about growing potatoes for the Reeds; it's about the connection they have with the land, the crop and the final product. They are passing on that passion to the next generation of farmers. Their dedication and hard work ensure that the potatoes on our plates are of the highest qual-

ity and freshness. JM Farms is a prime example of the many family farms in Washington that are keeping the tradition of family farming alive and well, ensuring that the future of agriculture is bright.

Host Kristi Gorenson and the Washington Grown crew visited the Reed family in Season 10. Their farm outside Pasco is one of many that relies on irrigation from the Columbia Basin Project.

how a system works canal irrigation

In 1948, the first waters from the Columbia Basin Project reached farms in the Pasco area. Since then, more than 670,000 acres of farmland have been relying on hundreds of miles of canals that deliver the water. But how does it all work? Host Tomás Guzmán (below) and the Washington Grown crew visited Grand Coulee Dam to learn from the Bureau of Reclamation and local farmers how things work.

How does the water get from Lake Roosevelt to the Central Washington farmlands?

A pump generation plant near the Grand Coulee Dam drafts water out of Lake Roosevelt and pumps it 280 feet uphill through a feeder canal into the Banks Lake Reservoir. From there, roughly 330 miles of major distribution canals and 1,900 miles of lateral and smaller canals serve more than 10,000 farms in the region.

Once the water gets close to the farms through the canals, how does it get to the farmer’s fields?

Hundreds of pump stations are placed throughout the area that help

move the water from the canals into underground pipes. Those pipes then carry the water to a central location for the farm. At that junction, another pump and set of pipes feed water into the farmer’s irrigation system. Many farmers in the Columbia Basin use center pivot irrigation systems, often referred to as “circles.” When flying in an airplane from Seattle to Spokane, on a clear day, you can see the circles within the farmland. The irrigation sprinklers are all set on a center pivot system that makes a circle when watering the crop.

Does the water from the system only get used once?

No, a lot of the water from this system gets used again before eventually returning to the Columbia River. Runoff is collected at the Potholes Reservoir, and it re-enters the system. Drain water or waste water also re-enters the system. According to the Bureau of Reclamation, “Irrigators use about 2.5 million acre-feet of Columbia River water each year. Re-using water gives irrigators an additional one million acre-feet” (https://www. usbr.gov/pn/grandcoulee/cbp/index. html).

The Washington Grown project is made possible by the Washington State Department of Agriculture and the USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant program, through a partnership with the state’s farmers.