Now in their 9th season , both Dave and Kara agree the champion of the show has been the Washington State Potato Growers . Taking on such a large project , Kara — who at the time the show was being created , was working as a communications director for Washington Wheat Growers — reached out to other agriculture groups . Thankfully , her counterpart Ryan Holterhoff , as well as Executive Director Chris Voigt , at the Washington State Potato Commission , decided to partner with her and support “ Washington Grown .”
Tanner and Rowe are also thankful for the support of the Wine Commission , Raspberry Growers , the Restaurant Commission , the Washington State department of Agriculture and many more . According to Kara , “ This all for one and one for all approach worked well .”
“ When trying to get your messages out , the big hurdle is how . How do we as agriculture groups tell our story without boring everyone to death ? That ’ s the poison pill — trying to create content that people actually want to watch and agriculture , while it ’ s the lifeblood of our state , is not Starbucks . It ’ s not flashy like Boeing , or Microsoft , or Amazon . It ’ s farming and farmers . Farmers make up less than one percent of the population of the U . S . so it ’ s a very untold story and misunderstood industry .”
“ People have this idea that farmers are all like the stereotypical old guy with a piece of straw in his mouth , a hat , and overalls . That ’ s not our farmers . We live in a state that is technologically advanced and so are our farmers . They are using technology to reduce their footprint every day . There ’ s a lot of cool innovation happening on our farms .”
It is this innovation the show highlights , along with the farm-to-table stories , that has won them two Emmys . I was curious though ; if less than one percent of the population is farmers , how do they come up with so much content ? The answer was simple .
“ Every spring we have a giant meeting with the agriculture groups and ask them for stories .” Dave supplied . “ We come out of that with tons of ideas , but I ’ ve always felt like we could make this show for 50 years because of how many restaurants and
farmers there are here . Plus , everybody ’ s story is unique and even though they are all growing and making food , they are all passionate in their own way .”
Kara added , “ And what ’ s wonderful is because of the concept that ‘ we are all in this together as farmers ’ we ’ ve been able to cover everything : big farms , small farms , organic farms , conventional farms , basement farms , dessert farms , etc . We ’ ve been all over the state and there are still farms and topics we haven ’ t covered . And the restaurants ! We are so lucky here to have the land , the farms , and some of the best chefs in the nation between Seattle and Spokane , and some of those hidden gems out in the rural areas too . We could do this for a long time .”
Considering they ’ ve been at it for eight seasons , I asked what to expect from season nine . Kara obliged with , “ I would say season nine has a lot of great stories about what farmers are doing to protect the earth , soil , air , and water . For example , the Columbia Pulp Mill is an innovative mill down by Dayton and they are turning wheat straw into paper . It ’ s amazing ! I just got goosebumps because this is the stuff excites me . We ( agriculture collectively ) had a researcher out of the University of Washington who was kind of on this track to use something other
We are so lucky here to have the land , the farms , and some of the best chefs in the nation between Seattle and Spokane ”
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