The following section of Whatcom County Remembered was written by one of our lovely clients Karol Weston in regards to their farm it’s history with the late Elizabeth Carey (Rich’s Mother) and her family…

Elizabeth Carey’s family started the farm adventure in the year 1916 for 2 years. Her family consisted of 6 brothers and 2 sisters and both parents. Elizabeth shared that she was the age of about 6 to 8 at the time, but had lovely memories of the farm. The family rented the farm from Mr. Robertson who at the time wished to sell and return to Russia. Her father was a Marine Draftsman and was short on funds and could not purchase the whole farm and instead just rented.

The farm has the same exciting house, garage and stone house as still stands today, long gone are the chicken coops and greenhouse which once stood there as well. The farm was surrounded with evergreens from the North, East and South. Everywhere you turned was trees. 32nd St was just a skid road for logging, which consisted of a path with gates that had to be opened and shut as you drove a horse and wagon down the road. The main route out of the farm was Douglas St, weaving around toward 24th St and into Fairhaven on a rough path.

Mr. Carey and his sons delivered produce daily on a route throughout the Southside of Bellingham. What they didn’t sell by the end of the day they would venture to downtown Bellingham to sell or to the Fair Market. The Holiday Meat & Grocery on 20th and Harris would also purchase their produce and sell it in their store.

On the farm they raised strawberries, raspberries, loganberries, parsnip, spinach and much more…. The stone house they used as a cooler for storage of their produce. The water supply to the farm for irrigating was supplied by the creek flowing above 32nd St from the upper Samish Hill area. The water would flow into a reservoir and then was gravity fed by a pipe to the garden area. The watering system ran along the top of the garden and would flow into the long overhead pipe sprinkling system which is still used today…. the pipes maybe still used today, but gone or some of the old problems which once disrupted it….

Elizabeth recalls on day in early October when her father noticed that the irrigation water flowing was brown and muddy. This was unusual so up to the reservoir he went. His first thoughts were that some kids where playing in the water, boy was he shocked when he realized that it was not kids, but instead two black bears frolicking in the reservoir. The walls where then built up higher to keep the bears out and the water clean.

After two years the family could no longer rent the farm. The farm was purchased in 1933 by Joe and Ann Bertero , carrying on the business of growing vegetables. The Stone houses, house and garage still stand today just as they did in Elizabeth’s time. New greenhouses have been replaced by new owners and the farm’s deep roots just keep growing. In Karol Weston took over the farm, then in 2007 the Weston Brothers. The Weston brother’s now share the pleasure of working the farm and growing for a better and healthier tomorrow.

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