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TI: So at that point, knowing that you're in your late sixties and Wayne also is kind of getting up there, in terms of the sale of the farm, you have options. And this is incredibly valuable farmland. The Yakima Valley is, for Washington state, one of the bread baskets in terms of agriculture. What were your options? Were there businesses or corporations that were interested?

LI: Well, some of the people that we were selling to wanted to, if we wanted to sell, they wanted to buy. Some of the California farmers were talking to us, some of the multinational guys were talking to us. But everybody that we were talking to kind of wanted us to hang around and run it for them. And I said, "Guys, I'm already your slave, I really don't want to be your slave forever." And in the meantime, we were giving away a million and a half pounds of off-grade produce to Northwest Harvest. And what started out a bin here, a bin there, but then pretty soon that was building up, and they were just taking off-grade off of the end of our sorting line. And then they would have all these volunteers, and then they would go different areas, Spokane, Kent and Yakima. And people from Microsoft would volunteer to sort these things out, and then they would distribute them. And so we became a pretty significant donor to Northwest Harvest. Then the COVID thing hit, and Tom Reynolds came to me and said, "You don't have any volunteers. We can't sort your off-grade produce, but we need food more than we ever did." And he said, "We need six different items in a fifteen to eighteen pound box. And we have no volunteers to do that, but we do have money to pay you. And since we have this relationship, we're coming to you guys first." And he said, "What can you guys handle?" I said, "How about if we started out with five hundred boxes a day, twenty-five hundred boxes a week, and we'll see how that goes." By the third week we were shipping two thousand boxes a day, ten thousand boxes a week, and I think we were one of the major suppliers for Northwest Harvest, and at the time, because of the relationship that we had with Northwest Harvest, they were actually shipping a lot of our waste produce that they were sorting out to other entities, too, and so they had this capacity. So instead of supplying, there was, I think Food Lifeline and Second Harvest were the three entities that were shipping food out. And so Northwest Harvest had the relationship with us, and so I think they were shipping produce throughout the state.

TI: So that's interesting. So it started off as, in some ways, you were just being very generous. I mean, it probably was extra work, but you wanted to make sure this food was used and so you donated it to Northwest Harvest, created this relationship. And in the midst of COVID, probably when it was probably a difficult business climate for you as well as others, it actually came back and was very beneficial.

LI: Yeah. And it was, and at the same time, we had just sold the parcel to the school, and it was a pretty good sale to the school district right prior to COVID, to the school district. And so we were thinking maybe this was a good time to kind of work our way out of the business. And I was at a meeting and the tribe gave a presentation on this ag development project. And they had 3,500 acres on the hill that they wanted to develop, and the government was going to help them develop this irrigation project. And they said, "We want to be more than just landlords, we want to teach our people how to feed themselves and learn to farm." And Brady Kent was the one who gave the presentation and he said, "The first thing we're looking for is a small packing house and cold storage facility." And so after the meeting, I was the chairman of the board that he was giving the presentation to. I didn't really say anything at the meeting, but I came to him after the meeting and said, "Hey, Brady, I got a small packing house and cold storage facility, and I'm sixty-five years old." I said, "Is that something you're looking for?" Boom. Then all of a sudden I had all these calls from these tribal leaders that, "Are you really wanting to sell?" blah, blah, blah. And I thought we would probably just liquidate the equipment and sell to my hop grower buddies because I'm surrounded by five different hop growing families in probably the best place to grow hops in the world. And I thought, well, that's what I do. But this thing came along and I thought, wow. And as I talked to the tribes, I learned that food sovereignty was a pretty important issue with all the tribes, and they wanted to learn. And I thought, wow, we have a pretty diversified operation, I think. We have a lot to offer. Plus, I said, we could make hundred tons of ice a day, and we could supply that ice to tribal fishermen. And so I thought, wow, that's one way to kind of counteract the decline in the fresh produce business because of the competition from Mexico. And I said, wow, that's a pretty good fit. So I've always looked for mutually beneficial relationships, and I thought, wow, this is a pretty good one. And if we could tie it with Northwest Harvest, I think it could be really a good one. And so we pursued it. It took three years, abut eventually we sold to the tribe.

TI: Yeah, this makes so much sense. I mean, spending the whole day with you and talking about your crop mix and then this idea of food sovereignty... you're right, food sovereignty isn't buying food from Mexico. I mean, it's really their land, farming it, and packing it and using it. And for the excess, working with things like Northwest Harvest to expand upon it. I mean, from their perspective, it's such an opportunity that they can do beyond just their tribe. So yeah, it was really helpful just spending all that time walking through or looking at all operations. Because the business side of me scratches the head a little bit and says, "Yeah, but you can make more money if you were more focused on fewer crops and more volume."

LI: Yeah, and you specialize in one or two crops, and it would be much easier to do. But because of the Northwest Harvest deal, because of the food sovereignty deal, it really worked to our advantage to have a diversified operation. And so, yeah, they were a really good fit. And because of that fit, I was willing to pursue that, because of the relationship with the tribes, the tribal community, I figured, it's a way to pay 'em back.

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