<Begin Segment 11>

FK: So when you decided to quit farming, what did you end up doing?

NK: See, I think I got a job. I went to school for a couple years and got a job as a programmer. And eventually I went to Seattle to work for an outfit, Fisher Flour Mills, I think it was. Oh, no, King County. I started at Fisher Flour Mills and transferred, then got a job at King County.

FK: Did you miss farming?

NK: No. [Laughs]

FK: What was the last year you guys farmed?

NK: I have no idea now. I can't remember.

FK: Did you and Art sit down and decide you're going to stop, or what made you decide you're going to stop farming?

NK: Just wasn't worth it, I guess. Yeah, we were getting up in age. It wasn't worth the effort.

FK: My mother used to say farming was a real gamble. Was that kind of the feeling you guys had as far as prices and stuff?

NK: Yeah, it's a gamble, because depending on the weather and depending on the pickers, because I don't know how much strawberry farming there is on the island anymore. Yeah, it was a living, though, I guess.

FK: Well, did you have... was yours one of the largest farms, then, in the state or in the...

NK: On the island it was.

FK: Yeah. How many acres did you have?

NK: I don't know. I think we harvested fifty, sixty acres. Seventy, maybe eighty.

FK: Yeah? Seventy, eighty?

NK: Yeah, I forget now.

FK: Did you start out with Marshall berries?

NK: I think we still had some Marshall's, but Northwest, I think was what we eventually shifted to because it held up better. Then we had some Olympic berries, which are kind of related to loganberries. They were called Olympic berries. And some raspberries.

FK: So is Meadowmeer Golf Course then pretty much on what was your farm?

NK: Yeah, most of Meadowmeer.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.