Calvin Bratt
Tribune editor

Cloud Mountain Farm co-owner Tom Thornton helps a family sample apple varieties at the Fruit Festival held Saturday and Sunday.

EVERSON – A little bit of apple sampling leads to a lot of history.

Tim Newcomb
Tribune assistant editor

DeWilde's Wholesale Nursery has roughly 300 acres of field-grown trees and shrubs just outside of Lynden, the biggest field-grown nursery in the state.

LYNDEN -- DeWilde’s Wholesale Nursery started as a logical step for owner Emil DeWilde in 1963 and has turned into the largest field-grown nursery in Washington.

Dave Natzke
to the Tribune

Lee Mielke works in a new studio area created a few months ago in the building at 1843 Front St. From here he sends his articles and commentary to affiliated publications and radio stations

You may not recognize his face, but you probably know his voice. Lee Mielke, who launched DairyLine Radio on Labor Day in 1988, is starting his third decade of bringing dairy news to the nation.

Caleb Breakey
Tribune sports reporter

Richard Buford looks on as his employee Samantha Christian puts a label on one of the many
specialty products made at Aldrich Farms on Aldrich Road.

BELLINGHAM — Richard Buford stands over a large vessel, hands clutching a bottle of champagne. Smooth liquid pours out in a steady flow, sinking into a mass of textured yellow in the pot below.

Calvin Bratt
Tribune editor

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi spoke to a gathering of farmers at the Dick Bedlington potato barn north of Lynden on Monday morning. Above, Rossi chats beforehand with farmers Lyle Rader, Marty Maberry and Rod DeJong.

LYNDEN -- Dino Rossi, candidate for governor, heard concerns specific to Whatcom County agriculture at a Monday morning stop at potato grower Dick Bedlington's barn north of Lynden.

Mark Reimers
Tribune reporter

Growing apples has become Richard Fraunfelder's retirement activity.

FERNDALE -- Richard and Nancy Fraunfelder had planned on finding property and building a log cabin after Richard retired from being a commercial pilot. But when they saw the 10-acre piece of land on Barr Road, they couldn’t resist.

Tim Newcomb
Tribune assistant editor

Cherie Cummings, owner of Pleasant Dreams Farm near Nooksack, tends to one of her 42 U-pick flower beds. This is the first year of the flower and vegetable farm.

NOOKSACK -- It is all about making a dream come true.

Calvin Bratt
Tribune editor

  WHATCOM -- Keeping enough farmland in Whatcom County is still the goal. How to do it is the question.
  A rural lands study in 2007 broadly identified about 22,000 acres of good agricultural land in the county lacking the strongest level of zoning protection. But just a blanket approach didn't make political sense.
  So a diverse committee has been at work looking for a more precise set of recommendations, and a survey has been conducted, with the Lynden-based Whatcom Farm Friends organization right in the thick of it.