The Furrow

Milpa Garden

It was 1919 when the term “Victory Garden” first appeared on the American scene, a term intended to inspire U.S. citizens to turn every spare remnant of land into a source of food to help win the Great War. The Victory Garden came back during World War II and hit its peak of popularity when an estimated 20 million plots of land were tended.

Fast-forward a century, and there is a New Victory Garden finding its place on the U.S. landscape, helping provide food security in an era where a much more elusive enemy—COVID-19—is making its march around the globe.

The Little Ag Company That Could

POP! Confetti fluttered to the floor on February 23, 2020, as Alyssa Lehmitz, brand manager, popped three balloons in front of gathered Palouse Brand staff.

The noisy fanfare was meant to celebrate the Palouse, Wa., grain distribution company’s three largest days ever of consumer sales on Amazon.

Instead, the pop served more as the report of a starting pistol, sending the crew off on a race the pace of a dash and the duration of a marathon shipping shelf-stable foods to pandemic panicked consumers.

A Whole Different Rodeo

Cantering down the slope of a mountain pasture, Firebird Farms’ yak herd is an intimidating—but oddly comical—sight. Imagine a mob of woolly 800-pound goats charging to nuzzle visitors with their massive heads and scimitar horns.

“Their personalities are really diverse and noticeable” says Sophia Weiss, who owns an 80-head breeding and meat operation on 230 acres above Ashland, Oregon, and sits on the board of the International Yak Association.

Weiss started her herd in 2014. “I had a desk job,” she says. “I couldn’t have an animal that required attention or protection.”