Its a trip driving through buttfuck Central/Eastern WA and passing a grain terminal on the Snake River and thinking 'this site in the middle of nowhere is directly connected into the global economy by water'

I grew up on a family farm in eastern Washington. It can be pretty bleak in the winter but I still miss it sometimes. Industrialized farming pretty much drove farms like ours out of business although a few still hold on. But I think it’s important to acknowledge that while there are environmental costs to this kind of agricultural production, advances in agriculture are pretty much what make the current world population possible, though I hope we can work towards more sustainable solutions.

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Yeah, aside from that I wish all the desert further west wasn't 75 percent destroyed to make for farming. Wouldn't even been possible without mass irragation projects.

An incredible l project to read about especially since it was done in the 30s-60s but honestly farms killed the scenery in many places. Not to mention who knows how many species went extinct, how many people displaced, etc. Nothing wrong with farming but they never needed to destroy so much of the natural land for it.

https://www.ilbistro.net

go here. great foods. civilized dining. atmosphere. romance.

possibly a cat in the back of the house, keep the mousies at bay.

That's where the farmers bury the bodies.

Victors coffee in Redmond is one of our favorites.

The Ethiopian smells and tastes like blueberries. It’s amazingly fruity.

We go for their bread pudding and usually pick up a couple of pounds of beans while there.

It takes on a lovely shade of green in May.

What? You don't like pizza?

I’ve had that pleasure. You truly feel its vastness when you’re winded and it hasn’t even looked like you’ve gone anywhere.

>Mainly I was pointing out that local agriculture doesn't mean local food. Washington wheat doesn't turn into bread eaten by Washingtonians.

Being an exporter is generally a good thing. If we want to talk about the evils of globalization, that's a slightly different conversation.

That's not very fun...

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Native prairies were actually grazed by large herbivores before European settlement (bison) so it actually is possible to have harmony with cattle grazing and native prairies. Albeit, good management practices are imperative to maintain a healthy ecosystem.

Steptoe Butte most likely

St Helens was definitely there, but it of frame 😕. Couldn't contort myself enough given the window to get it clearly. It was an incredible climb out - probably best I've had the fortune to experience!

Strong drill team vibes.

>having grown up in Eastern Washington,

me too. I LOVE driving Eastern WA/OR as part of my job.

Yep, definitely.

Go to Umbria, Victrola, Fulcrum, or Starbucks Reserve. Ask the staff for a recommendation based on the tasting notes you called out, or just browse their selection and find something similar.

True. The concept of ecological restoration is also a moving target. It neither makes sense nor is possible to restore it to how it was before because many of those species of flora and fauna do not exist natively in the region any more, or could survive and contribute productively to the biodiversity of the target ecosystem. You just kind of make a plan, shoot for it, and adjust as it evolves. The Magpie Forest is neat and very accessible but there are certainly a lot of non-native species there now, which is fine. The other ones you mention: Rose Creek Preserve, and the privately accessible one south of town are better examples of what they would aim towards out at Steptoe. I worked at the one south of town and there's nothing immediately spectacular about it that would grab the attention of people who aren't patient, or don't appreciate such things—it's very much a prairie-density sort of land, no water like at Rose, and more of an island within the surrounding agriculture, but every now and then things get very quiet and you look around and you start seeing different species of birds and hawks soaring in the skies above, or you notice the giant but gentle bumble bees all around you in large numbers. Things that are just sort of unobtrusively co-existing, contributing and dependent on that environment.

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I wanna run here