Harvest Heritage
Agricultural Origins and Heirloom Crops of the Pacific Northwest
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Using imported heirloom grains and fruits, Spanish explorers, fur traders, missionaries, and some Native Americans planted subsistence gardens in the Pacific Northwest. After immigration surged in 1843, it took a surprisingly short time for the region’s fertile lands to become a commercial agricultural powerhouse.
Demand for food exploded with the industrial revolution as well as the urbanization of Europe and eastern America, and the doors of international export opened wide. Agribusiness expanded to meet the need.
By 1890, advancements in mechanization, seed quality, irrigation, and sustainable practices had spurred a farming boom. Columbia Basin irrigation and the development of synthetic fertilizers, as well as Cooperative Extension efforts and impressive work by agricultural researchers greatly boosted regional production. Harvest Heritage explores the people, history, and major influences that shaped and transformed the Pacific Northwest’s flourishing agrarian economy.
Richard D Scheuerman
Retired Seattle Pacific University Associate Professor Dr. Richard D. Scheuerman grew up on a small Palouse Country farm between Endicott and St. John, Washington. He holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from Gonzaga University, an M.A. in History from Pacific Lutheran University, and a B.A. in History and Education from Washington State University. The co-author of more than ten books on Pacific Northwest history, he has received the Washington State Historical Society's Robert Gray Medal, the Washington Governor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, a Schneidmiller Foundation grant, and the University of California-Riverside Rupert Costo Medallion for Research in Native American History.
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Alexander C. McGregor
Alexander C. McGregor is president and chief executive officer of the McGregor Company, a fertilizer and farm supply firm. A businessman, educator, and writer, he has served on boards at Whitman College and Washington State University and has been active in the Washington Association of Wheat Growers. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington. His dissertation, Counting Sheep, chronicles four Scottish immigrants as they struggle to establish a ranching empire.
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