Like most people, I don’t have to go far back in my ancestry before bumping into farmers and ranchers. Although careers in food production amount to a small fraction of what they once did, even today few jobs are more useful and honorable. Farmers are on my mind as we get well into the main harvest season.

Passing the WSU Extension station on Pioneer Road last Thursday, I paused to take in the spectacularly colorful cranberry harvest. Certainly our most charismatic agricultural crop, cranberries are one of Pacific County’s defining products. We’ll have a story this week about cranberry prices and crop size. After some years in doldrums, things are looking more positive.

To nobody’s amazement, trees are by far our county’s largest “crop.” Roughly three-quarters of our land area is devoted to growing forest products. This is a legacy of ideal tree-growing conditions and early land deals that resulted in Weyerhaeuser and a handful of other firms owning much of the county. Although Weyco, as it is commonly abbreviated, has a bigger presence in Raymond than elsewhere in the county, the ongoing labor strike against it continues to be big news. We’ll have an update this week.

Now that we’re well back into months with an “R” in their names, oyster production is also ramping up. (Although it’s no longer strictly necessary, oyster eaters were once advised to avoid them in the warmer months of May, June, July and August, which lack “R”s.) Oysters and other shellfish including Dungeness crab, razor clams and various hard-shell clams are central to our economy and culture. It was disappointing to have an initial set of morning razor clam digs canceled out of an excess of caution. More marine toxin testing early this week will show whether concerns were on point or misplaced. We’ll have news online immediately at chinookobserver.com.

I’m the first to admit it’s ridiculous, but for me this “season of gathering” and the winter to come tend to revolve around my various collections of old stuff. This oyster season marks the centennial of one of my favorite Pacific Northwest marketing campaigns — the 1922 initiative to promote our native Olympia oysters. (They are affectionately called Shoalies here, after Shoalwater/Willapa Bay.) A centerpiece in that campaign, a 1922 store display, is pictured. Olympias are the escargot of oysters; I encourage you to seek them out.

We live in a beautiful and bounteous place. Get out and revel in it during these truly spectacular autumn days on the Pacific County coast.

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