Snohomish County Business Journal


YOUR COUNTY.	YOUR BUSINESS JOURNAL.

Published August 2003

Fosters growing
a roadside attraction

Snohomish County Business Journal/JOHN WOLCOTT
Brian and Connie Foster are writing a new chapter in Snohomish County’s agricultural history, transforming an Arlington family dairy farm into a roadside attraction with flowers, fruit, vegetables, antiques, ice cream, espresso, a corn maze, pumpkin patch and a petting zoo.

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

Creativity is the key to survival for agricultural businesses in Snohomish County.

That’s how Brian and Connie Foster have survived at Foster’s Produce in Arlington — by seeding, growing and harvesting marketable ideas for the past five years.

Today, their roadside array of produce, espresso, ice cream cones and shakes, antiques, nursery plants and a fall corn maze draw Highway 530 motorists into their parking lot like magnets. Tourists traveling to Darrington, the North Cascades and Winthrop stop in regularly, along with local food-shopping residents, vanloads of seniors and families with children.

The Fosters are still working hard, still being innovative and still not where they want the business to level off — but they’re a long way from where they started after the family’s dairy business faded into history several years ago.

“We started out in 1998 just selling sweet corn as a help-yourself-and-leave-the-money-in-the-can business,” said Brian. “Then we decided to do our corn maze in ’99; then we sold produce out of a tent for a couple years; and then opened the barn and filled it with antiques from a fellow who travels to Germany regularly. You need a lot of things to draw people.”

For the Fosters, “a lot of things” has meant adding a petting zoo, which they’ll open later this month, with goats, chickens, a rabbit, a pot-bellied pig and sheep. In September, they’ll be demonstrating the manufacture of apple cider with a late-1800s cider press and opening a “Wild West” corn maze. In October, there’ll be the annual fall “pumpkin patch,” a Kid’s Pumpkin Puppet Theater from noon to 4 p.m. on weekends and the second month of their corn maze.

Normally open for regular business only from March to October, this year the Fosters plan to open the gift barn from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends in December for the holiday season, offering espresso, gift items and jars of gourmet foods.

“Business is growing,” he said. “We put signs on the road, promote our Web site and try to think of new things to attract people. Tourism is very important to us. We get people here from all over the world who are visiting the Northwest.”

Connie focuses on marketing the business, as well as operating it, but the whole family is involved, Brian Foster said.

Keeping the farm running means taking advantage of every season, he said, which means cutting tulips and daffodils for a colorful opening in March, offering potted plants and a U-pick flower garden, and showing off some baby farm animals.

Hanging fuchsia baskets and other nursery plants are ready for April and May. Then National Dairy Month arrives in June, so the Fosters show a dairy video and promote Country Charm Dairy ice cream, produced in Arlington. The summer and fall months focus on the corn maze, pumpkins and art-and-craft events.

Favorite items at Fosters include their pickled asparagus, root beer wheels, Oregon Honey Mustard Dressing, trail mix and jars of jams and jellies.

The farm grows sweet corn, yellow and acorn squash, pickling cucumbers and zucchini, and also carries many other fresh fruits and vegetables, plus a large assortment of nursery plants and specialty food items such as Kettle Corn, honey and pickled veggies. Many items will soon be sold online through the Fosters’ Web site.

Brian’s family represents the fourth generation of Fosters to do business on the farmland that his grandfather, Gilbert Foster, bought in 1952. His father, Laurin, ran a dairy farm there until 2000, when depressed milk prices and rising costs forced the sale of his herd to an Oregon dairy, a familiar demise experienced by scores of Snohomish County dairies in recent years.

“Agriculture in Snohomish County is changing, big time,” Brian Foster said. “I don’t really know what making a living in agriculture means these days. Big farms and processing plants are taking over for the small family farms. In the global economy, third-world countries find agriculture is the easiest way to get into world markets, and that means even more competition for small farmers.

“Unless you can sell fresh produce direct to the consumer, it’s pretty hard. That’s what we’re trying to do. It’s amazing how much even one good farm can produce.”

Brian and Connie, both Arlington High School graduates, operate the business with their son, Dan, their daughter, Devin, and her husband, Takuya Tokizawa, who designed this year’s Wild West corn maze pattern. A talented glassblower, he’s also marketing his own creations at this month’s Art on the Farm event, featuring a variety of arts-and-crafts booths Aug. 2 and 3 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

For more information, visit the Fosters’ Web site at www. fosterscornmaze.com, call 360-435-5095 or stop by the Arlington farm on Highway 530, three miles east of the Island Crossing interchange at I-5, Exit 208.

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