Green Bluff, Washington — Farms Turned Harvest Into an Event

Green Bluff's farms learned to sell something beyond fruit.

They sell the experience of picking it.

Orchards and small farms on high ground north of Spokane produce apples, cherries, berries, vegetables and other crops.

As metropolitan Spokane grew closer, farmers increasingly invited customers onto the property instead of sending everything through wholesale channels.

U-pick fruit, pumpkin patches, cider and seasonal festivals turned harvest into recreation.

That adaptation helped preserve agricultural land by making proximity to the city an advantage rather than merely development pressure.

Green Bluff did not survive because farming stayed the same.

It survived because farmers figured out that city people would happily pay to do part of the harvesting themselves.