Direct marketing saved Tonnemaker Hill Farm

FRENCHMAN HILLS - Kole Tonnemaker looks around his Tonnemaker Hill Farm and is grateful for its success. And he is mindful of what could have been.

"All of the farmers who were here when our grandparents started are gone now," he said. "Grandma and grandpa wanted this farm to be their legacy, and it still is."

Tonnemaker Hill could have suffered the same fate as other farms of the early 1960s. There were some tough years.

But there was a major change in the mid-1980s that kept Tonnemaker Hill going. The family decided to market its own production.

Tonnemaker Hill Farm is a 49-year tale. It started with Orland Tonnemaker, who worked as an agricultural extension agent in central Washington.

While helping lay out farm units in the new Columbia Basin Irrigation Project, Orland spotted a piece of ground on Frenchman Hill's north slope he thought would be ideal for fruit and bought it.

The experts of Orland's time thought he was somewhat crazy. The north slope was too cold and had too short a growing season for fruit.

Another nay-sayer - for a different reason - was Orland's wife Pearl. Except for desert flora, the entire area was barren. Except for cattle at the bottom of the hill, there were no neighbors.

"She thought it was the end of the world," remembers grandson Kole, owner of the farm today. "She wasn't happy at all. But when grandpa died, she would not be moved from here. She died in 2004 at the age of 100."

Kole recalls that all there was when the grandparents arrived was the main irrigation canal. There was not a single ditch nor a pipe that led to the Tonnemaker ground.

"It had nothing," said Kole, who was 3 that year. "The neighboring ground was all vacant for several years after grandma and grandpa moved here."

The Tonnemakers put in the first trees in 1967. There were four acres of sweet cherries, six of pears and four of apples. Son Gene and his sons Kole, who was 8, and Kurt, 5, came over from western Washington to help.

"We've been out here since when I was learning to walk," Kurt recalled.

Those trees are still standing and still producing. And the more than 20 miles of north slope on Frenchman Hill is now a majority of fruit trees.

The Tonnemakers planted row crops and alfalfa to produce some kind of income while the orchard matured. It finally started to flourish in the late 1970s.

But Orland didn't get to enjoy much of the payoff. He died in 1981 at the age of 82.

Kole, who had recently graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in plant science and was a full-time employee of the farm for two weeks, was handed the operational reins. Pearl retained ownership.

That worked out fine for Kurt, who was still in college and considering another way of life. While he went on to a hospitality career, Kole moved the farm forward.

But Kole and Kurt, best friends to this day, maintained contact. Kole kept Kurt abreast of changes he was instituting, including direct marketing and organic farming.

The first direct marketing effort came in 1985. When it became evident most super markets did not like buying directly, Kole turned to participation at farmers markets.

In the late 1980s, Kurt was tiring of the hospitality industry. He started to consider Kole's suggestion that they partner in a marketing arm with Kurt, operating it as his own business.

"Farmers can become their own middle men. That is exactly what Kurt decided to do in the early spring of 1992," Kole said.

Sadly, Kurt could not have picked a worse time. April 7 of that year saw the most devastating spring frost on Frenchman Hill. There was near total loss in all varieties of fruit.

"Kurt was ready to go but had nothing to sell," Cole said.

Instead of brooding, however, the Tonnemakers learned from that experience. Kurt went on to move other growers' production. Kole and his wife Sonia started to plant vegetable crops. There was half an acre in 1992. Now there are more than 20 acres.

Soon, Kurt started to have plenty of fruit and produce to move, and most of it was sold in western Washington. In 2001, Kole opened the Tonnemaker Hill Farm fruit stand that today draws thousands of customers to the farm.

"People could see we had the stuff, and they kept stopping by and asking for it," Kole said. "We had to open the stand."

With hard work, a willingness to change and perseverance, Tonnemaker Hill is still a farm. And several Tonnemakers have taken their place in the family chain that keeps it going.

Kole and Sonia's sons Luke and Ethan, have supervised the six-week cherry harvest since they were young teens. They set irrigation, bring fruit in from the orchards and sell at farmers markets.

Their cousins Joseph and Clayton, who are Kurt's sons, are part of the direct sales teams in western Washington. They help their father in various ways.

Whether either or all of them stays on with Tonnemaker Hill is still a question. Kole suspects they'll go to college, consider their options and then decide.

"I would think they'd want to see what the rest of the world is like," he said.

Meanwhile, Kole will handle the production and Kurt the marketing of crops from Tonnemaker Hill Farms and keep Orland and Pearl's legacy alive.