We come from a long line of farmers. In August 1899, Joseph Kaufman, along with a group of others from Illinois made up a train car heading for the Camas Prairie of North Central Idaho. Joseph and his wife Elizabeth farmed in the Cottonwood, ID area until the 1920s, when they moved to the Lewiston area.  Later in life, Joseph would plant gardens on land farmed by his sons, Ally and Joe, and market the harvest to the Lewiston Food stores. Son Joe farmed in various places, eventually moving onto a farm with his son, Cletus. Cletus and his wife, Mamie, farmed and custom harvested in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. They developed an irrigation system on Hatwai Creek (on the outskirts of Lewiston), which settled out Palouse top soil, and grew a large garden to feed their eleven children. One of their sons, Fred, purchased a farm outside of Lewiston, where he and his wife, Doris, raised four sons: Joe, Steve, Phil, and Jeff.

Steve, Phil and Jeff have carried on the farming tradition. Steve with his wife, Christina; Phil with his wife, Jeanene; and Jeff with his wife, Chantel; raise Wheat, Canola, Garbanzo Beans, Peas & Lentils in many of the fields surrounding the Lewis/Clark Valley.  Farming has changed a lot in the last century, but today's crops are still planted with the same diligence, tended to in the same hot sun, and harvested with the same care, attention, and love for agriculture that Joseph Kaufman had one hundred years ago.

(Great, Great, Grandpa Joseph Kaufman) 

(Great Grandpa Joe)

(Fred and Dori Kaufman)

(Cletus and Mamie Kaufman)

(From right to left:  Jeff, Fred, Joe, Steve, Phil)

(Lewis Clark Valley from taken from the Lewiston Hill)