Washington village hosts a farmer who feeds the world
A pair of large dogs, too old to be bothered with actually getting up, wag their tails in eager welcome from recumbent positions in the foyer. We’re early, and Ludger Szmania, coowner of Warm Springs Inn & Winery along with his partner Julie Szmania, is busy mowing the lawn. These two adorable pups are the first to welcome me and my partner, Steve, to Wenatchee, Wash.
The Szmanias purchased their property in 2013 after leaving Seattle, where for 20 years they had run German-influenced restaurant Szmania in Magnolia. Master chef Ludger Szmania is originally from Dusseldorf, Germany.
When the couple retired from the restaurant life, they knew they wouldn’t be content with doing nothing. So they opened the inn. After years of running a restaurant kitchen, Ludger Szmania now crafts creative breakfasts at the inn (creative enough to get my vegetable-averse partner to clean his plate!) and manages catering when the space hosts events like weddings.
On Saturdays, the Wenatchee Valley Farmers Market makes Pybus’ outdoor area as lively as the inside, and Steve’s sweet tooth sends him to a tent selling homemade pies. I’m drawn to the large crowd gathering around a group playing “Rock the Casbah” on marimbas. The musicians, it turns out, are Bahuru Marimba Band, a band of middle and high school students from the Tri-Cities.
Inside the market, we order a couple of famous smoothies from Royal Produce, the first and only Latino-owned business at Pybus. Yesterday marked Royal Produce’s fifth anniversary at Pybus, but proprietors Santos and Zenaida Guadarrama have been selling their produce at the Wenatchee Valley Farmers Market and Moses Lake Farmers Market for more than 25 years.
Santos Guadarrama is from Villa Guerrero in Mexico, where his father and grandfather were vegetable growers, and had little desire to farm growing up. But after trying his hand at a few other careers, including construction and restaurants, he found his way to Royal City, Washington — and back to farming. “I basically I realized that... I’m a farmer,” says Guadarrama. “I have food in my blood... I can’t even imagine not doing it.”
Guadarrama began working for beloved local farmer Ivan “Ike” Parker in the early ‘90s, and the two quickly established a strong friendship over long conversations, Santos practicing his English and Parker mentoring the younger man. When Parker decided to test the waters and see if the community would accept Guadarrama as a vendor at area farmers markets, both men were pleasantly surprised to find a welcoming community at Moses Lake and in Wenatchee.
“People accepted us really well, just about everywhere that we went. And it’s been the same way over here at Pybus... So we don’t really feel like we’re outsiders in any way... Even though I grew up in Mexico and all of that, I have lived most of my life here,” says Guadarrama, who has served on the board of the farmers markets he sells at. “You realize, I’m 48 years old. I was 19 when I left Mexico.”
In the late ‘90s, after working for Parker for several years, Guadarrama bought the farm from Parker and has kept it up as a Guadarrama family affair for almost 20 years. To run the farm and sell at two different farmers markets, the whole family chips in, including all seven Guadarrama children, and Santos Guadarrama’s brother. Guadarrama hopes that one of their children will eventually take over when he and Zenaida finally retire.
“It’s a hard life, it’s not for everybody really, and in a way I kinda told them (his children) that if I early on had had a different choice, I probably would’ve chose something different,” Guadarrama says. “But I’m so invested in it, too... I’ve come to the realization that a farmer is a very important person, because it’s the one that grows the food that feeds the world.”