A short recap of a long history In 1852 a young explorer named Isaac N. Ebey would discover, via canoe, the natural treeless prairie of central Whidbey Island. Boasting rich, black glacial soils and direct access via water to the burgeoning young settlement of Seattle, Ebey would quickly lay claim to 320 prime acres.
Ebey wouldn't last long, beheaded by Native Americans in 1856, but his influence would.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_N._Ebey With Ebey's settlement, quickly came a wave of other farmers and the rich prairie lands were quickly claimed by hardy young men and hopeful families who traveled via wagon, canoe and sailboat around the horn, to reach the promised new lands of the Pacific Northwest.
© Trish DruryWillowood Farm of Ebey's Prairie was established by Isaac Ebey's first-born son, Eason Ebey. The farm was named for scattered groves of scrubby willow trees that flourished in the seasonally wet spots (later drained by industrious Chinese immigrants who installed an extensive ceramic tile system). Eason also wouldn't last long, suffering ill health and moving to California. The farm eventually was purchased by John Gould, a rich landowner who built the still standing 1896 Victorian farmhouse. The barn was also most likely built during this time as well, constructed to store the large quantities of hay that were being produced on the prairie soils and shipped into nearby settlements. In the 1890s a young teenager named Harry Smith joined his sister Agnes and her husband Ed Jenne, who were renting and farming the property. Harry worked the land for many years, both as a hand for Ed Jenne, and later renting the farm himself after Ed and Agnes bought their own property. After marrying Georgia Knight, Harry and "Georgie" (as she was always known), were able to purchase the property, approximately 400 acres, outright in 1919. Harry and Georgie and their children Knight, George, Priscilla, Lucy, Hattie and Jeannette, farmed the land living moderately and well on the abundance of the fields. Harry actively rotated field peas (he sold to Canada) with record yields of grain crops, along with other minor crops including winter squashes and even iris bulbs. After Harry's death, sons Knight and George ran the farm, established a working cattle ranch at that time and added many horses and cattle to the farm fields of the prairie.
Knight and George both died suddenly and at young age, in 1970 and '72, leaving their widows with a seemingly insurmountable debt. Plans to develop portions of the stunning prairie land would spark the beginnings of a community debate that would eventually lead to the sale of the majority of the Smith farmstead to the government and 1978 formation of the Ebey's Landing National Historic Reserve, a unit of the National Park Service and the first such reserve of it's kind.
Left with the historic family farmstead and a vital 20 acres of land, Bill Smith (Knight's son) and wife Renee would settle and raise their family. Young Georgie (named after her great-grandmother), grew up on the property, riding ponies, rearing dairy calves and getting really, really dirty in her mother's big kitchen garden. When Georgie married husband Charles Arndt they decided to settle back on the farmstead, converting the old "granary" into a home and adding two young daughters, Knight and Wynter. And because it was in her blood, and who could resist that black, black soil...Georgie started a little garden. And that little garden GREW!!!!!