A Taste of Summer
By James ZieglerBiting through the crisp, fire-engine red skin of a freshly picked strawberry still warm from the sun, the juice erupts into my mouth. This is the taste of summer.
At Knapp’s Farm, Spokanites gather in droves to pick their own strawberries in the field under the lazy eyes of Mount Spokane. All ages wait by the farmhouse for golf-cart rides out to the field or to ring up their harvests. Small children huddle near their parents, and an elderly couple sits peacefully enjoying each other’s company at a picnic table.
As we ride out to the strawberry patch, our driver tells us this has been one of their busiest weeks yet. Picking began June 16 and could go on for three to six weeks.
“It all depends on Mother Nature,” says Larry Knapp, the owner of Knapp’s Farm. But if you miss the strawberries, don’t worry. Raspberry season is coming up real soon.
Way Out West
By James ZieglerLook – an alien! Sure enough, just off the freeway between Medical Lake and Four Lakes, there’s a rusty, gray little man waving at passing motorists from his own strange vehicle. He stands in front of a space ship that seats seven on a hill just outside Way Out West.
Statues looming over the casual visitor to Way Out West – Greek gods, giant horses and the like – would seem oddly familiar to any Spokanite who has driven past Ruby Street Antiques. That’s because Way Out West is something of a sister store to Ruby Street. But wait, isn’t Ruby Street Antiques closed?
“That was my brother who I gave that store to,” says Mike Ferguson, owner of both stores. “We had a terrible winter in both places, and he went under. I took it back over in March, and we thought we were going to have to close it, but now we’re not.”
The statues at Way Out West come from all over the world. The space man on the hill comes from a designer in Argentina. Other items come from Mexico, China and Thailand, to name just a few.
With prices starting at $3 for small lizard lawn statues and ranging up to almost $30,000 for giant bronze horses, Way Out West has something for almost any home – no matter what planet it’s on.