MALTBY For the last 19 years, as spring faded into summer, irises bloomed on the farmland off Broadway Avenue in Maltby.
Before that, corn stalks filled the land.
They replaced the dairy cows that had produced fresh milk.
Through all those changes, the Walster family has farmed on the 10 acres.
“I’ve never worked for anybody in my whole life,” said Ralph Walster, 75, the family’s third-generation farmer.
The family plans to celebrate the farm’s 90th anniversary today. At least 30 family members and relatives are expected to gather at the farm, said Fran Walster, Ralph’s wife.
Ralph Walster’s grandparents traded in their Everett house for the 10 acres in October 1916. Thomas and Estelle Walster lived in a two-story house with an outhouse. They turned the land filled with stumps into a dairy farm with two horses, four cows, one heifer, one calf, chickens, four pigs, 30 fruit trees and one beehive, Fran Walster said.
Later, Charles and Edith Walster took over the farm and raised eight children, including Ralph Walster.
As a boy, Ralph Walster hauled corn in gunnysacks under the glaring sun as neighbors went swimming in a lake.
Ralph milked cows, first by hand and later by machine, until milk prices became too low to make a profit. Milking cows at 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. every day tied him to the farm.
When Ralph married Fran in 1975, the couple took a three-day break with his brother’s help. They visited Seattle as a honeymoon. He was 44, and had never been to Seattle, he said.
He has lived his entire life on the farm except for about eight months he served in the Army.
The family switched from dairy cows to beef cows to heifers to sweet corn to irises, Ralph and Fran Walster said.
Over the years, Ralph’s hair has turned from blond to dark brown and now to gray. He’s been in a suit and tie only four times in his life. He still enjoys getting dirt under his nails from weeding.
So what does Ralph like about farming?
“Well, it keeps you busy,” he said.
“And you have a heritage,” his wife said. “Don’t you think 90 years is a heritage?”
“I think so,” he said.
The couple has raised three daughters; they have seven grandchildren.
They said they don’t know what will happen to the farm after their generation.
“Ralph will probably die on this farm. I will try to stay here as long as I can,” Fran Walster said.
Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.
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