Thou Shall Not Sell the Farm

For the Knutzen family, farming has been the family business since 1894, when Jess and Metta Knutzen emigrated from Denmark to settle in the Skagit Valley. For six generations and more than 130 years since then, a Knutzen has been on the deed of the land – and at the helm of the business.

“For six generations of our family, the 11th Commandment has been ‘thou shall not sell the farm.’” When Washington Grown TV visited the Knutzen farm way back in Season 3, Grandpa Roger, the fourth-generation farmer, cracked the old family joke about their personal 11th Commandment. But nearly a decade later, when the WGTV crew visited the Knutzens again, it was fifth-generation farmer Kraig Knutzen’s turn to repeat the mantra.

“‘Thou shall not sell the farm’ has always been our 11th Commandment,” Kraig told host Val Thomas-Matson. “It’s really special when you see the pictures and talk about their names. We’re not forgetting what legacies we have in the past, and what we’ve learned from those generations.”

The mist blanketing the farm when the Washington Grown TV crew visited was reminiscent of hauntings and ghosts. And while none of the current family members mentioned seeing spooky spirits roaming around the property, they all acknowledged that the fingerprints of their ancestors are all over every inch of the farmstead.

When Jess and Metta first set eyes on this marshy farmland, six generations ago, it required a significant amount of imagination. Littered with stumps and snags and often flooded, they had to spend years of hard work in order to scratch out a home. Over time, the bay bed was transformed into a working farm, and the family even built a creamery and cheese factory. What they eventually learned was that the soil underneath all those stumps was some of the most fertile and productive ground anywhere in the world and nearly perfect for growing potatoes.

Jess and Metta had seven sons, all of whom helped to subdue the land and plant the crops, but their fourth son, Will and his wife Lena, were entrusted to take over the farm. A generation later, Will and Lena’s oldest son, Jess and wife Barb, took the reins, before passing it on in time to their son, Roger and wife LouAnn. All along the way, the family has been guided by a desire to be good stewards of the land and to preserve the land for future generations.

Today, the farm is run by the fifth generation (siblings Kraig Knutzen and Kristi Gunderson) and sixth generation (cousins Tyler Knutzen and Dan Gunderson). All of them work together to keep the farm functioning.

“I still have all my relatives as a resource if I need them,” said Dan. “I get to go to Grandpa Roger, I get to go to Kraig, I get to go to Kristi, I get to go to my cousin Tyler, who has his own expertise too. So to get to draw from all that expertise makes the job a lot easier.”

Some might think all that family around might make things difficult, but by this point, the Knutzens have gotten used to sharing the workload with one another.

“To be honest, it’s just in my blood,” said Dan. “My mom was working on the (picking) line when she went into labor with me. It’s fun to work with family members – challenging at times, but definitely fun.”

Grandpa Roger, who is semiretired, has seen a lot of change during his seven decades of farming the same ground.

“This land is only 8 feet above sea level, so it used to be very mucky. Each morning when my parents and grandparents would get up, the first thing they had to do was put on a special horseshoe – it’s like a snowshoe on each foot of the horse – in order to keep from sinking in,” he said, showing Val a replica of an antique horseshoe. “Now, when they get in a tractor, they have GPS that’s far more accurate than what I could accomplish if I were controlling the tractor. When you think about that technology and what’s changed in just two generations time, it's pretty amazing what they’ve carried this business into.”

With all the technological advances of the last 50 years, the latest generation of Knutzens is able to produce more potatoes – and more consistently – than ever before. They grow yellow, red, and white potatoes, sold in stores around the Northwest in quantities from 1.5-pound bags up to 50-pound bags. Like many Skagit Valley farms, their potatoes are renowned for their color and quality.

“They’re not just pretty, they’re healthy,” said Kristi. “We raise them like we raise our children, and it's exciting to watch them grow, to pull them from the soil and see how beautiful they are. They’re the freshest, most wholesome product we can possibly ship out. We’re very proud to put our name on that box.”