IDAHO
August 12th – August 21st, 2022
East to West, South to North.
Cities, Towns, Farms and Tours.
Twin Falls
Filer
Buhl
Boise
Caldwell
Riggins
Lewiston
Pullman
Wallace
Kellogg
Athol
Coeur d’Alene
Day 1 – Friday, Aug. 12th – After flights into Boise, and a bus ride east, we arrived in Twin Falls late Friday afternoon. We checked into our hotel for 2 nights.
We gathered for our group dinner at the Canyon Crest Dining & Event Center. Located on Idaho’s beautiful Snake River Canyon, with breathtaking views of the Perrine Bridge. Gorgeous setting for our first evening in Idaho!
Day 2 – Saturday, Aug. 13th – We began our day with a 3 hour guided tour of Shoshone Falls, I.B. Memorial Bridge, Snake River Canyon, Twin Falls Visitor Center and Old Town & Warehouse District.
Kelley’s Canyon Orchard, established in 1908, is a four generation family affair. The business is run by 2 sisters, and a girl army. They use “Rat Pack” pickers that travel the Pacific Northwest.
45 acres and 1200 trees make up Kelley’s Canyon Orchard. They grow older varieties of apples, peaches, plums, apricots, sweet and pie cherries. They sell their fruits & jams at Farmers Markets and their Fruit Stand.
Clear Springs Foods, Buhl ID
75% of Trout consumed in the US, is from Buhl. 26 Million pounds of Rainbow Trout will be processed in 2022. It takes 380 days to raise a trout from birth to processing.
Clear Springs uses 1700 cubic feet per second of water. All water used in the plant, and to raise the trout, comes from the Snake River. This spring water is more pure than most drinking water.
Day 3 – Sunday, Aug. 14th – Box Canyon Springs Nature Preserve, part of Thousand Springs State Park. The spring water discharged from Thousand Springs State Park comes from the Snake River Plain Aquifer. The Snake River Plain aquifer acts less like an underground pool, and more like a river.
The springs flow at 180,000 gallons per minute, making it the 11th largest springs in the US. From the trailhead, you can explore hiking opportunities for a variety of levels. For a shorter adventure, walk along the canyon rim for about a mile. Or you can take the steep pathway down into the canyon. The trail will take you downstream along the creek, past a waterfall, and to the confluence with the Snake River.
Niagara Springs Fish Hatchery, owned by Idaho Power and Idaho Fisheries. They release 1.8 million Steelhead Trout & 2,000 White Sturgeon per year. 2.1 M eggs are needed to get the 1.8 M trout to release. Less than 1% of the 1.8 M released will return to the catch, to be brood stock. This location is the “rearing” facility. The eggs come from the “brooding” facilities.
Each female produces 7,200 eggs, and the brooding facility handles 900 females. Niagara Springs spends $250-$300 million dollars per year on food. There are 3 stocking locations: Hells Canyon, Little Salmon & Riggins. All the water flowing through the facility comes from the Big & Little Lost Rivers, It is the perfect temperature for raising the fish.
Day 4 – Monday, August 15th – Gooding Farms – Parma Idaho. 6th Generation Hops Farm, run and operated by sisters Diane & Michelle Gooding. Hops are a very labor intensive crop. They are a perennial plant with a 10 year life span.
Hops is grown on enormous trellis systems, with drip irrigation. Gooding Farms has 950 acres of hops, 12 varieties, 2,000 lbs. per acre average. They have 100 employees at harvest. They can harvest about 25 acres per day, and harvest lasts about 30 days. Late August – September.
Between 25-50 hop vines per minute can be handled during harvest, depending on which system is used. Vines are hooked and stripped by the machines.
Hops then go to the dryer at 135 degrees for 8-10 hours. They exit at 10% moisture. Hops are harvested, baled and pelleted. Process 200# bales at 35 bales per hour. Bales sell for $5.00/bale.
Harris Moran Seeds – HM Clause – Global Company with 179,000 employees. Seed Corn & Vegetable Seed production. HM Clause is highly commodity driven. They rent mostly generation farms. Sweet Corn does well here because of the climate.
Pollination the first of July, and lasts 1 month. Harvest in September. 3,000 to 6,000 acres of Hybrid seed corn grown in the valley. Must be 1,000′ from any other field of field/sweet corn to avoid cross pollination & contamination.
Distilling Mint – Spearmint in July and Peppermint in August. Swathed like hay, then cooked, piping steam into trailers to separate mint oil from liquid. Byproducts are used for feed lot bedding or composting.
HM Clause facility. #1 in Pumpkin and Fennel Seed. #2 in Garden Beans. Specializing in the breeding, production, and sales of high-quality vegetable seeds. Together, we build a strong collaboration with the farmers we serve.
In 1975, Ste. Chapelle brought new luster to Idaho winemaking, with a commitment to fine winemaking using grapes planted among the sweeping orchards of southwestern Idaho in the Snake River Valley. It has grown to become the largest winery in Idaho and a hometown favorite!
Day 5 – Tuesday, Aug 16th – Orange Torpedo River Rafting Tour, Riggins Idaho. Class 2, 3 & 4 rapids along the Salmon River.
Day 6 – Wednesday, Aug 17th
Hells Canyon Jet Boat Tour, Snake River. Hells Canyon is the deepest canyon in the US, and 1,034 miles in length. We saw big horn sheep & eagles.
Water levels vary with power demands. Flows vary from 6,500 to 22,000 CFS. We traveled a total of 120 miles in the canyon. It was a very hot day, 102 degrees, but beautiful on the river.
Hells Canyon Jet Boat Tour – Snake River
Hinrichs Trading Company, Pullman ID – HTC is a full-service pulse (peas, lintels & beans) organization specializing in the production and processing of high-quality garbanzo bean (chickpea) products. 2 types of Garbanzo Beans, Fern leaf, smaller in size and used for hummus production. Spanish Garbanzo Bean is larger and used for canning and seed.
Canola is an oilseed crop. The plants are from three to seven feet tall and develop pods from which seeds are harvested and crushed to produce canola oil and meal. The small, bright yellow flowers provide excellent forage habitat for pollinators and other beneficial insects. Canola seeds are brownish-black in color and contain 35-45 percent oil. This large percentage of oil comes in a small package; there can be as many as 140,000 seeds in one pound!
It was fun to see the combines, tractors and wagons running on the Idaho hills.
Visit with Ty Meyer of the Spokane Conservation District. They use the term “direct seed” (1-2 pass) to our “no till” (1 pass). The PNW, Palouse Region has very fertile soil, and receives about perfect rainfall. They are known for Pulse crops: chickpeas, peas, lentil, canola, etc. The region is known for erosion, some areas have lost 10′ of topsoil. The Conservation District has 23 employees and is funded by local assessment. It helps smaller farmers and promotes regenerative agriculture.
Bio farming Group – reducing chemical use by 50%, mostly pesticides. By making timely applications based on readiness of the plant, and by reducing the water hardness by reverse osmosis.
Day 8 – Friday, Aug. 19th – Wallace ID, Annual Huckleberry Festival. Sierra Silver Mine Tour – Initially discovered around 1900 the Sierra Mine’s ore bodies were never rich enough to warrant active mining.
Ownership of the mine changed hands several times. It was sporadically worked until a more thorough exploration took place in the 1960s.
The showings failed to improve, and the mine remained idle until it was used as a lab site to teach local high school students mining skills. In 1982 a group of local business people formed the non-profit organization Sierra Silver Mine Tour, Inc.
They began taking folks underground and teaching them how silver is taken out of the mountain.
Ride and Dine Gondola to the top of the Silver Mountain Resort.
Silver Mountain Resort is home to North America’s longest gondola – a 3.1 mile journey from Kellogg to the Mountain House where we enjoyed the stunning panoramic views!
Day 9 – Saturday, Aug. 20th. Blooming Fields Lavender Farm – 3,500 plants on 3 acres. 15 Varieties of Lavender.
Lavender is used for 3 purposes: Oil, Dried Flowers & Culinary. Cuttings are raised in a passive solar greenhouse, and a solid copper still is used for distilling.
Athol Orchards – 1st Generation Farmer. They are an Incubation & Preservation Orchard, growing and preserving old and presumed extinct apple varieties. Attended Apple Camp in Maine to learn how to start/maintain an apple farm. Began selling syrup in farmer’s markets. They make and sell their own syrup and apple products.
We spent the afternoon enjoying Lake Coeur d’Alene!
Our last evening together – Farewell Sunset Dinner Cruise on Lake Coeur d’ Alene.
What a beautiful sight to see; the shimmer on the water as the sun retreated behind the mountains.
