Editor, The Beacon: I am a 74-year Washington resident, 45 years in Mukilteo. We live half the time in New Zealand, and have spent 14 years planting, growing and harvesting 1,400 olive trees on property we own. Olives do not grow in Washington weather so no one is an olive farmer on land in Washington. But I am a Washington farmer on my farmland in northern New Zealand. After eight years in the Edmonds Farmers Market selling olive oil that my wife and I produce on our 25-acre New Zealand farm, I am no longer permitted to be a market vendor.
