ON A DRIZZLY November day, Masra Clamoungou, the farm manager for Small Axe Farm, was getting ready for winter. Small Axe is part of a patchwork of farms east of Seattle, between the pine-filled Cascade foothills and the maple-lined banks of the Sammamish River. During the growing season, the area feels like an enormous produce aisle, striped with neat rows of kale, carrots, cabbage, peonies, blueberries, tomatoes and more.
Clamoungou stood at the end of a 100-foot-long crop bed studded by the wilting leaves and sagging stalks of the last remaining collards. Transparent tarps nailed to the ends of a halffinished greenhouse whipped in the wind behind him. With his arms spread wide, he dragged in lengths of a pliable black tube — drip tape, used for slowrelease watering — that stretched the length of
