Today, Washington is home to some of the best potatoes in the world, thanks to a foundation built by committed forerunners. A century ago farmers jeopardized their families’ livelihood one spring at a time, one crop at a time, in the hopes of hitting it big each year.

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In the Skagit Valley of Washington, farmers gambled that below the water of the bogs precious soil would create a garden paradise. In the central Washington basin, farmers risked everything they had on the chance of water coming from miles away to make the desert bloom.