LAKE STEVENS — Five years ago, Tara Luckie and her husband Scott sold their house in West Seattle and moved to a farm outside Lake Stevens.
Tara Luckie ran youth education programs aimed at encouraging kids to get outside. But the couple wanted their own kids to spend more time in nature. Living in the city stunted their opportunities.
“We had the vision of buying a place to share with the community,” she said.
The couple now owns 75 acres and a farm along Sunnyside Boulevard, raising cattle, hosting weddings and giving farm tours to local schools and families.
New additions to the farm are adding festive energy to holiday season tours — two reindeer, Elsa and Piika.
“It’s been a longtime dream of ours to get reindeer,” Tara Luckie said, adding she and Scott are part of the Reindeer Farmers Association.
Reindeer are domesticated caribou. In the late 1880s, the U.S. government brought the animals to Alaska from Siberia with the hopes they could be valuable livestock for Native populations starving due to declines in historic resources. Now, farms across the country have reindeer for a variety of uses.
While green and red halters add to the Christmas spirit, Elsa and Piika will be year-round focal points for animal and agricultural education.
Visitors start off in the barn, meeting some of the family’s sociable Highland cows, before heading across the yard to meet the reindeer.
“There’s a big disconnect between people in a city and what goes on on a farm,” Scott Luckie said. “We want to get people out to experience how it’s done. We’re not all these giant corporations that jam chickens or cows into pens.”
The Luckies emphasize agritourism, like reindeer tours, is essential to keeping their family-run farm afloat. The farm’s varied uses, like flower growing and selling Highland cows to hobby farms, allow the family to diversify their income, while educating and providing for the community.
“Someone might come out for a farm tour and then end up deciding to get their beef from us instead of the grocery store,” Tara Luckie said.
The historic barn built in 1907 is used as a wedding venue. But now it’s home to Santa’s sleigh, as well as Antonio, a bottle-fed Highland calf.
Once winter rains ease up, the family hopes to incorporate cattle herding and roping into their agricultural education tours.
People interested in visiting Luckie Farms, 930 Sunnyside Blvd., can book tours on its website. The “Christmas at the Farm Experience” is $25 per person and lasts about 45 minutes. Available dates are Dec. 17-20 and Dec. 26 to Jan. 5.
Eliza Aronson: 425-339-3434; eliza.aronson@heraldnet.com; X: @ElizaAronson. Eliza’s stories are supported by the Herald’s Environmental and Climate Reporting Fund.
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