AGNEW — The Mustitch family business has blue sky for a ceiling, wind instead of walls and Old Olympic Highway as its hallway.
On a brisk fall morning, as thousands of flowers lift their faces toward the sun, the place looks like a slice of heaven.
But after nearly nine years of running The Family Farm, Wayne and Julie Mustitch are ready to end this chapter of their lives.
Wayne’s heart disease makes it impossible for him to work the 5 acres, and the operation has grown too big for Julie to run herself.
They’ve posted a “for sale by owner” sign next to the “dahlias” placard at 3931 Old Olympic Highway.
“We don’t really want to sell,” Wayne said last week. “We’d hoped our son would take over. But he’s going into computers.”
Son won’t stay on farm
Matt Mustitch, 19, said working a farm — especially bringing its produce into local restaurants and outdoor markets — taught him a keen business sense.
Since moving to Sequim in 2000, he’s watched the town grow; he loves it here and wants to stay.
But the solitary labor of farming, the planting and picking — all that isn’t for him.
Now Matt attends classes at Peninsula College, works at Olympic Wi-Fi in Sequim, and envisions opening his own business here one day.
And as much as he disliked working the ground, Matt enjoyed manning The Family Farm’s stand at the Sequim Open Aire Market.
“I like to take care of customers,” he said. “I like driving around; I’ve met a lot of people,” while delivering produce to restaurants from the Old Mill Cafe in Carlsborg to Michael’s Divine Dining in Port Angeles.
Working on the farm itself, he felt too isolated.
“There’s no limit,” to the tasks that need doing, he said.
Matt’s parents plan to move to the big island of Hawaii, where the weather isn’t as harsh and where Wayne, who’ll turn 70 next month, can give his heart a rest.
He and Julie, 54, hope to purchase a smaller farm.
They also hope Matt will come with them. But their only child doesn’t sound completely sold on living in Hawaii.
“Either way, I want to move back to Sequim,” Matt said.
Wayne and Julie are asking $649,000 for The Family Farm and their 2,400-square-foot home that sits a few yards from the dahlia fields.
Wayne said they’ve heard from a couple of potential buyers, including one in California.
The operation has grown up, at the hands of the Mustitches and family friends such as Zeny Bordwell, who helps sell flowers and vegetables at the Sequim Open Aire Market.
The Family Farm’s products, listed in the Territorial Seed Co. catalog, are shipped to buyers all over the United States.
At the same time, Julie spends Thursday nights and all of Friday cutting and arranging scores of bouquets for the Open Aire, which runs from May to mid-October, and for the year-round Port Angeles Farmers Market.
Julie is a shy woman who moves through her sea of color like a blackbird, gathering long stems in a dewy bouquet.
The task that gives her the most joy, Julie said, is creating a display for a wedding.
“People come back and tell her what a beautiful job she did,” Wayne added.
The pair, married 22 years, met in Julie’s native Philippines. Wayne was a schoolteacher there — who had bought some land near Port Angeles in the 1980s.
The farm has been good to them.
“There’s something therapeutic about growing flowers for other people, and growing food,” Wayne said, watching his wife select pastel pink and solar-yellow dahlias for Saturday’s market.
“The flowers are taking their last, gasping breath,” he said.
A frost last week has already hinted that their season is at an end.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
