Producer

My great-great-grandparents, Thomas and Sarah Hayton, established Hayton Farms in 1876 on Fir Island in the Skagit Valley of Washington. They grew grain and made hay to be barged from the granary on the banks of Deer Slough to Seattle to feed the city’s workhorses. In the early 1900’s, my great grandparents, James and Maude Hayton, transformed the farm into a dairy. In the 1950’s my grandparents, Leroy and Irene, made the decision to run the farm exclusively as a crop farm, and focused on growing peas and making pea hay. My father, Robert Hayton, continues to make some hay and focus on berry, potato, and cucumber crops.