In 2015, Miyoko Matsuda offered the Land Trust an exclusive negotiation to purchase the last 12 acres of Matsuda Farm. Matsuda Farm is one of the last remaining historic Japanese American farms on Vashon Island. The Matsuda family embraced the Land Trust’s vision of bringing the farm back into food production and honoring the rich history of the place.

In 2022, Ray Gruenewald donated five acres of the original Matsuda Farm to the Land Trust. Ray had lovingly planted the pasture with native trees and named it Mary Matsuda Gruenewald Forest in honor of his mother, who was living on the farm when she was torn from high school and her community and wrongfully imprisoned during World War II. Her own account of internment can be read in her memoir Looking Like the Enemy.

Today, the day-to-day operations of the farm are in the capable hands of the fine farmers at Makanai Farm. Their first crop, gingerly nestled into the rows, was strawberries — honoring the farm’s past as it begins a new chapter with its new farmers. The Land Trust continues to steward the areas of the property not actively being farmed, such as the riparian area around Yoneichi Matsuda’s irrigation pond and the Mary Matsuda Gruenewald Forest.

We understand that the history of this place is complicated, so we are providing you with a longer version researched and written by board member Tom Spring here.