FALL CITY – When Gordon Wenger walks around Bernard Farm in Fall City, it is tempting to assume he is a longtime farmer. He has an easygoing stride as he tours the 6-acre farm opposite the Fall City Grill on State Route 203, and he seems to have the peace of a man who is relaxing and enjoying, literally, the fruits of his labor.

But Wenger is actually completing just his second year of farming, and he admits there is still plenty to learn.

“This ain’t getting any easier,” he said.

Although Wenger grew up on a farm in Idaho, he has spent most of his adult life in other careers. He worked for The Seattle Times and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and he still runs a foliage-clearing service called G & F Landscaping.

Wenger once cleared some land for developer Tom Bernard, who owns Bernard Farm. He learned that Bernard was having a hard time finding anyone to farm the land.

Bernard wanted to keep the farm to grow vegetables for a restaurant he plans to build in Fall City. Last year, Wenger offered to farm the land with his wife, Flor, and Bernard agreed to give them a shot.

A lot of farming is learned through trial and error, and the Wengers have had plenty of both. But sometimes the unexpected success does come their way.

When his wife and her sisters planted rows of zucchini last year, Wenger thought they would only sell a fraction of them. They ended up selling out and sold all of an even larger crop this year.

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