Robert Tanaka

@roberttanaka

Third-generation Woodburn farmer. Hazelnuts, grass seed, bonsai, four old John Deeres, one bank board. Minidoka tags in the office.

📍 Salem · 🔗 Meridian Trust Bank · 📅 Joined 2017

88 Following540 Followers

Posts

Robert Tanaka @roberttanaka · 9 Oct 2026

Harvest, day four. Sweepers running since 6. The black pine my grandfather started in 1955 got watered at 5:45 because it does not care about harvest.

💬 0🔁 3♥ 112

Robert Tanaka @roberttanaka · 24 Sep 2026

Duck opener on Sauvie Island with the same three men since 1979. Birds taken: 2. Breakfast: enormous. The ducks remain mostly safe.

💬 1🔁 8♥ 187

Robert Tanaka @roberttanaka · 8 Sep 2026

Bonsai Society show: judged 61 trees. Placed none of my own, which is the rule. A 15-year-old entered a juniper that made me want to start over. Good.

💬 0🔁 6♥ 143

Robert Tanaka @roberttanaka · 16 Aug 2026

Fiesta Mexicana parade. '49 Model B, year 19. Kenji on the '52 behind me. He stalled it once. I stalled it eleven times in 2008. Progress.

💬 0🔁 11♥ 229

Robert Tanaka @roberttanaka · 27 Jul 2026

Ag loans at the bank: 214 with a single November payment. Ten years ago: zero. A farm has one payday. The bank finally has a calendar that knows it.

💬 1🔁 17♥ 198

Robert Tanaka @roberttanaka · 4 Jul 2026

My grandparents' Minidoka tags hang in the farm office. Every Fourth I look at them longer than usual. They came home to nothing in 1945 and started again. That's the whole story of this farm.

💬 0🔁 39♥ 412

Robert Tanaka @roberttanaka · 20 Apr 2026

Kenji's 120 new acres went in this week. Seven years to the first crop, and a note that knows how to wait. My father borrowed acre by acre; my son borrows by the orchard. Progress.

💬 1🔁 6♥ 88