"Culling Horseradish" by Vicki Shuck

12"x8", Oil on Panel

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At The Organic Horseradish Company in Tule Lake, CA, horseradish root is unloaded from a truck.  This worker is one of many sorting and trimming it on its way to eventually be processed into organic food products. Owned by Jacqui and David Krizo, this company farms land homesteaded by Jacqui's father who first grew horseradish there in 1952. See their website to buy their organic horseradish and horseradish mustard along with recipes to use it in.

"Jesse, Horseradish Farm Foreman" by Vicki Shuck

10"x8", Oil on Panel
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One morning last May, the subject of this painting, Jesse, told me more about growing horseradish than I ever thought I'd know!  Talk about enthusiasm for his work and generosity in sharing it!  He has been working on these farms on the Oregon/California border for around 35 years.  He told me that when he was about 19, he realized that he'd never be able to make a good enough living to marry and raise a family, so he decided to leave Mexico.  When he reached Tule Lake, he said he realized it could be a "good place":  a small farming community where he felt he could learn to do whatever was needed.  He spent his first three years learning the language and customs and proceeded to build a good life here.  Showing up and working hard have been key to his success.  He's obviously quite proud of his three children:  one is a student at a state college and the other two are making plans for higher education, AND, he told me, they are paying for it themselves.

"Trimming Horseradish" by Vicki Shuck

24"x36", Oil on Canvas

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The first of the paintings I did for this project is of a group of people trimming horseradish root at a farmer's shed in Tule Lake, CA, which is about 6 miles south of the Oregon border.  Dave and Jacquie Krizo (on the far right in the painting) are the son and daughter of two families who homesteaded in the lower Klamath Basin after WWII.  They have spent their lifetimes working the same land, currently raising horseradish and organic grain.  Since the turn of this new century, the availability of water and who should get it has been a huge and divisive issue in the Klamath Basin.  Jacquie has been particularly active in presenting the side of the people who need it to irrigate crops.  She established a website where you can see "before and after" photos of the land and find out more about it:  www.klamathbasincrisis.org.