Farming Bamboo – Daphne Lewis & Carol Miles

Daphne Lewis became fascinated by bamboo in 1981 when she realized that bamboo was a perennial grass that grew both food and wood faster than trees. She began the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the American Bamboo Society in the early 1980’s. She founded Bamboo Gardens, the first bamboo retail nursery in Washington State, in 1986. Her business plan was “If I love bamboo, other people must also”.; In 1995 her business partner took over the nursery so Daphne was freed to create bamboo not as a privacy hedge sold by nurseries but as a farm crop yielding food and wood. Her aim was eventually for there to be a bamboo industry providing carbon sequestration, fiber, and erosion control as well as food and wood. Dr. Carol Miles received her M.S. and Ph. D. from the Department of Fruit and Vegetable Science at Cornell University. She joined Washington State University in 1994 where she is the Vegetable Extension Specialist based at Washington State University Mount Vernon Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center. Carol specializes in vegetable production especially new crops, new varieties, and organic and sustainable production practices. She organized the logical sequence of Chapters.