Tulip Valley Farms founder Andrew Miller, wearing muddy Carhartt overalls, says with sincerity he is not so much a farmer of flowers as a farmer of feelings and smiles.

Standing in a field, he described the creative ways he made his property more tourist-friendly, from making wider paths between rows to adding a pen of miniature Scottish Highland cattle for photo opportunities. He also created the county’s only u-pick tulip farm.

“Let’s see if we can’t take this stack of ideas that were not going to be adopted at one farm and try something new,” said Miller, who was ousted from his role in 2021 as CEO of Spinach Bus Ventures, the owner of Tulip Town, after a falling-out with partners.

His removal as CEO, and then being voted out of the company in 2022, preceded a messy, high-profile lawsuit from his former business colleagues. The lawsuit landed days ahead of the April 2023 Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, which brings in robust revenue as hundreds of thousands of tourists descend on local farms.

Video by Finn Wendt

Interviews by Isaac Stone Simonelli

Narrated by Audra Anderson