Clark Fork Organics

We spent some time visiting Josh's family's farm. As if directing the student work at the PEAS farm as a teacher with the university isn't enough, there's a whole other food race happening at home. It is a business that helps support a family of five, so much like Ploughshare Farm where I worked in MN, efficiency and accuracy are the goal and long, tiring days are the means by which one gets there.






Kim, to whom Josh is married, runs the farm, directs the work of several interns, and juggles a massive amount of harvesting (and everything else) that needs to be done on a regular basis to provide beautiful, healthy food on time to several fine restaurants in town, the Good Food Store, the Saturday Farmer's Market (where EVERYONE goes EVERY weekned), and more.





It's exhausting just talking about it, but seeing their children so involved, mentally and physically in the work, is a good indicator of the positive impacts running a farm can have on people. They understand where food comes from and where it goes, they understand how to get it from point A to point B, and they have been raised interacting with the physical world and the neighboring community in very involved ways...giving them a maturity, intelligence, and appreciation for things well beyond their years.

Produce in the Paper

We have some awesome visitors at the farm this week from New Orleans, where access to healthy, real food is a MAJOR issues. They've come to see the model that Garden City Harvest has successfully set up and continues to expand. A few representatives will go down and visit them this fall.

And their visit made it into the paper! As did a photo of us weeding!!!


Photo by MICHAEL GALLACHER/Missoulian

Ahhh. The glamor of our daily work is clear now.

Water from the Heavens

One of the major reasons, a recent visitor suggested, that our plants are so healthy on the farm is our water. This may be true. Montana is arid. 10-13 inches of rain during the season is average. With a creek running nearby and a couple of wells, the farm has a complex watering system which involved lots of drip lines, a few soaker hoses, and some long, heavy pipes (known as hand lines and main lines -- seen as a silver pipe in the grass of the photo below, and rain birds seen spraying water in the photo below).



We don't have these pipes laid out in permanent positions, that would be expensive and ridiculous. We rotate them by hand four times a day. Someone has to move those pipes.

That's why we all end up with nice biceps by the end of the summer. A pair of students each week is responsible for moving the lines, rotating where the water flows, drips, and sprays, and generally getting to know the farm in a brand new, wet, and dirty light. I had a great partner in Erin, so we actually enjoyed it. Although we don't plant, harvest, or weed on the weekends, it was our responsibility the following weekend to keep the water going (and feed the chickens and pigs, of course).



It's pretty here. Especially early on a Sunday morning.

Farms & Gardens

So, this summer I'm working at the PEAS Farm up the Rattlesnake. I'm receiving credit for the graduate program I start this fall. This opportunity is available due to a partnership between Garden City Harvest, a non-profit in Missoula that has several farm and community garden locations throughout town...mostly in "urban settings" right within town...and often in neighborhoods with lower incomes, and the University of Montana.

A major issue for people on tight budgets is that the food they have access to is only found in the corner convenience store or in the nearest big box store. Here, they may find "cheap" food, but that cheapness is reflected in their health...which eventually becomes VERY expensive. You can simultaneously appear obese and be malnourished. It's horrifically common.

The farm I work at is a bit out of town and in a wealthier neighborhood, but it is also the largest open space (about 9.5 acres, a former dairy farm) that has become available to the nonprofit and was an opportunity not to be missed.
There are seven community gardens scattered throughout town with plots available for a very reasonable price to the public.
There are three farm/gardens, PEAS being one of them. We visited River Road and Orchard Gardens, which also sell some CSA shares in addition to having community garden plots. An additional farm is cared for and hosted by a youth home in the area.





The vigor, happiness, and curiosity exuded by each garden manager (Greg and Sarah) that we met with was intoxicating and enviable. Nonprofit work may not pay much, but if you organize your life around what you want and what you need, it can be one of the most fulfilling ways to spend the short time you have on earth.

Big Skies, Rivers, and Fun

We had the opportunity to drive down to Big Sky where all of John's brothers are living this summer and run around the old stomping grounds, spend some time with family, and get Mabel out and about.



Mabel did great hiking along/through the river, up mountainous terrain, and through the sagebrush. I can't wait until we have more space for her to explore.



Chris and John went fly fishing!



I look forward to the next chance to take a mini-trip and hang out with family. :)

Fruit!

We drove down to Paradise and visited the most wonderful groves of cherry, peach, and apricot trees tended by a former environmental consultant who always dreamed of growing fruit. In an ideal location, Tom's fruit grows well (albeit with the occasional pests from poorly tended neighboring trees...but hey, the larvae that are deposited as eggs and grow near the pit are almost entirely made up of cherry ANYWAY!).



All of the trees get some water, pruning, and observation. The fruit is carefully observed, cared for, and then EATEN! Delish!

It's a relief to know that even in colder climates and shorter growing seasons, orchards are an option. YUM!!!!

Wheat and Weeds

In Big Sandy, MT Bob Quinn lives and raises grain and vegetables. We visited him last week and were introduced to a world where imagination, research, intelligence, and farm work come together to grow ancient varieties of wheat (his Kamut has done well), dry land vegetables (yup...he doesn't water his corn, squash, potatoes...and we're in arid Montana), and various types of green manure to build healthy soil.

Really cool stuff. Most of his acreage is organic, and many of his grains are more nutritious than those that you find on the average grocery store shelf (which are bred for high yields to keep immediate costs down, not bred for high nutrition to keep the real costs down). Get your hands on some kamut or durum. It's out there!

Back in Missoula, we got to hop into the garlic patch to harvest and bring it to cure in the barn for the next 2-3 weeks. After that, they'll be good to store for 4-6 months!




Yum!



The kids visiting the farm this week for camp challenged us to a weeding battle (what a fantastic idea...they were so excited!). We fought tooth and nail (with the corn and quack grass and soil that is). The kids came out on top by two pounds and won the popsicles.





We'll get them next time!

Growing

A couple of weeks ago we visited Foothill Farm, where Julie and her family grow vegetables, hay, and meat. With a beautiful location at...you guessed it...the foothills of the Mission Mountains, they have a good deal of garlic and tomatoes growing for the cooperative and plenty of other produce for market. Up until this year, Julie used her work horses to tend the fields. Her passion for using animal power as opposed to petroleum was clear, but as her husband works 45 minutes away and her daughter is still quite young, the constant practice the horses needed proved too much. She has an amazing deal going, though. Her parents have recently retired and joined her to work part-time in the fields and a young sharecropper lends her hands as well.



We also recently brought Mabel up to the PEAS farm to have some free-roaming leashless time (over 9 acres of it!). She did quite well. Turns out she has some secret running skills and is still trying to figure out what to do with cats.

Deliciously Edible

A few months ago I had the pleasure of visiting several people in and around the Twin Cities involved with the food system. From a dahlia and tomato grower, to an educator, to a bike-powered veggie delivery service, each person had their niche in bringing good food from dirt to home.

Short articles (in the 'notable edible' section) about each entrepreneur appear in the latest edition of Edible Twin Cities.

Online, you can find the one about what Lisa over at Two Pony Gardens is doing to bring food and flowers to people who desire them, to educate urban youth about nature and the source of their food, and to host harvest dinners at her farm in partnership with filmmaker/chef Daniel Klein of Perennial Plate.







In the magazine (which you can find at your local co-op, brew supply store, farmers market, or vineyard), you'll find out more about Velo Veggies and the FriendChip Farm Program.

They're doing great things! So are you!

Ten Spoons of Wine Makes the Wine Go Down

This is the first time I've ventured on a field trip with my PEAS Farm compatriots and already been to the place and tasted the fruits of labor poured out there.

About a mile and a third up the Rattlesnake (the big creek that runs North-South into downtown and the namesake of our northerly neighborhood...we can hear it in our living room) from our home and a wee bit west is the farm I work at every morning. About two miles up the Rattlesnake and a wee bit east is Ten Spoon Vineyard and Winery. John and I checked it out a couple of weeks ago. It has a great view of the surrounding mountains and very affordable sample flights. Friday and Saturday nights they host live music.



Andy, who owns the business with his partner, shared with us a bit about how they came upon the place and the idea of a winery/vineyard. The organic vegetable market was already flooded in town, and their value-added tomato-chip idea was too expensive and didn't have a big market. But wine! Missoulans love their beer and breweries. They love their wine, so it was clear they needed someone to grow and process grapes within city limits. A gorgeous 5 acres of hybrid French-American varieties flourish during the short growing season and produce a fine house wine. Other grapes are sourced from the Pacific Northwest (as are the glass bottles that they purchase and reuse) and fermented on site. It's a dangerous place to have just up the road, but I don't think the occasional tandem bike ride up the mountain for a sample will do us much harm.

It's been one of the first sunny weeks on the farm for us (and of course, there was plenty of rain, too), but it allowed us to get a HUGE amount of much needed weeding done and it's looking great!

FURRY FRIEND!!!

OOOOOOHHHH!!!

We have a new family member!

We brought Mabel home from the shelter about a week and a half ago. It was carefully described to us by the staff there that she is "special" and a "project dog."


Found living below a trailer and caring for her young puppies, neighbors made sure she was fed. The whole lot of them was eventually brought into the shelter. Although the adorable little ones were soon adopted, her extremely fearful behavior (she cowers to the ground in reaction to most new noises, places, and people) kept her in the care of the humane society for longer than they would like. We knew we could give her the patience and love she needed. She's come a very long way (wagging her tail and licking us to pieces) already. She's really smart and although we have plenty of basic training to do, she is a good walker, listener, and may secretly already know "sit." What else might she already secretly know? I'm not sure, but we're excited to find out!




Update: She's sneaky and very much like any other dog when we're away. Exhibit A: the half loaf of bread on the counter wrapped in plastic is missing. Exhibit B: the tears in John's sandal straps weren't there this morning. Exhibit C: Both plastic bag with crumbs and sandal were found in or near her guilty paws within the last two days.

SHE'S A REAL DOG AND IT'S WONDERFUL! Thankfully she only hates scoldy Grace until it's time for another belly rub.

Diversification

Homestead Organics was the site of one of our recent trips. In Hamilton, we met Laura Garber. On a farm she's been tending for the last 5-6 years, much is now in flux. Much of what she and her now ex-husband put together is changing. Her soon-to-be husband is building a barn and with his experience in the Berlin Zoo, is bringing more animals onto the land. This closes the loop a bit, and as they live, eat, and poop in various areas around their farm, nutrient-rich fertilizer enters the soils. A fantastic plan saving resources and money, the pig, duck, goose, turkey, and chicken pens are moved once they've mowed down the cover crop and left behind some great products of their digestive systems. Flowers line the path down to the greenhouses (several of them), and an above ground river (new and not entirely expected) leads down to a small pond at the end of their land, perfect for waterfowl.



Laura is lowering the number of CSA shares they produce, while upping the ante on the store they sell their food through the market stand on the first level of the commercial kitchen/bunk house near the road. They also visit a few local farmer's markets and advertise the availability of their live chickens, which they are often kind enough to "butcher as a favor" for their friends/customers. A little store or restaurant on the horizon? Maybe. Laura has a plethora of ideas and the right team to make them happen. The diversification and closed systemness of it all is refreshing and exciting. As is the slightly drier, warmer weather for all of us up on the PEAS farm.

Montana Agriculture and Rural Communities: An Investigation in the Field

Mid-June I went on an excursion with ten other people that brought us to ranchers, farmers, community organizers, chefs, and other characters involved in the food system here in Montana. It was over a week of driving across this great reaching state and it brought us to the homes, lands, and workplaces of many an interesting soul.

Day 1
Two hundred miles brought us to Montana State University in Bozeman, where we met several professors, undergrads, and post-docs working under the freshly minted Sustainable Food and Bioenergy Systems Degree. Another 90 some miles through rolling grasslands brought us to the Moe Ranch. With their house beautifully set beside the Musselshell River, the Moes are trying to diversify beyond their already successful ranching enterprise so that they can continue to make a living on the land and make that an option for their children, something most families can no longer do. They're leasing land to a wind energy entrepreneur and have purchased a Montana grain and cereal distribution company with another couple.



Day 2
We visited a nearby Hutterite colony to check out their garden, cement mixing plant, wind turbines, and kitchen/water recycling complex. It was intriguing to see the way they too are trying to diversify and use their resources wisely to maintain the lifestyle of the 143 people, just over 30 families, living on the colony.



We then toured the Cream of the West operation (an almost 100 year old business here in Montana) the Moes (and business partners) have brought to Harlowton to provide a few jobs in town and more diversity in their business plans. Following our time with them, we set off for Shepherd, about 35 minutes north of Billings, to the Charter Ranch, where we set up tents for the night. Watch out for rattlesnakes and cacti!

Day 3
Our morning with the Charters was full of animated discussion about coal mining, cattle ranching, decentralization, carbon sequestration, and sustainable food production activism. As you have probably guessed, this isn't the average ranching conversation in rural Montana. Nor are these your average ranchers. With a deep sense of connection with the land, the cattle, the neighboring ranchers, and a desire to fight for and work hard to promote what is good and right, the Charters make differences every day with the way they have chosen to stay on and treat the land.



A short drive through Billings and into neighboring Laurel brought us to a century-old corner diner, the Owl Cafe. As you might expect, this restaurant had become a cornerstone of the community. So when a hometown boy returned from culinary school with the idea of bringing real, good, and local food to the menu, not everyone was pleased. Dirk Frickel brought us back into his kitchen and for the next hour, he and his friend, Eric Trager of Bridgecreek Backcountry Kitchen (another local food advocate and chef, although located in upscale Red Lodge), stepped us through the cooking process of the entire meal. And man, was it delicious! Grilled local asparagus salad with organic cottage bacon, smoked almonds, and Parmesan cheese. Grilled Sweetgrass lamb skewers with garam masala, creamed lentils, and fried organic goat cheese croquettes (new favorite!) with local rhubarb chutney. Tomato basil granita. And to round it all off, organic ricotta goat cheese crepes with Grand Marnier and fresh berries. OooEee.

Day 4
We had the pleasure of seeing and discussing the massive Sysco distribution enterprise in Billings (it's strange to think that there are hundreds more warehouses like it around the country). It brought to home the importance of sale and transportation of food, weather it is grown locally or traveling thousands of miles to your plate in a restaurant, hospital, school, or other institution.



A short afternoon drive to Billings brought us to the beautiful LEED Platinum Certified offices of the Northern Plains Resource Council and the Western Organization of Resource Councils, organizing and leadership training ordinary citizens to protect their water quality, family farms and ranches, and rural communities.
220 miles (and a stop at the famous Montana bar in Miles City) to Makoshika State Park to sleep with the dinosaur bones.



Day 5
In Glendive, we spent the morning seeing the myriad projects an extension agent and local food supporters were working on. From a community garden, to a food and marketing co-op, to hopes for a commercial kitchen, restaurant, and cooking school. Very inspiring and overwhelming.



We spent the afternoon and evening at the Hoff farm, visiting in their garden and beside the Yellowstone river. Alvin grows beans, Dena tends the gardens. They have various ducks and chickens and at least one hundred sheep. He loves projects like his rhubarb wine and showing off the latest graft on a tiny apple tree.



They've raised a houseful of kids and plenty of good food. You wouldn't know she is off in far flung regions of the world representing family farms through Via Campesina and as president of the National Family Farm Coalition (her involvement began with local and regional organizations like those in Glendive and Billings). We all enjoyed a nice dinner in a little cabin on the other side of the vast bean fields at the edge of the river before heading out.



Day 6
We arrived at the Waller's farm in Circle, about 70 miles northwest of Glendive. Helen welcomed us to sit at her table and on the floral sofas in her living room. We had sandwiches and lemonade while we waited for her husband to come in. They'd been married for...was it 59 years? The sense of grandparent calm and familiarity was broken when after we finished our lunch and sat around her and his armchair she cut through the cool room with a booming, passionate voice about her involvement with the last several farm bills, the corruption riddling those who should be creating policies to help the people growing the nation's food (instead, loyalty and power goes to the corporation that lobbies and donates the most), and the ineffective structure of current farm policy. Intense. Frustrating. She's a great surprise of a woman, and she's proud of the photo of her and Willie Nelson on the fridge.



Day 7
We spent a stormy night at Fort Peck and spoke with the American Prairie Foundation, facing much strife in the community around Malta and their project site, in the morning.
Our evening was spent on the Matador Ranch with the Program Director of Northern Montana Prairies, learning about how the Nature Conservancy is partnering with local ranchers to promote habitat and wildlife conservation of some of the most contiguous mixed grass prairies in the world.



Day 8
Our original plan was to visit Prairie Heritage Farm in Conrad, where a young couple is making a good go of it, but it will have to wait for another day. We went home to Missoula. :)

What Rain Brings

Another wet week on the farm has brought plenty of water to the vegetables, but also to the weeds. A challenge we often face, good comes with bad. It is what we make of it.

We visited Ploughshare Farm this week, in Moiese (not to be confused with Ploughshare in Parker's Prairie, where I apprentinced summer 2007). Two former PEAS students moved to the 18 acres with their young son and now have an adorable daughter to help with the work of growing tomato starts, shallots, Jerusalem Artichokes, Indian Corn, and a variety of greens and things for markets. A few goats and chickens add to the fun, too. They are members of the Western Montana Growers Co-op, and Homegrown, the Montana Sustainable Farmers Union. Both of these organizations help with the steep financial investment and logistical issues associated with organic certification (or lack thereof due to cost and how well it suits tiny operations), produce distribution, and sales.



After another good soaking this weekend, we were left with a gift atop our neighbor, Mt. Jumbo. If you look closely, there is a second, lighter, larger rainbow.



This is our garage, house, fantastic Subaru, Charlie's kayak (shall we take it down the Rattlesnake and into the Clark Fork?), and Mt. Jumbo across the way.



We're pretty happy, double full rainbows or not.

Woohoo Missoula!

A mountain outside the living room, a rushing creek next door, a 10 acre farm every morning, and plenty of work to do.



We're settling in in Missoula, MT, where I've come to study and practice writing, ecology, and sustainable agriculture in an environmental studies graduate program.

This summer, I spend my mornings working at the PEAS farm with about twenty other young people, and my afternoons working on a quilt of other projects.



John has moved out with me and secured a sweet job at a local nonprofit that gets high school students involved in research and field studies in Yellowstone, the Galapagos, Mexico, and Costa Rica.

We hope to spend our weekends hiking in the mountains, but so far it's been unusually rainy (my Wellies from the Grand Marais Recycle Store were well worth the quarter I paid for them and have kept at least my feet quite warm and dry in the muddy beds), so we've done things like can tomatoes (to ready ourselves for the big fall harvest ahead), make mozzarella (because it's so easy and delicious), and wait for our homebrew to be trucked out to us with my parents when they come out to visit us in July.



Every Friday, instead of working in the fields, we have a bit of classroom time about a certain aspect of farming (soils last Friday) and visit a working farmer or other member of the food system (Lifeline most recently). This past field trip was such an inspiring experience (something I tend to feel whenever visiting the homes, lives, studios, and lands of a practicing craftsperson or foodgrower).

Lifeline Produce has been functioning in some form since the late 1970's. Now run by Steve Elliot and Luci Brieger and two apprentices, they grow 9 acres in mixed vegetables, flowers, and herbs, plus 8 in hay for livestock (manure makers!), 29 acres in permanent pasture, a greenhouse, a hoop house, chickens, ewes, and a few beef cattle. Between them and a related, but separately-run dairy, stores in and around Missoula are stocked with delicious, local, wonderful food and plants. Hard work, ingenuity, and pursuing real, good things makes for a great life.



Fun!