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Can Montana feed itself? That sounds like a pretty basic question – after all, Montana is the fourth largest state in the United States, spanning 147,000 square miles. Shouldn’t we be able to support our meager population of 1,050,000 souls? We are primarily an agricultural state where almost 28,000 farms and ranches are spread across 60 million acres. 
Regenerative Organic Certification adds criteria and builds off the USDA NOP standards and other standards in the areas of soil health and land management, animal welfare, and farmer and worker fairness. Beyond organic as it stands today. 
Range rider Bree and her horse Shasta out for a morning’s ride. (Source: Hilary Anderson, Tom Miner Basin Association) While traditionally range riders – “cowboys” of old – were men, many of the range riders in the Tom Miner Basin today are women. Audio Interview Bree Morrison tells about her life as a range 
Montana is rightfully called Big Sky Country, and it’s not unusual to drive 3 or 4 hours to attend a meeting, visit friends, or join a field day to learn about ranching or farming. On a hot and smoky day in August, Anderson Ranch in the Tom Miner Basin, near Yellowstone National Park, hosted several dozen folks who came to learn more about resilient ranching. 
Strawberries are my absolute favorite fruit, and I look forward to strawberry season every year. Depending on where you live that season can start as early as mid-June or as late as mid-July. This year we bought our last quart of berries at the farmers market the second week of August. They were amazing! 
Organicology – a “portmanteau word” meaning the study of organics – is the biggest conference/trade show focused entirely on organic seeds and produce in the country. This year more than 800 people attended the three-day conference. 
To those unfamiliar with the absurdist theater of school lunch, it is puzzling, even maddening, that feeding kids nutritious food should be so hard. You buy good food. You cook it. You serve it to hungry kids. 
While the borders of Persian Empire advanced and receded over the centuries, today “Persia” is equated with Iran. With our world connections ever more fluid – and, at times, tense – now is a great time to explore traditional and contemporary dishes from Iran, Kurdistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, all parts of the Persian Empire at one time or another. 
It’s going on February (thank goodness!) and the seed catalogs are starting to arrive. So while you’re daydreaming about warm weather and your summer garden, it’s time to think about the tools you will be using. Good tools make for easier work and you owe it to yourself to have the best. Our recommendation is that you check out Lowell’s offerings. 
What happens when two friends start dreaming about opening a distillery and making whisky in central Montana? Mix in shared childhood memories, inherited Helena red hair, and a love for single malt whisky, and you get Gulch Distillers. Gulch Distillers has a hometown feel and offers hometown products. Tyrrell HIbbard and Stephan Rasile use Montana-grown grains in their grain-based spirits, and use locally grown herbs, fruits, and other products when possible on both sides of the business – botanicals in the factory and fruit and berries at the tasting bar. |
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