Category: Ranchers

At Last, a Confession: We Eat Meat

It is high time we confessed: we eat meat. The message we are trying to convey with this particular good food experience (a vegetarian meal prepared for guests in Seattle about ten years ago) is that there is wonderful good taste and variety available in natural, whole food for people who want to be healthy. What is more, for people who choose to stop eating unhealthful processed food full of salt, sugar, fat, and chemicals that enhance taste and extend shelf life, good nutritious food is available and affordable.

Double X Bar Ranch – Stewards of the Land

A descendant of generations of Montana ranchers and farmers, Tim Dusenberry, owner and operator of Double X Bar Ranch, is the steward of nearly 600 acres of farmland where he raises 135 head of beef cattle, 40+ pigs, and uncounted laying hens just a few miles from the city limits of Helena.

All Things Sheep, Kids (the 2-legged kind), Barber Pole Worms, and Mud… and Community

On a drizzly Saturday, Dave Scott (a livestock specialist with the National Center for Appropriate Technology, NCAT) and Brent Roeder (Montana State University, MSU, sheep specialist), lead a workshop on grazing, practices, integrated parasite management, FAMACHA© scoring, and new sheep identification and handling methods. It could have been titled, “All Things Sheep, Kids (the 2-legged kind), Barber Pole Worms, and Mud… and Community.”

Eat Well, Be Well: What We Eat and Who Supplies It

Supermarkets and big box stores offer nearly 50,000 – or more – products for us to choose from to feed ourselves and our families. A nation-wide analysis of U.S. grocery purchases revealed that highly processed foods make up more than 60 percent of the calories in food we buy, and these items tend to have more fat, sugar and salt than less-processed foods.

If we don’t understand the high cost of bad food – to ourselves, our families, our communities, and our economy – we will see life expectancy shorten, chronic diseases increase, and healthcare costs continue to spiral. Selecting locally grown and minimally processed food items – good food – can mean more healthful and nutritious food on your plate.

Good food in the time of climate change…

Just imagine – what if we could no longer import our food? Or bring it in from the “produce corridor” that extends from Mexico to British Columbia up and down Interstate 5? Or even get it from neighboring states or provinces? What we thought was science fiction, is turning out to be fact!

A Day on the Range

It was a hot and hazy August day when we drove 15 miles due west of Augusta, Montana, into the rolling hills where we glimpsed the foothills of the East Front of the Rocky Mountains and the edge of the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

Eating in Montana: Healthful Food or Junk Food?

Farmers markets and CSAs sprout up every spring along with the lettuce and tomato plants. Supermarkets across the country, from small family-owned stores to big box chains, are all offering organic options throughout the store, not just produce any more. So, we all think – or would like to think – that we’re eating nutritious food. Do we even know what good “nutrition” is?