Montana Food System Council

Check this out! Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution TV program on Fridays. What a great way to bring in another ‘foodie’ audience that is not speaking to the choir! What do you think about this? Leave a comment to start a conversation.

Join us in April for Ag & Energy Task Force Meetings!
What: AERO Ag Task Force Meeting
When: Friday, April 2nd – 10:30AM — 4:30PM
Where: St. Paul’s Church Fellowship Hall, Helena
Special Guest: Montana Department of Ag Director Ron de Yong

Join Nourish the Flathead & Montana Conservation Corps for Global Youth Service Day on April 24th!

What: Global Youth Service Day is an annual campaign that celebrates and mobilizes millions of youth across the country to improve their communities through hands-on service and service-learning.

This is an event for high school and college students from the Flathead Valley to come together to make a positive and powerful change in their community by helping to construction the Nourish-Flathead Valley Community College Community Garden. Nourish the Flathead & FVCC have partnered to provide a 1 acre community garden on college campus which will include 30+ individual raised beds (for the first season), children’s garden, culinary department garden space and orchard.

Join us from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on April 24th for a series of youth oriented volunteer events, workshops (cooking classes, theater, food/gardening), live music, and a whole lotta fun!

Who?: Any and all high school and college age students, youth groups, key clubs..
Adult volunteers are also welcome! Adults, please let us know how you would like to participate by answering the questions below. We will have more garden and Nourish volunteer opportunities throughout the summer – join our email list to stay in the loop!

Where/When: Flathead Valley Community College – at the new community garden site behind the FVCC Arts and Technology building. Address: 777 Grandview Dr, Kalispell, MT.

Development Council selects Growth Through Agriculture projects

Helena, Mont — The Montana Agriculture Development Council has offered funding totaling $401,167 to 13 agricultural development projects under the state’s Growth Through Agriculture program, according to council Chair David Tyler.

The Agriculture Development Council oversees the program, which provides financial assistance to develop new products or innovative ideas that enhance our state’s agricultural industry.

In the latest round, the council offered funding to:

— Community Giving Assistance Toward Employment, Glendive, $42,850 grant to assist with facility and equipment improvements and to develop a store to market locally produced products.

— Field Day Farms LLC, Bozeman, $15,000 grant and $15,000 loan for high tunnels, a refrigerated truck, and a root crop harvester or washer to assist with the business’s fresh produce expansion.

— Flathead Lake Cheese Co. LLC, Polson, $38,386 grant to assist with the purchase of cheese-making equipment, promotion and advertising materials, and educational and advertising activities.

— Flathead Lake Cherry Growers Inc., Bigfork, $20,000 grant to develop a marketing and implementation plan for distribution of Montana Flathead Cherries in the Rocky Mountain Region.

— Goddard Land and Cattle, Reedpoint, $24,000 grant and $24,000 loan to assist with the purchase of compost management equipment.

— Hidden Legend Winery, Victor, $41,369 grant to purchase supplies and equipment for business expansion and assistance toward developing out-of-state markets.

— Montana Microbial Products, LLC, Missoula, $50,000 grant to develop a feasibility study to develop a barley protein concentrate and ethanol manufacturing plant in Montana.

— Flathead County Extension, Kalispell, $9,912 grant to assist with the purchase of field supplies and cherry trees to help identify more marketable cherry varieties.

— Mountainview Gardens, Kalispell, $46,200 grant to assist in developing the business’s geothermal heating system.

— Bio-Energy Innovation and Testing Center, MSU-Northern, Havre, $13,400 grant to purchase oilseeds and equipment to test and establish the viability of pure plant oils as an alternative fuel in diesel engines.

— RoughStock Distillery Inc., Bozeman, $15,000 grant to assist with marketing activities to enter out-of-state markets.

— Silent Creations Buffalo Products LLC, Ronan, $21,050 grant for website development and a promotional campaign.

— Woolly Bugger Studios Inc., dba Laurin School House Creamery, Sheridan, $25,000 grant to purchase construction materials for the development of an artisan cheese making plant.

The Montana Agriculture Development Council heard presentations on 26 proposed projects at a quarterly meeting held February 10-11 in Helena. Council members are: David Tyler of Belgrade, chair; Ervin Schlemmer of Joliet, vice-chair; Patricia Quisno of Harlem; Verges Aageson of Gildford; Bill Koenig of Kalispell; Ron de Yong, director of the Montana Department of Agriculture; Tony Preite, director of the Montana Department of Commerce.

The next deadline for project applications to the Growth Through Agriculture program will soon be posted on the website at http://agr.mt.gov/business/GTA.asp.

For more information and application materials, contact Collin Watters, Growth Through Agriculture program manager, at the Montana Department of Agriculture, at (406) 444-2402 or by e-mail at gta@mt.gov.

Several years ago, Big Timber residents participated in the Northwest Area Foundation’s Horizons Program, a program to help communities identify areas of poverty. Poverty is not always just financial need but those human needs missing in the community that are essential to a sustainable way of life.

After eighteen months, and some three hundred plus people meeting in discussion groups with different themes, several needs bubbled to the top. One was the need for a sustainable food system in our community. A food group, now known as Sweet Grass Food, sought answers to questions concerning equal access for all to nutritious food, availability of local food to the community, and how to manage a sustainable food system in Big Timber and Sweet Grass County.

Big Timber has a Farmers’ Market so the group decided the next step toward a food system in Big Timber would be a Community Garden. The City of Big Timber leased a piece of abandoned property to the Group, and in the spring of 2008, the Big Timber Community Garden was born. Thousands of dollars from Horizons grants and community donations helped rid the garden of rocks, fence it, deliver water to it, and then nineteen intrepid gardeners came forth to plant it.

The gardeners had varied knowledge about growing a garden. They shared plants, exchanged seeds, took turns watering for one another, and a few spent many hours on the internet looking for secret ways to grow the biggest pumpkin. Weeding was not popular, but they all worked hard to make the garden a beautiful place to visit. At season end, a bountiful harvest was realized and celebrated with a Harvest Feast in the garden. Some of the produce that year was donated to the Senior Center and to the Big Timber Food Bank.

Year two, thirty-one gardeners came to work the soil in the garden and then the summer of 2009 threw everything at them from late and early frost, hail (twice), and lots of high, dry wind, and yet the gardeners prevailed again. Good local food went home by the basket full, was shared and traded with other gardeners, sent to the Senior Center, the Food Bank, and sold at the Farmers’ Market. The gardeners look forward to the upcoming growing season of 2010. I can hear the pages of seed catalogs turning even now!

Sweet Grass Food intends to start a mostly local food co-op in the coming year as a next step toward a sustainable food system. Sweet Grass Food has completed and is now updating a second printing of a local producers’ food guide and continues to meet with community organizations to spread the word about the importance of eating nutritious local food and of supporting local food producers. For more information or to share ideas, contact Diana Taylor, Montana Food Systems Council member at: Dilota@yahoo.com.