So I met Travis in the pouring rain–seriously I don’t think I have seen it rain this hard ever in Missoula. He gave me a tour of their little farm. We will be serving their snow peas at the event. They grow peas and saskatoon berries, which are a cultivated june berry, for the growers co-op. Travis grew up in Washington where his family worked in agriculture. So when him and Sasha inherited land from Sasha’s family they knew they wanted to start a small agricultural operation. They called the Western Montana Growers Co-op to find where the need was and were told that the co-op could use peas and that’s what they planted. The farm is still new, just two years old, and pretty small, but it fills a gap in the co-op, which is always welcome. As Travis and I talked, the camera crew filmed. They captured us picking snow peas for the event together in the rain. Cute! Travis was a great sport, but he kept remarking that their farm was not a good example of the co-op’s farms because they are so small, not as diverse, and farming is not their primary income source. I assured him that it is good to see all angles of the co-op. Also, it is great to see people interested in growing a few produce items utilizing the co-op.

We finished up our tour of Hilltop Haven and I said my goodbyes to Travis and the camera crew. Travis said he will be attending the event. So I will see him next week…so close!

From Hilltop Haven I headed north, again to my favorite valley: Moiese. The rain did not let up. I stopped by Joel Carlson’s, Thunderhead Gardens, and helped/photographed harvest of sweet 100 tomatoes and thyme for the event. It was a quick visit because I had a busy schedule ahead of me. Just down the road, I stopped in at Lowdown Farm and found Kristi Johnson out in the fields harvesting for market. She said she had already harvested the heirloom tomatoes, but there was basil to harvest. So we headed into the greenhouse to harvest some basil for the event. Onward again, I drove down the road to Nicole and Cale’s, Ploughshare Farm. They were done withe the harvest for the morning and Nicole was packing up the car to go to the co-op central cooler. I did get some photos of the bagged “UM Event” produce items. They were going up to Mission Mountain to be chopped and cut for the day. Nicole was in a rush because she had forgotten something, but I hung out with Cale for a bit and we chatted about how delicious this meal is going to be. He told me they just got their invitations and he said, “Just looking at the menu made his mouth water”. I headed out from there and made my last farm stop of the day at Julie Pavlock’s, Foothill Farm, in St. Ignatius. I hadn’t seen Julie is quite sometime so it was nice to reconnect and see how the season was going. She said the season had been rough with so much rain and cold, but like everyone else, she rolled with the weather like every farmer must. It is out of her control. She was running late that day so I got to be there for the harvesting of all our crops (cippolini onions, tomatoes, and fennel).

After Foothill, I followed the food north, to Ronan. The food was headed to Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center to be processed before it is delivered to us at the Food Zoo. A processing machine hadn’t come in so everything was being done by hand, some hundreds of pounds of vegetables peeled and chopped. Karl said everything was going to plan. They let me try one of the dried apricots from Moss Farm. So good! Food is coming together!

I heard from Kaly at Pommes de Terre Farm and her and Brian will be harvesting their celery this Friday! It’s all coming together!

I am also calling local and campus organizations that focus on agriculture and food to see if they would like to present information at the event. So if you are interested in getting involved in the Montana food and ag. community you will have the chance to talk to folks at the event.

Dave replied and said pushing the date back would work better for the farmers as well. As we all could have guessed, it has been a hard year for Montana farmers. The summer took so long to emerge so everything was pushed back because of the June rains. Then we have had some cold spells too during which nothing can grow so everything is a little stunted. We’re hoping for the best, but we will work with what we receive.

Dave also mentioned that the haricots verts (beans) will be done producing by then. We are going to have to adjust some of the salads on the menu with this news.

The sunchokes will also not be ready by the 8th.

Lastly, we will have peaches! The availability of fresh peaches in mid-September really speaks to the fact that it has been a cold summer.

I’ll keep you updated!