{"id":3047,"date":"2014-07-25T06:52:52","date_gmt":"2014-07-25T12:52:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=3047"},"modified":"2014-07-27T00:57:24","modified_gmt":"2014-07-27T06:57:24","slug":"bridger-farm-healthy-food-for-local-buyers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2014\/07\/bridger-farm-healthy-food-for-local-buyers\/","title":{"rendered":"Bridger farm: Growing healthy food for local consumers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Brad\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Bradley Schuler uses a stirrup hoe to weed the main garden at the Wholesome Foods farm near Bridger.<\/p><\/div>\n

BRIDGER \u2014 Marguerite Jodry was majoring in music at the University of Montana when she found her way into the local food movement.<\/p>\n

She worked in Sheridan, Wyo., on an AmeriCorps-VISTA food project, then worked as an intern at the Amaltheia Organic Dairy in Belgrade, where she arrived amid the kidding season. \u201cI was a goat midwife,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Last summer, she landed an internship at the Espenscheid Ranch and Wholesome Foods, an organic and sustainable farm a few miles south of Bridger.<\/p>\n

\u201cI slowly couldn\u2019t imagine doing anything else,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s still working at the farm, where her internship turned into a full-time job as the assistant manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much opportunity,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are so few people doing what we\u2019re doing. And the people who are doing what we\u2019re doing are so excited to see a young person.\u201d<\/p>\n

The farm is owned by Dick and Patricia Espenscheid, who retired to the ranch from Chicago. Patricia had never been to Montana and had never worked on a farm before they went looking for a place in 1996. They bought the 1,000-acre spread near Bridger in 1997.<\/p>\n

Dick and Patricia were both working for corporations in Chicago when they decided to move to Montana, but Dick had lived in Augusta years ago and his career had included ranching in South Dakota and owning a dairy and poultry farm in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

\"Dick\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Dick Espenscheid had worked as a farmer and rancher before joining the corporate world and he couldn’t wait to get back to the land.<\/p><\/div>\n

He wanted to live in Montana again and get back to farming. They spent three weeks touring the state in 1996 before settling on the property in the Clarks Fork Valley.<\/p>\n

Their goals \u2014 besides the joy of living and working on the ranch \u2014 are to promote healthy, organic food, to sell their food locally and to take care of the land. They also want to use the operation to educate young people about where their food comes from, and to interest them in farming as a way of life.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why they have the internship program for college students, and why their farm is a destination for field trips. Red Lodge Schools’ Farm and Garden Camp brought children to the farm for straight four days this summer, and the Lockwood Boys and Girls Club brings out different groups of kids for field trips four times each summer.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t teach much on a one-day visit, Jodry said, but you can give children a taste of farm life, and of real food.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe let them eat as many weird vegetables as they will,\u201d she said. \u201cKids will eat anything if they can pick it.\u201d<\/p>\n

After they bought the land and finished building a house there a few years later, Patricia moved to Montana. Dick stayed in Chicago, working for a construction supply business until everything was paid off, then finally moved here five years ago to get the farm and ranch running.<\/p>\n

The novelty of what they were doing \u2014 especially the idea of serving local communities with their whole foods \u2014 created a lot of interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight from the beginning, people wanted to bring their kids out,\u201d Dick said. He was only too glad to accommodate the requests.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was raised in the city, too, and hadn\u2019t a clue where our food comes from,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

One of their interns this year left prematurely, but Montana State University Bozeman student Bradley Schuler is doing an internship there now. In addition to Schuler, Jodry and the Espenscheids, the operation is staffed by Robin Taylor, the garden manager, who commutes from Red Lodge, and ranch hand Ivan Goepford, who lives on the ranch.<\/p>\n

\"Garlic\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Marguerite Jodry talks about the bumper crop of garlic grown in the passive solar greenhouse.<\/p><\/div>\n

They\u2019ve got about an acre and a half in produce, raising more than 35 varieties of vegetables in fields they rotate with barley and wheat. Crops include beets, carrots, potatoes, squash, green beans, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli varieties, asparagus and herbs.<\/p>\n

They also plant baby greens in the spring, have a greenhouse full of tomato plants and a passive solar greenhouse where they plant early garden starters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was growing here in January,\u201d Jodry said. The greenhouse has a wall of 5-mil clear polycarbonate panels facing south, and barrels of water on the north wall to soak up the heat by day and dissipate it by night. They had to use a propane heater a few times this winter, during streaks of sub-zero weather, Jodry said, but otherwise the passive solar was plenty.<\/p>\n

The greenhouse was conceived and built by an intern last summer, Jodry said, and Dick Espenscheid gave him the go-ahead despite the young man\u2019s inexperience. That\u2019s one of the best parts about working on the farm, Jodry said.

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

\u201cDick is so supportive of the ambitions of the young people who work here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Espenscheid, for his part, says one of the most important lessons he\u2019s learned on the farm is \u201cletting the younger ones take over. You\u2019ve got to have vision and you\u2019ve got to have energy. They have both.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s still got vision, he said, but at 69 his energy isn\u2019t what it used to be.<\/p>\n

They also raise cows and pigs \u2014 about 50 of each this year \u2014 in addition to chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese. Their beef is grass feed and the pigs feed on certified organic wheat and alfalfa.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuying local means your meat is born, raised and finished all on one site,\u201d promotional materials used by Wholesome Foods say. \u201cMinimal transportation means a reduced carbon footprint.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sign\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

The entrance to the ranch south of Bridger.<\/p><\/div>\n

There is a manmade pond near the house, for the ducks and geese, and it is also there for fire protection and backup irrigation.<\/p>\n

The Espenscheids are having a bank of solar collectors built near the house this summer, with a goal of reducing\u00a0their own carbon footprint still further.<\/p>\n

Everything on the ranch \u2014 animals, grains and produce \u2014 is raised free of chemicals, antibiotics and hormones. Patricia Espenscheid, who ended her nursing career working in administration for a big medical group, does all the paperwork to document and maintain their organic certification.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an incredible amount of work,\u201d she said as she leafed through a thick sheaf of documents.<\/p>\n

The farm sells its produce and meat at the Farmers\u2019 Market in Red Lodge and in Billings at the Healthy By Design Gardeners\u2019 Market, held Thursdays from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in South Park.<\/p>\n

They also sell to some restaurants, grocery stores and the Good Earth Market in Billings. Other sales are made through buyers\u2019 clubs in Billings and Red Lodge, in which customers pay $30 to $35 every two weeks to receive a box of mixed produce.<\/p>\n

Jodry said they\u2019re still doing a lot of experimentation at the farm, both in what they produce and in what they sell. To succeed and be sustainable, they need to \u201crein in it\u201d somewhat and find the best combination, she said.<\/p>\n

\"Organic\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Patricia Espenscheid shows some of the documentation needed to maintain the farm’s status as a certified organic operation.<\/p><\/div>\n

By next summer they hope to be selling their food wholesale through Market Day Foods in Bozeman.<\/p>\n

Schuler, this summer\u2019s intern, is settling into life on the farm. The Maryland native has been studying sustainable food systems at MSU for three years, after starting out thinking he\u2019d major in wildlife management. He does weeding, harvesting, watering and taking care of the animals, and he likes being busy all day every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to be totally committed to it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Schuler and Jodry live in what they call the \u201cintern camp,\u201d where Jodry has an old trailer and Schuler a wall tent. They share a cook tent. Jodry\u00a0was in a newer, larger fifth-wheel trailer, but it burned down in April, possibly from bad wiring on the furnace.<\/p>\n

She lost most everything, including her accordion, but she was relieved that she didn\u2019t lose her bicycle and her two pairs of work boots. Living in the Clarks Fork Valley tends to make you concentrate on what\u2019s important.<\/p>\n

Jodry said she loves working in the valley, which is as beautiful as it is bountiful. It can be brutally cold and scorchingly hot, with weeks of bone-dry weather punctuated by huge thunderstorms dropping inches of rain, but that\u2019s all part of the experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something here that\u2019s invigorating,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s the extremities \u2026 it keeps you on your toes. I\u2019ll never come to take this place for granted because it\u2019s never the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

More photos from Wholesome Foods farm<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t

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Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News permalink<\/a><\/h6>

Dick Espenscheid fires up his 40-year-old swather.<\/p><\/div>

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Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News permalink<\/a><\/h6>

A pond near the Espenscheids' house is used by their ducks and geese and serves for fire protection, too.<\/p><\/div>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News permalink<\/a><\/h6>

The 1,000-acre spread includes a big garden, fields of barley, alfalfa and wheat and pasture land.<\/p><\/div>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News permalink<\/a><\/h6>

Who needs one of those store-bought four-wheelers when you can just cut the doors and roof off an Isuzu SUV?<\/p><\/div>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News permalink<\/a><\/h6>

A bank of solar panels is going up at the farm.\n<\/p><\/div>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News permalink<\/a><\/h6>

A coyote \u2014 Jodry says he's a regular \u2014 trots across an alfalfa field at the ranch.<\/p><\/div>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News permalink<\/a><\/h6>

Jodry, left, with garden manager Robin Taylor, inside the greenhouse where hundreds of tomatoes are ripening.<\/p><\/div>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News permalink<\/a><\/h6>

The main garden covers an acre and a half.<\/p><\/div>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News permalink<\/a><\/h6>

Conditions are rough but comfy at the farm's \"intern camp.\"<\/p><\/div>

<\/a>
Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News permalink<\/a><\/h6>

Jodry walks on the farm with Olive, her border collie-blue heeler.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>