Category: Urban Agriculture

Buy local? Why local? Time for the REAL story!

Getting our food from the farm to the consumer – the “supply chain” – is certainly not as simple as it was in the past.Once upon a time, the consumer, his/her family, and the local community WERE the growers. Transportation from the field and barn to the kitchen was a matter of feet or yards, not miles.

Then things got more complex. As communities grew, consumers moved into towns and villages. The farmers brought their own products to market and sold them directly to consumers. Today, in the early 21st century, somehow we still want to believe that the supply chain – the link between the growers and the consumers – is just as simple as it used to be, way back when!

Well, folks, I hate to tell you, it ain’t so. Time to hear the real story.

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.

Growing Local: Grain, Flour, Bread

Most of the millions living in the Pacific Northwest forget that the drylands of eastern Washington and Oregon on the west of the Rocky Mountains and Montana to the east are also part of the nation’s “bread basket.” They’ve been raised to think that wheat comes from Kansas.

The truth is that eastern Washington and Oregon, and central and eastern Montana produce millions of bushels of wheat, most of which is sold by the train carload to one of just a handful of huge commercial flour mills or is exported.

Where’s your beef … from?

We all imagine that the beef we eat came from a cow living a happy-go-lucky life, frolicking on lush green pastures until a gentle and painless end. Obviously the average American does NOT want to meet their dinner while he/she is still standing. However, the idea that you could, if you wanted, meet the farmer who raised your dinner, is not so far fetched.