Hello Farm Friends,

It has been a glorious, long autumn here in Northwest Montana. As the weather shifts towards winter, and the farm and personal projects shift indoors, I have been keeping my head down and getting things done. But the other day in an employee review, I was challenged not to forget to use our work as a platform for offering folks education and a positive story.

So, yesterday I sat down to make a list and take stock of what we’ve been up to, with the hopes of maybe someday updating our website. As I stopped to reflect, it’s hard to just view one year in isolation, because so much of what happened this year was informed by our past 16 years of farming, and really my entire life. But at this stage in life, I’ve begun to look at the farm with a different perspective. Or from two perspectives really. There is the inward facing perspective, where I think of my relationship to the land and the farm, and what it offers me, and what I offer it. And then there is the outward facing perspective, which is where I look at what we, and the farm, provide to others in our community.

Inward Facing…..

This has been, and continues to be, one of my biggest years of personal growth in many aspect of my life. There have been many challenges that I’ve tried to turn into opportunities to grow and be a better version of myself. There is no denying that 17 years of farming has been hard on us physically and emotionally, and it’s resulted in me asking some hard questions about “why do we do this” and “how can we do it to better honor ourselves”. Why not just move to a foreign country and live a simple life of ease by the ocean? Believe me, it’s tempting! But there has always been a core part of who I am that believes in living a life in alignment with my values, and that often comes back to being of service…to others and to the land. And this land, and this situation, is a gift that allows me to do that. And I keep reminding myself of that. So much effort has gone into building this farm and local food system, and while it’s tempting at times to walk away in search of ease and simplicity, I think at this point in my life I need to honor it by continuing to lean into it. Someday I will seek more ease….but not yet.

This land provides me a sanctuary of natural beauty as well as the peace and quiet that I thrive in. It is one of my core truths that living close to the land is where I am happiest. And this relationship with the land also provides me the opportunity to contribute something back. To help repair the damage of past management, to provide habitat and increase biodiversity, and to ultimately work with it to grow healthy food for ourselves and our community. It is not easy, but it is meaningful and tangealbe, and those are more important values to me. But in recent years, it has even become more than that. In a healthy shift of perspective, I have been able to take the weight of the world off my shoulders, and to stop feeling pressured to run the farm to satisfy the wants and demands of others. Instead, I am learning to follow my intuition and run the farm the way that feels right. In many ways, this process and this farm have become an offering, or a prayer, in a world that seems to struggle with so much. I can’t control our culture, or the myriad problems it creates with the values it promotes. But on this little postage stamp of land, I can live in a little bubble where I get to choose the values we live by, and I suppose I get to offer that up as my example of how things can be done differently. I find this to be very cathartic. And I think the impact of that radiates outward. How so?

Facing Outward…

It’s a little known fact that the creation of Two Bear Farm took a piece of land slated for development, and shifted it to agricultural production. Not only preserving open space and providing ecosystem services, but growing healthy food that feeds our community and heals the land….that is not something common to agriculture these days.

And over time, with the support of all of you, both the farm and the farmers have grown and evolved, creating new ways to leverage our farm to grow a local food system from the ground up.

We partner with Wicked Good Produce to operate a brick and mortar market called The Farmers’ Stand in Whitefish, to ensure our local community has better access to local organic food and products, including a completely organic grab and go section. It’s hard to believe we’ve been open almost 4 years!

We partner with the local non-profit Land to Hand Montana to help get school kids in Columbia Falls access to our delicious carrots

We partner with the North Valley Food Bank through both sales and donations to increase the amount of healthy local produce they are able to offer their clients. This year alone NVFB has purchased 25,000 pounds of local organic produce, and gleaned an additional 11,500 pounds of produce just from a handful of local organic farms in the Flathead.

This year alone…..

We provided space and mentorship to a new farmer (Flo!) to create an incubator farm named Three P’s Farm.  Our country has lost 533,000 farms since 1980, so to help increase that number by 1 feels really good!

We invested in the Old Salt Coop to help protect large multi-generational family ranches in the Blackfoot Valley, and the habitat they provide, by increasing the amount of Montana beef raised, processed, and eaten in Montana.

We worked with Carbon Recall Kalsipell to install a photovoltaic (Solar) system to power the entire farm with solar energy.  We were fortunate to receive a USDA REAP Grant to help cover half of the cost. Given all of the food we grow is solar powered, it seemed only fitting that the infrastructure was as well. We hope to have the project completed by year-end!

We partnered with Blarney Ranch in Trego, Montana to integrate regenerative cattle grazing on 35 acres at Two Bear Farm to help us bring degraded pasture back to health.   While grazing livestock have a history of degrading landscapes in this country, the truth is the land has co-evolved with animals, and it benefits from their presence. As the saying goes “it’s not the cow, it’s the how”. We are fully supportive of the movement to return animal grazing to a regenerative function, and there is no better place for us to trial it and promote it than here at Two Bear Farm.

We’ve been working with the Flathead Land Trust to place the farm in a conservation easement to help protect the conservation value of this land, and hopefully to ensure the farm stays in local food production in perpetuity. Seeing the connectivity this creates between public and private land for wildlife along the Stillwater River is so compelling. While not finalized as of this post, the process is underway.

Lastly, we have been serving in an advisory roie to a new local nonprofit Save Farmland to help shape the organization so it can carry out it’s vision of purchasing and conserving farmland in our community and supporting farming and our local food system. As the pace of development in this valley accelerates, I believe the need to conserve farm land takes on more urgency. And Save Farmland is taking a creative new approach to try to do that, so I am hopeful and intrigued to see how it unfolds in years to come.

Looking over that list, it feels good. And all of that got done despite us spending every day in the field growing and harvesting vegetables! I am proud of all the relationships and collaborations that have been created and nurtured through our farm. If you’ve ever been into The Farmers’ Stand, you may have noticed the quote from Margaret Mead that is on the wall above the cash registers. It reads ” Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” 

That quote has always inspired and empowered me. And when I look back on that list of things we’ve participated in, I think it validates her point. I believe that “we the people” need to recognize the power that we do have to affect positive change in this world, in whatever capacity that may be. I think the 24-hour news cycle and social media distracts us from this point, and they evoke all the wrong emotions in us to capture our attention. But while change is inevitable, it doesn’t mean we don’t each play a role in it. How can each of us help to shape a better future, for ourselves, our community, and the planet?

Personally, I am already looking forward to 2025! Well, maybe after a vacation by the ocean 🙂

Todd