Winter farming

Photo by addie Slanger Max Smith, 31, stands for a portrait overlooking his farm, Missoula Grain and Vegetable. The crop production science major founded the operation in 2013 after he graduated from Montana State University. Passionate about soil science, Smith aims to specialize in winter farming — growing crops year-round rather than in the usual May-October window.

sustaining life: Winter farming at Missoula Grain and Vegetable

Addie SlAnger rAvAlli republic

Some years ago, Max Smith took a break from farming to work as a remover for a funeral home. Each day, he was in charge of moving bodies from houses and retirement facilities and hospice centers to his place of work, to be prepped for their funeral service.

The job made the now-farm owner intimately familiar with the cycles of life and death.

“You see a lot of death that way. It actually really prepared me for all the things we experience out here too. It’s not humans, but it’s life,” Smith said. “I’m just at peace with the fact that this is all very temporary. I can shrug stuff off a little bit easier. And I realize how much work goes into keeping things alive.”

Page 6 - Agriculture Magazine, Fall, 2021

Smith is the founder of Missoula Grain and Vegetable, a farm south of Stevensville that services the Bitterroot Valley and Missoula. The Garden City native, who studied crop production science at Montana State University, created his farm after his graduation in 2013.

While the 31-year-old has been autonomously farming since then, his agricultural experience started even earlier. Before college, he worked with family friends on a farm in Moiese, Montana, and as a picker for the Dixon Melon company.

After those few forays in the industry, he knew it was where he wanted to stay. Smith was interested in soil science specifically, how to sustainably and effectively utilize the soil he’s farming.

“I tried to figure out a lot of the scientific topics behind agriculture,” he said. “I had some really great professors who got me kind of philosophically interested in the work as a means of solving agricultural problems, like preservation and land management and soil management.”

He got tired of bouncing from farm to farm in his studies, and wanted to put his skills to test on his own. So when he had the chance to create his self-described “workers co-op,” Missoula Grain and Vegetable, he jumped at the opportunity.

The farm sets itself apart from other Montana agriculture operations by specializing in winter farming. While most farms in the state run from May to October, Smith, his partners and employees grow produce well into February and March.

They sell winter veggies at the Missoula winter market on Saturdays, as well as ship their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) boxes — a program where farms send subscribers weekly or bi-weekly boxes with the week’s seasonal produce — through February.

It was important to Smith that he was able to cater to a different niche market in Montana agriculture.

“What we see in the [winter] crops, if we’re successful in keeping them alive, is that they exude a lot of sugars to protect themselves. So they end up tasting better,” he said. “People discover that about the crops. And it’s so much more pleasurable to do the work at that time of year when a lot of other farms drop out, because you’re respected for doing something that’s almost magical.”

His farming partner and girlfriend of six years, Katelyn Madden, thought Smith’s passion for soil science has been key in allowing Missoula Grain and Vegetable to have a successful winter season.

“I think that [Max’s] farming approach is really based in soil science. And I think that’s another reason why our farm has excelled in certain areas, because we focus on soil health,” Madden said.

Madden, 28, came to Montana from the East Coast, where winter growing and season extension is, perhaps understandably, a lot more common. She was drawn to Montana for its agriculture and the winter ski season, but wanted to provide a different service than existing farms.

“Coming here, I knew I wanted to grow the pie, and provide food in a different way than it was already being done,” she said. “I like the winter growing, and doing year-round growing, because there’s not really an end point. It just continues on.”

“And I think that that’s allowed us to really improve our employment situation,” Madden added.

The farm’s nine employees all make $15 an hour or more, Smith said, and he and his partners are working on bumping that up to $20. It was important to Smith that his staff make a livable wage, since the farm prospers under their services.

Photo by addie Slanger Katelyn Madden, 28, poses for a photo in one of the farm’s greenhouses. Originally from the east coast, Madden came to Montana wanting to provide a new agricultural service. Missoula Grain and Vegetable’s winter farming gave her the perfect opportunity to fill a niche in the industry.

Both Smith and Madden were drawn to this work to cultivate a connection with and appreciation of the land we live on. And even more than that, the human connection that comes with working long hours in harsh conditions fostering life.

There’s a certain kind of mutual understanding shared through good, healthy food, Madden said.

“I think I was drawn to the work initially because it solves a lot of systemic problems we have in our society,” she said. “I think even if you disagree with someone politically, if you feed them good tasting food, you can at least agree on that.”

For Smith, the two went hand-in-hand — an appreciation of the land helped foster intimate human connections.

“One of the big things for me is that I think a lot of folks are disconnected from nature — even in Montana — and from the natural systems that support our lives,” he said. But here, on the farm, he finds he’s able to connect with the land and the people.

“The process of this work, for me, is the process that I enjoy relating to other people the best. It’s what I enjoy, it’s what I want to talk about, it’s what I want to have relationships with everybody around me, it’s through this work,” he said. “I find a lot of meaning in the relationships out here.”

Smith is familiar with being present for life and death cycles. Sharing that with his partners is not only special, but vital for the survival of the farm.

“We’re interacting with nature in a really visceral way, and all together, and if the community is solid and we’re observing things correctly, it really improves people’s relationships. And if something falters, we feel it together.”AG