A 'new' way to farm

By LAURA BEHENNA

Bigfork Eagle

On a hill north of Bigfork, a farmer and his two young apprentices work with nature to grow a bounty of vegetables free of chemical-based pesticides and fertilizers.

Julian Cunningham started Swallow Crest Farm in 1999, a few years after moving his family to this scenic area on LaBrant Road. He taught a preschool for three years before deciding his heart was in farming — and he wanted to grow the healthiest food possible.

Local wildlife helps him control pests, for instance. He’s put up 40 “swallow houses” to attract swallows and bluebirds, which eat almost all the insect pests that might threaten the three gardens full of vegetables and berries. Hundreds of swallows swoop through the air overhead, fearless of the humans in their midst.

“We have no mosquitoes,” Cunningham said as the birds flitted around, catching insect prey.

The fertile Creston soil is “as good as it gets” for raising produce, he said. To lengthen the growing season, he starts his cool-season crops in greenhouses and “hoop houses” that look like mini-greenhouses made of white plastic sheets draped over half-circles of plastic piping anchored in the soil. Hoop houses allow Cunningham to plant directly in the soil while providing the protection of a greenhouse.

“I can have greens by the 10th of April,” Cunningham said.

Indeed, the hoop houses are full of mature mixed lettuces, arugula and other salad greens by early May. These are the first crops that will be delivered to more than 100 families who subscribe to the bounty of Cunningham’s farm. He and Kip Drobisch of Raven Ridge Farm in Kalispell are partners in a “community-supported agriculture,” or CSA, enterprise.

In a CSA arrangement, families and individuals pay a fee at the beginning of the growing season. Each week they receive a box full of locally grown produce harvested within hours of delivery. Deliveries start in mid-May and continue through October. Cunningham delivers in Bigfork, Lakeside, Polson and Kalispell. Most customers come to a central location to pick up their “shares.”

The CSA concept took root in the United States in the mid-1980s, starting with two small farms in Massachusetts, and the idea spread quickly across the country. Flathead County has at least two CSA organizations; Cunningham and Drobisch work cooperatively on one CSA and Judy Owsowitz of Terrapin Farm in Whitefish provides for families in the northern end of the county.

“I think it’s growing out of what’s been a fad or a cool thing to do,” Cunningham said, noting that the same families keep resubscribing from one year to the next. Word-of-mouth provides free advertising. This year he’s serving 123 families so far, and could serve up to 140.

“We’ve always been able to deliver the value of the shares we sell,” he said. “Every year I deliver beyond the value.”

CSA farming works well for small farmers because they have a ready market for their produce; it’s less risky than relying on farmers’ markets, where their products might or might not sell out. With his crops sold in advance, Cunningham enjoys peace of mind as he moves from one garden to another, looking for what needs planting, watering or weeding, and teaching his two apprentices what to do next.

“Everything’s alive, and it’s either too wet or too dry or too something, but I like that challenge,” he said.

His apprentices, Laurel Rivera, 25, and Scott Haubert, 21, live on the farm with the Cunningham family and receive a monthly stipend for their work. In return, Cunningham teaches them how to build soil, choose crops, control pests, manage a small farm and “leave the ground better than you found it.”

It’s exciting to watch the crops grow from the start of the season to the end, Rivera said. She especially likes watching the watermelon vines in the greenhouse grow from hour to hour.

“It’s different every day,” she said. You do a bunch of different things every day. There’s a lot of multi-tasking.”

Haubert is enjoying learning from an experienced farmer how the whole process works. “Especially from Julian; he’s a great teacher,” Haubert said.

The south-facing garden at Swallow Crest is great for warm-weather crops like tomatoes and green beans, while the garden on the north-facing slope stays cooler and moister all year, growing cool-weather crops — onions, carrots, cabbage, peas and head lettuce. The west garden will grow cucumbers, potatoes and greens. Cunningham rotates his crops every year to keep diseases and root-loving pests from taking hold in the soil.

He and the other CSA farmers grow their crops using all-natural methods, without artificial fertilizers and pesticides. It takes extra time and effort to grow food this way.

For example, Cunningham and his apprentices put up those 40 swallow houses to attract insect-eating birds. They cover vulnerable crops with a special, light fabric to keep bugs off, and they hand-pick the pests they do find on their crops. They build their soil with compost and weed by hand rather than using herbicides.

The reward for all this hard work and attention to detail is the joy of producing clean, safe, fresh food that keeps customers coming back year after year.

“This is the way we want to live, being connected to our food,” Rivera said.