STEVENSVILLE — When Montana goes into the deep freeze for winter, you could assume leafy greens aren't as easy to come by statewide.
However, one Stevensville farm is constantly growing vegetables no matter the temperature. We visited Winter Kissed Farm to see just how they do it.
"The soil is incredible on this side of the valley. It's not like this everywhere,” Winter Kissed Farm co-owner Max Smith shared.
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This fall, workers like Ten Ruzek spent time in the fields at Winter Kissed Farm, stocking up the cabbage truck for a healthy batch of greens that would stay viable.
“Generally, about 120 go in a bin, but... we are now mounding it because we harvested far too many for our bins,” Ruzek told MTN.
Binning is a big part of getting ready for the next season, where some crops are sold and eaten. That's because harvesting greens doesn't stop at this Stevensville farm when the snow flies. It actually ramps up.
“I just love being a part of winter growing and feeding Montanans greens in the winter," Ruzek said.
“A lot of fresh-cut greens is what we focus on because those are in demand at a time like this in Montana,” Smith added.
Access to leafy greens drives Smith and his partner, Katelyn Madden, to offer boxes of perishable vegetables for purchase during every month.
“The idea behind the winter box is to fill a void in the food system that's left when a lot of other farms decide to take a break, a well-earned break, from all of the rigors of summertime production,” Smith detailed.
Smith says the idea for farming while it’s freezing comes from Madden’s past out East which is why Winter Kissed uses specialized growing spaces.
“We do it in unheated high tunnels and we just grow a specific variety. The things that can stand freezing and dying and then coming back to life when the sun hits them,” Ruzek explained.
They make sure all their vegetables are in and out of the soil at the right time to keep the plants healthy.
“Planting them at the right window in the fall so that they don't get too big and their cells are less rupturable,” Smith said.
Plus, dedicated workers keep a watchful eye.
"When certain thresholds are reached, we'll add an additional blanket, you know, so we double up the layers and that provides a little bit of insulation," Smith shared.
The results are vegetables like kale, spinach, and bok choy in delivery boxes year-round.
“Makes it especially meaningful for us to provide food in kind of the leaner months and to do it and to do it well, not just provide a lot of turnips and beets and squash and stuff like that, but to give people fresh perishable vegetables that they can expect like two to three different greens every single week," Smith concluded.
Click here to learn more about Winter Kissed Farm.
