Bonus Valentine’s Episode 277 with the amazing Mandy Gerth | Lower Valley Farm | LVFarm Academy

I know you are going to love her because she was our Crossfit gardener of the year in 2015! And you have taught me so much! I love all that you do and your delicious food and what you do! And she’s gonna share their new LVFarm Academy

Tell us a little about yourself.

I am Mandy Gerth! Farmer and co-owner of Lower Valley Farm in Kalispell, MT

my husband Jay and I are are going in our 7th year of full time farming. We run, I think we’re at about

4 acres of production

all organic

primarily sell through a CSA

2 acres of that is using the intensive model that was kind of pioneered by JM Fortier!

I know you had him on your show!

community supported ag

• winter squash
• sweet corn
• potatoes

separate rotation then intensive

I think that is new since I last talked to you.

We go really hard may through oct

• we run a 20 week vegetable CSA
• Kalispell Farmer’s Market
• do a tiny sizable amount of wholesale
• food aggregate
• directly to small grocery store chains

overview of the farm!

We also have 3 school-age children 7,9,11 they have grown up on the farm very literally

co-owners

awesome crew

really helped make this farm go

under all of that is our community, we also couldn’t do this without our awesome customer base!

I could talk about the farm forever!

OK, I think, what we want to hear about what’s been going on and how does your journey go from gardeners to farmers.

Back to the beginning?

We started out thinking we would be running livestock

vegetable operation would be what would help us make money while we get a livestock operation going.

Before the beginning ~ what made us want to do this

our family had a life changing experience

eating nutrient dense

We volunteered on farms a lot! We loved being a part of our farm community in that way

in Indiana

We were doing a raw milk share

you can do in Indiana but not in Montana

super local food

...