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Farm Bureau 2017 Farm Tour an amazing day |
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May 28, 2017 |
By Mike Weland
Friday dawned sunny and bright, a near perfect
morning as car after car started pulling into
the fairgrounds parking lot for the 2017
Boundary County Farm Bureau Farm Tour. Cassie
Olson, District Manager for the Boundary Soil
Conservation District, was a touch nervous; last
year she helped former district manager Rene'
Riddle get ready for the tour, this was her
first year at the helm, though she did, she
said, have a lot of help, including Rene's.
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Young
Colette, 7, was smart to wear her sun
hat on Friday's Farm Bureau Farm Tour. |
By the time the tour set out at a little after 8
a.m., driver Mike Carnes had a full-sized bus
with every seat taken, and there were several
rigs in the vanguard as well, over 60 people,
cheerful from early morning to late afternoon,
went on the free annual tour to get a first-hand
glimpse at how important agriculture is in
Boundary County, how amazing and resourceful our
local farmers are, and to see first hand some of
the amazing ways the Farm Bureau, the Boundary
County Soil Conservation District and the
National Conservation Resource Service (NCRS)
are helping our local farmers build their
dreams.
One group that wasn't so well represented on
this year's tour were the very people those in
attendance were setting out to see ... most who
farm in Boundary County are too busy right now
trying to make up time after a late arriving
spring. Everyone who took the tour is grateful
to the producers who took time out of their
hectic schedule to share their time and
knowledge.
On this year's tour, guests didn't see any of
the big spreads that grace the county, instead
focusing on small to mid-scale farms.
When all were aboard, Mike pulled out and headed
the bus north, turning west at Three Mile
Junction to the first stop at 2431 Moon Shadow
Road, a place where Paula Rice, her family and
crew raise not food or fiber, but beauty on the
BeeHaven Specialty Cut Flower Farm.
Along the way, Farm Bureau chairwoman Kristi
Kellogg, her husband, President John Kellogg,
acting as walking public address system when not
wielding the microphone himself, introduced
Cassie and a few others who helped organize the
tour; Boundary Soil Conservation District
chairman Tom Daniel and his wife, Sandy, Daniel
Tree Farm, Ree Brannon, District Soil
Conservationist for the NRCS, and Bob Smathers,
regional Farm Bureau manager for District 5.
Kristi also conducted the first of many prize
drawings that took place throughout the day,
giving away everything from Farm Bureau hats and
T-shirts to picnic forks and sprayers!
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While not
quite as colorful as this, there are
already flowers in bloom at Bee Haven
Specialty Cut Flower Farm, as well as
the promise of a bountiful crop of
blossoms to come to grace weddings,
local florist shops and more..
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From outward appearances, BeeHaven Specialty Cut
Flower Farm looks more like the home of an
overly avid gardener than a commercial growing
operation. Tulips, daffodils and other spring
blossoms are already in bloom around the quaint
white farm house, and plots of over 100
different types of flower are already up and
budding with the promise of spectacular colors
to come soon.
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Paula Rice |
"An insatiable passion … that is what I have,"
Paula writes in describing how BeeHaven came to
be. "Nothing less than a 100-foot row of a
particular flower will satisfy. It started as a
young girl digging up and growing flowers around
my mother’s house. Then my husband asked if we
were going to eat all those flowers in the
vegetable garden? Not until after reading 'The
Flower Farmer' by Lynn Byczynski, did the
light bulb come on. With my superman hubby and
our kids in tow, we dove into learning all about
growing cut flowers. From seed to flower, you
really start to appreciate and see the simple
and natural beauty of an individual flower; each
has a role to play and a job to do. I love to
get them all together and see how they can
transform a space with their beauty."
BeeHaven might be just a small family farm, but
it's part of an integral network of American
flower farmers working together to regain a
domestic flower market share. Around 80-percent
of the flowers you see in America's florist
shops are imported from far-away places and
BeeHaven is one small part of a nation-wide
network of mostly small family farms working
together to rebuild and support flowers grown
locally.
In addition to growing and nurturing beds of
peonies, lavender, sunflowers and much more on
the 10-acre farmstead, about three acres of
which are planted in flowers, Paula and her crew
also take the blossoms they grow and harvest and
arrange them into stunning seasonal floral
displays, bouquets, corsages, boutonnieres and
more. They even deliver their fresh flowers
locally, May through September!
Plus, they impart time-tested methods to ensure
that the BeeHaven blooms you buy stay fresh and
vibrant for the longest possible time and even
hold workshops and classes to teach you the joys
of flowers.
To learn more about BeeHaven Specialty Cut
Flower Farm, visit
www.beehavenfarm.com, visit on
Facebook, or call (208) 267-1160.
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Simon
Ronniger shows the state-of-the-art
potato cellar at Ronniger's Organics. |
After bidding Paula farewell, the caravan headed
back to Three Mile Junction and continued east,
all the way to 7312 Perkins Lake Road, just this
side of the Montana line, to pay a visit to
Simon and Marqui Ronniger, the second generation
to operate the mid-sized certified organic
vegetable farm at Ronniger's Organics, where
they grow most everything but specialize in some
delicious root crops.
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| Simon and
Marqui Ronniger with NCRS Soil
Conservationist Ree Brannon, the latest
of a line of NCRS personnel to help make
Ronniger's one of the most innovative
organic farms anywhere. |
Ronniger's, founded by David Ronniger, has long
been an Idaho gem, with Ronniger's seed potato
catalogs being shipped world wide, followed most
often by orders of certified organic potatoes,
beets, carrots, onions, parsnips, turnips,
garlic and more on a farm that has expanded over
the years from little more than a family garden
into an operation now encompassing about 60
acres, for the past six years under the
direction of David's son, Simon, and his wife,
Marqui.
One day, Simon hopes to do as his dad did, take
his son, Strummer, under his wing, and pass
along the lessons both he and his father learned
over the course of years. Already, Strummer
shows a keen interest, helping out in all the
ways he's able, sometimes with mom, others with
dad and quite often, too, with grandpa.
About 35 to 40 acres of Ronniger's is under
production in a given year, and to the large
scale producer, that might not sound like much.
But much of what's done on those acres is
labor-intensive, much of it by hand. As Simon
said, finding equipment designed for a mid-sized
operation is difficult, and much of the gear
used he has to fabricate or customize himself.
They have a dedicated crew who enjoy benefits
equal to or better than hands on most large
scale operations, and each year interns
interested in learning from the masters line up
for the opportunity to work on Ronniger's farm.
The work is often back breaking, but Simon, like
his father, is as dedicated to his employees as
they are to their land and crops, and they work
fewer and more flexible hours than crews on most
farms, even when the work to be done is at its
longest and hardest.
Simon mixed good humor with an expert's
knowledge and kept his guests rapt as he led the
way through the storage cellars and farm store
then out to the fields where this year's crop is
already up and putting on true leaves. Marqui
takes the microphone on occasion as John Kellogg
dutifully carts along the loudspeaker, and Ree
occasionally takes over to explain some of the
NCRS programs she's helped bring to Ronniger's
Organics, such as the high tunnel hoop house
built recently that will soon help extend the
growing season.
And while much of the crop harvested at
Ronniger's is sent out to ports around the
globe, hardly a Saturday goes by during the
season from May through October that Simon,
Marqui and Strummer don't pack up what's in
season and head to Sandpoint from 9 a.m. to 1
p.m. for the Sandpoint Farmers Market, where
they share tips and tricks or just visit.
To find out more about Ronniger's Organics,
visit them on
Facebook, call (208) 627-8181 or email
ronnigersorganics@gmail.com.
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| Not only did
Cassie Olson (back, facing camera, arms
folded, lead the task of organizing this
year's Farm Bureau Farm Tour, she also
made and packed an incredible lunch for
everyone, served up at the Curley Creek
Community Hall. "It was a little crazy,"
she said modestly, "but I love cooking
for a crowd!" |
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| Ray Chaffee,
right, imparts just a wee bit of the
wisdom and lore he's acquired in over 45
years of North Idaho beekeeping as
guests get a first-hand glimpse of what
bees in a hive look like. |
After an outstanding lunch at the Curley
Creek Community Hall prepared by the amazing
Cassie Olson, most guests simply walked to the
next stop on the tour, Curley Creek Honey, right
next door at Ray Chafee's house, 7225 Old
Highway 2 Loop.
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Ray Chaffee
kept both children and adults
entertained and educated on the
wonderful world of bees and beekeeping. |
Most of Ray's workers are kept in boxes to tend
to their queen, but as Ray explained, there's a
lot for the beekeeper to see to outside the
hives as well.
He pointed out the abundance of dandelions in
bloom around his place, part of them there on
purpose, he said, the rest because he simply ran
out of time. The bees assiduously visit the
blossoms, and through a process downright
mystical to most, turn the nectar of this and
other flowers, on the Chaffee place, including
two acres of clover, into one of the most loved
and longest lasting of all food products.
Man has been enjoying the sweet taste of honey
for more than 8,000 years, as proven by a cave
painting in Valencia, Spain, that's at least that
old, depicting people foraging for honey, and
sealed containers of honey over a thousand years
old have been opened and savored as if the bees
that produced it were still alive today.
Ray came to North Idaho in 1972, and in 1975 he
bought 400 hives. He's slowed down just a little
in all the years since, liking to run a mere 100
each year now, each producing an average of
45-pounds of honey a season.
While the adults in attendance were fascinated
by Ray's conversational discourse and incredible
knowledge of bees, the younger members of the
crowd couldn't seem to get enough of the
glass-sided super in which a few of Ray's bees
tended the queen, exclaiming excitedly when they
spotted her among all the wiggling bee bodies.
While showing the way to use the smoker and
other tools of the trade and demonstrating how
the hive boxes and supers go together, Ray
answered myriad questions and explained
everything from how a new hive gets its bees to
how far a bee might forage in search of nectar
(eight miles), not only gathering the food that
will keep the hive alive through winter and see
that the next generation gets off to a good
start, but doing the plants themselves the
essential service of pollination, helping to assure
that the next generation of flowers is there to
blossom next year.
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It's a
slightly incongruous sight to be driving
in what may be the most remote stretch
on the Boundary County road system and
come face to face with a herd of Brown
Swiss milch cows! |
After bidding the Chaffees farewell, the
Farm Bureau caravan loads up and heads out for
the day's final stop, heading west on Old
Highway 2 Loop before turning north and heading
deeper and deeper into the woods. The "You are
in Grizzly Country" sign lets you know you're
not quite nowhere, but if you stand up tall and
stretch a mite, you can likely see it from
there.
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Erik Peters,
left, and Brad Miller manage the day to
day chores of running Springs of Hope
Creamery and Ranch, Erik tending to the
cattle to provide the milk, Brad seeing
to turning that fresh whole milk into a
variety of dairy products. |
Then you pass by Perkins Lake, where RVs and
campers were already set up for Memorial Day
weekend, and less than a mile east, a bit
over a stone's throw from the wilds of
Montana, you encounter the beautiful barns that
comprise Springs of Hope Creamery and Ranch, a
small family farm dedicated to producing the
highest quality dairy products possible and
North Idaho's only Grade A raw milk dairy.
A further irony is that this pastoral place is
located right at the foot of Goat Mountain.
And despite the overwhelming grizzly sign (pun
intended), you'll see the stars of the
operation, 40 head of cattle, 25 of them
sloe-eyed brown Swiss dairy cows grazing
bucolically, the cattle responsible for
producing the milk that the Springs of Hope crew
transform into high-quality products that can be
found on grocery shelves throughout North Idaho.
To date, the bear and the cows have not had any
run ins.
Sam and Danielle Wray bought the ranch in
2008, not with the idea of opening a creamery,
but to start a German Baptist Brethren youth
ministry on the quiet 196 acre spread of
timberland and pasture.
Sam and Danielle bought one cow, Bessie, in
2009.
Initially, Sam and Danielle established a boys'
ranch, and Bessie was brought in to teach and help
the boys learn. But word got out of the fine
dairy products they produced at the ranch after
their nearest neighbor two miles away sampled
some and encouraged them to put their product on
the shelves at Sharon's Country Store just north
of Three Mile Junction.
"The need continued to grow and we went over,
milking three cows and then we had to get grade
A certified," said Wray's son-in-law Brad
Miller, who now manages the creamery end of the
business, overseeing the production of dairy and
creamery products. "From there we continued to
grow and we are now milking 25 cows."
Eventually, changes in Idaho law prompted the
family to abandon the boys' ranch, and the main
focus since has been the creamery. Springs of
Hope coddles their cattle, providing ample fresh
spring water, rotating them from pasture to
pasture to ensure they have good fresh grass.
They raise and put up their own hay, and recycle
manure to fertilize the fields.
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Brad Miller
working to turn fresh raw milk into a
variety of wholesome and tasty dairy
products, from cheese to butter to
kefir. |
While Brad sees to the manufacturing end, Erik
Peters is in charge of bringing in the milk,
overseeing the pasturing, feeding, milking and
everything else that goes into tending the herd.
From their distant next door neighbor two miles
yon to Sharon's, the number of stores carrying
Springs of Hope Creamery products has grown to
include all North Idaho Super 1 stores, Yoder's
Grocery in Bonners Ferry, Winter Ridge Market,
Yoke's Fresh Market and Miller's Country Store
in Sandpoint and Pilgrim's Natural Food Market
in Coeur d'Alene.
You can learn more about Springs of Hope
Creamery and Ranch on their
Facebook page, (their website is
currently being revamped and is temporarily off
line), or by calling (208) 267-2273. Visitors
are welcome, but if you wind up nowhere, you've
gone a little too far!
At the end of the day, Cassie was tired but
happy. Everything went smooth and everyone, both
the guests and the farmers they visited, had a
good experience and a wonderful time.
"I love my job so much and this was a huge
highlight for me," she said. "I work and partner
with so many amazing people and today really
brought that to light! Paula Rice, her gorgeous
flower farm and her wonderful crew at BeeHaven,
Simon and Marqui Ronniger and their incredible
organic farm, Ray Chaffee with Curley Creek
Honey and then the spectacular tour of Springs
of Hope Ranch and Creamery! It was a wonderful
day. Everything from the weather, the company,
and the venues, to all of the lovely treats
along the way ... I love our community and I
love what a diverse agricultural community we
have!"
In fact, as the day ended, she was already
thinking ahead to next year and how to handle
what turned out to be the hardest part of
arranging this year's tour, telling so many that
there just wasn't any more room.
"I hated having to turn people away," she said.
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Cassie
Olson, right, was up bright and early to
attend her first farm tour as main
organizer, and despite her initial
jitters, there's no way the day could
have turned out much better. |
| Even though
it's still early spring thanks to its
late start this year, Paula Rice's
peonies at BeeHaven are already almost
waist high and beginning to bud,
assuring that passers-by will soon be
seeing amazing splashes of color! |
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And even
though most flowers have yet to bloom, the
early spring flowers, including these
tulips, are already in blossom, a welcome
sight after a long, wet winter. |
| Simon
Ronniger gets into the finer points of
raising root crops, especially the
potatoes his farm, Ronniger's Organics,
is famous for. Behind him is the high
tunnel hoop house that will, once he
gets used to it, extend his growing
season. |
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Guests
visit one of the root cellars at
Ronniger's Organics, left, and
Ronniger's Country Store, where folks
can buy great food, seed potatoes and
more. |
| While the
older crowd was most interested in the
technical details of beekeeping during
their visit to Curley Creek Honey, the
younger crowd couldn't get enough of
watching the bees at work in a
glass-sided super. |
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Ray
Chaffee's vast knowledge of bees and
beekeeping, coupled with his gracious
manner and great good humor, made the
tour group's visit to his farm a
highlight of the day. |
| From the
young calves, including this two week
old Brown Swiss bull ... |
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... to the
darling young ladies who do all they can
to pitch in and help, a visit to Springs
of Hope Creamery and Ranch is sure to
provide you with more than your recommended
daily dose of cuteness! |
| And the
samples, such as the huckleberry ice
cream the crew generously scooped out
for those on the tour, are certain to
tantalize your taste buds, as Dylan and
Makenna Olson can readily attest! |
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