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David Lee Ronniger |
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December 1, 1944 ~ July 2, 2017 |
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July 6, 2017 |
By Laura Lanfear
David Lee Ronniger grew up in the Federal
Heights neighborhood of Salt Lake City.
After high school he joined the Marines. When
his father, who was an OB/GYN doctor died,
David, his mother and his younger brother and
sister opened Whole Earth Natural Foods in 1971.
In 1977 David left Salt Lake City to pursue his
dream of being a farmer. His siblings, Molly and
Steve, continued to run the store until 1985.
David ended up with a farm in Moyie Springs and
put in nearly 40 years of work there. One winter
in the early days of his farming career, he was
given a bag of unusual potatoes. With his
uncanny knack for predicting upcoming
agricultural trends, he held onto the potatoes
all winter studying up on the long forgotten
varieties and making plans to begin multiplying
them during harvest.
His crop turned out to be a bumper crop that
year and Ronniger's Potato Farm was born.
He changed Idaho from a monoculture potato crop
to a cornucopia of variety. David was
instrumental in introducing over 200 varieties
of certified organic seed potatoes and 10
varieties of fingerling potatoes. His customers
were on the forefront of potato history.
Ronniger's Potato Farm achieved something close
to rock star status in the world of agriculture.
There are dozens of articles written about him
and his farm in magazines like Martha Stewart's,
the New Yorker, Rocky Mountain Gardening, Hobby
Farms, Montana Health Journal, National
Gardening and Harrowsmith Country Life, just to
name a few.
But that's not all David is famous for.
In 1990 he got a Haflinger horse from a friend
who was downsizing his own herd. The Haflinger
is a small sturdy horse with a friendly nature
and David used them in his fields. 15 years
later David was the second largest breeder of
this horse in the U.S.
David was one of the few people in the western
United States who knew how to process the
indigenous seeds of the area. He started off by
collecting conifer seeds for Christmas tree
farms across the country and soon started
harvesting seeds for small trees and native
shrubs.
He collected seeds in Montana, Idaho, Washington
and British Colombia forests for species such as
quaking Aspen, bunchberry dogwood and Rocky
Mountain Maple to ensure their continued
existence. He processed hundreds of thousands
pounds of seeds.
David's days on the farm were long and he didn't
hire much outside help. He prided himself on
being self-sufficient and conscious of the
environment. He would reuse and recycle. He went
to auctions and rebuilt his farm equipment. He
had his own sawmill and cut the lumber for the
buildings that he built. He had old bikes which
his workers used to get around on the farm.
The farm in Idaho is being continued by David's
son Simon and family
David wrote that he "retired to Hot Springs,
Montana."
During this retirement he remodeled and opened
Camas Organic Market and then later added a
large addition. He developed his little farm so
he could provide his community and all the
visitors with locally grown produce. He built a
large root cellar and added a high tunnel
greenhouse.
He wrote that his intention was to set a
precedence in Hot Springs for this community and
other communities, families and individuals to
see how simply we can live and appreciate the
wisdom in smallness. He believed people must
learn to grow a garden, learn about nutrition
and start meals from scratch. He wanted the
store to be a place for people to come together
and share what they are learning and growing.
"What I really want to see is an explosion of
awareness," he said. "The only way to help
people change their way of thinking is through
education. Information is everywhere these days,
but first person accounts, actually seeing how
to make it happen ... that's what hits close to
home."
Certainly anyone who appreciates high-quality
vegetables, plants and even horses can agree
that our community's produce selections and our
entire nation's agricultural selections and are
a lot better off because of David. |
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