From clean to green
From Clean the Falls to Clean the Fish, folks in the Flathead faithfully support and care about their communities. Recent cleanup events around the valley are a good example.
Some were scheduled on April 26, a few days after Earth Day. And on Saturday volunteers turned out to dust off downtown Kalispell, Bigfork, Ronan and Glacier Institute’s Big Creek Education Center and field camp.
After we’ve gotten our towns all spruced up for spring, many of us will turning next toward the healthy crop of community gardens popping up all around the valley.
The Farm Hands Nourish the Flathead organization maintains 40 plots at Flathead Valley Community College. The organization’s website — nourishtheflathead.org — is a comprehensive, user-friendly resource for exploring all the valley has to offer in locally sourced food ranging from farms and community gardens to grocers and farmers markets.
The Bigfork/Ferndale Community Garden provides support for local green thumbs, offering more than 70 plots for rent plus classes and workshops on gardening, food production and resources.
Based on Mel Bartholomew’s “Square Foot Gardening” concept, each 4-by-4-foot bed will supply one person with enough produce to make a salad and a vegetable every day throughout the growing season.
The garden is located on Montana 209 behind St. Patrick’s Church; www.bigforkferndalecommunitygarden.com
The Whitefish Community Garden also has raised beds for families to cultivate organic vegetables. Growers also donate a portion of their harvest to the North Valley Food Bank. The garden is behind Whitefish United Methodist Church of Wisconsin Avenue; www.whitefishcommunitygarden.net
Columbia Falls’ community garden is located at River’s Edge Park. It was founded in 2010 when volunteers took an unused piece of city land and reinvented it into a beautiful and useful space.
There are 30 free plots available, two of which are dedicated to the food bank. An herb bed, berry bushes and hops round out the effort. The board has plans to offer educational gardening seminars this summer, member Naomi Morrison says.
The organic garden has plans to expand next summer due to demand for more space. More information is on the Columbia Falls garden’s Facebook page.
As the Farm Hands website says, “Before there were supermarkets, there were farms.”
The popularity of local farmers markets is a quick study in their success. Shoppers can get locally grown, fresh and seasonal produce, grains and meat, along with trees, shrubs and bedding plants from April to October at weekly markets in every city in the valley.
We in the Flathead are lucky indeed to live in a place that can nourish not just our souls with its consummate beauty, but also nourish our bodies with its bounty of wholesome food.
While you’re waiting for the weather to warm up to get your own garden going, you can give Farm Hands a helping hand by dropping by the Three Forks Grill in Columbia Falls from 5 to 9 p.m. Monday.
The restaurant is sponsoring a “Fork It Over” community night fundraiser and a portion of all proceeds will be donated to FarmHands. Reservations are recommended. Call 892-2900.
Community editor Carol Marino may be reached at 758-4440 or by email at community@dailyinterlake.com.