Horticulture • B Bar Ranch • Emigrant Montana

A wide variety of plants and flowers at B Bar Ranch

Between our substantial vegetable garden and year-round greenhouse we grow a significant portion of our own food. Selection of varieties and methods of growing reflect not only the challenges of the high-mountain environment but also our interest in preserving heirloom and open-pollinated varieties of vegetables, and in the sustainability of the soil through appropriate crop rotation, composting, and other organic methods.

We strive to continually improve both the character and content of our soil through properly digging and cultivating, correctly composting, crop rotating, intensive and companion planting and mulching. When necessary, we double-dig our vegetable beds (loosening the soil to a depth of 24 inches), which enables plant roots to penetrate the soil easily and allows a steady stream of nutrients to flow into the stems and leaves. We plant our crops in different beds each year, since different plants take different nutrients, and different quantities of nutrients out of the soil.

Additionally, many of the beds are companion-planted. For various reasons, certain crops do best when grown together, such as beets with onions, and peas with lettuce and spinach.

Compost is our primary source of soil fertilization. We utilize the multitude of materials available here including grass clippings, leaves, weeds, old straw and hay, garden and landscape trimmings, livestock manure and kitchen-generated waste to create rich organic material that is applied to all our growing areas. As the compost is curing, we treat it with specific herbal preparations made from chamomile, yarrow, dandelion, oak bark and stinging nettle. Known as Biodynamic preparations, they help to stimulate compost organisms and organize the various elements contained in the compost, so that they are more readily available to plants.

A key consideration regarding the varieties of crops we grow stems from our interest in helping to preserve heirloom varieties of vegetables, herbs and flowers. Before the industrialization of agriculture, a much wider variety of plant foods was grown for human consumption. In modern agriculture, most food crops are now grown in large monocultural plots, and only a few varieties of each type of crop are grown (usually selected for such traits as ability to withstand long trips to supermarkets, or tolerance to pesticides). As a result, the genetic diversity of the world's food crops is eroding at an unprecedented and accelerating rate. In contrast, heirlooms are varieties that have been grown, enjoyed, and saved for generations, often handed down through families, tribes or cultural groups. A few of our favorites include Forellenschuss lettuce (a gorgeous Austrian variety with red speckles resembling a trout), the Purple Peruvian potato (a traditional variety from the Andean Highlands with unique purple skin and glowing purple flesh) and the Zapotec Pleated tomato (named for its creators, the Zapotec people of Oaxaca, the pink fruits are large, with ruffles like a pleated dress.).

Our successes result not from any one of the separate methods we utilize or from the type of seed we grow, but rather a synergy of techniques that, when applied as a system, provide the best results. We endeavor to take the best of Biodynamic practices, along with Grow Biointensive methods and other tenets of sustainable organic agriculture, to grow the highest-quality crops in the most productive way we can. The result is intensely-flavored produce with rich colors and deep nutritional values, and the satisfaction of knowing that our efforts yield healthy food to feed our guests and ourselves.