Annie's Organic Farmers: Roanwood Farm

 

Drive north. Drive north almost to the Canadian border, and at the end of a windy dirt road you’ll find Roanwood Farm. The land is hill country with steep breaks and an endless horizon. Larry and Colleen Pankratz have farmed since 1976, and both come from farming families in Lustre and Glasgow, Montana. Their kids have stayed near the farm, and luckily their son Cody is following in Larry’s footsteps.

 

We joined them on a chilly August morning while they waited for their shared combine to finish another job. We had some good coffee and lively conversation about their experiences farming, global economics and the future of organic agriculture. If you’re gonna sit at the kitchen table and jaw, these are the folks to visit for good conversation. Larry’s got the business savy of a stockbroker and enjoys marketing his own crops, a choice he didn’t have when he farmed conventionally. Colleen is bright and articulate and sums up the challenges facing farm families in a few quick sentences. We banter about rising fuel costs, global pressures facing organics, and crop prices.

 

Larry was a conventional farmer until 1997 when he made the switch to organic. He says that he likes how organic farming has more choice than conventional---the marketing is different, “less globalized so you have more say in how to market your crops.” Organic crops are more of a niche, so prices haven’t been commodified like the conventional market.

 

Larry also says organic farming is more fun, and likes being his own boss. Cody also likes this part about farming. Colleen points out that a big reason they went organic was for their health: spraying chemicals made Larry feel sick. Both Colleen and Larry say that cancer has struck many families in the valley and they count themselves lucky to be free of it’s grasp. Colleen says in rural areas organic food is hard to find and it’s up to people to grow it themselves. That’s the irony of being an organic farmer in a very rural area, there’s no organic food in the grocery store.

 

We hop in their pick-up truck for a quick tour of the farm with Larry and Cody. Colleen stays behind to make mid-day dinner. We drive to the northern border of the farm where a cement stake separates the U.S. and Canada and we take photos on both sides like tourists. The land looks the same on either side of the stake and the idea of a border seems very arbitrary. Larry farms right up to the Canadian border and says that it’d be nearly impossible to farm land on the Canadian side now, due to Homeland Security.
 

We travel south to where their durum crop grows and it’s some of the most beautiful durum we have ever seen. The grain heads are enormous and still a bit green, harvest is two weeks away for this field. Larry holds some durum in his hands and we take several pictures of he and Cody in the durum. Larry’s got a proud look on his face and you can tell he takes pride in the crop.

 

The sky has cleared up from gray and now billowy clouds float through blue sky. I think it fits the image for “Amber waves of Grain.”

 

The Pankratz’s maintain soil fertility by rotating crops and using summer fallow to rest the soil. They also interplant yellow blossom sweet clover with the durum and it grows up after the durum is combined and grows tall into the next season. The clover is tilled under in the summer and adds nitrogen and organic matter back to the soil. Their biggest weed problem is wild oats, and they control it by crop rotation and cultivating the summer fallow fields. Where conventional farmers use herbicides, organic farmers use diesel fuel; they spend lots of time on the tractor plowing down weeds.

 

As we wrap up our visit, we ask them what they want consumers to know about organic farmers. Larry and Colleen sigh -- there’s so much to say. So much happens to the crops from the farm to the dinner table. The main comment they share with Annie's consumers is that the cost of their food is cheap when it comes to your health. It takes a lot of land and hard work to make a living at farming. It’s worth paying a little more for organic food because eating healthy gives you peace of mind and a healthier body.