THE YOUNG FARMER COOPERATIVE

Katie made her way to northwest Montana in the spring of 2015, drawn to the mountains and to a farm apprenticeship at Harlequin Produce in Arlee, Montana. She worked for two seasons at this diversified organic operation. 

Katie is a native of the Adirondack Mountains of New York. She got her start in agriculture after spending a summer interning at Pleasant Valley Farm in Argyle, New York. She soon found herself consumed by the intensity and beauty of farming.

After meeting Max Smith in the Fall of 2015 she decided to join MGVC for the 2017 growing season. From the start she has been passionate about bringing winter growing and year round production to the farm, as well as maintaining high quality standards for the produce as a focus and a goal. She also tackles the seedling greenhouse production, harvest and wash production, hiring and employee systems management, equipment organization, and leading day to day operations.

Her favorite past-times are skiing deep powder and steep terrain, trail running, pruning tomatoes, and experimenting in the kitchen.

Look forward to seeing her at the farmer’s market stand! (it's one of her favorite spots to be!)

Barret “Carrot” Turkington joined MGVC late in the game. But it was a critical time as we transitioned from a farm with a dream to a farm with a whole-hearted action

Barret started out as a field crew member; a greenhorn with absolutely no farming or even gardening experience. True to his nature, within a year, he was a fully-fledged cooperative member. He fits the workplace culture perfectly, working long hours, completely “getting” the whole goal of this farm … the betterment of self and society and nature. He knows why we do what we do, and he works his darndest to learn and adopt new practices.

In 2019, he became the lead tractor operator AND mechanic, doing routine maintenance on “Tippy” the tractor despite having very little prior mechanical know-how. He’s also the root bunching master, leading crews of new-to-the-harvest interns and employees through turnip after turnip, beet after beet, carrot after colored carrot. When you meet Barret, you’ll have a friend for life.

Not growing up on a farm or inheriting land and equipment has not stopped him from making a go at being a solar energy commodities broker (a farmer).

Max studied a few basic courses on communities and their relationship with food and farming at the "home school" (The University of Montana) in 2009. From there he knew that growing food was a solution to many of the problems we face. He jumped ship for Montana State University in 2010 where he absorbed everything he could from soil and microbiology courses in the SFBS Program.

Known as the farmer behind weekly newsletter and farmers market hooliganry, Building on what he learned at Prairie Heritage Farm and the Towne's Harvest Garden, Max was the early vehicle behind the Missoula Grain and Vegetable Co. He landed a farm lease in 2013 on Craigslist where he grew for a year before meeting Kenny and starting to grow more seriously for the Missoula and Bitterroot Valleys. Max also has ambitions to start the first grain CSA in Western Montana, built largely on the grassroots community-driven fundamentals of a project North of the border near Nelson, B.C.