Full show notes will be done and posted at the OrganicGardenerPodcast.com soon!! Thanks for your patience this spring as I try to keep the podcast going while working many many hours! But gotta work while the work is there!

Have a great day all you Green Future Growers!!!

Tell us a little about yourself.

I’m 26 grew up in Whitefish mt, left traveled for a while

went to Missoula for an eVST degree

started farming for about 7 years,

sustainable ag, sector of the EVST degree

moved back here right after my degree

started this company with a partner, Rachel Gerber

it was here idea and we

immediately got a contract with Xanterra

So I kind of had to figured it out myself

the are a separate entity

to run all the lodges and restaurant…

Composting

So right now the business model itself is based of the compost product

focused on perennials and annuals as I go

we have some pretty solid product

Food-scrap pick-up service

provide a great rich source of compost

food scrap pick-up service

no option for composting your food scraps

wildlife corridor …

So right now we offer residential and commercial pick-up

a handful of residential customers

5 gallon bucket and liner.

they do the cleaning out residential, a

bio bag

depending on where they live 20-30$ a month

essentially we’re losing money on that.

if they don’t have time to compost scraps

the more

what provides us with eh financial ability to

food scrap

throughout the season

when I have the time,

to reach out

this is what we are doing

[provide with a  48 gallon or 32 gallon bin

depending on how much they produce

food scraps

each week we pick up

3 times,

clean food bins

make the service as simple as possible

transitions especially in this kind of area

more sustainable and

is alternative here

you have to make it as easy as possible

it’s a really solid system

we take their food scraps and

buffalo hills

chef nelson

really forward thinking

is hoping to be buying back our compost s

IT’s been really mixed

it’s interesting a lot of people are excited about it!

Some chefs are so on

multiple different things

they’re not in control of the finances so they have to go through people who are coming to

comes down to the bottom line and they say know

chefs who are really passionate about it

who have more say then other restaurants

that’s been uncomfortable part

initially

oh is it a salesman

I don’t see myself as a salesman

I could see that questions coming up[

made me really uncomfortable the first t6 months

so I recently bought here out of the company

I feel very confident and comfortable

I have had enough restaurants sign on, I know that they would be

excited once it started going

and their employees were happy and

and wasn’t just about the bottom line

it’s always just their bosses as cheap as possible

they feel like they are doing something good

it’s not a huge inconvenience

it’s become easier for me that I am much more confident in my abilities and the system that we were providing

that part had me a little worried

we’re just about a year old

where people were calling

I’m really following Elaine

taking a lot of her online courses

soil food website and community

I’m really trying to focus on spreading the word throughout the community

that’s based on the biology of the compost reacher then the chemical makeup

ag has focused more on that

I want o bring it back to the life in the soil

that’s what’s driving to grow our food in a more sustainable way

perennial compost

perennial’s generally like soil that is more fungal dominated

much more wood chip based

those are the perennial piles

the carbon material that we use is 1/2 wood chips

in the annual piles is 1/6 or a 1/7 wood chip

rest is obviously food scraps

grass clippings,

leaves,

manure

what is being brought to us from the community

thorough the flathead

to bring their wasted material and

don’t want to throw into the landfill

gravel pit set up

landscapers

everyone drops off

grass clippings

cutback that they throw away

we try to make sure

put out there that we don’t’ want to use anything that has been treated or

reach out to farmers and ranchers…

I’ve definitely talked to a lot of people

some people tat I drop off and I don’t know

most I have had a lot of contact with them

at least a year.

they do keep track

they’re close with their clients and customers

for my own business, encouraging

have a couple of investors

the political aspect!

In Montana,

throughout this process

it’s incredibly challenging to start a food scrap composting company

somewhat of a political battle. challenge IDK if other people have tried to do what we are doing or I’m doing I know none else is doing

if I did not have startup

investors

not enough

too unpredictable for a back

too unknown

as far as regulation

working with the DEQ has been an absolute nightmare

doing the best they can

doing their job

no category for something like this

the large composter permit

small composers permit

we’re both pretty smart intelligent women

signing up for a small composter’s permit

based off your size, how much your processing

what your accepting and located

we fall into that category

low cost just processing the application

we sent that tin originally

imagine us  trying to =get that into together

to get this contract with Xanterra

wanted this for the Valley

waited months to hear back form the DEQ,

impossible to get a hold of them, most of the time,

the small composters

move on

continue

then about a month later,

hey, you’re not gonna fit into the small composter

essentially like applying to be a landfill

pay about $7k

mind you we are composting on 2 acres

municipal compositing

annual upwards of $2k

that’s make or break

I held out for as long as I could

you should not be putting this kind of

fiscal burden on

to be encouraging businesses like this to be flourishing

risks,

leaching if

people aren’t composting correctly

could effect people’s water supply

I met with Jon Tester

a while a go for  young entrepreneurs roundtable

this is a huge issue

that sounds’ crazy

said something along the lines of the regulation and the fees involved

should be along the same level of risk

imposed upon the community

just so everybody knows that’s a huge issue

very smart,

Bozeman

who wants to start something like this

doesn’t know if

still waiting and

trying to be as present

shift these guidelines

so that it’s more encouraging these operations

in a responsible way, people who know what they are going,

high nitrogen content

nitrogen leaking into the underground water system

any kind of phosphorous

I am only a person is doing something I’m passionate about

they’re lining these beds with these liners

that are sup[used to help with leaches

the local landfill

working on such a massive scale with so much waste

its impossible not to have issues

when you are throwing these things like food scraps

which is 35-75% food scraps

organics

should be used for something important for the community

essentially

if there is not enough air

or covered with

the environment goes anaerobic, which means there’s not enough air in these systems

they become aerobic, that is the worst, bacterial fungal, any time of microbial friends, or attachments to those food wastes

tastes…

that’s why it’s so important to keep compost piles

essentially creating toxic sludge in the landfill

really general

heated word

it’s not beneficial

it can

methane gas that gets released

one of the biggest issues

Flathead has a whole system for capturing the methane

to use to power some of their

often inefficient

lose a lot of methane

Tell me about your first gardening experience?

They still try sometimes, get frustrated and stop. My first gardening experience started about 17 my good friend Kaley Brown and some others, got into gardening, trying to get to gather and experiment it was fun. Mostly vegetable, grow our food… see what it gook ,initially it was intimidating. as a new gardener I have no idea what I’m doing

with friends we can

might have been even later

one specific place

friends parents piece of land

near us

go ahead grow a garden

owned this land

just outside of town

my 2 friends started a garden out there and it caught on with me, some at my house….

How did you learn how to garden organically?

Yeah, it’s been a really long process

I’m a big proponent of trying ti yourself, screwing up a lot, reading,

seeing what

that didn’t work? Why?

it wasn’t right for that soil, this climate? Maybe I didn’t’ harden  off

some experience at the peas farm, at the college….

Tell us about something that grew well this year.

It varies from year to year, I got a stupid amount of squash, it’s not necessarily that has grown well for me,

how much do I actually ned to grow

how many plants to I need

i still have squash…

Is there something you would do different next year or want to try/new?

I’ve been getting more...