Planet B Gardens is the 10-acre homestead I purchased in northwestern Montana the summer of 2014 to start my own local mini-farm. I started with a small vegetable garden and hothouse. Spring 2016 I added apple, peach, and cherry trees, along with blueberry, blackberry, and raspberry bushes, and an apiary. My goal is to have a local supply of healthy pollinators — with honey as a bonus. You can keep up with the latest happenings on the Planet B Gardens blog, along with recipes, what worked, what didn’t, and what I’m trying next.

Sometimes you’ll see me at local farmers’ markets in Columbia Falls, and Kalispell, Montana during the summer under the name Planet B Harvest.

I am also on the organizing committee for Free the Seeds! — an annual fair held at Flathead Valley Community College in Kalispell, Montana the first Saturday each March. We started the fair in 2016 with a small group of dedicated volunteers expecting 300-400 folks to attend that first year. Over 1600 showed up!

Free the Seeds! puts on free workshops, community conversations, kids’ activities, local food, and a giant seed swap — all with the goal of educating our community about real seeds, real food, and real skills to build a sustainable and resilient future.

I see a need for decentralizing food production and building healthy local food ecosystems. While big agribusiness and factory farming were once working solutions for providing reasonably healthy food for folks, small-scale, localized food production stands a better chance of providing quality food at reasonable cost in the near future. Why is localizing food production a good idea? More on that here: Why Grow Local along with ideas for getting started. — Pamela Lund