Flathead Cherry Festival 2008

On Sunday we went to Polson, MT at the southern end of Flathead Lake for the Flathead Cherry Festival. It was a weekend of cherry celebration complete with over 125 vendors and exhibitors, Flathead Cherry jewelry, quilts, aprons, jellies, bbq sauce and anything else you can print a cherry on or mix a cherry into.

Saturday was the cherry pit spitting and cherry stem tying contests. Sunday was the pie eating contest which we went to and next year I will enter, the same as I will enter the snow rodeo at the Izaak Walton Inn in Essex.

As you can see by the pictures, everyone had a blast and there was plenty of cherry pie to go around.

The festival usually happens right after the annual harvest, but our unusually long winter and short spring has lead to a late harvest. They should start picking sometime this week.

If you make it out to the valley, be sure and head down the East side of Flathead Lake and stop into any number of cherry stands on the side of the road, or if you like to really get em fresh, you can pick your own at select orchards.

As always, be sure and visit Glacier Adventure for anything and everything Glacier National Park and surrounding area!

Pie time! (Cherry that is)

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Salad Anyone?

I felt like nothing more than a big lettuce and tomato salad after visiting with Keith Grahm of Mountainview Farms Inc in Kalispell, just outside of Glacier National Park in Northwestern Montana. We toured their HUGE hydroponic greenhouses totalling over 10,000 feet of grow space. The whole place is temperature and humidity controlled for year round production. Right now they are concentrating on lettuce and tomatos but more veggies are in the works. Peppers, cucumbers, and year round strawberries are just a few of the planned additions in the future.

Currrently servicing restaurants, and looking forward to someday selling direct to you at the farm, you can get Mountainview Farms Inc local, hydroponically grown lettuce and tomatoes at the Kalispell farmers market, located at the Kalispell Mall on Saturdays though October 18th, from 9:00am till 12:30pm. Also keep your eye out for them at the Farmers Market in West Glacier on Friday evenings. It doesn't get any better than local produce, picked at the farm, delivered to the West entrance of Glacier National Park Park.

Know that you should get there early beacuse according to Keith, "We always sell out!"

After touring the greenhouses and seeing the goods, I can completely understand why.

Be sure to check out Glacier Adventure for video of the greenhouse and interview with Keith Grahm, owner of Mountainview Farms Inc.


See you on the farm.



-jay