Tom Lampman is a father and gardener who I’ve been emailing and bugging to come on the show, and he's busier then I am, and he patiently dealt with my technology problems today besides and so he is here to share his story of many successful gardening adventures!

Tell us a little about yourself. 

I can start with the long story, but that starts back in about the 1700s, so I'll give you the short story. I grew up in Minnesota, come from a long line of German Protestant farmers. Grew up basically in a the house my dad  built in basically the sheep pasture of my grandfather’s farm, which really was his wife’s farm, he was a hired hand and she married him, that's how i got located there.

Went to University, met a girl from Minneapolis, what can I say? We hit it off pretty good, but getting tired of the big city life. Minneapolis, where we went to the school, was a great place, lots of lakes and bike trails, and stuff like that, but it was an urban center, we like the country and being out in the sticks away from people. A buddy of mine said come on up to Winnipeg. We’d  go up and visit, and really liked the lakes and the woods. Then he said “How’d you like to work up here?” I said “What do you got?” He had a job, so things came to pass, and I took him up on the offer! We went up there unseen, untried, we said let’s give it a whirl, and never looked back after that, been up north, living in the sticks as close as we can get for all these years?!

All this time I've been thinking you were a native Canadian. Was it scary moving to Canada? Was it hard?

Where is Winnipeg? About straight north of Grand Forks. From Winnipeg, we were there for about 10 years,  working for a big dairy processing company. They moved me out to Alberta, out to Calmar.

I’m all confused, I was thinking you were on the coast.

Well, everybody’s from someplace.

Are you on the coast?

Probably straight north of where you are. 53rd paralell about 113th longitude!

Straight North Eureka, Billings, Lethbridge, Calgary, that area.

For some reason I thought you were on the west coast on the ocean?

Nah, it’s too expensive to live there.

Tell me about your first gardening experience?

I come from a long line of German Protestant farmers. My first memories, the first memories I have are of digging potatoes with my great grandfather. He was probably 90 years of age at the time we were out there digging potatoes. An old farmer who'd been farming for lots of years, who had retired in a post war house he bought after saving a little money over the years. He had a little garden in the backyard. He’d take his garbage and clippings and potato peelings and burry them in the backyard. I never thought anything of it at the time. Now were’ kind of back to that situation. I'm doing about the same thing now except I’ve got a big barrel, I keep all my compost in.

Several barrels as a matter of fact.

Tell us about that.

Up here we’re like the Texas of the north, oil patch is pretty big up here. Oil, Tar Sands and stuff. You get a lot of these old oil barrels, there’s plastic ones. Being pretty frugal I never throw anything away, I can always make a use for everything. So what I’ve done, I’ve taken these and cut the tops out and the bottoms out, drill a couple of 2” holes around the edges, and put all my stuff in there. Grass clippings, leaves, what have you. Then I water it down. I have 3 in a row, and I just keep transferring it every month  or 2 months, I got some of those red wiggler worms and I put those in there and it’s just amazing how fast those guys decompose organic waste. Just unreal! So that's what I do, then I have another couple of big areas out back with some mesh, with grass clippings. I keep rotating it and flipping it, it’s a bit of work.

I’m looking at the picture you sent me, I’m picturing them sideways.

Tom Lampman is a father and gardener who I’ve been emailing and bugging to come on the show, and he's busier then I am, and he patiently dealt with my technology problems today besides and so he is here to share his story of many successful gardening adventures!

Tell us a little about yourself. 

I can start with the long story, but that starts back in about the 1700s, so I'll give you the short story. I grew up in Minnesota, come from a long line of German Protestant farmers. Grew up basically in a the house my dad  built in basically the sheep pasture of my grandfather’s farm, which really was his wife’s farm, he was a hired hand and she married him, that's how i got located there.

Went to University, met a girl from Minneapolis, what can I say? We hit it off pretty good, but getting tired of the big city life. Minneapolis, where we went to the school, was a great place, lots of lakes and bike trails, and stuff like that, but it was an urban center, we like the country and being out in the sticks away from people. A buddy of mine said come on up to Winnipeg. We’d  go up and visit, and really liked the lakes and the woods. Then he said “How’d you like to work up here?” I said “What do you got?” He had a job, so things came to pass, and I took him up on the offer! We went up there unseen, untried, we said let’s give it a whirl, and never looked back after that, been up north, living in the sticks as close as we can get for all these years?!

All this time I've been thinking you were a native Canadian. Was it scary moving to Canada? Was it hard?

Where is Winnipeg? About straight north of Grand Forks. From Winnipeg, we were there for about 10 years,  working for a big dairy processing company. They moved me out to Alberta, out to Calmar.

I’m all confused, I was thinking you were on the coast.

Well, everybody’s from someplace.

Are you on the coast?

Probably straight north of where you are. 53rd paralell about 113th longitude!

Straight North Eureka, Billings, Lethbridge, Calgary, that area.

For some reason I thought you were on the west coast on the ocean?

Nah, it’s too expensive to live there.

Tell me about your first gardening experience?

I come from a long line of German Protestant farmers. My first memories, the first memories I have are of digging potatoes with my great grandfather. He was probably 90 years of age at the time we were out there digging potatoes. An old farmer who'd been farming for lots of years, who had retired in a post war house he bought after saving a little money over the years. He had a little garden in the backyard. He’d take his garbage and clippings and potato peelings and burry them in the backyard. I never thought anything of it at the time. Now were’ kind of back to that situation. I'm doing about the same thing now except I’ve got a big barrel, I keep all my compost in.

Several barrels as a matter of fact.

Tell us about that.

Up here we’re like the Texas of the north, oil patch is pretty big up here. Oil, Tar Sands and stuff. You get a lot of these old oil barrels, there’s plastic ones. Being pretty frugal I never throw anything away, I can always make a use for everything. So what I’ve done, I’ve taken these and cut the tops out and the bottoms out, drill a couple of 2” holes around the edges, and put all my stuff in there. Grass clippings, leaves, what have you. Then I water it down. I have 3 in a row, and I just keep transferring it every month  or 2 months, I got some of those red wiggler worms and I put those in there and it’s just amazing how fast those guys decompose organic waste. Just unreal! So that's what I do, then I have another couple of big areas out back with some mesh, with grass clippings. I keep rotating it and flipping it, it’s a bit of work.

I’m looking at the picture you sent me, I’m picturing them sideways.

Rosie Goldich works with Opportunity Link, Inc. as an AmeriCorps VISTA. She is currently working on several food security initiatives, such as a food security assessment and working with Alternative Energy Resources Organization on their Abundant Montana project. Prior to coming to Havre, she graduated from Clark University with a B.A. in Economics. She has previously worked in resource development at Habitat for Humanity in Shanghai, China and Worcester, MA. Rosie is very interested in pursuing a career in food systems and outreach.

Rosie is originally from Eastern Connecticut. When she’s not at work, she can be found traveling around Montana, hiking, reading, and hanging out with friends.

Tell us a little about yourself.

My name is Rosie Goldich. I'm currently serving as a AmeriCorps VISTA

Opportunity Link is a non-profit about the size of South Carolina.

Our operating region consists  of Glacier County all the way to Malta and down to Cascade, or Judith Basin and also include the three reservations, Blackfeet, Rocky Boy and Fort Belnap in that area.

So we do housing projects downtown revitalization, things like that, we are also the parent organization of North Central Montana Transit bus service. Twice a week we have special service down to Great Falls. Very low cost, $1 one way so that makes it very affordable to get across the high line. That's a little bit about what Opportunity Links does.

I'm a Vista and I was brought on for the Montana Regional Food Assessment and Planning Project. But if you want a short name for that we just call it, the  Community Food Project, grant writing and local capacity for building local food systems and sustainable

outreach for people who might not realize what a local food system is. Within Opportunity Links we have 8 USDA  food deserts.

We have 20k people living in those food desert, people who need better access to healthy foods.

I've talked about food deserts a little. You have 8 food deserts in your region. 

A Food Desert is People who are low income and have low access to healthy fresh food.

Rural food desert you would have to travel over 10 miles to get to local healthy food.

An Urban food desert means you have to travel over 1 mile to find local healthy food.

In an urban distance traveling a mile in a rural situation traveling over 10 or 20 miles isn't that uncommon

A local food system is a community where you use local food. Some organizations do it up to 250 miles. So all the food that is grown and produced, processed and consumed within a 250 mile radius, some might consider it within a 400 mile radius. There are no federal guidelines to what are considered local.

I'm a 180 miles to Missoula. So down by Stevensville. And I'm 145 miles to Browning.

Havre to Kalispell is 262 miles

The size of south Carolina.

Your food travels 5 miles.

Average food or produce in the US travels 1500 miles from where it's grown to where it's consumed, which is an interesting figure.

The episode before you is with Patti Armbrister and she talks about food miles so listeners should have just heard that.

I love Patti! She's up in Hinsdale. Also steering Growing Leaders Youth Summit is a great event that is happening all across Montana.

Rocky Boy Reservation, Kalispell, Billings, Helena, and Bozeman maybe. What it is is a partnership between NCAT = National Center for Appropriate Tech and local Non-profits. Getting the youth interested in local foods. Not just what a commodity crop standpoint, they are learning in FFA and 4H

Patti Armbrister is our Keynote speaker.

Mike Dalton who does Growing Gardens from Garbage, Dr. Bob Quinn who does Kamut International out of Big Sandy. I'm on the Steering Committee for Rocky Boy’s education event, inviting kids and teachers to learn more about what’s going on in Montana.

Episode 66: Kelly Ware | Permaculture Global | Polson, MT | Part 2

The post 66. Kelly Ware | Permaculture Global | Polson, MT | Part 2 appeared first on Organic Gardener Podcast.