Two small companies—Montana Coffee Traders and Grand Teton Brewing—were honored among much bigger competitors at the inaugural 2011 Good Food Awards in January. While most of the winners are based in larger markets, including Public Domain coffee in Portland, Ore., and Bison Brewing in Berkeley, Calif., the Rocky Mountain businesses impressed a series of judges to earn the Good Food Award seal for high-quality and environmentally-produced food and beverages.
When Barb and Scott Brant started Montana Coffee Traders in Whitefish in 1982, they were the only coffee roasters in the state. “In the ‘80s, people didn’t really know about good coffee,” Barb Brant said. “Most people had never heard the word ‘latte’ before.”
From the beginning, the Brants wanted to offer fair trade and organic before those words were common in the coffee aisle. The company now also sells special blends that contribute to causes. A dollar from each pound sold of the Grizzly Blend, for instance, goes toward supporting habitat for grizzly bears.
Economy Trouble in Toyland: Silverton, Colorado Vs. Mountain Boy Sledworks
Mountain Boy is a niche sled manufacturer, focusing on traditional wooden designs with updated features such as a “lightning-fast” plastic skids and innovative kick sleds. Mountain Boy produced about 100 sleds in Silverton, by hand, until 2004 when it moved much of its production to China. This year, two craftsmen will make about 500 sleds locally. The sleds are sold worldwide with distribution handled exclusively in Silverton.
So many of the sleds are in Silverton, all are distributed from Silverton, but as of late November, none of them are available for purchase in Silverton.
Following an 18-month dispute with officials over zoning, building codes, occupancy ratings and the sign code, Brice and Karen Hoskin decided not to sell their sleds locally as a means of denying sales tax revenue to the town. Since the inception of the company, Mountain Boy had been selling sleds to locals at wholesale pricing, as much as 50 percent off the retail price.
At the crux of the dispute is whether the Hoskins’ sledmaking enterprise, as well as their other business, Montayna Rum Distillers, conform to the town’s code for businesses within the downtown area.
One Friday in early September, I dragged myself out to the field to harvest for the next day’s market, ready to spend hours picking, weighing and sorting the overwhelming bounty a September harvest day brings.
Instead, when I arrived, Jacob shouted from across the field four little, but fearful, words: “We got a frost.”
The forecast had called for 38 degrees, but just in our little spot, that 38 degrees meant freezing. We’d just harvested the first of the tomatoes the week before and the peppers were just starting to put on fruit. It was a cool, wet summer and most of our hot or long-season crops had been seriously hampered. We’d been waiting, hoping, for an Indian Summer. Some of the winter squash – what would feed us and our customers all winter – had just started to flower. We still had five weeks of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) deliveries for our customers and four weeks of farmers’ market tables to fill.
Caregivers See Demand Kalispell Medical Marijuana Clinic Draws Huge Crowd
Hundreds of people gathered at the Kalispell Red Lion hotel for a public clinic on medical marijuana Friday held by the Montana Caregivers Network, many with the goal of obtaining a physician’s statement proclaiming that they are eligible for a state-registered medical marijuana card.
Along with the steady stream of people lining up to be seen by one of the doctors at the clinic, there were roughly 30 tables of licensed marijuana caregivers available to answer questions from prospective patients.
John O’Mailia and his wife Katie came up to Kalispell from the Bitterroot Valley to advertise their business, Affordable Montana Caregivers. He said there were only four caregivers present at an August clinic last year, and the influx of new businesses is partially a result of the recession.
Bucking a long-standing trend that has seen radio station ownership nationwide consolidate into handful of large chains, a troika of Missoula media entrepreneurs have acquired the Trail 103.3 and two other local radio stations.
The stations have been run since 2006 by Salt Lake City-based Simmons Media, but Simmons decided not to renew its operating lease on the stations, and the lease will now expire at the end of this year. The new ownership group includes Kevin Terry, a radio engineer and programmer and the original founder and owner of the stations; Ross Rademacher, former owner of the Maverick Group, a Hamilton-based marketing agency; and Becky Smith, a long-time Missoula media operator with experience in radio, print and online. In addition, Dave Cowan, who was responsible for creating the hugely successful programming format for the Trail, has returned to the station group as director of programming.
In Montana, “Freedom Action Rally” group studying the issue In Conservative Circles, Calls for ‘Citizen Grand Juries’ Grow
The idea of changing state law, or the state Constitution, to allow citizens to convene grand juries in their counties appears to be gathering steam in some conservative circles of Western Montana. The concept would allow citizens to summon juries comprised of members of the public to investigate alleged crimes – not just judges, as is the case currently.
With a Bitterroot man crafting language for a proposed ballot initiative and a Hungry Horse man forming a group to work on draft legislation, a measure allowing for citizen grand juries, in one form or another, seems poised for broader consideration in the coming year – by either the public or, possibly, lawmakers.
