Farm Tour

The Boundary County Soil Conservation District and Farm Bureau hosted its annual tour on Friday, including Moose Valley Farms in Naples, Bert and Liz Woods farm along Deep Creek and Elk Mountain Farms.

Moose Valley Farms

Moose Valley Farms owners Mary Kimball and her daughter, Cindi, showed off a greenhouse full of a plants and gardening accessories.

Cindi Kimball moved here from Seattle in 2004 to help her mom with the  greenhouses.

“My mom called me and said, ‘guess what your father bought me. A couple of greenhouses. Do you want to come and help me with them?’” Cindi Kimball said. “Little did I know that they were this big and that this would turn out to be as nice as it is. We love our plants and our garden.”

Moose Valley Farms carries vegetables, bedding plants, annuals and vegetable starts and makes its own “super soil,” which can be bought by the yard or bag.

“The super soil is mixed right here with our own dirt making system, we add steer manure, peat moss, compost and clay and it is a best seller,” Kimball said.

The Wood homestead

The next stop was at the property of Bert and Liz Wood and “a creek runs through it.”

Deep Creek goes through the property, which was eroding and expanding the creek’s width. This was affecting the property and the fish habitat because nothing could grow along the banks. The creek was cutting into the land, which is also used as pasture for livestock.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service and Naples contractor Clint Kimball came to the rescue.

According to Michael Gondek with Boundary County District Conservation District, they planted willows and place rock barb along 760 feet of the creek’s banks to better serve the environment and fish. Willow bundles were planted every 10 feet and will provide shade for fish. 

NRCS works with property owners to conserve, maintain and protect natural resources on their property. Programs through the U.S. Department of Agriculture help owners pay for their conservation efforts. And in turn the landowner hires a contractor like Kimball to do the project. which funnels money into the community.

For information, call 267-3340.

Elk Mountain Farms

The tour ended at Elk Mountain Farms, Anheuser Busch hops farm. 

The farm bureau hosted an authentic Mexican lunch made by some of the wives of the migrant workers.

Inbev, a Belguim company, recently bought the company and combined with Anheuser Busch. 

Elk Mountain has 20 people full-time year-round employees. There are close to 200 migrant workers at Elk Mountain Farms from April until harvest in August.

The migrant workers bring their families, and housing is provided for them at the farm. The children attend Boundary County School District.

“Locals are welcome to come out and work, but we are heavily dependent on the migrant workers,” said general manager Ed Atkins.

Atkins explained there are some changes in the hops growing operation as a result of the ownership change, however, Budweiser and Bud Light will remain unchanged.

One change includes to European varieties of noble aroma hops containing a higher alpha content.  This hop will be used in sub premium and kettle brews.

North Idaho is ideal for hop growing because of its long days and cool nights, Atkins said. 

“We are at about the same parallel as Munich, Germany, here,” said Atkins.

Elk Mountain Farms is one of about 40 hops-growing farms in the United States, according to Atkins.

“Twenty-three years ago there were about 400 U.S. growers,” he said. “It costs about $5,000 per acre to maintain high quality standards.”

According to Atkins, one pound of hops can produce about 10,000 gallons of beer depending on the type of hops and conditions.