The PrimaFoodie Guide to Local and Conscious Brands: Missoula Edition
Missoula is as much a home to the journalism student as it is to the local farmer, to the artist as it is to the beekeeper, and to the athlete as it is to the entrepreneur. This southwest Montana city of nearly 80,000 is a place where the rugged wilds of the West share space with university professors and modern creatives. Small but mighty, it's a growing metropolis under some of the country's biggest skies.
Missoula is also a place where local, conscious, health-forward companies are providing some of the best in the nation for organic foods, beverages, and more. Here’s our PrimaFoodie take on a handful of the many offerings to consider in this great town, as well as a few just south in the Bitterroot Valley. Each one is bettering the food system in its own way.
All of us on the PrimaFoodie team have been to our share of local markets selling organic produce and foods. Hands down, a store that's won our respect is The Good Food Store. For 50 years, this independent grocery store has been selling Missoulians near and far local organic fruits and vegetables, coffee, tea, herbs, grains, and more. The staff is friendly, the bulk section is impressive, and the prepared foods are all made in-house.
Harlequin Produce, an organic fruits and vegetable company, is in Arlee, just north of Missoula. The farmers and cultivators here practice a method of tillage (preparing the land for crops) that is minimally invasive so it honors the earth. You can find their produce in local CSA deliveries, The Good Food Store, the Missoula Farmers' Market, and more.
About 25 minutes south of Missoula, you'll run into the small town of Victor, the home of Lifeline Farm. A family-run business of organic farmers, Lifeline offers organic dairy and meat products, from fresh cheese to handmade sausages. Everything is made from the family's grass-fed animals on their farm up the road.
Free-roaming chickens, tons of fresh vegetables, and sustainable practices—these are just a few things that sum up Clark Fork Organics, another small but powerful family-run farm that serves fresh produce, herbs, and more to Missoual and surrounding towns.
We included this family-operated honey business in our PrimaFoodie Guide to Honey, and we keep coming back for more. They practice sustainable beekeeping methods to harvest pure, unadulterated, raw honey with zero additives.
This woman-owned apothecary is reason alone to visit Missoula—it's that good. Run by trained herbalists, Meadowsweet Herbs offers an impressive bounty of sustainable, organic dried herbs, roots, tinctures, teas, and personal care items. The team here is so knowledgeable. Have sore muscles? Headaches? Shingles? They'll direct you to one of their in-house concoctions or make one bespoke.
We discovered Frank's Little Farm at the Missoula Farmers’ Market last summer. Named in homage to Montana worker's rights revolutionary Frank Little, this all-organic farm is owned and run by a family in town. Owners Prairie and Sean offer fresh produce via CSA boxes and farmers' market stands.
We love fresh eggs here at PrimaFoodie, and only aim to eat those from conscious farmers. Buck N Dave's, named after the two owners (who are rodeo stars) lets their hens roam freely on their farm located in Corvallis, south of Missoula. Their eggs are free of antibiotics and hormones.
Heath, the founder of the kombucha company Nourishing Cultures, creates his fermented beverages using 100 percent organic teas, flowers, berries, and vegetables. Even better, most of what he uses comes from another local Montana food purveyor.
A common issue for Montana is that it sees a shortage of fresh produce in the winter. (This is a problem for many states that face elements such as dry air and snow.) To counter this, the farmers at Winter Kissed Farms follow “Kaizen,” a Japanese method that focuses on the constant improvement of practices. They grow their crops in the winter with row covers and have successfully worked to acclimate their produce plants to cold temperatures.