In a few weeks, Lily Bend Farm will be filled with rows of flowers, organic vegetables and grazing lambs. But that didn’t happen overnight — the fruits of Ellen Mering and Andrew Larson’s labors tell a story about owning a small working farm.  

There are fences to build, seeds to start and planting to do. All of it is timed around when the first farmers markets start, Mering said. Garlic and tulips are already in the ground, set to pop up in time for Mother’s Day.  

“I always think these two rows of flowers are never enough, until they bloom and then I’m cutting buckets and buckets of tulips,” Mering said.  

When the couple purchased 5 acres in Evergreen several years ago, a big, beautiful garden was always the goal. But they knew it was going to take a lot of hard work. On top of finding the property, getting the tools to cultivate that goal came down to good timing and luck.  

“The fact that we stumbled into this property when we did set us on this trajectory. And the fact that we were able to time it with meeting people like Julian Cunningham at Swallow Crest Farm, who sold us his tractor at an affordable price,” Larson said.  

Janie Locker of Lower Valley Farm helped, too. When she decided to shut down her farm to move back to Missouri, she sold the new farmers used equipment. They are just a couple of the many mentors they’ve met since beginning their journey.  

“Also just going over to a fully functional farm and helping clean it up and bring stuff here was a huge head start for us in terms of getting shovels, hand tools and irrigation equipment,” Mering said. “We’re just grateful for farmers thinking in that way, like when they shut down their farm and pass it on to the next farmer.”  

Another inspiration is Pam Gerwe of Purple Frog Gardens, an organic farm in Whitefish that she runs alongside Mike Jopek.   

“She said something wonderful recently, which is that we need to have an abundance mindset. Food grows abundantly here, and there’s so many people who might not have learned about the farmers market or where you can buy local food,” Mering said. “So the market for growing local food and sharing it with the community is kind of boundless at this point.”  

They don’t want to compete with other local farms but rather work together to get locally grown food out into the community. That’s why they joined the Falls Farm Co-op, in addition to making the normal rounds at local farmers’ markets and driveway farm stands. The co-op brings together several farms near Columbia Falls to introduce newer farmers to the market under one stall, offering a broader range of produce and products.  

Larson said there’s the obvious health benefit of buying local produce, but there’s also an economic benefit as well.  

“Just like the power of the local dollar is huge. I mean, when you spend the dollar here locally, it stays in the economy, especially if that dollar is then spent here after that, too. If that dollar stays here, it grows here — versus sending your money off to a company,” he said.  

It also builds community, Mering said.  

“It’s just cool to know where the food comes from and that there's people we know helping raise that food. We love Farm-to-Market pork. Every time we're eating their bacon, we're like, ‘Oh my God, we know them. They're at the market with us,’” she said.  

YIELD FROM a farm is tied to the effort poured into each season.  

Aside from a small piece of farm equipment, the work at Lily Bend Farm is completed by hand. They use landscaping fabric to cut down on the weeds, but there is still a lot of weeding to be done, regardless.  

Inside their log cabin home, an entire room is dedicated to seed starts. Under bright grow lights, the seeds sprout in the warmth of the indoors, usually sometime in February, and grow until they are strong enough to be planted in one of the greenhouses or in the field.  

They started growing various kinds of lettuce in the greenhouse, which sustains a warm temperature in the mid-April chill. Once those come to maturity, they will be cut and made into a spring mix, which is very popular at local farmer markets. 

Startup costs are a challenge, Larson said. But, between getting secondhand equipment and “being really scrappy,” the couple said there are ways to make it work. To construct a new greenhouse, they recently took advantage of an Environmental Quality Incentives Program grant, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.  

“I think we romanticize small farming a lot ... A lot of people say ‘This is something I want!’  But for anybody who's going into it, I would say you have to write a business plan. Look at the numbers and think about things,” Mering said.  

Among the vegetables grown on the farm are cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, kale, carrots, spinach, rhubarb and several flowers — like zinnias, cosmos and snapdragons.  

They’ve also been rehabilitating part of the property once used as pasture for horses, slowly improving the soil health by rotating the lambs throughout. They eventually want to establish a large perirenal garden with fruit trees and berry bushes.  

Mering can remember when the couple started gardening together, which was in raised beds at a rental. With her background in forestry and Larson’s career in biology, they both knew they wanted to have a large garden one day. Mering works part-time for DREAM Adaptive Recreation, but recent success has allowed Larson to quit his job and work on the farm full-time.  

“It's been very challenging, but also rewarding and amazing to see what consistent small progress looks like over the course of a few years. But I think it was a big driver in me deciding to leave my employment to pursue this. Like, how do we rebalance our lives? ... I think just carving out more time for freedom and conducting your life the way you want it,” he said.  

It took three years to decide on a farm name, Larson said. But when his late grandmother Lillian Piñon Carrillo was inducted into the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame last year, they landed on honoring her.  

“She was a Mexican-American immigrant, and in her lifetime, was instrumental in her small community of Globe, Arizona. She started several businesses there and was active in the local Knights of Columbus charity organization and huge with the Girl Scouts, which was really important to her. It just seemed fitting,” he said.  

Next summer, to honor her 100th birthday, they plan to do a large planting of lilies and have Larson’s family visit from Arizona.  

To learn more, visit lilybendfarm.com/.  

Reporter Taylor Inman can be reached at 406-758-4440 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support.

    Ellen Mering and Andrew Larson look over a row of tulips beginning to grow at Lily Bend Farm on Friday, April 17. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    Water droplets collect around a tulip bud at Lily Bend Farm on Friday, April 17. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    Tulips bud at Lily Bend Farm on Friday, April 17. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    Tulips bud at Lily Bend Farm on Friday, April 17. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    Tomato seedlings grow indoors at Lily Bend Farm on Friday, April 17. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    Rows of spinach sprout at Lily Bend Farm on Friday, April 17. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    Lisianthus flowers grow inside a greenhouse at Lily Bend Farm on Friday, April 17. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider