We are excited to announce that we have a full time farm manager joining us spring of 2022! Heidi Harris, although unrelated, shares the same great last name as Eric and Katie. Heidi joins us from Massachusetts, where she has spent the last few years working at Five College Farms. She has a degree in International Agriculture and Development from Andrews University.
We will let her tell you a little more about herself:
“I am passionate about sharing my love for plants. I love to see the excitement as kids watch the plants grow and progress every day. I also think that it is a great way to get them interested in health and responsibility.
I grew up on a farm and had the chance to work with a variety of crops. This started my interest in agriculture. I have experience with many different farms, each with different practices, climates, cultures, crops, goals and resources. The chance to work in multiple settings has giving me experience in creative problem solving and given me the chance to learn many new things. I am excited to be at Bear Canyon Farm, I am looking forward to growing food for Bozeman!”
Our Story
You might say it all started with an accident.
Eric Harris, a 2003 graduate of Mount Ellis Academy and a board member since 2013, had a lot of time to think while sitting on his couch recovering from crushing his foot between a fully loaded trailer and a hitch. Researching water rights for his own property, he became curious about Mount Ellis Academy’s water rights. His research found that MEA had water rights to irrigate all of the property. Eric began envisioning a large scale commercial farming enterprise to financially help MEA.
It was around that time that Elder Merlin Knowles, former Montana Conference President and Mount Ellis Academy board chairman, challenged his board members to read Education. While reading Mrs. White’s words and her vision for agriculture in Adventist schools, Eric’s conviction grew stronger. Mrs. White wrote, “It is God’s plan that agriculture shall be connected with the work or our sanitariums and schools. Our youth need the education to be gained from this line of work” (Testimonies 8:227). Eric was certain that MEA needed an agricultural program.
Having recently graduated from Walla Walla University, Eric and his wife Katie were living in Fairfield, Montana successfully making a go at farming and nursing, respectively. Living on Katie’s earnings from nursing, they purchased land from Eric’s family, and each year they invested their profitback into the farm, allowing them to take out smaller and smaller loans until they were operating loan free – a rare occurrence for beginning farmers. They were financially stable and considering expanding their operation. But God had other plans in mind.
That was around the time of the accident.
As Katie put it, “Eric was consumed with the idea. Abnormally consumed.” Unable to sleep or waking in the night, he couldn’t get the idea out of his mind. He believed that he could help the school along the path to commercial farming, and after crunching the numbers, a lot of prayer, and Katie’s encouragement, he proposed a plan to the school board. As he remembers, he was “shot down immediately.”
Eric and Katie were not deterred. “We knew that if God wanted agriculture, He would make it possible.” Katie told Eric, “It is very clear that God is laying this on your heart.” To Katie, it was out of character for Eric to think about something daily for months on end. “It was so clear to me that God really wanted him to act on the thoughts that were consuming him.”
Eric and Katie continued praying, and they went back to their research. Everyone they talked to and everything they read led them to market gardening – a small scale production of fruits and vegetables which are sold directly to consumers. It was important to them that the garden endeavor be linked to Mount Ellis Academy and Mount Ellis Elementary. While researching the importance of gardens in schools, Katie found that gardens not only help address issues of childhood obesity through exercise and healthy food choices, but time spent in the garden helps improve academic performance. Furthermore, the research showed that gardening re-engaged teachers with teaching. She was particularly impressed by the fact that secular education was turning to agriculture. She found that 27% of public elementary schools in the U.S. utilize school gardens. As Katie said, “They were following God’s plan, whether they realized it or not.”
Eric found the Adventist Agriculture Association (AdAgrA) through a sermon by David Obermiller on audioverse. In 2017 Eric and Elder Knowles went to an AdAgrA convention. In his research, Eric read George
Knight’s article “SDA Agriculture Programs: Symbols of Corporate Guilt or Unlimited Opportunity.” Through this research, Eric learned the importance of small scale, high intensity crops to give more students hands-on experience with agriculture. In essence, to obtain the “education to be gained by this line of work” that Mrs. White was talking about. Originally, Eric thought that the school could run the farm, but after heeding the advice of knowledgeable people and hearing about other failed industries, Eric and Katie decided to keep the farm separate from the school to protect the school and to help keep the industry afloat. “To operate separate but to work in cooperation with one another for the benefit of the students.”
They brought their new and improved plan back to the school board and came away with a five- year, five-acre lease to an entity that they were going to establish. Their work had just begun. Between April and June 2017, Eric and Katie formed the non-profit Bear Canyon Farm by assembling a board of directors, and, with the help of a lawyer and an accountant, filing all the paperwork necessary to establish a non-profit status with the state and the IRS.
In the midst of this, they heard about a 1-1 matching grant up to $50,000, called the Growth Through Agriculture Grant offered from the Montana Department of Agriculture. They had six months to write the grant and obtain matching funds. Thirty pages later, hours of writing and $50,000 in matching funds, they were turned down by the highly competitive grant. Despite being discouraged, they knew that the application process had helped them flesh out a number of details they hadn’t previously thought about. Applying for this grant gave them the opportunity to fundraise for the start-up costs of the farm. Katie said, “It’s experiences like these, when you take a big step of faith and feel like you failed, that you learn to trust in God’s leading even more — even when you can’t quite understand how He is working. Sometimes I think that He is just preparing us for bigger leaps.”
Their original thinking was to volunteer for 2-3 years setting everything up – the farm, greenhouses, a farmhouse, planting, working with the school – and finding a “qualified” farm manager to take over once the farm was generating sufficient income to support one. But if that farm manager doesn’t materialize, they are prepared to stay longer. “It’s not that we don’t want to be here; it just wasn’t a part of our original plan. We know God wants us here now. We’re here until He brings someone better suited to replace us, in His time.”
If you were to log on to their website, bearcanyonfarm.com, their mission statement is the first thing you will see:
Bear Canyon Farm exists to provide employment and hands-on learning opportunities for students at Mount Ellis Academy, and to deliver healthy, fresh, local produce to the community. Our goal is to equip students with practical skills and unique agricultural knowledge—preparing them to be reliable, responsible employees and volunteers in their communities and in the world.
Students working on the farm have built fences, planted and harvested crops, and even helped sell some produce. But that is only part of the vision. Eric and Katie don’t just want students working on the farm, they want them learning on the farm. Their goal is for every teacher at MEA to bring a class to the garden to learn. Last year, Seth Ellis, MEA math teacher, brought his students to the garden where they calculated the plastic needed to cover the end walls of the newly erected hoophouses. The students were tasked to recommend the best deal and the most cost efficient size of plastic for the job. They also took measurements on the hoop house to calculate the surface area and the volume of the structure. According to Mr. Ellis, because the field wasn’t level, it quickly became a “real world problem, more challenging and messy than a book problem.” There are plans this fall for the Home Economics class to learn food preservation, nutrition tests, and garden planning.
Throughout this whole experience, Eric and Katie can point to God’s continual leading. First of all, Eric’s injury allowed him time to envision the project, and it just so happens that when their idea came to fruition, they were financially stable enough to come to Bozeman to start the garden on a volunteer basis. They learned about starting a non-profit when they helped their home church in Choteau start a radio station, Waves of Wisdom. With the support of their church family, they raised $20,000 to get it started. Katie referred to this Waves of Wisdom experience as “baby steps of faith. If we hadn’t stepped out to start that project, we wouldn’t have had the confidence to try to raise $50,000.”
If you visit Bear Canyon Farm on any given day, you will find Katie, Eric, and their two children Elika and Colter planting, pruning, weeding, and harvesting the fruits of their labors. They are currently in the middle of their first CSA offering. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and is a way for the community to buy directly from the farmer. Each week, Bear Canyon Farm prepares a box of assorted vegetables complete with a note from Katie sharing news from the garden and recipe suggestions. When they are not working on the market garden, they are “home” in Fairfield, managing their ranch and the production of hay and cattle. And when they are busy in Bozeman, Eric’s parents, Keith (a 68’ graduate) and Gayle, help make the dream possible by taking care of the cattle in Fairfield.
Eric and Katie’s dedication to MEA and their vision is palpable. They are certain that God wanted an agriculture endeavor at MEA, so much so that He kept impressing his desire upon various people until someone answered. And they know without a doubt that this is God’s leading. Eric explained, “God calls us to be unselfish. He prompts us to move forward in faith, despite what we may want, even if He is calling us out of our comfort zone. When I understood that, I felt confident that God was calling us to create a farm at Mt. Ellis Academy. After all, God planted the first garden, and I believe He wants us to enjoy a piece of that experience.”
This article was written by Jeni Schmidt and appeared in the Mount Ellis Academy Heirborne News.
Why Agriculture?