McGeaughays receive grant for ‘high tunnel’
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Most tunnels push their way through rock or dirt, but the “high tunnel” at McGeaughay Old Time Farms is above ground and blindingly white against the shimmering green of spring grass. The high tunnel will be used to grow vegetables; it is 105 feet long and 24 feet wide with a wooden frame and a plastic skin.
It will extend the McGeaughay’s growing season by six weeks in the spring and six weeks in the fall.
”It’s a natural growing unit, no boxes — everything grows in the ground,” Francis McGeaughay explained. “A sprinkler system will do the watering.”
“Norman gardened last year, and it was a bad year,” Frances said.
Farming partners as well as father and son, Frances and Normal discussed more cost effective ways to grow vegetables during the cold winter months.
“We’d spent a good couple of months planning for summer — how do we grow longer and longer,”
Norman explained.
“We said ‘there’s got to be a better way,’” Frances noted.
In their quest, Frances contacted the Montana Department of Agriculture in Helena to see if they had any grants for vegetable farmers and was referred to Lake County Community Development in Ronan.
The McGeaughays met with Karl Sutton and Jan Tusick. Karl remembered seeing a Northwest Resources and Conservation District grant in his email, Frances said, and it was for high tunnel gardening.
The kicker was that the grant application had to be completed in a week, Norman said, but high tunnel gardening fit right into their plans.
With the grant application in hand, Francis and Norman began work. They spent a day online researching high tunnels and “called all over the country” including to growers in Maine and Saskatchewan who used high tunnels to grow 10 to 12 months of the year.
They sent the grant application off to Sue Sutherland in the Libby NRCS office. Of 150 applicants nationwide for the $7,500 grants, only six farmers received a grant and McGeaughay Old Time Farms was the only one west of the Mississippi River.
One of the McGeaughay’s basic goals was to get money back into the community so they spent locally: Western Building Supply, Ace Hardware, Westland Seed and Bob Bell who did a great job deep-tilling for them.
Another goal is to provide jobs while expanding their operation to include four 100-foot high tunnels and one 200-foot tunnel. The 200-footer would house dwarf fruit trees.
But their main purpose “… is to start getting local produce into people’s hands,” Norman said.
Now the high tunnel is up, and the ground is ready to go. Usually Norman does most of the plowing, discing and harrowing with horses but this year with a long winter and a wet spring, they’ve used tractors in the interest of time.
The McGeaughays will plant about two and a half acres of peppers, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, beets, eggplant — all sorts of vegetables. They’re planting the outside acres the same as usual and will grow watermelon, cantaloupe, corn, and other crops in the high tunnel.
“Norman has a huge cold frame, and he’s got tomatoes this high,” Francis said, measuring about two feet off the ground. “We’re not organic, but we’re growing as organically as possible.”
Not only will the high tunnel extend the growing season, the McGeaughays also hope to get three crops per year.
Norman explained that when he arrived at the high tunnel at 8 a.m. on May 19, the temperature inside was 60 degrees with 100 percent humidity.
The day before the temperature at 2 p.m. was 99 degrees. Managing the humidity and temperature with vents, doors, they can extend the growing season three months and maybe eventually work up to growing year round.
Francis and Norman have many plans for McGeaughay Old Time Farms. One is to eventually run heat pipes under the soil. After heating water biothermally with decomposing wood chips, it will be pumped through the pipes and warm the soil.
Though they have many more ideas, some things will stay the same. The McGeaughays will once again grow pumpkins for their popular fall patch.
