GREAT FALLS — Radishes and greens give way to tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers as the season warms at Red’s Root Cellar. But for Alysha and Nick Morenz, what’s growing just a few miles outside Great Falls started with a backyard garden.
The garden expanded season after season, eventually producing enough food for the couple to begin selling what they grew. During the pandemic, Alysha, who had worked as a hairstylist for a decade, found herself putting more time into the garden when she couldn’t work.
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“And then I decided that I preferred farming over doing hair,” she said. “And so when we had our son, we decided to move back home to Montana."
Today, Red’s Root Cellar offers specialty vegetables, herbs, plant starts in the spring, and a flower patch where visitors can pick their own bouquets.
This season, the flowers became an unexpected success. A wet spring pushed back the couple’s timeline, but visitors responded once the patch opened. Alysha said it also helped introduce people to the rest of the farm.
“And then they were like, oh, you also have vegetables,” she said.
Families came to pick flowers, and customers could buy produce through an honor-system cooler during the week. Alysha said that convenience has been well received, and the couple hopes to create a larger farm stand next year.
Some of what’s growing at Red’s Root Cellar also has roots on other Montana farms.
Alysha said most of their seeds come from Triple Divide Seeds, a grower-owned cooperative whose member farms produce vegetable and flower seeds in Montana.
Manager Leslie Klein said Alysha contacted the cooperative looking for seeds to grow plant starts for her nursery. The cooperative’s varieties are selected for their performance in Montana’s growing conditions.
“They’re adapted, they’re varieties that we’ve tried and grown for years and years,” Klein said. “We know that they’ll perform well in our short season, cool nights.”
For Alysha, buying those seeds is also a way to support other growers.
“We’re supporting farms across our state, which is pretty incredible,” she said.
Still, seeds suited to Montana don’t remove every challenge from growing here. Alysha said fungal issues, flea beetles and the wet spring made this season a learning experience.
The farm’s clay-heavy soil retains water, she said, and improving it is a priority as the couple prepares for next year.
“So we’re working really hard to build that soil up and create an ecosystem there that is going to be more beneficial,” Alysha said.
Their plans include adding more organic matter and using cover crops, along with more growing rows and expanded greenhouse space. They hope those changes will allow them to start crops such as lettuce and green onions earlier in the season.
In addition, the couple is working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service in hopes of adding low tunnels that could support insect netting, shade cloth and frost protection.
And after the response to this year’s flower patch, they plan to grow more flowers and offer additional varieties.
Alysha also hopes to eventually offer classes to help customers succeed with their own gardens. Updates about the farm, plant sales and future offerings are posted on Red’s Root Cellar’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
As they prepare for another season, the couple is weighing what customers want alongside what their land can grow.
“So we’re trying to figure out what people want,” Alysha said. “As well as like what’s going to do well here. And how we can, you know, make that profitable.”
Red’s Root Cellar is located at 3201 26th St. S. in Great Falls.
