Moose Meadow Farm

Our goal is to sustain our family, our crew and our community with the healthiest, tastiest, highest quality produce available.

 We aim to pass on the love and enthusiasm we have for growing and eating fresh vegetables with our crew and our customers while also maintaining a high quality of life for all who work to produce it.

Our Story

Katherine and Spencer Nietmann met at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, where Katherine was managing the Bowdoin Organic Garden and Spencer was studying biology.  They both moved on to manage different farms in Maine; Spencer was the farm manager at Point Lookout Resort on the coast in Northport, Maine, and Katherine apprenticed in forestry/carpentry at Clayfield Farm in Blue Hill, Maine and then moved on to manage the agriculture program at Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield, ME.  They moved together to North Idaho in the spring of 2016 to Spencer's family's property in Clark Fork and started Moose Meadow Farm.  They welcomed their daughter, June Blair, to their lives in January 2021, and their son Ezra Jeffrey, in October 2022. They are honored to be your farmers, and bring expertise, enthusiasm, incredibly high standards, and delightfully sunny personalities to the business!

Our philosophy

Our number one goal is to grow and sell the tastiest, healthiest, freshest produce money can buy all year long.  To meet that goal, we have established a few guiding principles.  After initial ground prep, which we typically do with a rotary plow attached to a two-wheel tractor, we do not till the soil at all.  We aim for biodiversity, astute observation, and thoughtful practices to keep pests, diseases and weeds to a minimum.  We employ silage tarps on beds not in cash crops, and prep beds for planting with a broadfork and a shallow cultivation tool called a Tilther. We see sprays of any kind- organically approved or not- as bandaid approaches to farm problems and instead look for permanent solutions to avoid problems.  A few examples: we use a fine mesh fabric called Proteknet to keep flying insects off sensitive crops; we graft our tomatoes to improve vigor and avoid soil borne diseases; we increase plant spacing where appropriate to improve air flow around plants, and clean up crop residue carefully to avoid spreading diseases. We maintain a clean and tidy farm that is welcoming and a pleasant place to work.  No junk piles or knee-high weeds around here! Our systems are always evolving to be the most efficient and effective so that we are able to produce more food on less space and with less effort, thereby providing our customers a better service and allowing us to enjoy our chosen lifestyle more fully.

our operation

As of 2023, we are entering our seventh year and growing on 1 acre. We have four 34x96 high tunnels in which we grow year round and three 14x96 caterpillar tunnels for season extension. Our covered space is a little over 1/4 acre. Our “bread and butter” crops are salad greens (Spring Mix lettuce is our #1), microgreens/shoots, and tomatoes, though we also derive great enjoyment and gastronomic pleasure from the 30+ other crops we grow for our retail outlets! We sell approximately 50% of our revenue through retail outlets (CSA and winter online market) and 50% wholesale (grocery stores and restaurants). We are USDA certified organic and Real Organic Project certified. Our farm supports our family and four employees with no supplemental income.