[montanafood_ag] Fw: Community Farm For Sale

[Tammy Howard]

FYI

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From: Dylan Strike <dylan at strikefarms.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 7, 2019 9:19 PM
To: Dylan Strike <dylanstrike1 at gmail.com>
Subject: Community Farm For Sale

Hello all,

I’m writing to give an update and ask for your help.

Almost my entire adult life I’ve dedicated my energy into changing the local food system, and I’m proud of what I did. However, it came at a heavy physical, mental and spiritual cost. This spring I suffered an iatrogenic injury that broke the camel’s back so to speak and threw me into a true living hell. Since then, I have been suffering from debilitating PTSD and other CNS related ailments. In this state, I’m currently unable to manage the farm business. I need to take time to heal and tend to my core so that in the future I can continue helping others in a sustainable way.
Unfortunately, our financial and social system in this country is not set up to allow for me to focus on my recovery; it is set up in a way that requires debts to be repaid, which is not something that I’ll be able to do while also recovering. Therefore, for me to be able to fully heal, the best option would be a full sale of all assets; land, infrastructure and equipment. It is in this endeavor that I ask for your help and positive energy.
I am searching for someone or a group that has the financial capacity and stability to purchase the physical assets of the business and either operate an operation on their own or partner with less financially capable operators to keep this community farm going. The total purchase price of the property, infrastructure and equipment is $1.3 million.

As much pain as this spring’s experience caused me and as messy as it was, I am doing my best to view it as a gift of opportunity. An opportunity for me to heal fully and to devote my time to pursue a spiritual path that was missing in my life and an opportunity to pass off what I worked so hard to build to a community that can use it and work together to take our local food system into its next evolutionary phase.
There are an infinite number of possibilities for how this setup could be utilized. A few that would be complementary would be an organization/individual purchasing the space and then renting out the land/infrastructure to beginning farmers and community gardeners as well as local food marketing and distribution companies. There is enough equipment to farm way more acres than the 10 acre plot the home and infrastructure sits on so this could be rented out to other farmers who don’t have the capital to purchase their own. Completing the cycle would be compost and vermicompost production, which could be integrated into the greenhouse production by setting up compost heat systems. To provide the most resilient system the property could also receive arborcare wastes and topsoil from new construction in order to make hugelkultur berms and ultimately turn the entire property into a self sufficient permaculture food forest. Classes on gardening could be taught, and farm to table dinners and other educational opportunities would be unlimited. Currently on the outskirts of town, it won’t be long before this property is enveloped by the development laid out in the Bozeman Growth Plan, making this property a true urban farm. The most important thing to spur the transformation of our food system is for people to have a real connection and understanding of where their food comes from, making this property’s location an invaluable opportunity. These are just a few ideas of how to utilize these resources I’m selling; obviously the only limit is your imagination and interconnection with the skills/needs of different community members.

The farm is fully set up with equipment and infrastructure for a turnkey operation (or operations). Everything from production to harvest to post harvest and cold storage to delivery vehicles are included. This is a rare opportunity to have everything needed to be operational from day one of purchase. There are 15,000 sq ft of greenhouse space (2880 sqft of additional greenhouse materials available), allowing for year-round greens production. There is a farmstand, two bay repair shop and a loft office if business is to be kept separate from the house. Additionally, there are two separate 3 sided sheds for equipment storage or animal housing. The house has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a carport and covered deck. Huge opportunity for a local foods based specialty Airbnb if the house is not used by the purchaser. Additional power was brought in during 2018 and an additional well and pump were installed in 2017.

If you have the financial means(or a financial partner if you want to be an operator) to put in an offer and would like to be invited to a showing this month, please send a separate email with your phone number and a short note on what you would plan on doing with the property. The preference is to sell the farm as a complete package knowing that it would stay in local food production. However, if there are no willing buyers that put in an offer with earnest money in the next couple months, we will have to sell the property without any farm specific equipment or infrastructure to the highest bidder as debt payments have to be made either way. Please help us avoid that and keep this land invested in sustainable agriculture. Feel free to share with any in your network who might be interested.

With gratitude,

Dylan Strike
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