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for her crop. At the same time, she was learning the rhythms of the orchard – when and how to prune, water, nourish, ward off insects and harvest. “About year six, I started to notice people who wanted to know something about organically growing cherries were calling me, which I thought was absolutely hilarious,” she says. “Now, I’m the resident expert. At least I feel significantly more confident in playing that role.” Rousseau has become a sought-after and well-respected resource for organic growers across Montana. She’s on the board of directors of the Organic Advisory and Education Council and served on the now-defunct Montana Cherry Advisory Committee. For a time, she coordinated conferences and managed outreach and communications for the Montana Organic Association. Along the way, she’s pioneered an enticing array of value-added products, including the ever-popular freeze-dried cherries, a luscious cherry reduction, Besotted Cherries (soaked in dry cherry wine), Huckle-Cherry Syrup, and artisanal jams and jellies with titles like Dark Tart Meyer Marmalade and Plum-Lime Cardamom Jam. Her exploration into value-added products began in year two, after 4 - March 31, 2021
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the orchard yielded its largest harvest ever. She reached out to the Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center in Ronan about using its pitting machine to pit and then freeze cherries, which dramatically expanded options for processing her time-sensitive crop. Unlike apples and pears, cherries don’t keep well. “A cherry will never be better than in the moment it’s picked,” she says. She sold pitted, frozen cherries that year, and began perfecting her recipe for dehydrated cherries.
“It took six years to get the process just right so they came out the same every single batch and were moist and chewy but shelf stable,” she says. “It was quite the learning process.” The dried cherries left a juicy residue, which became the basis for her thick, slow-cooked cherry reduction and cherry wine vinegar. Still, dried cherries remain her biggest seller. “This year they were in such demand that I was sold out in December,” she says. In addition to mar-
keting products on her website, fatrobinorchard. com, she also supplies a distributor who spreads Fat Robin frozen and dried cherries across Montana, from national park concessionaires to restaurants, universities and healthcare institutions. She also sells cherries to Ten Spoon Winery for its Flathead Cherry Dry, Western Cider for a cherry cider, and Posh Chocolate for chocolate bars, truffles and caramels. Two Community Supported Agriculture organizations (CSAs)
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buy bulk cherries, as does Mission Mountain Natural Foods in Polson. She had to taper off the U-pick part of the business after more than 400 people showed up one weekend. Instead, she’s gone to an appointment system. “It’s quiet and you can hear the birds,” she says. “But it breaks my heart to turn people away, especially long-time customers.” The rest of the harvest – around 75 percent – goes into Fat Robin products. The pandemic dealt a blow to sales of the frozen, pitted cherries when the food service industry shut down last spring. “I went from selling multiple cases a week to a case every other week.” On a happier note, 2020 was also the year Rousseau and her husband added a licensed on-farm commercial kitchen so that she no longer treks to Ronan to dehydrate cherries. A relatively small space, its amenities include a large commercial sink, oven, refrigerator, work surfaces, a dehydrator and the newest addition, a freeze dryer. The months of November through January are quiet in the orchard, yielding time for the kitchen where “I’ve made all this other work for myself.” In February and March, the pruning crew arrives and her husband, who retired 18 months ago, begins piling the trimmings into rows. In April, a neighbor brings
his flail, a mower that chips and shreds the piles of trimmings and dead leaves into mulch. By the end of the month, the bee boxes are delivered, and their residents get to work pollinating the orchard. As the trees begin to swell, they receive their first dose of organic fertilizer, a blend of fish emulsion and other nutrients, followed by applications at bud break, after blossom and before the trees say “Hello! I’ve got cherries.” As the grass and clover grow (along with dandelions), the mowing begins and continues through September. The farm’s sheep help, although not as much as when the herd numbered 18. After a mountain lion killed two last summer she’s down to just four aging ewes who reside in the apple orchard. By June, controlling cherry fruit flies and aphids takes precedence, with the help of organically sanctioned bio-pesticides and constant mowing, and in July irrigation starts as the fruit begins to ripen. Harvest time, which occurs anywhere from July 15 through the first week of August, “is intense daylong pandemonium,” says Rousseau. They prepare by readying the bins and checking in with the loyal crew of harvesters. “We’ve been very, very fortunate. We have pickers who’ve been working with us for see Farm & Ranch page 5