Mennonites, Hutterites, and Amish – all Anabaptist groups deeply rooted in the European history of the radical counter-reformation of the 16th century – are peaceful people with solid and strict rules, and hardworking, self-sufficient colonies. While the Amish follow severe restrictions and live in communities isolated from the world, this does not happen for Mennonites and Hutterites, whose colonies, spread throughout the American Northwest region, reflect a rural communal lifestyle system. Hutterites – similar to Mennonites and Amish – are pacifists in their attitude toward life and live a simple lifestyle. Sunday is a day of prayer. They speak both English and German and are very frugal.
Hutterite Communities of Montana
The Hutterite communities of Montana, in the United States, contribute significantly to the state’s economy, standing out in pig farming, cattle, poultry, egg production, dairy, and grain, and often also bakery products. You will often encounter them in the summer with their vans at farmers’ markets. Their colonies are self-sufficient; they make their own clothes, build their own buildings, and repair almost everything, including their farm tools. When they arrived in the United States in 1870, these European farmers of Germanic origin maintained traditional sustainable agriculture systems for over a century, working and living collectively, growing and raising most of their own products on family farms, without employing any outside labor.
In 1912, the first Montana colony was established near Lewistown, the Spring Creek Colony, followed by the Warren Ranch Colony near Utica. Then, in 1935, the King Ranch Colony was formed again near Lewistown, continuing with Grass Range, Ayers Ranch, Deerfield Colony, and so on. Within ten years, Montana saw the flourishing of 50 Hutterite colonies, just slightly less than South Dakota, which already had 54.
Montana’s Agricultural Force
This agricultural force in Montana seems invisible but produces 90% of the state’s pork and 98% of the eggs. Dairy production is also largely managed by Hutterite cheese dairies. If the harvest is poor, perhaps due to drought or low market prices, the Hutterites do not seek work outside their colony.
On the contrary: they impose a more frugal lifestyle and wait for the next season with a better harvest. Their farms consist of 10 to 20 families living in separate residences but eating and working together. Children quickly learn to work enthusiastically, and if you visit a Hutterite Colony in the evening, you will notice the children helping their parents sew clothes, build a cart, or make laundry soap.
In the Hutterite farm, each member specializes in a specific product, becoming a deep expert in the product they cultivate or produce. They often buy second-hand equipment and repair it for use. Each Montana Hutterite farm produces its own food and feed, raising between 300 and 400 sows, and the pork products are mostly sold in California.
Hutterites live in isolated areas, are very rarely affected by diseases, and the pigs raised seem to be absolutely natural and happy. They also produce chickens, eggs, beef, and lamb using traditional family-style methods, just like the first settlers did. Small and few means fewer diseases and fewer problems. Contrary to what one might think, and compared to other very retrograde religious communities, Hutterites use advanced technologies, from GPS-equipped tractors to smartphones and tablets. Women in the colony do not work in the fields but work in the colony’s kitchen gardens.
Cool Spring Hutterite Colony
At the Cool Spring Colony, the Hutterites prepare about 200 loaves of banana bread and 200 loaves of zucchini or orange bread each week. Many bread varieties are made on Wednesdays to be sold at farmers’ markets on Fridays and Saturdays. The women take turns daily preparing meals for the entire colony and bake all the bread needed for the whole week every Monday.
The Cool Spring colony in Montana raises 8,000 chickens, 1,000 ducks, and 1,000 turkeys annually in a state-of-the-art facility spanning over 3,800 hectares, including nearly 5 hectares of cultivated fields. The animals graze freely, without hormones or antibiotics, and are mainly fed barley and wheat grown on the farm. After slaughtering and packaging, they are sold early in the morning at farmers’ markets, grocery stores, or local hotels and ranches.
The Hutterite Rural World
There are 50 Hutterite colonies, each at least 90 minutes by road from small towns, which in Montana, given its size and landscape grandeur, is like a world away. Entering the Hutterite rural world is like stepping into a separate world. There are 450 rural enclaves spread across Montana’s Great Plains, isolated from the outside world and self-sufficient. Since the 19th century, they have lived free from external interference, focused on agriculture to maintain their free status.
The Hutterites of Montana are among the most consistent communities, rich in experience as farmers and breeders, practicing methods from a century ago and preserving their longstanding traditions. Tools and products are shared; some farms are organic, others are not; some are huge, others smaller. The collective guarantees livelihood to every Hutterite in each colony.
Cultivated products and raised animals must first feed the community, and despite differences among farms, certainty rests on careful work methods and a sacred relationship with the land. Grains are grown for baked goods and animal feed, and on some Hutterite farms, egg and dairy production is prominent alongside growing some vegetables and fruits. On other farms, excellence lies in meat processing and preservation during Montana’s harsh winters.
Hutterites Supply Food to Luxury Ranches
The quality and rigor of the Hutterite work bear good fruit. It may seem almost a contradiction that the Hutterites supply food to one of the most luxurious ranches in the entire Northwest USA, the Paws-Up Ranch in Montana, which for 14 years has sourced chickens and ducks, some vegetables like turnips and onions, and occasionally bread from them. Many chefs around Missoula and Helena choose supplies from Hutterite farms.
The Glacier Park Lodge, a historic hotel at Glacier National Park in Montana, sources its supplies from the Birch Creek Hutterite Colony near Valier. Every week a truck arrives loaded from the colony with fresh vegetables, tomatoes, pumpkins, potatoes, fennel, lettuce, carrots, corn, zucchini, onions, and turnips during the season. The chef designs the menu around the colony’s bounty. The lodge also sources bread, carrots, pickled cucumbers, and other vacuum-packed fruits. The gardener of the Birch Creek Hutterite colony confirms that they have supplied Glacier Park Lodge for at least 25-30 years. The Hutterites founded the Birch Creek Colony in 1948. The men wear black collarless jackets and a hat, while the women wear dresses, aprons, and head coverings.
