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Flavors: Bounty from Home on the Range – Bodhi Farms and North Bridger Bison

Bodhi Farms, located in Cottonwood Canyon just outside of Bozeman, a boutique eco resort and permaculture farm nourishes and nurtures the mind, soul, body and appetite.
Stella Fong
Bodhi Farms, located in Cottonwood Canyon just outside of Bozeman, a boutique eco resort and permaculture farm nourishes and nurtures the mind, soul, body and appetite.

Just outside Bozeman, in the Cottonwood Canyon, guarded by the Gallatin Mountains and fed by Cottonwood Creek is Bodhi Farms. At this boutique eco resort and permaculture farm, nourishment and nurturing for the mind, soul, body and appetite were found.

At Bodhi Farms, owners Rayner and Tanya Smith shared their belief that a rich life was one that was rooted in its connection with nature and sustainability. On 35 acres, a guest can stretch and massage her body and soul into wellness. She can slumber in a glamping Nordi tipi by the babbling creek. After whipping up the waters with a fly rod or saddling up for a mountain tour, she can nourish her appetite with bounty cooked from the onsite garden and local products procured from nearby providers.

An eight-course menu created by Chef Eric Gunnulfsen presented multiple dishes in serving up bison for this “Bison Experience” kicking off the season at Bodhi Farms.
Stella Fong
An eight-course menu created by Chef Eric Gunnulfsen presented multiple dishes in serving up bison for this “Bison Experience” kicking off the season at Bodhi Farms.

On this night as winter was edging into spring, Chef Eric Gunnulfsen presented a multi course dinner named “The Bison Experience” featuring meat found from the range. This 8-course bison dinner held inspirations from his childhood growing up in a Sicilian family along with dishes he learned to make when he worked at the Michelin 3 Star restaurant, Inn of Little Washington in Virginia. As a hunter and outdoorsman, the dishes for this menu came naturally.

Rayner Smith said, “It’s a way to kick off spring. Everything is starting to green up and our team’s starting to staff up for the year. And so, this is a fun way that we’ve all come together, to blow some guests away.”

Chef Eric Gunnulfsen beckons from Jam in Bozeman and the Inn of Little Washington in Virginia to now run the kitchen at Bodhi Farms.
Stella Fong
Chef Eric Gunnulfsen beckons from Jam in Bozeman and the Inn of Little Washington in Virginia to now run the kitchen at Bodhi Farms.

“At this point we have this incredible culinary team who truly loves to pick food from our gardens, pick our ingredients, and of course, during the winter we don’t have that much on our farm, but sourcing locally when we can,” Tanya shared.

“I think a lot of what my husband and I have created here has to do a lot with our intention of creating a unique and beautiful space that provides creative, authentic experiences that is surrounded by nature. We want people to realize that, how important it is to support local and how easy it is to grow your own foods, how much better it tastes.”

With a grandmother that was “half Cherokee Indian, we grew up eating it,” Chef Gunnulfsen said of his growing up eating this animal.

This dining experience was curated for the lover of the outdoors sans the dust, elements and pests. A large tipi, accommodating 42 diners had one of its skirts lifted up and attached to the bar and mobile kitchen. A ring of dried flowers and leaves forming a false ceiling cozied up the space, hanging below the tent’s apex. White faux fur pelts draped over black metal chairs surrounded four wood slatted tables set with mason jars for wine glasses on top of templates with the names of the wines to be served. Then fiddle, banjo, mandolin and guitar music by Salty Gravy helped put the final touches to tonight’s home on the range experience.

For this night’s meal at Bodhi Farms, the skirt of a tipi is lifted up to join with the bar and mobile kitchen to cater to 42 guests for ultimate comfort.
Stella Fong
For this night’s meal at Bodhi Farms, the skirt of a tipi is lifted up to join with the bar and mobile kitchen to cater to 42 guests for ultimate comfort.

The multi course menu started with tartare to move on to carpaccio. The tartare was served on fry bread while the carpaccio perched on a brioche crouton topped with a marrow ice cream.

“So, we take all the trimmings and all the fat, render it down. And it’s basically an old-world cooking fat back in the day. My grandparents would have had tallow instead of using butter or other ingredients in a dessert,” Gunnulfsen said.

The tallow was later incorporated into a chocolate mousse accompanied with choke cherry coulis as the grand finale for the meal.

For the third course, a mushroom bisque in bison broth was offered. “That’s your classic take on mushroom bisque. We’re just adding a little Montana and bison flavor to that.”

“And then we go into our green and grains salad, which is a tip of the hat to a bunch of Montana ingredients,” he shared of embracing local produce accompanied with feta cheese from nearby Amaltheia Farm and kefta, ground meat with seasoning, bison kabobs.

A bison slider with local blue cheese and caramelized onions made for the fifth course. This arrived at the table with a palm sized burger between a brioche bun branded with the charred words ‘Bodhi Farms.’

Different ways of presenting bison from savory to sweet created by Chef Eric Gunnulfsen at Bohdi Farms.
Stella Fong
Different ways of presenting bison from savory to sweet created by Chef Eric Gunnulfsen at Bohdi Farms.

The huckleberry mint gremolata gave our palates a rest, resetting us for braised bison raviolis and the final savory course of bison tenderloin with morels and pomme puree.

Gunnulfsen said of the raviolis, “I grew up Italian, so that’s a dish near and dear to my heart. And we’re just adding a little Montana spin to that. It’s homemade pasta, which we pride ourselves here with Montana flour.” “I would say that Montana is definitely underrated as far as their grains and Montana is like a number on producer of grains,” he continued.

“Then we go to our tenderloin, bison tenderloin. We smoke it slightly, add a classic French pomme puree and bison demi-glace to that.”

“So, we’re just trying to elevate the cuisine in Bozeman,” Gunnulfsen shared. “So, we’re connecting the land. We’re collecting all these beautiful, wonderful local ingredients, trying to blend them all together in a fine dining setting and put it on a plate.”

The bison for this evening’s meal was supplied by Montrail Bison who supplied restaurants. Restaurants can only buy through certified suppliers and cannot feed guests meat that is harvested from the wild. When elk or trout, for instance, is offered on a menu, it was sourced from a farm.

The team at Bodhi Farms making this night’s “Bison Experience” filled with Montana hospitality and flavor.
Stella Fong
The team at Bodhi Farms making this night’s “Bison Experience” filled Montana hospitality and flavor.

Locally in the Shields Valley, North Bridger Bison supplied private consumers. For an event like this night’s bison experience, they could only contribute to the meal by donating their meat.

NORTH BRIDGER BISON

Matt and Sarah Skoglund have found home on the range surrounded by the North Bridger Mountains in the Shields Valley to run a business aptly named North Bridger Bison.

For the Skoglunds, starting a bison business was “definitely Matt’s idea,” Sarah stated.

“The idea literally came from reading an article in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle about the National Bison Association, having their summer conference in Big Sky and that the bison industry was growing and they were looking for producers. At the time, I was working for a conservation organization, working on bison policy issues,” Matt said, of his beginning to think about adding rancher to his life resume.

This was Skoglund’s third career, “and definitely my final stop.” “But I went to law school and had a short stint as a lawyer in Chicago. And then we moved to Bozeman in 2008 and I did environmental policy work for the natural resources defense council for 10 years.”

Matt and Sarah Skoglund with their kids, Otto and Greta of North Bridger Bison standing on their home on the Shields Valley range.
Stella Fong
Matt and Sarah Skoglund with their kids, Otto and Greta of North Bridger Bison standing on their home on the Shields Valley range.

To start again, the Skoglunds did their homework. “There were a handful of first steps. One was I read this amazing book called Buffalo for the Broken Heart by Dan O’Brien, who started Wild Idea Buffalo in South Dakota and is a hero of mine. In that book I learned about the modern-day field harvesting of bison, which is instead of shipping bison to a slaughterhouse, you just reverse that process and drive out to the pasture where the bison are.”

“In the beginning of the year of 2018, we were putting a business plan together. In that sponge mode, I was trying to learn as much as possible. And then obviously we started looking for land.”

Eventually land parcels became available in the Shields Valley, “So by late May, early June, it was this or nothing,” Matt shared realizing that land prices were only going up.

The next step was to figure out where to source their bison from. “Then we figured out where we were going to get our bison from. These two neighboring ranches, west of Choteau, along the Rocky Mountain front.

Home on the range are the herd of bison in the Shields Valley from North Bridger Bison.
Stella Fong
Home on the range are the herd of bison in the Shields Valley from North Bridger Bison.

The bison was harvested on the ranch. “So, it’s no stress for the bison, as ethical and humane as it gets. And then there is no stress in the meat. So, the meat’s delicious.”

“In late January 2019, 95 bison walked off a couple of different trucks and things got real very quickly.”

“There are a lot of great things about bison and for our operation. I mean, one, they’ve been on this landscape for tens of thousands of years. So, they’re naturally adapted to the landscape, the plants, the weather, the whole thing. So, when it’s 40 below in January, we sleep like babies. We know the bison are fine.”

“They breed on their own. They calve on their own in the spring. They do an amazing job defending themselves against carnivores.”

Bison harvested by North Bridger Bison can be purchased online. In the future, the Skoglunds hope to “field harvest under state or federal inspection. And then that would open up more avenues for us to sell our meat, like restaurants and smaller quantities.”

The public can visit their ranch by attending events they host on their property such as through Outstanding in the Field with Chef Jarrett Wrisley of Shan in Bozeman cooking the feast this summer and Chef Eduardo Garcia of Montana Mex hosting last year.

At North Bridger Bison and Bodhi Farms, flavors and bounty abound from home on the Montana range.

 

 

Stella Fong shares her personal love of food and wine through her cooking classes and wine seminars as well as through her contributions to Yellowstone Valley Woman, and Last Best News and The Last Best Plates blogs. Her first book, Historic Restaurants of Billings hit the shelves in November of 2015 with Billings Food available in the summer of 2016. After receiving her Certified Wine Professional certification from the Culinary Institute of America with the assistance of a Robert Parker Scholarship for continuing studies, she has taught the Wine Studies programs for Montana State University Billings Wine and Food Festival since 2008. She has instructed on the West Coast for cooking schools such as Sur La Table, Williams-Sonoma, Macy’s Cellars, and Gelsons, and in Billings, at the Billings Depot, Copper Colander, Wellness Center, the YMCA and the YWCA. Locally she has collaborated with Raghavan Iyer and Christy Rost in teaching classes.