Organic farming pioneer builds subterranean greenhouse in Montana

Big Sandy area farmer Bob Quinn is one of the world’s foremost experts in organic farming. He’s the man who brought us Kracklin’ Kamut snacks and most recently opened up the Quinn Institute , a 700-acre regenerative organic research project. And before that, he built a subterranean greenhouse.

“What I'm trying to do on my farm is grow everything I eat and eat everything I grow,” said Quinn. “'I’m up to about 85% of what I eat now is where I grow my farm. There's a big gap when it comes to citrus, so this is a help to fill the gap.”

Quinn had the idea for the subterranean greenhouse a decade ago. It took root when he saw an ad through a Nebraska company called ' Greenhouse in the Snow .'

“I went to visit them, and they showed me oranges and lemons and grapefruit and all this stuff in Nebraska. I said, I've got to have this,” said Quinn.

With the help of other farmers, it took about two years to construct the 17-by-90-foot cement-walled structure.

“In Nebraska, they go down four feet, but they suggested they go down eight feet here because it’s further north,” said Quinn.

The geothermal-controlled greenhouse features about 300 feet of four-inch pipe ten feet underground to regulate airflow.

“It's 50 degrees. So, in the winter its providing a little heat, in the summer its providing a little cooling,” said Quinn

The greenhouse is divided into two sections, the first under two feet of topsoil and compost.

“This room is 60 feet long,” said Quinn of the section he calls his orange room. “In here is all my citrus. I have elements of limes and grapefruit and melons and I have some bananas in the middle. I've got a fig tree right here at the end.”

Quinn has grown limes, lemons, grapefruit, and oranges.

Next door, is the stone fruit room under three feet of topsoil.

“We have peaches. I have a few cherries, I have plums,” said Quinn.

Quinn is also growing pomegranates in the stone fruit room.

The greenhouse has had its share of challenges.

“In April, the electricity went off for 30 hours and all the fans quit,” said Quinn. “I was gone and didn't have any way to cool it.”

Another time, during a 40 below zero stretch in the winter, the inside temperature dropped enough to put a temporary halt to his banana-growing venture.

“They really got cooked this winter and had to start over. So all those bananas came up from the ground since January,” said Quinn.

Temperatures inside the facility can get hot inside the greenhouse during the summer. When MTN visited, the thermometer topped out at about 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

Even so, Bob loves the thought of being a snowbird without leaving Big Sky Country.

“A lot of people, my grandparents, my parents and my sister used to go to Arizona for the winter,” said Quinn. “But my wife wasn't really interested in going to Arizona for the winter, so I decided to bring a little Arizona to me.”