http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
The Yellowstone Farmstead is an 8.5-acre farm in Paradise Valley.
Sage LeBlanc stood among a sea of foliage on the 8.5-acre Yellowstone Farmstead. Wielding a recycled cardboard box in one hand and a bunch of kale in the other, she wore a red bandana, overalls and lilac Crocs.
“We got a last-minute order from the Old Saloon,” she said. “Let’s get this box filled up, and then I’ll give you the tour.”
Tucked between Livingston and Yellowstone National Park, the farmstead supplies local institutions with fresh, organic produce and provides volunteers with free housing.
“If you do something community-minded, it’s going to encourage somebody else to do something community-minded,” LeBlanc said. “Sustainability isn’t just an agricultural practice; it’s a community mindset.”
Sage LeBlanc and her dog Jack inside her Emigrant greenhouse.
LeBlanc is a sixth-generation farmer. She grew up in Maine, where her family still farms.
School brought her West to Bozeman, where she earned a degree in agricultural education from Montana State University.
As a college student, LeBlanc worked in the restaurant industry. She noticed that some of the produce restaurants were using was being shipped from across the country. Not only that, but the quality suffered, too.
“I was like, ‘I can do that better,’ so I started a really small farm out here in Montana,” LeBlanc said.
She named it Shuga’ Beet Farm after one of Montana’s staple crops.
“We grow quite a lot of beets, but no sugar beets,” LeBlanc said. “When my dad came out, and I told him I was going to farm in Montana, he said in a thick East Coast accent, ‘Nothing grows here but sugar beets.’ So I giggled and named it after him.”
Sage LeBlanc grows a variety of produce at the Yellowstone Farmstead, including zucchini.
Now, Yellowstone Farmstead produces a wide variety of crops, including summer squash, several varieties of kale, cabbage, Korean daikon radishes and tomatoes.
Turnips are grown on the Yellowstone Farmstead.
LeBlanc distributes the produce to local schools, hospitals and businesses across Paradise Valley and Livingston. She also donates produce to organizations like the Livingston Food Resource Center.
She said when she first started her farm, demand rose faster than she had anticipated.
“The thing about chefs is they’re all artists, and artists have all their mediums, and sometimes they get jealous,” LeBlanc said. “Next thing you know, you take on a new chef. And your client base gets bigger and bigger, and your story grows.”
In addition to providing sustainable produce to the community, Yellowstone Farmstead offers seasonal workers housing, which can be particularly difficult to secure.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, people started moving into Paradise Valley at unprecedented rates, buying homes and converting them into Airbnb rentals. As the influx cut into available housing opportunities and drove up housing prices, LeBlanc said locals were priced out of the market.
“I got so tired of waiting for somebody else to do something. Man, I got so tired,” LeBlanc said.
Sage LeBlanc updates the task board inside a common area in the Yellowstone Farmstead housing complex.
In 2023, she decided enough was enough. She worked with a local landowner to establish what would become Yellowstone Farmstead and began refurbishing several apartment units for farmhands.
In exchange for 15 hours of weekly farmwork and proof of employment with a small local business, LeBlanc offers free housing on Yellowstone Farmstead.
When the opportunity was initially advertised, LeBlanc said she received more than 4,000 applicants from across the country and around the world. For LeBlanc, community is everything.
“Everybody is seeking community, everybody wants to be a part of something bigger,” LeBlanc said. “Everybody is so exhausted with the world and just looking for an opportunity to make a difference.”
This year, she converted Yellowstone Farmstead into a nonprofit. The idea was inspired by the generosity displayed by volunteers during the 2025 benefit freeze affecting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
Last November, LeBlanc put together produce baskets that volunteers delivered anonymously to community members in need. As they assembled the boxes, volunteers began contributing goods like zucchini bread and sourdough, completely unprompted.
“I remember being so touched by that moment I thought, ‘We need to be doing more,’” LeBlanc said. “The point was never to make any money. No one gets into agriculture for the money. That was the point when I decided we’re going to make this commitment to the community, and we’re going to do it at 100%.”
As a nonprofit, LeBlanc said she hopes to build on the community outreach programs she has been developing for years.
LeBlanc works with assisted living residents in Bozeman and Livingston to plant seedlings, which are later transferred to the beds at Yellowstone Farmstead, harvested and distributed back into the community.
Additionally, she runs a butterfly program through which caterpillars from the farm are donated to local schools, giving students the opportunity to participate directly in the food system and learn about critical pollinators.
As she reached down to grab another leaf of kale, she pointed to a caterpillar.
“That’s part of being organic. If you don’t have bugs, then you don’t have a farm; you have a science experiment,” LeBlanc said.
With a cardboard box full of kale, LeBlanc rose from the greenery and straightened her bandana before walking out of the fenced crop rows and pulling the gate closed behind her.
Dining and Cooking