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The Back Porch: Three young people changing the lives of so many
Is it really possible to fulfill your lifetime dreams? Is graduation really the launching pad to greater heights and the ability to help solve societal problems?
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Ace of Spades: Rhubarb can be replanted throughout growing season
As soon as there is some growth, these plants can be replanted in a sunny area, if at all possible. Rhubarb can be transplanted all season long.
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Cookbook Corner: There's nothing bland about these soy recipes
Versatility is the soybean’s forte, as you will see in these recipes from the United Soybean Board’s “Favorites From the Heartland” cookbook.
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The Bookworm Sez: Learn how to be a responsible, caring carnivore
Read “The Compassionate Carnivore” by Catherine Friend, and see what an animal-raising, animal-eating farmer has to say about what’s on your plate.
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Back Roads: A little madness
A little madness in the Spring / Is wholesome even for the King / But God be with the Clown / Who ponders this tremendous scene / This whole Experiment of Green / As if it were his own!
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The Yield: Televised negativity distracts from family, devotions
My last deep involvement with news broadcasting was the Scott Peterson chronicle. The events occupied my mind for hours after the broadcast. I started deliberating about each character who played a role in the incident. That stole my time and mind.
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Ace of Spades: Start small to get children interested in gardening
Age doesn’t really matter, as long as there is interest. Keep their first garden small, planting only several of the vegetables they recognize and like.
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The Outdoors: A couple of rotten anglers do a really rotten thing
Growing older has its privileges. And one of them is to develop a lower threshold of tolerance for some of the stupid, inconsiderate things that other people do.
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Back Roads: Stories and shadows
“I bought this place when I was 22,” Ed T. Atkinson said. “I needed a job so I bought one.” A bartender who says things like this likely has a few stories to spin. You can nurse a beer — or soda — stare up at the stuffed bass on the wall, and wait.
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The Back Porch: You don’t need a big city to have fun; just creativity
“What do you do around here for fun?” Everyone laughed. Although this Dutch farming community advertises itself as growing, population of 5,600 doesn’t exactly equate a boomtown.
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Ace of Spades: Spring is here, but cold weather can still stunt plants
My tulips and daffodils are emerging. Will they freeze with a hard freeze yet at this time?
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Cookbook Corner: Sweet and tasty, decadent and simple all found here
Many of the recipes are the simple and satisfying dishes of our growing-up years. Others are sinful concoctions of sugar and butter. Here are a few that made my mouth water...
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The Bookworm Sez: ‘Garden in Winter’ plants creative seed for winter beauty
For months, you’ve been planning, imagining what your garden would look like in full bloom and all during harvest. But what will it look like next winter when the snow comes back? Before you put those seed catalogs down, check out “The Garden in Winter” by Suzy Bales.
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Back Roads: Keeping an art alive
While some grandfathers and grandsons go fishing together, Etler Jensen and Erik Maisch share a different interest — ornamental blacksmithing.
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The Yield: Old things bring comfort in a new life together
The carpenter had been finished for three days. I still didn’t feel settled. Edgy feelings were intensifying. Everywhere I looked piles of books lay against the wall in our remodeled living area.
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Ace of Spades: Sixteen-step program to a bountiful tomato crop in ’08
When buying plants or starting from seeds, Zone 4 stretches from St. Cloud south to central Iowa. Above St. Cloud is Zone 3, and south of central Iowa is Zone 5.
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The Outdoors: Want to hunt bears in the spring? Just don’t head north
Nearly 40 years ago a couple of buddies and I hatched a plan for an archery spring bear hunt in northeastern Minnesota.
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Back Roads: Economic heart
“Most of our patrons have been with us quite awhile. ... We have very good field service and they like it because the association’s management is local.”
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The Back Porch: Annie’s Project reveals importance of all levels of involvement
There are three kinds of farm women: actively involved, passively involved, and mushrooms — the farm wives who are in the dark.
