The weather just keeps getting wackier. In 2019, Minnesota had its wettest water year on record. In January 2020, we had our cloudiest stretch, and many of us felt the lack of sunshine in our moods. It seemed like the sun would never come again, until one day it did. I moved to Minnesota over…

Living in the Chicago suburbs, I first got the bug to become a farmer as a young teenager when my parents “volunteered” me to work a day on a local farm. Surprise – I loved the work so much! I really enjoyed being outside, and I enjoyed the communal aspect of the work. It felt…

I’ve always had a passion for hockey and the outdoors. And, in a way, you could say those passions led me to study environmental science, policy, and management at the University of Minnesota. See, I was a hockey player back in my Edina High School days, and, when I graduated, I just didn’t feel ready…

Agriculture has shaped my life from the very beginning—I guess you could say it’s in my bones. I grew up in a Wisconsin dairy family. My dad was a dairy nutritionist, and my family has a dairy farm that my two uncles operate today. And, when the time came to head off to college—I studied…

Pull into Bemidji and you know you’ve arrived in God’s Country. Area lakes rimmed by towering pines beckon all who arrive to forget their worries. That feeling continues as the friendly folks at Minnesota Nice Cafe serve up a hot cup of coffee and a trademark warm smile. To put it simply, Bemidji is a…

I grew up in a very rural part of Iowa—where some of the richest soil in the world drives a strong agriculture-based local economy. And, like a lot of kids, my first part-time jobs were on some of those farms. In my downtime, though, it’s on the water where you’d find me—boating and fishing on…