Representing Plainview

A thriving economy begins first with entrepreneurs. They, as it is said, are the yeast of the economy that spur business growth and economic development. Rural communities in southeast Minnesota – to maintain and nurture their vitality and sustain their local economies – must support entrepreneurs who build local businesses. They are essential to a vigorous homegrown economy.

When businesses use locally available resources and create wealth that stays in the community, they generate jobs and sustainable options necessary for smaller communities and rural regions to survive in today’s global economy.

Paradise Prairie Products is a Plainview-based business start-up that plans to work with in-area producers and processors to develop upscale consumer products defined qualitatively by locally-produced foods and ingredients. Owned and operated by Ken and Millie Flies, Paradise Prairie Products will produce food products that represent Plainview, the community they are produced in. Sweet corn – a well-known crop of area farmers – will be a prime food product for the Paradise Prairie line. Millie, with Ken, is pictured here whipping up a batch of corn chowder in the commercial kitchen of their restaurant, Tavern on the Green.

This food start-up venture will be launched using University marketing research and development resources. Paradise Prairie has been an active participant in the Southeast Minnesota Foods Working Group and is playing a lead role in hosting the upcoming University of Minnesota symposium scheduled for Plainview later this summer.

The venture began when Millie Flies began searching for ways to sell her famous corn chowder. The chowder is made with sweet corn grown in southeast Minnesota, spices from a nearby spice factory, and other wholesome food ingredients from the region. The marketing of this product centers on promoting the image of Plainview and its rich history in agriculture. The community-based business approach underlies Paradise Prairie’s development strategy. Plainview has been undergoing an arts and culture renaissance. The Flies’s have been active in revitalizing the community’s heritage as a way to sustain its future.

The Flies’s have test-marketed their corn product using the fully equipped and spacious Tavern on the Green kitchen. They welcome other chefs into the kitchen to experiment with new products that could one-day carry the Paradise Prairie label. Working with area chefs; using locally grown foods and spices; marketing the history and culture of Plainview; and distinguishing a unique product-line brand in a crowded marketplace are the type of activities that will build a rural homegrown economy.

A project supported by the Experiment in Rural Cooperation. (651 345 4336)