Renewing the Countryside

Story Clearinghouse

Spinning Spider Creamery

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Marshall, North Carolina The “spider” of Spinning Spider Creamery might once have referred to owner Chris Owen—back when she raised Angora goats and spun their fleece into yarn. Now, though its poetic name remains the same, the operation is home to a herd of 50 dairy goats, the Angoras gone. The switch from fiber developed […]

Sheep Sorrel Farm

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Farming the Spirit In Welch, Minnesota, one woman finds a way to release physical energy that she cannot find in a classroom. Beth Slocum, a teacher at Mounds Park Academy, spends her summers on her farm and commutes to Welch to check on her flock several times a week during the school year. “As a […]

Country Heritage Adventures

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Family Fun on the Farm Tourism combined with a farm/agricultural experience – or agri-tourism as it has become known – has been growing in popularity throughout the United States and, more specifically, in Minnesota with its rich and highly-textured rural heritage. Farm tours, bed and breakfasts, farmers markets, and other tourism enterprises can help to […]

Leunen Farms

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Intensively Grazing Horses, Goats and Poultry Lancaster, Missouri Economically, ecologically and culturally integrated at the 23 acre Leunen Farms, farming comes naturally. Located about 20 miles from Kirksville, Missouri with a population of 18,000 residents, Leunen Farms’ owners, Debra and John Leunen, don’t need to leave their farm to sell their horses, Boer meat goats […]