Renewing the Countryside

Story Clearinghouse

Three Maples Farm

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Finely Tuned to the Market Hebron, Maryland Erroll Mattox grew up in Maryland feeding chickens and working mules on his grandfather’s subsistence farm. He reviled it — got out of dodge as soon as he could. But after 15 years in the city, an epiphany on the virtue of organic farming called Erroll back to […]

Duhn Family Farm

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Farming Holistically Marvin and Ruth Duhn raise both crops and sheep on their 117 acre farm near Alexandria, Minnesota. Driven by a longstanding interest in holistic health, their farming philosophy is intertwined with a commitment to the health of humans and the environment. Out of concern about the number of petroleum-based chemicals and plastic products […]

Polyface Farm

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Diversified Everything Swope, Virginia On one 550-acre farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, there’s not much that isn’t diversified. The nationally-recognized Polyface Farm is owned by Joel and Teresa Salatin, Joel’s mother Lucille, and includes their children, Daniel and Rachel, and two apprentices who have woven an ecological approach to farming that is convincingly more profitable, […]

Thirteen Mile Lamb & Wool Company

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New Ranching Pioneers Belgrad, MT Dave Tyler and Becky Weed epitomize modern day pioneers, blending historic roots with 21st Century business savvy. Drawing from the rich history and inspiration of the early settlers’ love for the fertile Montana landscape and combining it with today’s entrepreneurial world of Internet-based businesses and rural FedEx delivery, Dave and […]