Combining farming, community and conservation Citra, Florida “I think right now we’re juggling about eight different businesses here at Crones’ Cradle Conserve,” Jeri Baldwin says with a smile. From workshops to market gardening, from retreat facilities to value-added products, Jeri’s vision as owner and manager of the Conserve is to be an on-going “demonstration project,” […]
Willow Lake Farm
Learning to See Tony Thompson has lived on his family’s Willow Lake Farm near Windom, Minnesota all of his life. Although he holds a bachelor’s degree in agronomy and has nearly completed his Master’s degree in Plant Community Ecology from the University of Montana, at Bozeman, he never really left home for school. “I went […]
Wildwood Rustic Furnishings
North Woods Life Duane Shoup is a furniture-maker who lives north of Itasca State Park in Moose Creek Township in northern Minnesota. Duane, who moved to the North Woods from metropolitan northern Indiana, says, “I can have my boat in Lake Itasca in thirty minutes. It’s a beautiful place to live but a tough place […]
Viking Valley Hunt Club
From Harvesting to Hunting Les Bensch, a former computer company executive, and his wife, Bette, a technical writer, operate Viking Valley Hunt Club on 400 acres of pastureland in Ashby, located in central Minnesota. Les and Bette have turned a marginal farm into a hunting and shooting business they say earns five times the revenue […]



