Renewing the Countryside

Story Clearinghouse

Bolt Enterprises

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Young Entrepreneurs Business Opportunities through Learning and Technology (BOLT) Enterprises, a student-run business, provides a unique educational opportunity for young entrepreneurs attending Westbrook-Walnut Grove High School in Westbrook, Minnesota. BOLT Enterprises gives students the experience of running a real business, provides jobs, and manufactures a dynamite barbecue sauce, all on the high school campus. Students […]

Earth Elements Farm

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Micro-farm Adds Value In More Ways Than One Lexington, Oklahoma Sometimes personal adversity and limited funds foster an environment of innovation and creativity. For April Harrington, the sole proprietor-farmer of Earth Elements Farm in Lexington, Oklahoma, it’s led to an agricultural operation that is practically 100 percent value-added. On 3/4-acre of her five acre farm, […]

Prairie Restoration, Inc.

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Urban Artistry Ron Bowen, Prairie Restoration‘s founder, restores native prairie in unusual places. Bowen’s artistry is evident in plantings he created for State Farm’s headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota. In the traditional corporate arrangement, more conventional landscaping and turf grass would be what casual visitors would see. At State Farm, employees and visitors are greeted […]

Apple Crisp Cooperative

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A “Core” Effort Southeast Minnesota is a countryside dotted with picturesque apple orchards, a development led nearly a century ago by the University of Minnesota. Partly due to the Mississippi River and partly due to landscape conditions created in the last glacial age, climate and soil conditions are unique to the area and ideal for […]