McKenzie Electric Cooperative members Corey and Rachel Meuchel are growing greens and community at Meadowlark Acres in rural Arnegard. The 15-acre garden plot opens to the public this month. Families are invited to walk through the rows of produce and pick their own to take home. It is the fruit that blossomed from Rachel’s brain cancer diagnosis in 2023, which you can read about here.
Colleen George and Heather Lee are a mother-daughter team who used to run a pizza joint in Westhope, but now work alongside each other at Baker’s Market in the small town 2 miles from the Canadian border. Colleen does the baking, while Heather manages the grocery’s produce and deli departments and cooks a lunch special four days a week. Read more about the small-town grocery store and an effort to make the rural grocery business more viable here.
Richardton rancher Bill Butterfield brings the smoke in everything he does. His most recent venture is a line of North Dakota made seasonings. Read more about Butterfield and his business, Wild Willy’s Seasonings, here.
At 104 years old, Ruth Iversen still lives independently on her Sidney, Mont., farm, where she mows her yard, tends a garden, reads voraciously, sews, quilts, cooks and bakes. The Lower Yellowstone Rural Electric Cooperative member maintains an old box of tried-and-true recipes, many of which were clipped from magazines years ago, including the whole-wheat buns she always has in her freezer, from a 1960 issue of Farm Journal.
Voted best restaurant in the Jamestown area last year, Hondo’s Hideaway is living up to its accolades. From playful, punchy, pretty drinks to familiar, flavorful food served with waterfront views, there’s a lot to love about Hondo’s Hideaway on the Jamestown Reservoir – including the pair who runs it. Read more about it here.
Just like the prairie depends on different grasses, wildflowers, insects, birds and animals to keep the land thriving, your body needs a rich variety of microbes to stay healthy. There is an invisible ecosystem inside you made of bacteria, fungi, viruses and many other microbes. It’s called the microbiome – and it’s doing much more than you think.
Eating like our grandparents and great-grandparents may be a key to better health. Before the rise of processed foods, people ate diets rich in fiber, fermented foods and seasonally fresh produce, which helped ensure a well-balanced gut, says Shylah Schauer, a North Dakota naturopathic doctor who specializes in the gut-brain-microbiome axis. Why does the microbiome matter? Click here to learn more.
Goldenwest Electric Cooperative member Syndi Musland Miske loves horses (read more here), especially when she’s riding in the Badlands with family. What makes it even better? When her mom, Darlene Musland, is cooking for a camp full of hungry horse riders!
Darlene, a retired schoolteacher who serves on Dakota Valley Electric Cooperative’s Operation Round Up board of directors, is known for her cooking. She’s taught folks the art of Dutch oven cooking and cooking over fire – with a side of history, of course.
Head Cook Barbie Martin’s scratch-made recipes aren’t the only “favorites” in the Anamoose-Drake Elementary School lunchroom. The cafeteria staff is, too. Martin’s presence and the culture she has set up in the lunchroom is important for the entire school, says Superintendent Steve Heim. Read more here.
Over the years, Jason Bentz (read about him here), co-general manager of the Innovative Energy Alliance Cooperative (IEA), and his family have caught a lot of walleye – and found creative ways to keep it exciting. These walleye recipes come from Bentz’s family, particularly his sister, and will have you reaching in your freezer for walleye again and again.
