Maartje Murphy uses milk from her family's dairy in Carrington to make her Duchessa Gelato product. Courtesy Photos

That’s because gelato is made with more milk than cream, compared to regular ice cream, and has about half the butterfat content. Gelato is also churned slower and warmer, Murphy explains, and incorporates less air, helping to keep it dense, fluid and creamy.

The daughter of dairy farmers from the Netherlands, Murphy’s heart was for dairy, but she didn’t want to be the farmer. She dreamt of a value-added agriculture enterprise.

Scranton Public School Superintendent John Pretzer monitors online classrooms since transitioning to web-based learning amid COVID-19 school closures.

Today’s gamechanger is quite different – the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. It has spread across the globe, forcing temporary closures of school buildings and brick-and-mortar businesses. The changes have been rapid, the virus’ reach all-encompassing.

“I knew that (COVID-19) was going to move, and it was going to move pretty quickly,” Pretzer recalls thinking when the World Health Organization (WHO) shared news of the newly discovered coronavirus disease in early January. “We needed to start planning.”

Editor Cally Peterson and her husband, Darin, are pictured with their dogs, Raina and Aspen, at their home in rural Steele. Courtesy photo

For just three easy payments of $55.95, which I charged to Mom’s credit card without full disclosure, I was going to bring honor to the family. Things turned out OK for Mulan, but unfortunately, the same can’t be said for fourth-grade Cally after the Turbo Cooker purchase.

I remember making a lackluster breakfast pizza and steamed broccoli with a charred-bottom meatloaf before my mom let me retire the Turbo Cooker to the basement, where all household items went to be hoarded until the next rummage sale.

N.D. Tourism photo

That first vine was planted in 2009 by Kevin, the chief winemaker.

“He’s a farmer at heart,” Deb says. “He liked the grapes; it was a challenge for him.”

As the number of vines grew, so did the diversity of the vineyard. Fruit trees, berry bushes and rhubarb were added, and the winemaking picked up. In 2016, the Kinzels went all in, opening Fluffy Fields Vineyard and Winery to the public, on Roughrider Electric Cooperative lines. In addition to the vineyard and on-site winery, the grounds include a tasting room and restaurant with a “lite bite” menu.

Electric cooperatives have a strong history of environmental stewardship. In fact, many electric cooperatives made commitments to the environment long before it was required by law.

Because co-ops are owned by the membership, the cooperative business model enables members to assert their voices to determine the direction of the co-op. Board directors elected by the membership also guide the cooperative to make decisions, establish policies and best practices, and carry out the vision of cooperative membership.

Wayne, Lisa and Kaydence Rossow. Courtesy Photos

Lisa Rossow met her future husband, Wayne, in a seemingly perfect way for a girl from western North Dakota: at a boot-scootin’-boogie country bar after a Valentine’s Day rodeo. Besides the cowboy charm, it didn’t take long for the pair to find even more common ground.

Lisa grew up on a dairy and grain operation in Flasher. Her mother, Jackie Miller, is a longtime employee of Mor-Gran-Sou Electric Cooperative, and when she met Wayne, Lisa was working for Roughrider Electric Cooperative.

N.D. House Speaker Richard Kloubec pins a corsage on Rep. Brynhild Haugland on March 18, 1987, which was declared “Brynhild Haugland Day” by then Gov. George Sinner. Photo courtesy of The Bismarck Tribune

THE GREAT EQUALIZER
A Republican from Minot, Haugland was first elected to represent her district in 1938, merely 18 years after women were given the right to vote with the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. She was re-elected 26 consecutive times, even when her party dropped her from the ballot in 1962. She won that primary as an independent, and then the general election, and would run again the next cycle as a Republican.

Photographer Wayne Gudmundson, left, and authors Steven Bolduc and K. Amy Phillips collaborated to produce the book, “The Prairie Post Office: Enlarging the Common Life in Rural North Dakota.”

A hollowed-out hole in an oak tree on the Missouri River. Lonely fur trading outposts. Military forts. An old sheepherder’s wagon. Humble sod homes. Homestead shanties. Isolated ranches. And a rock ledge on a butte. What do these things have in common? They all served as early post offices through present-day North Dakota.