(bright music) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) - Welcome to "Almanac North."

I'm Brett Scott.

On tonight's episode, we are looking at local food sources, the farm-to-table movement, and what it means to have local organic food on store shelves.

We are joined by experts, farmers and people who will share their story.

That's all coming up on "Almanac North," but first, the Minnesota Department of Transportation is hosting a public meeting on Monday, September the 9th at 5:00 PM in Hibbing to share recommended alternatives for the Highway 169 corridor through Hibbing.

The meeting will take place in the Veteran's Quarters Room of the Memorial Building.

This is the third public meeting for the corridor study, looking at the Highway 169 section from Highway 37 to 13th Street East.

MnDOT hosted two public meetings in late 2023 to gather information on how the corridor functions and then to gather feedback on proposed alternatives.

With that feedback along with traffic and safety data, the September 9th meeting will share those recommendations.

There is currently no project planned for this corridor.

This study is a guide for future projects, but for those unable to attend in person, the recommended alternatives will be posted to the project website.

Other information on the study can also be found on the project's website.

The Wisconsin Indigenous Economic Development Corporation, or WIEDC, has received funding from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, WEDC, to assist small businesses.

WIEDC are currently offering 32 grants to Wisconsin native business owners.

Each grant totals $5,000.

Qualifications to apply are currently on the screen.

Grant applications will not be considered complete until all criteria listed are met, including receipt of a business plan and business formation documents.

All awardees will receive notification of upcoming WIEDC award ceremonies so that awardees may attend and receive their grants.

Well, our main focus this evening, of course, is food co-ops, farm-to-table food sourcing, and the benefits of local organic foods.

Our first guest tonight is the operations manager at the Whole Foods Co-op, Theron Beaudreau.

Thank you so much for visiting "Almanac North."

- Yeah, thank you for having me.

- We're happy to have you.

Can you explain what a consumer-owned cooperative is and how it differs from other types of cooperatives?

- Sure, so a consumer-owned cooperative is owned by our customer base, so we are owned directly by the people that shop with us.

- Sure, and what are the main benefits of a consumer-owned shopping experience?

- Well, so because we are owned by our consumers, we are kind of as local as you can get.

Our consumers, our customers come directly from our local neighborhoods and they help to not only support us as a business, but they drive our vision and our mission and just support us in every way.

- Sure.

Tell me a little bit about your background.

What got you into this type of work?

- So originally, I got into cooperative business in my early 20s working for a co-op in Austin, Texas.

And we were the only consumerative co-op in Texas.

And so, it was a really big deal to be a part of that organization.

- Kind of at the start of when these were becoming more and more popular, so to speak.

- Yeah, well, we call it the third wave of cooperative development.

They originated in England in the 1800s, actually.

- [Brett] Interesting.

- So, long history.

- And what type of food sources can we find at the co-op?

- We're a full service grocery store, so you can find everything that you would find at any other grocery store from your dairy and eggs and general grocery staples all the way through to, you know, some of the more specialty and local products.

We actually carry a wide variety of local stuff.

About one third of our product comes from the local Minnesota and Wisconsin area, and then 13% of our product just comes from this very regional bioregion around the Lake Superior.

- Sure, and a lot of that, of course, depends on weather conditions all summer long.

- Yeah, yeah.

- What are you seeing this year?

How are things going?

- Wonderfully, yeah.

We have a lot of seasonal products in our produce departments, so, and all of our deli is made local in-house with a lot of great flavor, so.

- And what about your meat selection?

Where do you source that from?

- Very, very large part of our meat selection is all local producers, as well.

- Sure.

- Yeah.

- Great.

What role does the co-op play in promoting local and also organic products?

We kind of just talked about it, but how many folks do you support?

- We support a large number of local producers.

Honestly, I couldn't give you a number other than that it's a big portion of our product mix.

And as far as local, or, I'm sorry, as far as organic product goes, we're one of the only retail organic certified organizations in this area.

And so, we ensure that the organic standards are maintained, that integrity is maintained all the way to the customer.

- What does that mean?

Can you break that down a little bit?

- Yeah, a lot of organic producers out there, they are making sure that they're producing things very organically, not putting in any chemical use or anything like that.

We, as a retailer, we just make sure that that integrity is maintained directly to the customer.

So, a lot of the other grocery stores would just treat it like any other product, but we really take that very seriously.

- Interesting.

You look at the background of where everything's coming from.

- [Theron] Yeah, yeah.

- So, in what ways does the Whole Food Co-op support the local community?

- So we, because like I said, we are owned and directed by our community, we support the community in a variety of ways.

When the community thrives, we thrive.

So it's really important to us to have that direct connection and support.

So, we have a give roundup program, so our customers have the opportunity to round up to the nearest dollar for an organization that we're promoting and supporting at that time.

And our community gets to vote and decide on who we give that money to.

Annually, we give well over $100,000 a year through that program alone.

- Wow.

That's just amazing.

What does being a member of the co-op mean?

What are some of the benefits to becoming a member?

- Yeah, so being a member of the co-op means that you have a direct stake in the business and you vote for our board of directors.

You could even run for the board of directors.

But beyond that, it's much more than like the buying clubs of like Costco and things like that.

One, we're open to everybody.

You don't have to be a member to shop, but if you do choose to be an owner member, then we have extra benefits like you can get 10% off on top of our already sale products, as well as a whole host of other saving opportunities and benefits.

- Sure.

Definitely.

We're coming into the harvest season.

Is this one of your favorite times of year?

- Absolutely.

There's nothing like local flavors and taste to spice things up.

- It's always fun, and people wanna buy that fresh produce all the time.

- [Theron] Yeah.

- Theron, thank you so much for being with us tonight.

We appreciate it.

- Yeah, thank you for having me.

- Next, the "Almanac North" team ventured up north to learn more about a unique pairing of farms and the school cafeteria.

Let's take a look.

(gentle relaxed music) - My name is Jack La Mar and we are at Early Frost Farms in Embarrass, Minnesota.

(gentle music) It's a great place to live.

There's a lot of people that live sustainably here.

They homestead here.

They grow food here, raise families.

It's a great place to be.

- Rural living is very different than living in town.

We've both lived in cities and we've lived in towns, and I've never felt that sense of community in any other place that I've ever lived, actually, than since I've moved here.

We just have such a wonderful connection with everybody that we encounter.

We don't always agree, but we help each other out, so it's pretty cool.

- Well, Ericka and I moved here in 2013 and we pretty much knew immediately that we wanted to farm.

We wanted to harvest some of the bounty, but we also wanted to grow tomatoes and peppers and things not only for ourselves, but we wanted to also share that with our family and friends.

And eating your own produce and your own honey that you helped produce gives you a great satisfaction.

- It's a labor of love for sure.

And we go, we probably eat as much, if not more than we even sell.

It's just we love it.

(bright joyful music) (bright joyful music continues) - In 2018, Rachel Doherty reached out to us and asked us if we'd be interested in helping them develop a farm to school program, which we said, "Absolutely, that's something we would love to see you do."

So we ramped up our production.

We started growing for them and have been ever since.

- So, I am Rachel Doherty with Mesabi East Schools.

I am their Farm to School coordinator and Mesabi East Environmental Education Center manager.

We realized our students needed to have access to local foods and really let them learn how to grow their own produce.

So in 2018, that was the first year that we started to work with our local farmers for Farm to School.

And in that, Jack and Ericka La Mar were our first farmers then with Early Frost to sign up and become on board to offer their local produce into our cafeteria.

- There's way more demand for farm to school growers than there is growers.

We need more people to do what we're doing, but they serve 1100 kids a day.

That's a lot of food.

And you know, they need more producers.

- Mesabi Schools is definitely in the forefront of establishing Farm to School in the Northeast Range area.

The out of the box thought was the school board decided to take a facility that business that was no longer going to be a part of our community and make it part of the educational system here at Mesabi Schools.

And now Mesabi School students K through 12, all are able to come over here for curriculum on sustainability, learning how to grow their own foods, floral culture, and even agricultural construction classes.

Farm to School not only teaches students how to grow some seeds and plants, but it also teaches them to have a connection more with their surroundings, as well as their community.

(bright hopeful music) - We didn't start off doing everything we're doing all at once.

We've grown into it.

A few years back, the Mesabi Trail was looking at a place to come through.

We wanted them to come by our house.

We knew that that would be a great opportunity, number one, to serve that community of bikers.

We just have to put ourselves in a position to be good ambassadors to our community and have people stop by and provide them with services, have a bathroom available to 'em, have a place for them to take a rest in the shade, drink a cool drink, maybe have an apple pie that Ericka makes.

We knew that this would be a good opportunity to help underwrite our cost of living, living out here by providing those services.

(bright hopeful music) We've learned how to prep for the farmer's market and be able to do it without it being a major rush or killing the entire day.

You'll learn those efficiencies as you go, but don't hesitate getting into it.

Get into it as soon as you can because you're gonna be like me.

You're 62 and you wish you would've done it when you were 32.

A lot of people will put it off.

They're like, well, now's not the right time.

Make the leap.

Do it and just try to do it incrementally.

I would say the best advice is just do it.

(bright heartfelt music) (bright heartfelt music continues) (bright heartfelt music continues) - Now our next guest, John Adams, is the marketing director for the Chequamegon Food Co-Op.

John, thank you for joining us tonight.

- You bet.

Happy to be here.

- We are happy to have you.

For those who don't know, maybe, can you explain what a food co-op is?

- Yeah, we're a consumer co-op.

So, most co-ops, a lot of people have heard of are producer co-ops, especially in this region, like agriculture co-ops.

But we're a consumer co-op, so we're owned by our members.

And the difference between maybe a cooperative and a corporate-owned grocery store might be that we have one member, one vote.

So, you can control your board of directors, elect them.

You can run for the board, and it gives a little more democracy in our food choices.

- And how did your co-op start?

How many years ago?

- It started in 1976, so we're almost turning 50 here in a couple years.

And I'm not sure exactly how it started.

Probably in a Finnish sauna.

We have a lot of Finns over south of Ashland, and that culture in particular was known for its cooperation and a lot of cooperatives were started by Finns.

And a few names on our incorporation papers are families, last name, Kurki, a Finnish name, and Raspotnik.

And those names are all still listed in our dining area.

And it kind of came about with people looking for alternative food sources.

So, they got together and talked about food and politics and they said, "We need to get down to the Twin Cities to get some of these alternative foods in our diets."

And so, they just started making trips, and eventually, they got organized and formed a cooperative, signed incorporation papers.

And after a long 30 years of minuscule profits and no profits and volunteers, you know, finally around the millennium, things started to really take off and been profitable ever since.

- That is a lot of fresh, locally sourced food going out the door over those years.

- Yeah.

- It's funny to think what might have been on the store shelves back then.

If nobody's ever been to the co-op before, what can they expect their first time when they walk in the door?

- Yeah.

Well, I think historically, you know, it was a lot of five gallon buckets of peanut butter and oats, but maybe some carob chips.

But over the years, you know, we've brought in a lot of more conventional food, but primarily, we still deal in fresh produce and local products are our mainstay.

So, about 20% of our sales actually come from local products, over a million dollars.

And that's something we're really proud of and it's something that you can't find at our competitors, so.

- Right, sure.

And how does the co-op source its food, I mean, all year long?

Right now, I'm sure you're seeing an abundance of fresh produce, but what about the winter months?

- Yeah, we have a lucky situation over in Ashland, actually, like the epicenter of agriculture in this northern region that includes northern Minnesota, the highest density of local farms actually is just south of Ashland.

So, those farms we're sourcing from have pretty good storage capabilities for things like winter squash and beef, and we're able to buy things from them year round.

A lot of the fishers in Bayfield are able to supply us year round, of course.

And we're very fortunate to live where we do.

- Yes, definitely.

What kind of plans does the Chequamegon Food Co-op have for the future?

- Yeah, well, we're gonna be planning our 50th anniversary and we do have a vacant upstairs and we are on Main Street in Ashland.

So, the opportunity is there.

Main Street's gonna be rebuilt in a couple years here, and so, the board is currently looking at our options and potentially incorporating that upstairs.

We have a beautiful old building in Ashland and we're gonna be making use of it, so.

- Sure.

Looking forward to that.

What are some of the biggest challenges over that nearly 50 years that the co-op may have faced?

- Boy, you know, I mean originally, it was probably anarchists, communists and socialists arguing about how they were gonna change the world with food, and it really took 20 to 30 years to really build a business and get it to the point where it's at now.

So, the challenges that were faced back then are probably pretty minuscule to what we have now, but we moved into a new building 10 years ago, and just like the co-ops in Duluth, you know, that big expansion is sort of nerve wracking and it took a little while for our sales to catch up.

So, we had a rough couple years, but customers have just been so great.

Our members have been so great.

Our sales just keep growing year after year, and now our building is right sized, I would say.

Our aisles sometimes seem like they're too crowded.

We don't have plans to expand again, but really, the natural food market has just been solid for 20 years now, and it's really something everyone should be celebrating and should sign up to be a member if you're not.

- Right.

That's a good plan.

How can someone sign up to become a member?

If I wanted to become a member, how could I do it?

- Yeah, pretty simply.

I know the Duluth co-op has online signup.

At our co-op, you actually have to come in and sign a paper form.

Still we're a little bit old-fashioned in that regard, but 25 bucks a year and you're vested after six years.

So, you have an optional payment of a lump sum or that $25 and that gets you great discounts on cases, all kinds of owner deals that we do monthly rotations on and other perks.

- [Brett] Great.

- Yeah.

- Well, John, thank you so much for being with us.

I have to mention before we go, you're jealous my tomatoes are ripening, right?

Yeah?

We were talking about it off screen.

- It's true.

He's got me.

- Thank you so much for being here.

- Thanks, Brett.

(bright hopeful music) (bright hopeful music continues) (bright hopeful music continues) (bright hopeful music continues) (bright hopeful music continues) - And before we go, I want to remind all of you that our fall fundraiser is in full swing, offering an opportunity for you to directly support the meaningful work we do here at PBS North.

As we celebrate 60 years of service to our community, we reflect on the impact we've made together, bringing important stories to light.

- But we can't do it alone.

Your support is not just appreciated, it's essential in ensuring that we can continue this legacy for years to come.

Join us by calling 218-788-2844 or by going online to pbsnorth.org to make your contribution.

And when you do, you can select one of the special gifts we have available, our way of saying thank you.

- [Announcer] Support PBS North with a sustaining contribution of just $8 per month or a one time gift of $96 and we'll thank you with your choice of "Popular History of Minnesota" or "Wisconsin: The Story of the Badger State."

These captivating books include useful travel guides to historic destinations, making them perfect for anyone interested in exploring the rich heritage of our region, or when you make a sustaining contribution of $15 a month or your annual gift of $180, we'll thank you with a one year digital subscription to "The New York Times."

Enjoy unlimited anytime, anywhere online access to all "New York Times" content, including breaking news, politics, food, travel, and so much more.

Raise a toast to six decades of storytelling with our 60th anniversary commemorative Yeti tumbler.

With a $25 monthly sustaining contribution or a one-time gift of $300, you'll get this durable tumbler that keeps your drinks at the perfect temperature while showcasing your support for your public television station.

Your gift to PBS North makes local productions like "Almanac North" possible.

Call us now at 218-788-2844 or give online at pbsnorth.org.

Thank you for your support.

- And when you give, you can select one of these great thank you gifts, but best of all, you can take pride in knowing that you make trustworthy journalism available for everyone across the Northland.

Because you value the importance of a local perspective, take a moment now to make a difference.

- Your donation ensures we can continue delivering balanced reporting and thoughtful analysis on news, politics and community events right here in northern Minnesota.

It also helps "Almanac North" keep sharing a local perspective on those topics that matter most to our region and its residents.

- When you invest in PBS North, you can take pride in knowing that you make this service possible for the thousands of people that watch in neighborhoods across the Northland every week.

Please take a moment to give right now by calling 218-788-2844 or by visiting our website at pbsnorth.org.

Thank you for your generous support.

- One last thing before we go.

Let's take a look at what you might be up to this weekend.

Saturday and Sunday is Ruckus at the Rat Rod Rendezvous at TJ's Corner store in Mahtowa.

From 9:00 AM until 3:00 PM both days, there will be a swap meet, flea market, live music, and a muffler rap burnout competition.

That's after the awards show on Sunday.

Rat rods, street rods, classic muscle cars, trucks and bikes will be on display, as well as automotive trivia and games throughout the event.

All weekend long, Pride is on display in the Northland.

From 11:00 AM until 7:00 PM, Pride Festival in the Park is happening at Bayfront Festival Park.

Food trucks, family fun activities, and so much more.

This event is free.

Bring a blanket or chairs to sit on or just enjoy the grass.

Entertainment for these events features Oshkii Giizhik Singers, poetry showcase, drag shows, and much more.

Sunday from noon until 1:00 PM is the Pride Parade in Superior.

The Duluth-Superior Pride Parade will sachet down Broadway and Banks through Superior, Wisconsin, proceeding down Tower Avenue.

This event is free and kid friendly.

Then later on Sunday from two until 6:00 PM, the Foo Foo Choo Choo is back.

It's part of the 2024 Duluth Superior Pride Festival weekend.

Join the fun for a three hour scenic train ride up the beautiful shores of Lake Superior, celebrating the Pride Festival.

This is an annual 21 plus party with free food, cash bar, live DJ, dancing, and amazing views while you travel on the rails of the North Shore Scenic Railroad.

Arrive at the depot early for the free pre-boarding party from two until 3:30 PM with music at a bar while you hang out in the boarding area or tour the Lake Superior Railroad Museum, included as part of the Pride Festival.

And the train departs at 3:30 for a three hour excursion up the North Shore of Lake Superior to a turnaround point, and then heads back to the depot.

And that's it for this week's show.

Make sure you go out and enjoy your weekend.

For everyone here at "Almanac North," I'm Brett Scott.

Thank you for joining us.

Good night.

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