Beautiful rain provided a respite from drought along Wisconsin’s Lake Superior shore the last days of August. The first two weeks of September were mostly dry, but more rain came at the start of the third week with more in the forecast.

Still drought continued all across the Lake Superior Basin, with some tributaries drying completely. The water level in the big lake dropped to less than normal levels. In the forests the duff is moist, but the soil is dry.

Wildfire danger in northern Wisconsin abated for the moment. Smoke and haze from wildfires in both the United States and Canada mostly lifted, but the fires in Minnesota and Ontario continue to rage.

The dry weather has made for good field conditions for harvest and fall field work. Many are reporting great progress with both. Some are far enough ahead to start working through the lists of repairs and maintenance. This past winter was mild. Some are predicting another mild winter by observing the small size of firewood piles in some yards. Maybe the weather prognosticators should stick to the stripes on wooly bear caterpillars!

Looking to the Fall Equinox and beyond we see change coming quickly. Shortening days, lower sun in the sky and fall colors are lighting up the woods a little more each day. It’s the time of abundance. The time is now to harvest and put up food for the winter to sustain both humans and our wild neighbors in the fields and forests. It has been a mast year in the north. But dry conditions have caused the mast, though plentiful in some areas, to be on the light and imperfect side.

Foragers found mushrooms after the rainy days. Their eyes were peeled for the hen of the woods. Folks are gathering leaves for winter tea and seasoning. Sweet fern, sweet gale, wild raspberry, Labrador tea and more were ready for picking.

Around Chequamegon Bay folks are preparing for the Bayfield Apple Fest to be held the first three days of October. The apples are cooperating. Varieties available in September at Bayfield Fruit Loop orchards included Hume, Zestar, Cortland, Gala, Honeycrisp, Melba, McIntosh, Greening and Priscilla. Fresh-pressed cider and hard cider is available. Visit bayfield.org/festivals-events/bayfield-apple-festival for more information.

Farm stores and farm markets remained open in September and business was brisk. Folks were snapping up available winter community-supported-agriculture subscriptions. Grapes, raspberries, pears, melons, pumpkins, squash, plums, tomatoes, garlic, onions, potatoes, cauliflower, cultivated mushrooms and more are available. There’s an abundant supply of local pasture-fed meat and eggs. Fresh local greens of many varieties are available. There’s a good supply of local fiber, dairy products, milk, ice cream and sheep-milk cheese. Locally made beer, mead, hard cider, wine and spirits are available. Honey, syrup and preserves continue to tempt visitors. Call ahead and check farm websites for availability and store hours. Visit www.feastbythebay.org and bayfield.org/what-to-do/orchards-berry-farms/orchard-reports for more information.

Surrounded with so much locally produced excellent-quality food, it’s difficult for many of us to imagine how it is that folks in our own community and all across our nation can be going hungry. Some are working to solve the problem by helping folks learn how to grow and preserve food. Others are donating to food banks. Folks in the countryside tend to have a generous streak. Many can take care of themselves and others. They care about neighbors and strangers alike. Maybe that’s why so many of us love life in the country.

Griggs Cattle Company is on 130 acres of beautiful grassland and forest a few miles from Lake Superior just south of Ashland. On a summer day Toby Griggs paused to reflect on working to make his world better.

“We started this operation in late-summer 2009,” he said. “My wife had passed away from breast cancer; I was trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life.

“I had always wanted to get into farming and ranching. I have a biology degree from Colgate University, I spent 26 years in the Marines, and I owned and operated a computer store for 14 years. I sold the store just before my wife passed away.

“I went to Montana where I have cousins (but) the price of land there was sky-high. I had other relatives who had a place in Cable, Wisconsin. I started looking for land here in northern Wisconsin. The first guy I contacted was Jason Fischbach, the Ashland County agriculture agent. He introduced me to some folks; one was a grass-fed-beef farmer near Marengo, Wisconsin.

“I listened to what (the beef farmer) had to say. And from an ergonomic, agricultural and humanitarian point of view I thought that it was something that is a good deal. Feed cattle grass, not artificial products. Grow them until they are ready to be harvested and sell the beef.

“So I bought this farm and that’s what I did. I bought cattle and converted the farm to grass-fed-beef operations. Here we are 11 years later and we are doing pretty well.

“We established a cow-calf herd and grew the herd to around 60 animals. In the last year I have cut the quantity back to about 30 brood cows. In the past year and a half I have decided to convert it to a feeder operation, still 100 percent grass-fed. I’m in the process of culling my cows, and processing and selling steers and heifers.

“Back in 2013 I joined the Bayfield Foods Co-op. We are one of three beef producers for the co-op; it keeps me quite busy. We have weekly meat boxes going out during the summer season. In the offseason we have around two shipments of beef to customers each month.”

The first four years Griggs practiced rotational grazing, with daily movement of his cattle from paddock to paddock.

“I came to the conclusion that it was a lot of extra work,” he said. “Each of our paddocks is a different size. I know the sizes of the paddocks and I know about how many days it takes before I move the cattle. I see them every day; we check the grass every day. Water, mineral and fences are checked every day. We go through the pastures and look at what percentage is eaten. I let them eat around 80 percent and then move them to the next paddock. They are free to go where they want within a paddock. It’s a pretty smooth operation.”

The extra time he gained by phasing out daily cattle movements he fills with other farm work.

“I work six or seven hours a day at farm work,” he said. “The rest of the day is bookwork for the farm or volunteer work I’m involved in. It’s very busy.”

Griggs is married to Pam now. The farm produces food for the community in a humane way. If one catches him standing still and he’s asked, he might talk about his life as a Marine pilot in Vietnam, or his career flying all around the world after his military service. He speaks of his children, adventures and hardships all in a matter-of-fact way.

“That’s my life; that’s how it is,” he said.

Some folks are insecure and have a need to boast. Others like Toby Griggs have done amazing things but one might never hear about them.

People around Chequamegon Bay in far-northern Wisconsin know great grass-fed beef comes from the Griggs Cattle Company. An indomitable spirit has made it so.

Visit www.facebook.com/thegriggscattleco and www.bayfieldfoods.org for more information.

Glance at a map of the United States. There are arteries of water that look like the arteries in a human body. And while life-giving blood flows through our arteries, life-giving water flows through those arteries in the Midwest. The arteries are great rivers, the lifeblood of our economy.

The St. Paul District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maintains a 9-foot navigation channel from Minneapolis to Guttenberg, Iowa. The channel is supported by a complex series of dams, locks and other structures maintained by the Corps that allow commercial and private navigation of the Upper Mississippi River.

Navigation on the river is dependent on water levels and ice conditions. The navigation season can begin as early as March and can run until ice forms in the fall. During the 2020 navigation season Army Corps staff supported more than 2,600 commercial lockages, or passages of ships through the locks, at Lock and Dam 10 near Guttenberg. It’s estimated in 2020 almost 17 million tons of commodities passed through the locks at Guttenberg. Navigation statistics fluctuate depending on weather, river levels and the length of the navigation season from year to year.

Jim Larson is manager of Red Wing Grain in Red Wing, Minnesota. Red Wing Grain provides a link between farmers in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and grain markets all around the world.

“The export market at the Gulf has been a very strong and consistent market for the local farmers to deliver to at Red Wing,” he said. “With the river market in Red Wing it prevents farmers from having to drive a greater distance to other markets, which saves time and fuel costs. Our local corn and soybeans will go to China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, South America and Africa.

“The river is a very efficient mode of transportation that moves fertilizer, coal, rock and other products upriver while moving grain and other products downriver. All of this activity is with minimal carbon emissions.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers touts barge shipping as being especially energy-efficient. Barges are moved by towboats on the Upper Mississippi in “tows” of 15 barges. According to the Corps a barge can move a ton of cargo 647 miles per gallon of fuel. A rail car would move the same ton of cargo 477 miles. And a large semi-tractor trailer would move that ton of cargo only 145 miles per gallon of fuel. Barges have the smallest carbon footprint among transportation modes.

“Most of the time we ship to export markets, unless there is a crop shortage in the United States,” Larson said. “This has been an extremely busy year with huge exports to China on corn and soybeans. We were also fortunate to open up for grain unloading in March, which really helps extend our season for the customer. Normally we have to wait to unload trucks until closer to mid-April, after Lake Pepin opens and the lock and dam repairs are finished. But this year there was little ice, and the lock and dam maintenance finished early.

“The river usually closes around Thanksgiving or Dec. 1 at the latest to get the barges out of the Upper Mississippi from cold weather and ice concerns.”

Farmer access to foreign and domestic markets opens for Minnesota and Wisconsin at river markets like Red Wing Grain. Food from the Midwest flows to the world through a major life giving artery – the Mississippi River.

Visit redwinggrain.agpartners.net and www.mvp.usace.army.mil for more information.

The dry conditions made for great planting in most fields; there was just enough moisture to have a good start for crops. May ended with a late frost around Chequamegon Bay, especially inland from Lake Superior. Looking back from the Summer Solstice at the first three weeks of June, much of northern Wisconsin has had merely a trace or less of precipitation this month. There is a four-letter word on everyone’s mind – rain!

A drive across northern Wisconsin reveals short light oats. A lot of hay is being made; the weather for haying is very good. But the moisture to grow hay and pasture is lacking. Corn and beans have had a good start, but in many fields stress and damage are beginning to show with leaves drying and yellowing.

A lot of folks in the north don’t irrigate but those who do are at it. Market gardens and berry plots are also being watered where possible.

Foragers found few morels due to the cool and dry conditions. A few oyster mushrooms have been out. Early wild berries look like dry nuggets and are in jeopardy due to the lack of moisture. Thimbleberry and blackberry are in bloom as is bunchberry. Forest trees that became stressed during a dry 2020 are suffering in 2021. Water levels in Lake Superior have dropped and continue to recede. There have been frequent red-flag fire warnings in northern Wisconsin due to the lack of rain and low relative humidity.

Agricultural commodities – grain and beet pulp – have been shipping out of Port Duluth-Superior.

Farm stores are open and farm markets have started. Community-supported-agriculture subscriptions are in full swing. There’s an abundant supply of local pasture-fed meat and eggs. Fresh local greens of many varieties are available. There’s a good supply of local fiber products and greenhouse plants. Local dairy products such as milk, ice cream and cheese are available. Wild strawberries are out, and berry farms and cherry orchards will be open before we know it. Locally made beer, mead, hard cider, wine and spirits are available. Honey, syrup and preserves continue to tempt visitors. Call ahead and check farm websites for availability and store hours. Visit www.feastbythebay.org for more information.

People who live on the land are naturally optimistic. We all look to that next dark cloud with the anticipation that it’s the one that will bring rain, much as we look forward to the great promise of each new day.

Great Oak Farm near Mason is owned by Chris Duke and his wife, Autumn Kelly.

“Back in the woods we have a couple of oak trees that would take a couple of people to reach around,” Duke said. “I really appreciate how the oak tree is slow-growing but is really durable. It’s useful for people for lumber and firewood. It’s also useful ecologically. Big acorn crops feed a lot of critters. I like how that oak tree is slow and steady and useful.

“It seems to me it’s good to strive for this farm to be like a great oak – put down roots, grow slowly and be useful to our community. Hopefully we can be useful to a lot of people.

“When I was a kid in West Virginia my grandparents on my mom’s side had a farm. We would go there for a weekend every month or so; it felt like the best place to be. So I always thought that when I grew up I wanted to be a farmer. But all the farmers I knew were old gray-haired guys and I figured that must be what you do when you retire; you start farming. Later I learned that did not need to be the case! If we are going to feed ourselves locally, regionally and sustainably, we need folks of all ages starting farms.

“We grow about 14 acres of certified-organic produce. We have another 10 acres in cover crops we are using to build the soil as part of our crop rotation. On top of that we have unheated high-tunnel structures we grow in and a heated greenhouse in year-round microgreens production.

“We started farming here in 2003. This was just a hay field; we’ve been working on it ever since. My wife works off the farm. I have three folks working here on the farm with me. We’re trying to build systems that take some of the seasonal work ebb and flow out of farming, to make it more of a year-round job with at least part-time work during the winter. We want systems that keep all of us employed year-round as long as possible. That’s an important nut to crack (in northern Wisconsin). It’s hard to keep good people if a job only lasts a couple of months. We eat every day, multiple times. It’s our job to figure out how to make fresh food every day.”

High tunnels provide productive work on rainy days.

“On a rainy day we can get into the high tunnels and catch up on weeding,” he said. “We work hard to get the best return on the investment on these structures. We have rows of beets down the middle of each bed of tomatoes.

“Those (beets) got transplanted three weeks before the tomatoes. We will harvest the beets, and then the tomatoes will take over and grow up to the roof. We squeeze in as much production as we can. Everything in the tunnels has to be done by hand. The tunnels have been a good addition to our farm; we have six and are talking about putting up another one. The tunnels create early-season work and early-season cash flow.”

Among the vegetables grown at Great Oak Farm are cabbage, Brussels sprouts, potatoes, broccoli, collard greens, Swiss chard, garlic, tomatoes, sweet corn, winter squash, beets, green beans and carrots.

“Our growing season here is short; we have (only) 90 to 120 frost-free days here a year. We pack a lot into the outside summer season and use our high tunnels to extend our growing season. We’re growing winter spinach; we pick all fall and winter into March. We store winter squash, carrots, beets and cabbage in our root cellar, (which) measures 16 feet by 16 feet. It’s a simple concrete-block structure built into the side of a hill; it’s passively heated. It isn’t fancy but it does a good job. We pack it full of crops (including) 10,000 to 20,000 pounds of winter squash every fall.

“We market mostly through the Bayfield Foods Co-op. About 20 percent of our sales are wholesale. We sell to Spirit Creek Farms; they make sauerkraut and kimchi. We sell them thousands of pounds of cabbage and carrots. We also sell them green beans.”

“My wife and I have three kids. We tried raising livestock, but livestock needs attention every day. Raising vegetables is nice because we can get away on a weekend.”

Chris Duke, Autumn Kelly, their three children and their workers are providing fresh produce year-round for local and regional consumers in northern Wisconsin. They’re innovating through production of fresh produce to provide year-round employment on intensively cultivated land. One cannot deny that from a tiny acorn in a hayfield a great oak has grown. Great Oak Farm is located on Maple Ridge Road near Mason.

Visit www.facebook.com/pg/GreatOakFarm and www.bayfieldfoods.org for more information.

Since July 1973 all branches of the U.S. military have recruited volunteers. People from all across the nation have raised their right hand. They have taken an oath to protect and defend the Constitution by serving in our armed forces. A lot of those people joined the military because someone in their family had served – just like a lot of folks who farm worked on a family farm.

When people leave the military many go back home. Some have a difficult time transitioning from an extremely regimented military career to a free-flowing civilian job market. Folks from rural areas often have fewer job opportunities; folks who want to farm face unique challenges. But veterans who want to farm have an organization to help them begin.

“We are a national nonprofit that helps veterans pursue careers in agriculture,” said Natalie Monroe, communications and marketing manager for the Farmer Veteran Coalition. “Our mission is two-fold. We’re helping to create a new generation of farmers. Simultaneously we offer veterans a new purpose on America’s farms.

“We’ve found undeniably that for many veterans farming and a career in agriculture has meaning far beyond earning a livelihood. Farming offers veterans a new mission when they return home. It provides both physical and psychological benefits. Many veterans find farming healing and therapeutic. These veterans are serving their country a second time by feeding their communities.”

The organization has more than a dozen state chapters, with several more in the process of forming.

“Between the chapters that are active and the ones forming, our chapter number is up to about 30,” said William Hines, director of chapters for the Farmer Veteran Coalition. “There has been a lot of recent interest. The chapters are our boots on the ground in a region. They sponsor events and raise money to use locally. In some states funding from state agriculture schools comes through chapters to members in that state.”

Monroe said, “County road and rural route are common words in addresses of many of our members. But urban farming has become a popular topic lately.”

Hines said, “We partner with a number of organizations supporting urban farming. We have staff members who have experience assisting urban farmers. It may be an area of expansion for us in years to come.”

Monroe said, “One major benefit we provide is access to other veteran farmers. We provide a link to benefits for veterans from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the (U.S. Department of Agriculture) – specific resources that help veterans who want to farm. We host conferences and networking events. We have an annual grant program that gets equipment from vendors and provides it directly to farms. This has been a great benefit for some of our members. We have a marketing and certification program. We also have discounts from equipment manufacturers, service providers and partners.”

Joining the Farmer Veteran Coalition.

“Our website has a link for membership,” she said. “Any veteran with an honorable discharge and anyone who is active-duty military is welcome to join at no cost. Members have access to all of our services. We have members in all 50 states and in several territories. The stories of these veterans and their service is inspiring. So is the story of their continued service feeding their communities.”

Veterans all across the United States continue to serve our nation. And a growing number of them are becoming successful farmers with the help of the Famer Veteran Coalition.

Visit farmvetco.org and www.facebook.com/farmerveterancoalition for more information.

The northernmost tip of mainland Wisconsin juts into cold Lake Superior. It’s remote and sparsely populated. Much of the soil is either sand or red clay. There are dense forests; wildlife is abundant, including bears and active wolf packs. But in that wild and remote setting there are still small family farms.

Wisconsin Highway 13 is a paved two-lane road. Bayfield County Road J is paved but a narrow two-lane road. Star Route is a paved but is a patched, bumpy, winding, hilly and narrow town road. Happy Hollow Road is gravel; it passes through the old Frank Belanger Settlement. That settlement began as a farming community comprised of people with Native American and European ancestry. Their kin are still there, along with more recent immigrants. The old settlement area is still dotted with farms.

One of those farms is the home of the Happy Hollow Creamery, a place where treasure is created. In the old Belanger Settlement the land and the lake are infusing delicate rich character into a rare treasure, a gourmet’s delight – a small-batch sheep-milk cheese from Wisconsin’s northern-most artisanal cheesemakers.

On a late-spring day Fred Faye was with his flock of newly shorn sheep and their lambs in his converted cattle barn.

“My folks bought this 160-acre farm in 1972,” he said. “They milked up to 45 head of dairy cows – Holsteins; they quit in 1997. My brother milked cows here from 1998 to 2007. Then he moved to Kansas and bought a farm there. My wife and I moved back here from Georgia in 2008 and bought the farm from my mom in 2017.

“I wanted to be involved in farming but I knew there wasn’t a living to be made here with dairy cattle on this scale. I have a food-science degree and had always been interested in making cheese. I attended the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

“Our flock is up to 65 ewes; we can milk up to 12 sheep at a time. It takes about an hour and a half to milk 60 sheep. Now that lambing is almost done we can sleep at night again.

“When I was 17, I went to France for a few months. There was a little farm about the size of this one; they milked goats and sold the cheese they made. I looked in the barn and there were all these clean goats on straw bedding. Coming from a cow farm it looked like a tidy operation. That made an impression on me.”

Having a large flock of sheep in wolf and bear country might strike some as a risky business. Buy Faye has found an effective way to mitigate the risk of predation for his flock. Chase, mostly Spanish Ranch Mastiff, and an Anatolian Shepherd named Rio patrol the fields and protect the flock. In the years since Faye has grazed his flock on his family farm he has had no predation of livestock from wolves or bears.

“Sheep are relatively low-cost for starting up,” he said. “It wasn’t that expensive for us to buy our flock of sheep. The expensive part is the cheese-plant equipment but ours is tiny. And I like to think that half of my income comes from saving money – fixing my own cars, growing our own food (and) living on our own farm. We are lucky.”

With the milk from their sheep he and his wife, Kelly Faye, and their children create cheese. Happy Hollow Creamery sheep-milk cheese is treasure that’s being discovered by more and more people along the Lake Superior shore. Small-batch family-farm-produced artisanal cheese is a rare find anywhere. But the terroir – the exquisite flavors from the unique character of the land, grass, water and Lake Superior fresh air – make cheese from Happy Hollow Creamery very special.

Happy Hollow Creamery sheep-milk cheese is marketed locally at co-op and grocery stores in Washburn and Ashland, Wisconsin, and in Duluth, Minnesota. It’s marketed more widely through the Bayfield Foods Co-op. The family also sells at local farm markets.

Visit www.facebook.com – search for Happy Hollow Creamery – and www.bayfieldfoods.org for more information.

In 1867 the National Grange of the order of the Patrons of Husbandry was founded to offer an opportunity for people to better their communities and their nation through engagement, fraternity and service. Betsy Huber is the current president of the National Grange; she’s the first woman to lead the organization, which has a headquarters building near the White House.

“Because we are right next to the White House, we experienced riots May 31, 2020,” Huber said. “We had a broken window and graffiti on the building. That was a wake-up call to everybody. (The Grange has) always been against prejudice and racism. I appointed a task force to look at our documents, rituals and purposes to make sure we are not unconsciously showing prejudice or favoritism toward one people against another. It’s an ongoing process. We are also looking into what we do at the local level to make sure we are welcoming to all races, creeds, religions and cultures at the local level as well as the national level.”

The national headquarters also had a view Jan. 6 of the insurrection.

“The established processes of voting and voicing opinions, and meeting with legislators, are the ways we influence government,” said Huber when reflecting on that event. “All of our policy comes from the grassroots local level. Any member at a Grange can write a resolution if they see something in our nation that needs changing. With local support, resolutions go up to the state level – where with support it goes to the national convention. If it has support from the majority of delegates at the national convention it becomes our policy. We have no policy that did not start with our membership at the local level.

“Our No. 1 issue now is broadband. We need to get broadband into all the rural areas of our nation. The need has especially come to light due to the pandemic over the past year.”

There are two ways to join the Grange.

“We have an e-membership that allows people who support the Grange and its mission to join online,” she said. “These members receive our weekly e-newsletter, our beautiful quarterly magazine and they get all of our legislative information too.

“People who want more involvement and who don’t have a Grange in their area can work with us to start a new Grange. It takes 13 people, including at least four men and four women, so it’s not a men’s club or ladies’ club. Contact our national headquarters to get assistance and we will help get a group started in a community.”

There is a saying in the Grange – “The office will seek the man or woman.”

“We have a unique process,” Huber said. “People do not run for office. Campaigning for office is discouraged.”

To elect the president and other officers of the National Grange, delegates meet, look around the room and choose the person whom they consider to be the correct person for each office. And so it was a complete surprise to Huber when she was elected president. Now in her third term, it seems evident the office found the right person.

The National Grange has helped heal our nation and move it forward since the Civil War. It’s ready to help move our nation forward again.

Visit www.nationalgrange.org for more information.

SUPERIOR, Wis. – For years in northern Wisconsin and the “arrowhead” of Minnesota people have been enjoying fresh produce grown by Bay Produce of Superior. On Bay Produce labels in small letters appears the words “Challenge Center.” Bay Produce is part of Challenge Center, one of a myriad of projects and programs affiliated with the Catholic Charities Bureau in the Catholic Diocese of Superior.

“We have around 30 people with developmental disabilities in a program working here with about 10 staff, for a total of 40 people,” Fisher said. “They and their care team decide on their workweek.”

Mark Kroll is director of the Challenge Center.

“People decide with their care team that this is the kind of employment they want to pursue,” Kroll said. “Some people are comfortable in this environment. Some folks are here to hone their work skills – working with others (and) learning different jobs, with a goal of getting a job working with the public. We’re here to help them decide what they want to do.

“We have an employment program with job coaches that help with that goal. Sometimes a person’s goals change over time or as they age. Some folks want to stay here for a long time. Rich and his people are growing produce but really the reason we’re all here is to serve the folks who come here for the services we offer. If not for them, we would not have a greenhouse in northern Wisconsin. It’s here for a purpose.”

Great teachers know learning is a two-way street. Knowledge travels from teacher to student and from student to teacher. That happens most readily in an environment that’s safe and filled with work that’s meaningful.

“(The Challenge Center) is a nonprofit,” Kroll said. “It would be nice if every program supported itself. The revenue stream that comes out of Bay Produce helps to support it. We serve everybody; you don’t have to be Catholic. We look for the best people to come here and serve others with the right spirit. We want people in our programs to get the best opportunities to realize what they want to do in life.”

Fisher said, “I look at this as a training ground. I want to train punctuality and interacting with co-workers. Any job I do I let them do, so they get as many work experiences as I can give them.”

Kroll said, “You know what it takes when you start a job – all those little interactions with co-workers. How do you work with your boss? How do you take direction? Here you can learn those skills in a really safe environment. We need to understand specific disabilities and the behaviors they present. Rich and his crew spend time reviewing what’s going on with each individual in the program to make sure they meet their goals. The people in our programs are the reason we’re here.”

As one walks through the greenhouses and packing area at Bay Produce there’s a feeling of optimism, safety and enjoyment. People are teaching and learning. Lush plants are everywhere. Everyone can see the fruits of their labor. Everyone is working for the good of the community.

Some look to find success in the wealthy and famous. The news of the day often indicates that’s not where success is found. At the Challenge Center and Bay Produce, wholesome fresh food is grown. Hungry people on the Lake Superior shore of Wisconsin and Minnesota are nourished. Together people are making the world a better place.

It’s difficult to imagine anything bringing more meaning to life.

Visit challenge-center.org/vocational-services/bay-produce and challenge-center.org and ccbsuperior.org for more information.

Betsy Huber is the current president of the organization; she likes to share its history.

After the Civil War the country was torn; farms were destroyed. The founder, Oliver Hudson Kelley, thought a fraternal organization could help knit the country back together and restore farms to productivity. He was a Minnesota farmer.

From the start the Grange was ahead of its time. It stood against racism, and for equal rights for women and rights for children. Since the beginning of the Grange men and women were equal – equal voting rights and equal ability to join the Grange. That was 50 years before suffrage for women. At the same time 14-year-olds could be full Grange members. They could have a vote and a voice the same as their parents and grandparents.

Several things folks take for granted in rural America exist due to the Grange. Issues members have had influence on and supported include rural electrification and rural telephone service. They supported land-grant universities and the university-Extension service. The national Future Farmers of America organization – now the FFA – and 4-H Clubs were offshoots of Grange youth programs.

The organization supported Rural Free Delivery of mail, reduced shipping rates for farm products and the farm-credit system. It now advocates policies that are positive for rural America concerning infrastructure, energy, immigration, education and health care. The Grange every year takes grassroots resolutions regarding issues, transforms them to policies and presents them to Congress.

Visit www.nationalgrange.org for more information.