Along the Shore

Whether growing an herb garden, foraging or making your own tea, developing the ability to identify and utilize local plants can help cultivate a greater sense of self-sufficiency, wellness and connectedness to the world around us. | BRIGETTE NIES

By Rae Poynter

COOK COUNTY—Recent years have seen a surge of interest in both wellness practices and environmental awareness. In many ways, herbalism and natural medicine sit right at that intersection. Whether it’s growing an herb garden, foraging for fungi, or making your own rosehip tea, developing the ability to identify and utilize local plants can help cultivate a greater sense of self-sufficiency, wellness, and connectedness to the world around us.

Brigette Nies and Gigi Stafne are two herbalists with connections to the North Shore. Nies is a Cook County resident and the owner of Ancient Traditions Healing, while Stafne is the director of the Green Wisdom School of Natural and Botanical Medicine in Wisconsin. Stafne has taught courses in herbalism at North House Folk school in Grand Marais for over 19 years, and both she and Nies have collaborated in teaching and in clinical work.

For Stafne, her journey into herbalism began when she was starting to transition away from anti-violence work. After a bout of illness, Stafne’s mentor encouraged her to start in natural medicine. Thirty-five years later, Stafne has worked in many different realms of the natural medicine world, including opening one of the first natural medicine clinics in Wisconsin, working with Herbalists Without Borders International, and even helping to conserve disappearing plants.

“I really feel like this is a calling and I integrate all of my experiences into my teaching,” Stafne said.

According to Stafne, education is important when starting the journey into herbalism. While one’s first instinct may be to go to the internet to start researching plants, getting a local botany guide and learning from someone more experienced is a better way to start, since herbs vary region to region. It’s also good to be aware that some plants are incredibly strong and can have adverse interactions with other medications. (Those interested in herbalism should consult an experienced herbalist and/or your physician to make sure you aren’t using anything that could negatively affect your medications or preexisting health conditions.) Taking a beginner herbalism class also helps you learn more about the history and cultural aspects behind the herbs that grow in your region.

“We want people to exercise good ethics,” Stafne said. “There’s also a propensity in the U.S. to go overboard and start exaggerating all of the benefits that plants have. Natural medicine isn’t going to replace allopathic medicine but you can integrate both into your life. There are ways to develop your own natural medicine cabinet so that you can attend to small things on your own. It’s very empowering for people to grow in self-sufficiency that way.”

For those who are just beginning, culinary herbs can be a great entry point to learning more about herbalism. Starting to add nutritive plants—such as rosehips, dandelion root or mushrooms—to your diet is a simple way to start learning more about local plants while incorporating new flavors into your cooking. Understanding where your food comes from and adding more plants to your diet can help you make more conscious decisions about what you eat and how it affects you.

“You can start small by incorporating simple things into your life,” Nies said. “An example would be a mint plant—it’s a perennial and you can easily make tea with it. I find that for beginners, finding stuff that you can use in teas or weave into foods is an easy way to start. Culinary herbs are nice that way and there are lots of culinary herbs that we can grow up here.”

For the past five years, Nies has been growing a “living apothecary” on her land, with over a hundred varieties of medicinal plants that grow here in northern Minnesota. Last summer, she started a community-supported herbalism (CSH), which supplied 24 families in Cook County with herbal items such as salves, tinctures and teas that Nies formulated with plants from her land. She plans to continue the CSH this summer and possibly expand to up to 30 members.

“The CSH has given me the opportunity to spend more time out in the garden with the plants and formulating a full range of items based on what is really flourishing in the garden,” she said. “I’ve found it’s created a lovely balance for me in that I get to spend more time out in the garden, and I’ve also discovered that I love the creative process of formulating with the plants and noticing what’s thriving.”

Nies said that one of her favorite things about her journey into herbalism is the connectedness she has to the land. “I think the most magical gift in all of it for me is remembering that I am not separate from nature.”

Similarly, Stafne said that one of the most rewarding things about her journey is seeing that connectedness develop in others.

“We become better stewards of the land, we become more concerned about climate change, and we start to think more about living healthy and connected lives,” she said.

For more information on herbalism, visit greenwisdom.weebly.com and ancienttraditionshealing.com.

By Rae Poynter

GRAND MARAIS—Like many people who are interested in trying yoga, Carly Puch, a Cook County resident and yoga instructor, was first drawn to the practice for the physical exercise. Puch started practicing yoga with a DVD by instructor Rodney Yee, but as she continued in her practice, she came to realize that yoga isn’t just a physical practice: it’s a practice for the whole self, mind and body.

“During the last year of my undergraduate degree, I got to take a yoga class as a part of my curriculum and realized it was the first time I had allowed myself to relax in maybe forever,” Puch said. “Being led live by an instructor was amazing. I had no clue what most of what she said meant, I was out of my element, but it became a practice I never stopped.”

It’s a common misperception in the west that yoga is a series of poses. While the poses are certainly part of yoga, the practice runs much deeper. Yoga has ancient roots, having originated in northern India over 5,000 years ago. The physical practice that we call “yoga” today is actually just one of eight limbs of yoga.

Susan Polege, business manager at Yoga North in Duluth said, “The typical idea that people have of yoga is based on asanas, which means poses. But yoga in general is much, much more than that. It includes ethical teachings, it includes meditation, it includes types of sensory deprivation that help you focus inward. And the purpose of the asanas is to help your body feel comfortable so you can allow your mind to focus inward. It’s a means to the end.”

Within the world of yoga are different variations of the practice, such as Hatha yoga, Vinyasa yoga, and Yin yoga. Yoga North teaches SomaYoga, a methodology developed by owners Ann Maxwell and Molly McManus. SomaYoga combines practices from somatics, therapeutic yoga, and classic asana.

“There is this idea in SomaYoga that you don’t push yourself to 100 percent, but you do what your body can do today, and you are able to do more if you respect your boundaries and allow yourself to stretch a little bit more each day,” Polege said. “We start each session with somatics, which includes internally focusing and is more of a slower and subtle practice. It’s been a favorite new addition to my life and I get more authentic poses, whereas in the past I would just muscle through my yoga practice and I wasn’t getting the actual benefits from it.”

No matter which type of yoga you choose, developing a consistent practice can lead to many benefits. Many yogis report experiencing decreased stress, increased strength and flexibility, and a greater mind-body connection.

Puch said, “It’s also helped to further connect me to other people in my life by making me pause and think about the role I play in relationships. It’s helped me learn my limits and how to set better boundaries. Anything that happens on the mat always ends up being a lesson for something off the mat and in the world.”

One point that both Polege and Puch emphasized is that yoga is a practice that is truly open to everyone: there are no strength or flexibility requirements to practice yoga, and any practice can be adapted to each individual’s ability levels. Although Western media and marketing perpetuates an idea that yoga is for thin, white, able-bodied women, in reality yoga is for people of all ages, body types and genders.

“Yoga is for every body: everybody can benefit from it. You take into account the things that you can do and the things you can’t do,” Polege said. “Some of our teachers teach people who are in wheelchairs or have Parkinson’s—whatever adaptations you’re dealing with, we can work with that. It’s not going to look like an Instagram picture, but it feels great in that person’s body, which is what yoga really is.”

Puch has recently been teaching yoga in Cook County’s schools through grants from the Arrowhead Area Agency on Aging and the North Shore Collaborative. The experience, she said, has been more rewarding than she could have imagined.

“Young people are so receptive and open to learning new things,” Puch said. “The insight they shared about feelings of anxiousness and mental health was inspiring. Especially given the last few years, we know students need as much support as they can get. Sharing the practice of yoga with kids can help their resilience, coping skills, mental health and more.”

Puch said that her advice to beginners would be to just start. Each session is a practice and there’s no end goal you need to be striving for.

“Whatever knowledge you have of yoga is the perfect amount to start now,” says Puch.

By Chris Pascone

DULUTH—Visit Duluth’s Lincoln Park Craft District once a week and it will always look different the next time you come. Change and development happen on a constant basis here. Blink once and there’s a new apartment building on Superior Street with retail shops spread throughout its ground floor (Enger Lofts). Blink twice and there’s a new small batch art gallery on 21st Avenue West (Kirsten Aune Textiles). There are new bars, restaurants and cafes sprouting up routinely here, as if from entrepreneurial seeds planted in the ground. Stretching from the corner of Garfield and Piedmont Avenues, and following Superior Street west to 40th Avenue, the Lincoln Park Craft District is developing at breakneck speed.

If you start your day with tea or coffee, your Lincoln Park café choices have recently multiplied. Dovetail Café—a Craft District mainstay—is open every day from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., while newcomer 190° Coffee and Tea just came on board in January and stays open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Both cafes take pride in their handcrafted, artisan approach.

“One of the things that I’m heartened by is there’s not a single chain store in the Craft District. There’s not an Arby’s, McDonald’s or Starbucks here. It’s people like us, who are trying to do something unique,” says Dovetail Café co-owner Bryan French.

The Dovetail has a true dovetail cabin within, made from red and white pine milled from the 2016 blowdown in Duluth. French is proud that community members helped harvest and hew the wood used in the café.

For a “stoked” café experience, try out The Back Alley—a neighborhood surf shop and cafe, where you can talk about surfing mighty Lake Superior with owner Jerome Fischer. Only in Duluth can you drink a matcha latte while discussing the merits of 10-foot waves on a freshwater lake.

Art lovers should check out the handcrafted wares at Karin Kraemer’s Duluth Pottery. The gallery, which opened in 2017, features an open-space concept with high ceilings and a creative atmosphere. Here, you can browse the work of clay artists and buy the same maiolica pottery mugs and dishes used in many area restaurants and breweries—another way in which local businesses support one another.

For outdoors-people, Frost River is a great shop for securing a Boundary Waters permit or just gearing up for the next adventure. Every product exudes a handmade ethos, all the way down to the hand-forged iron tent stakes made by local blacksmith Paul Webster.

Owner Chris Benson purchased the 100-year-old Frost River building in part because it’s on Superior Street, which makes it a recognizable address to visitors.

“When you look at people visiting Duluth, Superior Street is a street that everyone knows, whether they’re coming from the Twin Cities, or Chicago, or wherever,” says Benson.

Benson explains that he chose his building’s location because “Superior Street looks like a main street should. It’s a vibrant economic area for businesses to pull together.” Today, Frost River’s production and retail space is fully sustainable, using solar panels on the roof to power all of Frost River’s sewing machines. Frost River also offers two free EV chargers outside for public use.

Check out Kirsten Aune Textiles on 21st Ave West for kitchen wares and Scandinavian-inspired clothing, including the stunning “peasant blouses.” Aune is a “small-batch” artist who has lived in Lincoln Park for the last 17 years. Aune opened her showroom in 2020 and says she is now “part of the club,” adding that the Craft District business community members “want to support each other.” Her shop features “originality” that is made “here.”

For even more small batch clothing and footwear, head to artist Candace LaCosse’s Hemlocks Leatherworks next to Flora North florists on Superior Street. LaCosse also takes custom orders for handmade leather shoes and bags.

When you get thirsty from all your exploring, you’re in the right place: the Lincoln Park Craft District is synonymous with the craft beverage scene. The whole state knows Bent Paddle Brewing, but there are other players, too. For example, you’ll find two cideries—Duluth Cider and Wild State Cider—within three blocks of one another. Ursa Minor is another popular craft brewery here with a huge outdoor seating area. There are also great restaurant choices, including Oink, Moo, Cluck for meat lovers, and Duluth Grill for vegetarians. If you’re with your kids (or without!), Love Creamery’s outrageous handmade ice cream is a must after dinner.

Finally, it’s noteworthy that while retail and breweries have been growth drivers for the last 10 years in the Craft District, there’s a new economic driver here as well: housing. The new housing renaissance includes recently opened Enger Lofts (31 apartments), Lincoln Park Flats (74 apartments, set to open this spring), Urbane218 (45 apartments, planned to open in 2023), and a fourth development with a retail-residential mix planned for the former Anderson Furniture Building. You can see all of them on Superior Street.

If you like meeting the people who make the wares they sell and chatting about hands-on crafts like sewing, boat-building, or beer brewing with the owners, you’ll be right at home in the Lincoln Park Craft District. Pick up surfing, buy a bouquet of exquisite flowers, or sample Minnesota’s best ciders—it’s all for one in this business community. Come take a look for yourself in the city’s most trendy, creative neighborhood that is the face of change in Duluth.

By Eric Weicht

GRAND MARAIS—The Superior Cannabis Company’s storefront in Duluth is not your typical smoke shop. In fact, it’s not much of a smoke shop at all.

Superior Cannabis Company’s Canal Park location has an atmosphere more like that of a coffee shop or craft brewery than a place to purchase cannabis. The staff are welcoming and passionate about the products that they sell, and for a business that is all about breaking the stigma associated with cannabis, they do a fantastic job curating a pleasant, comfortable experience for their customers.

Superior Cannabis Company specializes in “hemp flower and premium CBD products” as well as a “great selection of clothing, pipes and accessories.”

In addition to running two store fronts— one in Duluth and one in Austin, Minn.—that offer both SCC and non-SCC CBD products, the Superior Cannabis Company sources its USDA certified organic hemp locally from “licensed family-owned farms” that grow and produce hemp in southern Minnesota.

But really, what is CBD?

CBD—or cannabidiol—is one of many chemical compounds found in cannabis. Unlike THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), CBD is not psychoactive and does not produce the “high” most commonly associated with cannabis use.

To date, there are well over 100 different types of cannabinoids that have been identified in addition to CBD and THC, and depending on the method of extraction from the original plant, different cannabis-based products will have varying amounts of each cannabinoid.

With the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, it became legal for Minnesotans aged 18 and older to buy CBD oil products that contain less than 0.3 percent THC without a prescription. This sparked a surge in CBD products and sales in Minnesota, as well as hemp cultivation, and since then it has become more and more common to find CBD products in storefronts up and down the North Shore.

One such local business that sprung up in the wake of the 2018 Farm Bill was Good Harbor Wellness, a brand that currently provides local, legal cannabis-based products to the Cook County community.

Good Harbor Wellness was founded by Cook County resident Steve Sherman and is based out of Grand Marais. As of the time that this article was written, their products can be found at the Gunflint Tavern, Cook County Whole Foods Co-op, Buck’s Hardware, and all the way up the Gunflint Trail at Trail Center Lodge.

Sherman has been involved with the cannabis industry from the beginning, having spent time working for large corporations and small “mom and pop” shops all around the country. He started Good Harbor Wellness out of a passion for cannabis and, more broadly, out of a passion for wellness and healthy living.

“I formulate all of my Good Harbor Wellness products to be as simple and as natural as possible,” says Sherman. “All of my tinctures, for example, are just cannabinoids, coconut oil and natural flavor, because it’s important to me that when you look at the label on any [Good Harbor Wellness] product, you understand everything that is in there.”

“Good Harbor Wellness’ focus goes beyond cannabis,” continues Sherman, “it’s wellness and wellness is not just a supplement—wellness is the style of gardening that you do, the way that you interact with the community, the food that you eat, maintaining your microbiome and gut, and so much more.”

According to Sherman, there are three different methods of extracting CBD from hemp.

“First, there is isolate,” says Sherman, “where CBD is stripped from all of the other cannabinoids and added to products. Then there is broad spectrum, where the integrity of all of the different cannabinoids is maintained during extraction except for THC, and then finally there is full spectrum which maintains a little bit of THC but at a level that is below the 0.3 percent legal limit.”

“I am a believer in full spectrum,” continues Sherman, “because I have found from my own experience, as well as the feedback that I receive from customers, that cannabinoids work best when they are working together.”

For Sherman, Good Harbor Wellness is all about helping people and—especially when it comes to his line of CBD products—he relies heavily on feedback from the community to find out what works and what doesn’t.

“It’s a bummer, but because of how new [CBD] is and how it has only recently become legal to research,” says Sherman, “there really aren’t that many clinical trials out there on the effects of CBD.”

“So,” continues Sherman, “I have had to work hard to find anecdotal evidence for what products work for people and what products don’t, and adjust the products that I chose to carry accordingly. It’s an experience that has made me thankful for the small, supportive community that I am fortunate to call home.”

By Michelle Miller

TWO HARBORS—Two Harbors Community Radio (THCR) KTWH 99.5 FM celebrated six years of being on the air last September. This seventh year will prove to be an exciting year of expansion, growth and new opportunities for this small, local radio station. Ten months ago, the board of directors explored moving from the current output as a Low Power (LP) station to a Full Power (FP) local station. Currently, the 100 watts only reaches a 10-to-12-mile radius from the transmitter point located on the west end of Two Harbors in Lake County.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) periodically opens a short window of time for existing stations to change status or new parties to apply for licensure. The THCR board, with consultation from technicians and engineers, concluded it was a matter of survival to apply for the change of status. The open period for new stations to apply could potentially take KTWH off the dial with the current LP status. Although the application for the upgrade was not a guarantee, it was in the best interest of the station to pursue this option. In early February, the FCC acknowledged receipt of the application. Shortly after, KTWH received approval, granting a 36-month license for construction. THCR board of director co-chair, Chris Belfield, is thrilled this process can officially begin, stating, “The expansion from LP to FP enables us to explore more opportunities to better serve our listeners along the North Shore.”

With these opportunities comes a deeper look into how to best serve the public. A three-year strategic plan will be put into place, a key component being the involvement, input and new perspective from community members. Belfield adds “we have a seven-year history of being a credible contributor to this community and we are looking forward to this new adventure.”

In 2013 THCR began with a modest group of a dozen committed local residents and over the years has grown to nearly 110 volunteers lending their talents, support and energy to the station. KTWH provides 100 hours of programming throughout its weekly schedule. Such an aggressive schedule is a huge undertaking for a low power, community-based, non-profit station, and makes it quite unique within the industry. A community-based approach to programming boast over 50 hours of locally-produced shows and all hosts are volunteers. Over the years, programs have focused on environmental issues, veterans affairs, cooking, storytelling, interviews with local city leaders and a consistent weekday morning show lineup. Music-based programs range from Nordic roots to jazz to bluegrass and Friday’s feature live in-studio performances from a variety of local artists. Since the inception of this station, a key guiding principal has been inclusion and intergeneration accessibility. Youth Radio began in 2016 providing students with hands-on learning, both in front of and behind the microphone, and the Northshore Community School partnership came on board almost five years ago, providing weekly phenology reports from fifth-grade reporters.

The organization’s budget is supported through a combination of grants, donors, underwriting and fundraising efforts. A premier annual event is the Cabin Fever Reliever Variety Show which had been canceled since 2020 but is making a comeback this year. Historically, the event has been held off site at different staging venues with tickets sales, a silent auction and concessions providing the revenue. To accommodate the uncertain times and the safety of the public, this year’s fundraiser will be more of a telethon format.

“It will be a hybrid event, airing live from the KTWH studios and simultaneously streaming from our YouTube Channel,” says event coordinator volunteer Kim Leon.

The entertainment lineup includes North Shore musical legend, Charlie Parr, Virginia (Minn.) resident Nathan Frazer, Two Harbors singer Tracy Parks, poet Bob Mahanan, ventriloquist Jeremy Lepak, the Two Harbors Ukulele Group and more. A highlight not to be missed, according to Leon, is Steve Solkela Sauna Sessions, featuring “four guys singing opera in Steven’s Sauna.” The 2022 Cabin Fever Reliever is Sunday, April 24 from 3-5 p.m. and can be heard on KTWH 99.5 FM, streaming at ktwh.org and on the KTWH YouTube channel.

For more information on the Two Harbors Community Radio, visit: facebook.com/ktwh.org.—Michelle Miller