Along the Shore

Peat discs with seed germinating indoors. Since young seedlings are very sensitive to salts and fertilizers, seeds should be started in a pathogen-free, fertilizer-free starting mix. | SUBMITTED

By Rae Poynter

GRAND MARAIS—For all of the many things that the beautiful Lake Superior region has going for it, it does have a big challenge for gardeners: the harsh climate means that the growing season is remarkably short. With just a few quick months of frost-free ground, planting and harvesting a garden in this climate is a challenge. Planting a seed directly into the ground in early summer will often not give enough growing time to have a harvest before the ground freezes again in the fall. Not to be discouraged, however, experienced gardeners have workarounds, including one of the best methods of ensuring a healthy harvest: starting seeds indoors.

According to Bob Olen, horticulturist from St. Louis County, early spring is a good time for gardeners to start planning for starting seeds, since most need four to 10 weeks of growth before transplanting into a garden. Olen said he uses June 10 as the transplanting date from which to backtrack, so backtracking 10 weeks means starting the earliest seeds inside around April 1. (The exception is onions, which should be started even earlier, at the beginning of March.) Seeds can potentially be started earlier for those with greenhouses, but those who are moving plants straight from indoors to a garden shouldn’t start too early, lest the plants get too leggy inside. Many summer flowers such as petunias should be started 10 weeks out (early April), while warm-season crops like tomatoes, eggplants and peppers should be started six to eight weeks out (mid-late April). Some crops like vine crops only need to be started two weeks prior to planting in the garden.

Olen said that his biggest tip for beginners is to choose high quality, viable seeds to start with, since they will beget healthier plants and yield more crops. (Local UMN Extension offices can give recommendations on the best places to buy seeds.) Since young seedlings are very sensitive to salts and fertilizers, seeds should be started in a pathogen-free, fertilizer-free starting mix. The instructions on the backs of the seed packets will say how deep to plant them, and it is best to plant seeds in individual containers with drainage holes. The starting media should be kept warm, about 75 degrees: many gardeners use heating mats to keep the soil warm. Once the seedlings have grown 1-2 leaves, they can be transplanted from the starting mix into a growing mix, and can tolerate half-strength fertilizer.

“Seedlings are like little kids: they’re very vulnerable and you have to baby them a bit,” Olen said.

Providing adequate light and water is key to successfully starting seeds indoors. Seedlings should be kept medium-moist without being overwatered. Gine Meissner, a Master Gardener in Cook County, said gardeners can use a spray bottle to moisten the seedling soil without washing the seeds away, and can use a dome to keep the containers humid until the seedlings have their first set of true leaves. Meissner highly recommends the use of growing lights and heating mats to help the success of the seedlings.

“Counting on natural light indoors does not provide adequate lighting for germination and growth of seedlings. You do need to purchase ‘grow lights’ or use fluorescent lighting. The seedlings need 12 to 16 hours of light each day. I place them on a timer making it is easy to maintain that requirement,” she said.

As spring turns to summer and the seedlings get ready to transplant, they need to “harden off,” or get acclimated to being outdoors and exposed to the elements. Bob Olen said that seedlings should be exposed to cooler temperatures without much wind, and should get acclimated to partial sun before being put into full sun.

“It’s best to plant them in the garden on a cooler, cloudy day. Wind can be tough on young transplants, so make sure the planting day isn’t too windy,” Olen said.

Both Olen and Meissner said that it’s important for beginners to remember to have patience, take it slow and know that making mistakes is normal when starting out.

“Keep the process as simple as possible so that you can maintain the plants in a healthy manner,” Meissner said. “You don’t need any expensive, fancy equipment or a lot of space to start with. Start small and see if this is something you would enjoy pursuing. It involves more time than you would at first realize but to a gardener, the joy of growing something from seed to food is immeasurable.”

More information about seed starting can be found online through UMN-Extension.

By Eric Weicht

COOK COUNTY—Small businesses provide jobs that make life possible on the North Shore and they create identity. They give people a reason to visit the shore outside of the natural beauty of the place.

It’s why shopping local is so important in a small community like Grand Marais, but what about investing? We shop local, why not invest local?

In a sense, it is easier to invest in a corporation headquartered in a country halfway around the world then it is to put money towards the aging building next door. Investing locally requires more time, energy and money than most people are able to put forward, which is what makes the new Cook County Community Real Estate Fund such an exciting development.

The Cook County Community Real Estate Fund is an investment fund spearheaded by eight local community leaders—Howard Hedstrom, Ann Possis, Gary Latz, Jeff Latz, Roger Opp, Steve Surbaugh and Tim and Beth Kennedy—who make up the Cook County general partners of the fund.

They are working in partnership with RE- Vocity; a company that specializes in creating investment opportunities for individuals, businesses and non-profits to “invest in their backyard.”

“As general partners,” says Hedstrom, “we’ve committed ourselves to putting some money in the pot, as has REVocity who will also provide all of the staffing, expertise and back-office stuff to make the fund a success.”

In addition to the general partners, the Cook County Community Real Estate Fund will comprise of “limited partners” who can participate by investing in the fund for an expected return. According to Hedstrom, the number of limited partners involved with the fund is expected to be over 100.

The idea for the real estate investment fund has its roots in the fires that rocked the Cook County community back in the early days of the pandemic.

“In the spring of 2020,” says Hedstrom, “I was helping chair a number of meetings with the owners that had lost their businesses to the fire in downtown Grand Marais. It was a tough time for the community.”

“At the time, we were reaching out to developers, Rebound Partners being one of them, which is how I first connected with Brett Reese and REVocity,” continues Hedstrom. “Even though [Reese] wasn’t able to help out with the development, we started talking about REVocity’s work with community focused investment funds, which was followed up with a series of meetings that, ultimately, led to the creation of the Cook County Real Estate Fund.”

Brett Reese is a founder and the managing partner at Rebound Partners, and one of three general partners representing REVocity in the Cook County Real Estate Fund.

Lori Bonin and Chris Kennelly are the other two REVocity general partners, Bonin being the president and Kennelly (founder) the chief investment officer.

REVocity is the seventh “vertical” within Rebound Partners—an integrated investment and management company based out of Northfield, Minn.—whose purpose, according to their website (revocity.com), is to promote growth within communities by “securing, enhancing, and managing impactful real estate investments.”

By working with community leaders to establish community real estate funds like the one that was recently incorporated in Cook County, REVocity makes it possible for individuals, non-profits and businesses to invest in “their own backyard.”

“With the minimum investment set at $25k for limited partners,” says Bonin, “the Cook County Real Estate Fund will allow a broad group of individuals and businesses to participate and invest in their community.”

“We’re going to start by pooling capital locally,” continues Bonin, “because again, that’s what is so exciting about this fund, it is the impact investing that makes it possible locally, within Grand Marais and Cook County.”

It is important to note that the Cook County Real Estate Fund is not a charity, nor is it a non-profit as the fund promises investors a return on the money that investors put forward. That being said, what makes the Cook County Real Estate Fund unique is its emphasis on community impact and its goal to devote resources to the “tougher” projects within the community, projects that would otherwise be overlooked by more traditional prospective developers.

“The point of this fund goes beyond just ‘making a profit,’” says Ann Possis, one of the eight Cook County general partners. “This is an opportunity to do good things in our community, like expanding opportunities for businesses, expanding housing and just reclaiming property that is being underutilized.”

“What we’re looking to do is current impact investing,” adds Hedstrom. “We are looking for properties that would benefit from an infusion of capital and new ideas.”

According to Possis and Hedstrom, one of the priorities of the fund is housing; something that is arguably the largest, most universal obstacle to growth in Cook County.

“We’re hoping to develop rental housing,” says Possis, “either on our own or by working with people in the county who already have things planned but lack the necessary capital to make it happen. Cook County is at a point where it can’t expand very much if we don’t have places for people working in the community to live.”

Though they were not ready to disclose specifics on any projects that the fund is working on at the time this article was written, both Possis and Hedstrom acknowledged that the fund has a number of projects that it is already actively involved with.

“There’s quite a few things in the works,” says Hedstrom. “It’s still a little too soon to divulge everything that we’re working on, but once these things pop, I think people are going to be kind of surprised and pleased.”

By Chris Pascone

DULUTH—How many American cities can boast a public ice-climbing park? Minnesota itself has three such “ice parks,” and Duluth’s Quarry Park has been one of them since 2016. How and why did an abandoned quarry in West Duluth become an official city park? Here’s the story of how Duluth reclaimed one of its industrial spaces and put yet another feather in its cap as an outdoor recreational paradise.

The Duluth Crushed Stone Company was responsible for creating the imposing landscape of 100-foot vertical walls of stone that give Quarry Park its name. Towering over the St. Louis River valley below, the hillside here was quarried throughout the first half of the 20th century. Rubble from the quarry was used on railroad beds, and rip rap was used for building retaining walls (like the breakwater of the Superior Entry of the Duluth-Superior Harbor). Steam drills were employed to extract the stone, which was then crushed into sizes to fit customer demand. Duluth Crushed Stone Company operated the quarry through the 1950s.

The area was then left to its own devices and local climbers started taking advantage of the amazing climbing opportunities starting in the 1970s. Locals called it “Casket Quarry:” the site neighbored Oneota Cemetery, and caskets and tombstones were made nearby. According to Eldon Krosch Jr., vice president of the Duluth Climbers Coalition, it was a completely underground place.

“People went hiking and climbing there, and had bonfires,” said Krosch Jr. “There were lots of random activities happening there. But nobody actually knew then that most of it was owned by the cemetery, and that the other part of the Quarry was privately owned by somebody who hadn’t done anything with the property. Later it was taken, forfeited to St. Louis County for unpaid taxes. People had gone in there for decades, not having any clue who owned it.”

One person who saw the site’s potential was Hansi Johnson, of the Minnesota Land Trust, who was contracted seven years ago by the city of Duluth to create a vision for investment in the city’s outdoor recreation amenities.

“I realized that Casket Quarry was a key spot, not only for the climbers, but also just for the brand of the city itself,” said Johnson. “When you’re trying to bill yourself as an adventure city, you better have some adventurous things to do. Climbing is not only adventurous, but visually it just states adventure as well.”

Johnson was able to connect city parks and rec staff with the local climbing community, and the Duluth Climbers Coalition was born out of these talks.

“I went to the climbers, who at that point were a disparate group of individuals, and pulled them together and worked with them to wrap their heads around this opportunity,” Johnson explained. Johnson also saw the community aspect as essential to the project. “The city would only work with 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organizations, and wanted to work in all cases with an organized community group that would steward whatever was going to be constructed. The Climbers Coalition raised money and awareness, including political awareness. At one point they were literally knocking on doors in the neighborhood to tell people about what was going on. You see pride in community, and public service, and stewardship.”

The city was able to purchase the quarry from St. Louis County and Oneota Cemetery and turn it into Quarry Park in May 2016, using funds from the “half and half” tourism sales tax. The once underground party spot had come full circle. The Climbers Coalition could now develop the park and one of their aims was community accessibility.

Christian Fraser, himself an ice climber, sums it up, saying “Quarry Park has a lot more to it than climbing. First and foremost, accessibility is really important here. You’re right in the west end of the city. You don’t have to travel far to get to it. It’s accessible for groups that don’t have access to personal transportation. The Climbers Coalition did a really good job promoting accessibility for all folks.”

Today you can hike, mountain bike and play frisbee golf at Quarry Park, making it a broader platform for all sorts of recreation.

For Johnson, “The coolest part about it was that when we started, much of the vision was around the idea of it being a climbing facility, but as the city went through the public process and the climbers got more involved, it was obvious that it was more than a climbing facility, it was a city park in general.”

Go take a walk at the quarry and you’ll hear the incessant trains tooting further down the hill. A 10-minute walk up the Rim Trail around the quarry walls will award you with an impressive view of the St. Louis River below. And you may get to contemplate ice climbers chipping into the frozen cliff with their ice axes and crampons, scaling West Duluth’s newest park. Or maybe you’ll join them: this adventure haven within the city makes the adrenaline-filled sport of ice climbing a public pursuit.—Chris Pascone