Good Day! Volume 6, Issue 3 (October 2022)

Good DAY!

A quarterly publication of the National Grange Vol. 6, Issue 3 l October 2022

Grange Fairs highlight agriculture Across the country, Granges have been involved in county, state, and regional fairs and expositions for over a century, focusing on connecting their communities to agriculture.

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Good DAY!

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N & V

GRANGE NEWS & VIEWS

L

LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS

20

S RA

THE STATE OF RURAL AMERICA

27

I

IDEAS FOR GRANGE PROGRAMS & ACTION

40

MEMBERSHIP NEWS & RECOGNITION

46

exhibitions highlighted advancements in farming

59

became social and political centerpieces of the

65

created a tradition unlike any other - the county fair,

Photo by Philip Vonada

M J

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JUNIOR GRANGE

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GRANGE YOUTH

H & L

HOBBIES & LIFESTYLE

70

F & R

FOOD & RECIPES

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L W

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PERSPECTIVE

Grange Fairs

Since the mid-1800s, agricultural expositions and and encouraged competition between local growers. When the Grange was founded, picnics year, bringing together thousands of people with a united purpose. The magic of combining the two many of which are operated (in whole or in part) by Granges across the country.

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THE LAST WORD

Good Day! Magazine is a quarterly publication of the National Grange. located at 1616 H St. NW, Washington, DC 20006.

ISSN: 2688-6030. | All comments and questions can be directed to pvonada@nationalgrange.org.

Reproduction or distribution of any part of this magazine is prohibited by anyone other than a Grange member or a chartered Grange without written permission from the National Grange Communications Department.

GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE ®

www.nationalgrange.org

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Staff

WHAT’S THE GRANGE? The National Grange was founded as a fraternal organization for farm families in 1867 – opening its doors to men and women equally from the start.

From rural free delivery of mail to the direct election of U.S. Senators by the people, Grange has influenced many aspects of American life and culture.

Today we continue to advocate for rural Americans and those interested in all areas of agriculture – including those who just like to eat – and our local Granges provide millions of dollars and hours of service to their neighbors annually.

Each Grange operates as a grassroots unit, taking on projects most appropriate for their communities and advocating based on their members’ beliefs.

®

OUR

Betsy E. Huber, Publisher National Grange President President, Grange Foundation President, Grange Advocacy betsy@nationalgrange.org Philip J. Vonada, Editor Communications Director pvonada@nationalgrange.org Stephanie Wilkins, Subscriptions Manager IT Director swilkins@nationalgrange.org Burton Eller, Advertising Partner Legislative Director Executive Director, Grange Advocacy beller@nationalgrange.org

Learn more at www.nationalgrange.org.

Officers

Amanda Leigh Brozana Rios Membership & Leadership Development Director & Grange Foundation Associate abrozana@nationalgrange.org

OUR

Betsy Huber, PA, President betsy@nationalgrange.org

William “Chip” Narvel, DE, National Steward

Chris Hamp, WA, Vice President champ@grange.org

John Plank, IN, National Assistant Steward

Lynette Schaeffer, IL,

Executive Committee Chair lschaeffer@grange.org Susan Noah, OR

Executive Committee Member snoah@grange.org Leroy Watson, NH Executive Committee Member & Grange Advocacy Board Chair leroyawatson@nationalgrange.org William “Buddy” Overstreet, TX,

Barbara Borderieux, FL, National Chaplain Joe Goodrich, VT, National Treasurer Debbie Campbell, PA, National Secretary

Pete Pompper Community Service Director communityservice@nationalgrange.org Sean O’Neil Legislative Assistant soneil@nationalgrange.org

Cindy Greer, CO, National Ceres Kay Stiles, MD, National Pomona

Ann Bercher, MN,

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Mandy Bostwick Youth & Young Adults Development Director youth@nationalgrange.org

Christopher Johnston, MI, National Gatekeeper

boverstreet@grange.org

lecturer@nationalgrange.org

Samantha Wilkins Operations Coordinator & National Junior Grange Director samantha@nationalgrange.org junior@nationalgrange.org

Kathy Gibson, MA, National Lady Assistant Steward

Executive Committee Member

National Lecturer

Loretta Washington Sales, Benefits, Programs & Membership Recognition Director lwashington@nationalgrange.org

Welina Shufeldt, OK, National Flora

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Mujo Mrkonjic Building Engineer HEADQUARTERS PHONE (202) 628-3507

GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE www.nationalgrange.org

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Betsy E. Huber

I’m sad to see the end of summer.

about next year. The fairs that I’ve

I enjoy having the windows open,

worked with and visited are always

being able to go outside without

looking for good exhibits to attract

bundling up, seeing all the green

more attendees. I encourage you -

fields and lawns, and - of course -

in addition to the beautiful display -

working in my garden.

be sure to include some explanation

One of my favorite things about

about what the Grange is. This is

summer is the fairs. I love visiting

your opportunity to brag about what

fairs - the animals all clipped and

you do and let your neighbors know

shampooed, the rows of beautiful

about our great organization and why

canned

they should get involved.

fruits,

vegetables,

and

jellies, fresh vegetables and flowers

Grange has a long history of

At its height, the “Great Grangers

from the many gardens, handicrafts

involvement with local fairs, often

Interstate Picnic and Exhibition” at

showing incredible talents, lots of

being the founding group to originate

Williams Grove, PA, attracted 100,000

small businesses showing their wares

the fair to show off their crops and

and services, and of course the food!

garden products. Many fairs across

There’s nothing like fresh-cut French

the country are still operated by

fries and creamy milkshakes! I always

Granges, but some have separated

find lots of interesting things and

from the Grange and are now

learn something every time I visit a

independently managed, forgetting

Carrie Chapman Catt, Oliver Hudson

fair.

their Grange history.

Kelley, and many other famous

people during the week and on “big days” from 50-60,000 people. The Governor

usually

addressed

the

crowd, and so did Carrie Nation,

I especially love looking at the

As early as 1874, one year after

figures. Governor Woodrow Wilson

Grange exhibits. Did you ever notice

organization of the State Grange,

kicked off his Presidential campaign

that no other community organization

Pennsylvania held two statewide

at this Fair in 1912 to a crowd of

or service club puts together these

Grangers picnics attracting thousands

30,000. How did he do that with no

beautiful displays or educational

of people who came to hear politicians

booths at the fair? This is a major

and other nationally-known figures

opportunity for us to showcase our

and to fellowship with fellow farmers.

organization and the many projects

Imagine, they all traveled by horse

and services we do for the community.

or by train! Because of the distance

If your fair hasn’t given your

people had to travel, the events soon

Granges and county fairs. Fairs are still

Grange the opportunity to put up an

developed into several day events

a wonderful place to tell the Grange

exhibit, contact them now and ask

and then into Grangers’ fairs.

story and talk to people.

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GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE www.nationalgrange.org

microphone?

Read lots more about fairs and their history in this issue and learn more about the connection between

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ADVERTISE WITH US Our quarterly publication welcomes advertisers. Up to a 20% discount may be offered to Grange members on their ad purchases. All rates shown are for pre-designed content submitted at least 2 weeks in advance of press date for an issue. You may request rates for ads to be designed by our staff.

GOOD DAY!™ PRESS DATES 2022/23 Issue

Due Date

Hits Mailboxes

V7, I1

February 28

April 2023

V6, I4 V7, I2 V7, I3

November 30 May 30

August 31

January 2023 July 2023

October 2023

Classified ads are also welcomed at $0.50 per word up to 25 words, $1 thereafter; $2.50 per website, email, or other link regardless of word count; $5 per photo (will appear no larger than 1.5”x1”). Special requests (bold design, font increase) available for extra charge. All copy should be submitted no later than 10 days prior to the due date.

National Grange assumes no responsibility for that which is advertised in Good Day!™ and reserves the right to reject ads deemed offensive or irrelevant.

Please contact Philip Vonada by email at pvonada@nationalgrange.org or by phone at (814) 404-7985 for details.

WRITE FOR US This is your chance! This is your magazine.

Submissions may be made by any Grange member in good standing, especially including Junior and Youth members, and must be your own original work.

For Juniors, you may get your parent, guardian or another mentor or adult’s assistance to write or draw the piece, but we expect all those who assist to adhere to high ethical standards and allow the Junior’s work to be reflected without influence by the adult/ older assistant.

All work must be in good taste and appropriate for our audience. The National Grange reserves the right to reject any submissions.

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Guidelines & The Fine Print Entries may include: photo essay (at least three photos that together tell a story with captions identifying the people in the photo if applicable and what is happening in the scene); short story (max. 1,500 words); poem; essay/article (maximum 1,500 words and must include at least two relevant photographs with captions); skit (no more than six speaking characters; should not take more than 10 minutes to perform and should not require an elaborate set); D-I-Y (do-it-yourself) project with supply list, step-by-step instructions and photos of each step; or open category (examples include but are not limited to a coloring book page related to Grange or agriculture; comic strip or box; recipes, etc.).

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Each entry must be submitted digitally and include name, address, phone number, email (if applicable) and Grange details (name, number and state of Subordinate Grange and office held). Junior 1+ members can list the Subordinate or State Grange they are affiliated with. E-members can list National Grange E-member.

Submission

is

acknowledgment

that

publication is authorized. In the case of Junior submissions, this is acknowledgment of right to publish by both Junior and their parent/ guardian.

All submissions must be made via email to pvonada@nationalgrange.org.

From the desk of the PHILIP J. VONADA

Editor

When I was a kid, I used to love summers - no school,

but it’s never too late to try something new or different,

no “responsibilities” besides helping my parents in the

especially since a majority of my job now involves sitting

gardens, doing my 4-H and Junior Grange projects, and

at a computer - I make sure to spend time outside almost

staying out of trouble. I had ample time to read or be

every day (when the weather allows it, at least), and I’m

creative and I got to go to a camp or two each year. Plus,

hoping to get into the beautiful Pennsylvania woods for

there were carnivals, library outings, church activities,

some weekend hikes in the coming weeks, as the fall

and our annual Grange Fair at the end of the summer,

foliage is at its peak.

So, what are some things that you take for granted?

marking the start of the school year.

Now, I still love summers, but they seem to be the

Health, family, friendships? What about in your Grange?

busiest time of my year, and finding time for my own

Are there members who have “always been there”

personal goals, let alone to be with friends, is nearly

running things or managing certain events or fundraisers?

impossible.

What happens when they’re gone.

I recently got away for the weekend with some friends

While I don’t think it’s irresponsible to count on the

I made through the Grange, and it made me realize how

longevity of your Grange, let’s not take it for granted,

precious the time we have with our friends and family

too. It’s time to start planning for the future - whether

is, and how we shouldn’t take anything for granted. We

it’s through trying something new (see Pete Pompper’s

are getting “older” and between kids, work and family

article on page 40), starting a new membership category

responsibilities, and other obligations, having the time

(see Amanda Brozana Rios’ article on page 50), or even

to get together is becoming harder to come by, but that

stepping WAY out of your comfort zone and heading to

makes it all the more important to be in the moment with

New York City (see the “Wonderama” article on page

each other.

11), there’s an abundance of ways to plan for the future.

With autumn here now, I’m trying to take less things

Planning for the future is exactly what Grange founders

for granted. I recently got to spend a good amount of

and members of the past did when they established

time with my family at the Grange Fair, and I’m looking

Grange Fairs in counties across the country. They tried

forward to spending more time with them as the holidays

something new - and in many cases, they flourished.

Let’s stop taking our summers, our health, and our

approach.

I’m also working to not take my health for granted.

I’ve been on a wellness journey for about 5 years now,

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Granges for granted, and start paying attention to the here and now, and also plan for the future.

GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE www.nationalgrange.org

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Editorial: Family values run deep Priorities – values can define what matters to your family first

By Debbie Campbell

Secretary, National Grange

and what’s less important. For example, how you spend family

Hello, my name is Debbie Campbell, National Grange Secretary. I have been married to my husband, Wayne Campbell for 49 years. We have three children, Jennifer, Ashley and Nathan - and four grandchildren, Bryce, Riley, Nathan Jr. and Lyrick.

I have been a Grange member for 42 years. I am a member of Oliver Grange #1069 in Newport, Pennsylvania where I currently hold the office of Lecturer/Program Director. In addition, I am the Treasurer of the Perry County Pomona Grange which I have held since 1999.

Currently, I hold the office of the Pennsylvania State Grange Secretary which I have served for the past 10 years. In the past, I held the office of Pennsylvania State Grange Pomona and Pennsylvania Junior Grange Director. I served two years on the National Junior Grange Committee under Emalee Colver, former National Junior Director.

time, your spiritual or religious rituals, creating traditions, as well as the type of education you’ll provide for your children.

Relationships – our families teach us very early how to behave around others. One of the most important traits of a great relationship is respect. Respect needs to be earned first.

Family time – family time should be part of your family values; making time for quality time together should be a priority.

All of this starts at home, as children from birth are a product of their environment. The way we as parents and grandparents display to our children will reflect on the adults they become.

Not only children but adults, too, will see and react to the love we show for each other. As an example, one time when Wayne and I were going to be announced as honored guests by the Juniors at State Grange, the Juniors wondered how they would be able to recognize us. The Junior Director at the time, Lurae Benzio, said they will be the ones holding hands. This open display of affection was observed by others and we were not even aware of it. As you go about your daily life, think about how others may be perceiving

One of the most important things to me is Family and family values! I don’t know where I would be without my Family which includes my Grange Family.

you, and if that is how you want to be perceived. Be kind and love one another!

Fraternally,

The word Family can be taken in so many different ways, but

Debbie Campbell

there are many important life lessons that only your family can teach you.

Unconditional Love – our families teach us how to love with no limitations. Unconditional love is taught by example. Showing your child/grandchildren love teaches them to be able to love others.

Generosity – our family teaches us how to care for others besides ourselves. Taking care of yourself first is imperative, but how you treat others is just as important. Generosity teaches us how to be kind, considerate, caring, giving, and ready to lend a hand.

Loyalty – our family teaches us to be trustworthy, reliable, and

Debbie (far right) with husband, Wayne (left), grandson Bryce, son-in-law Ken, daughter Jennifer, and granddaughter Riley.

dependable.

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Photo provided

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GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE www.nationalgrange.org

Oregon hosts Western Region Conference

By Samantha Wilkins

second

on

encouraging

legislative

National Junior Grange Director

interests in young members.

National Grange Youth Director

presented a workshop on the ‘perfect

and Mandy Bostwick

The

National

Youth

Department

square,’ which challenged members’ In early August, we headed out west

communication and leadership abilities.

for the annual Western Region Leaders

Everyone learned about improving

Conference, which was held in Eugene,

social media skills with the Grange,

Oregon, and was hosted by the Oregon

surveying our membership, and were

State Grange. The Western Region

inspired by the story of revitalizing the

is made up of the following states:

Marys River Grange.

California,

Nevada,

Idaho,

Oregon,

Washington, and Montana.

Over 60 Grangers from across the region joined together for an enriching weekend full of fun, education, and competition.

On Friday evening, participants visited Walterville Grange #416 for a chicken dinner provided by the Grange. The evening concluded with an intense, highly-competitive

game

The evening closed with presentations from Youth and Junior members alike in

of

Grange

Baseball.

On Saturday everyone participated in a rotating round of informative workshops.

the speech and sign-a-song contests.

While the judges deliberated, a fantastic live auction brought in over $2,000 for the host region.

Thank you to all who attended and took part in the conference. We look forward to next year’s western regional in California.

Tessa Taft (WA) competes in the signa-song competition, winning Best of Show. Taft will represent the Western Region at the National Grange Evening of Excellence in November.

Photo by Samantha Wilkins

Western Region contest winners were: Grange Baseball Youth

Public Speaking - Impromptu

Young Adult

1st -Jessie Jo Guttridge

1st -Jessie Jo Guttridge

The National Junior Grange presented

2nd - JC Junkman

2nd - Lexie Suing

two workshops: one on the Agriculture

3rd - Alex Coe Juniors

Awareness project (weather), and the

3rd - Brittney Pittman Youth Alumni

1st - Jonathan Dunne

1st - Jonny Pittman

2nd - Patricia Foster

2nd - Heather Ferguson

3rd - Dean McKay

3rd - Colleen Foster Juniors

Public Speaking - Prepared Young Adult

1st - Patricia Foster

1st - Lexie Suing* Ambassador

3rd - Renezmae Mosely

1st - Abby Hengley Juniors

2nd - William Dunne

Public Speaking - Short Story

Juniors

1st - William Dunne*

1st - William Dunne

2nd - Patricia Foster

2nd - Patricia Foster

3rd - Jacob Smith Idaho State Grange President Eileen Javaux (right) with

husband, Richard, participate in the Junior Ambassador workshop at the Western Regional Conference.

Photo by Samantha Wilkins

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GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE www.nationalgrange.org

Sign-a-Song 1st - Tessa Taft* *Indicates Best of Show

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Quilt of Valor honors hometown veteran

By David Correll

Pencader Grange #60, DE During the Delaware State Grange Session in December 2021, brother Jake Correll was awarded a Quilt of Valor. This was the first Quilt ever presented by the Delaware State Grange, and here is his story!

Jake Correll attended Newark High School in the early 1960’s, winning multiple medals in track events with the goal of joining the Marines after his high school graduation, but he was told he’d be attending University of Delaware to get a degree in Agriculture.

Even after that news, he still tried to enlist after high school, but got devastating news from the commissioning program: his eyesight would prevent him from joining as an officer. That news did not stop Jake, during the middle of an exam one day in 1965, he got up out of his chair, and made a beeline for the recruiting office in Wilmington and got his papers that had him going to Parris Island for boot camp.

Jake would go on from boot camp to attend communications school in Norfolk and Camp LeJeune, and in November of that year, volunteered to go to Vietnam.

Jake served three tours in Vietnam - a total of 22 months. After those grueling tours, he was stationed in the recruiting office in Lincoln, Nebraska.

It was there that he decided to make the Marines a career.

He traveled all over the states and even out of the country. He

Jake Correll is wrapped in his Quilt of Valor at the Delaware State Grange Session in December 2021.

Photo provided

eventually landed at the Marine Corps Data Center in Kansas City, Missouri and became a computer operator. Jake eventually ended his career as the Chief Instructor of the Computer Systems Support Instruction Department, where he retired in 1984.

Quilts of Valor

The National Grange is an official partner of the Quilts of Valor

Foundation®, with National Grange Vice President Christine Hamp currently serving on the Board of Directors. The National Grange is part of the Under Our Wings® program.

Since 2003, more than 300,000 official Quilts of Valor have been presented to servicemembers around the country. Many of these quilts have been given

by Community, Pomona, State, and National Granges.

There are many ways to get involved, from creating the quilt tops to holding a presentation. If you aren’t a quilter, there are other ways to get involved, including through donations of money, resources, or space for quilters.

You can learn more about being a part of the National Grange’s efforts in presenting a Quilt of Valor at: www.nationalgrange.org/quilts-of-valor-foundation-partnership/ or by emailing lecturer@nationalgrange.org.

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GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE www.nationalgrange.org

Wonderama brings Grange to NYC, millions of homes

By Amanda Brozana Rios National Grange Membership & Leadership Development Director You don’t often think of National Grange and New York City, but for a week in late July, that’s just where you could find President Betsy Huber, staff and volunteers.

As part of a Wonderama event – a children’s television show that appears in several cable markets and online – the Grange spoke to thousands of people in New York’s Times Square who came to see the taping of the show or were passing by.

Huber

said

Wonderama

producers

reached out to the Grange, looking for an organization that could connect to kids and families with a message of service and also about agricultural careers.

“We were a perfect partner to introduce

President Betsy Huber is interviewed by host David Osmond onstage during the

ribbon cutting for Wonderama in Times Square in July. She appeared alongside

U.S. Census Director Robert Santos, Dr. Bernice King, Time Square Alliance President Tom Harris, and other US, United Nations, and NYC dignitaries.

Photo by Samantha Wilkins

these topics, and the Grange, to the viewers and show,” Huber said.

Several volunteers took part, interacting

with individuals as they came by the booth

State Grange Youth Director, along with

near the show’s set.

Junior deputy Therese Fallon and State

Walter

Hartley

and

his

14-year-old daughter, Nettie, “I’m very excited to be able

youth to talk about what going on in rural

to promote the Grange any

America,” van Kleeck said. “I always find it

chance I can. To be able to do

invigorating to talk with others about what

this with our Juniors and Youth

we’re engaged in, and it always boosts my

in Times Square as part of the

morale as to why we all Grange.”

Wonderama TV show that

Immediate past National Junior Grange

is viewed my millions - what

Ambassador Bryce Danko, of Pennsylvania,

could be better than that?”

and his parents, Jen and Ken, were also

Walter Hartley said.

part of the volunteer crew.

With

shoe costume) came to help spread the word about youth involvement in the Grange and their communities.

Photo by Samantha Wilkins

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National

Junior

Of her son’s participation, Jen said, “It

Samantha

was exciting to watch him take part in

Wilkins, the Hartleys were even

the Wonderama event and exploring the

able to make an early-morning

behind-the-scenes parts in prepping for

appearance on the Today

his interview.”

Grange

Hartley and his daughter Nettie (in the red Junior

Kleeck, took part for a day in the event.

“I always have fun interacting with other

came from Rhode Island.

Rhode Island State Grange Vice President Walter

Youth Officer Team member Elizabeth van

Director

show, and took their turn as

Nettie and Bryce, in addition to Huber,

organizational ambassadors a

were interviewed during the week. The

step further by holding signs

youth talked about ways they have been

promoting the Grange that

involved in their communities – Nettie

appeared on-camera during

volunteering at a local day care and Bryce

the episode.

serving as a junior firefighter – and how

Katie

Fallon,

New

York

GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE www.nationalgrange.org

the Grange helped inspire their love for

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Past National Junior Ambassador Bryce Danko shows off the Wonderama “W” with host David Osmond following his interview, which will air on the show.

Photo by Samantha Wilkins volunteering and continues to foster it and

lessons about three “less than

support the organizations they are part of.

obvious” agricultural career paths

Their segments will soon be found

as a way to show the variety of

online on Wonderama’s YouTube channel.

the industry. The lessons will be

Huber said their interviews show “the

turned into segments that appear

character of what it means to be a Grange

on the show and producers

member.”

will connect the concepts to

“They are doing amazing things for their

National

supplemental material that can be

humble. They reflect just what the Grange

and teachers to teach about the careers in

is,” Huber said.

focus - aquaculturists, purchasing agents National

Membership

Director

Samantha

promoting Grange outside of the show.

used by individuals, home-school families

addition,

Grange

daughter Nettie, and Today host Hoda Kotb, while

communities and are so well-spoken and

In

Junior

Wilkins poses with Walter Hartley and his

and animal nutritionists.

and Leadership Development Director

“We hope that this shows kids there’s

Amanda Brozana Rios created scripts with

more to agriculture careers than crops

Photo Provided and livestock – or that even with livestock, there are many other careers that ensure the health of the animals,” Brozana Rios said.

You can learn more about the show and get a channel guide to see if it is available in your area by visiting wonderamatv.com.

Amanda Brozana Rios, David Osmond (Wonderama Host), and Betsy Huber hang out in the National Grange’s Wonderama booth in Times Square. Photo by Samantha Wilkins

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National Grange community service project brings hope to at-risk youth

By Samantha Wilkins

skateboards.

National Grange Operations Director

3. Amazon Wishlist: You may also choose to provide items

This year’s National Grange Convention Community Service

through their Amazon Wishlist: https://www.amazon.com/hz/

project is supporting the Eddy House in Reno. The mission of the

wishlist/ls/1X7YACS0553A6. Items purchased through the wishlist

Eddy House is to work with homeless and at-risk youth to develop

will ship directly to the Eddy House.

the life and job skills necessary for sustainable independence. In

4. Create a hygiene kit: Hygiene kits are single-use, so travel-

2021, the Eddy House has helped nearly 400 youth, providing

size items are necessary for items like shampoo, conditioner, lotion,

over 12,000 nights in beds and 11,000 meals in the Reno area.

and soap (specifically liquid body wash). The Eddy House can use

There are several ways that you can help and support this project:

full-size deodorants, toothbrushes and toothpaste, but those also are all preferred to be travel-sized. All hygiene packs include:

1. Monetary donations: Checks can be brought to the convention and given to either Samantha Wilkins or to the Host Region office. They can also be mailed before November 1st to the National Grange Headquarters. Checks should be made payable to Eddy House.

2. Item donations: Donations can include nonperishable food items and items such as laundry detergent, dish soap, cleaning products, and toiletry items. Their website highlights: underwear and socks, travel-size hygiene items (especially deodorant), gift cards for groceries, fast food, etc., shelf-stable snacks and drinks, sweatpants and t-shirts, backpacks and bags, and longboards or

shampoo, conditioner, body soap, lotion, deodorant, toothbrush, and toothpaste. Optional items that are always appreciated: face wash, face lotion, period products, floss, and chapstick.

5. Handmade

items:

They are also looking for pillowcase bags,

drawstring

these

can

be

handmade and delivered to the National Grange Convention.

Let’s hear your story

Indeed, being a Grange member is one of the most rewarding experiences. For

many, the story of how they came to join the Grange does not capture the essence of how they came to be a Granger and what that means in their lives.

We want to hear from you!

What is your #GrangeStory that tells how you became a Granger? Did you

see application of degree lessons to your daily life and relate them to friends and

coworkers? Did you find yourself embracing new ideas and finding ways to overcome differences?

Submit your story of no more than 650 words and a photo, if applicable, to Philip

at pvonada@nationalgrange.org by December 1 for potential inclusion in a future issue of Good Day! or use on our social media.

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GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE www.nationalgrange.org

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By June Unruh

Central Grange #61, DE Lecturer, Delaware State Grange

How I became a Grange member definitely plays a significant role in my “Grange Story,” as well as how it has helped me to find ways to help others.

Grange was in my blood. Grange was my destiny; I guess I just didn’t know it until I joined and discovered how my family history was involved. My husband and I both grew up on dairy farms.

Our farming backgrounds were similar and we both realized that someday we wanted to farm on our own.

We purchased a farm and raised our son and daughter in the country. We became dairy farmers and worked hard every day.

One day, one of our neighbors visited us and asked us if we would like to become Grange members. We had heard of the Grange but had not been to a meeting, so we agreed to come to the next meeting of the local Grange.

Little did I know that this gentleman - my neighbor - and I had already crossed paths in my childhood. Neither of us knew it at the time, but he had been a member of the same Grange as my Grandfather many years prior.

I did not know that my Grandfather (Herbert L. Chandler) had been a “Master” (President) of a Grange. My mother told me later in my adult life that my Grandfather had been a Grange member and she gave me two certificates that had belonged to him: His 6th and 7th Degree Certificates which are framed and hanging in

Herbert Chandler’s Seventh Degree certificate, dated November 13, 1914, signed at the 48th Annual Session of National Grange by C.E. Spence, Priest Annalist, and Charles M. Gardner, High Priest. This certificate has the Seven Founders seal in the bottom right corner.

Photo provided my home today. My Grandmother, his wife, had been “Lecturer” and I hold that office in the Delaware State Grange today! I was definitely destined to be a Grange member!

I am so thankful that my neighbor asked me to become a Grange member. I feel that, not only did my family history indirectly lead me to the Grange, but my love of farming and wanting to help others did also.

It has given me purpose and contribution to life itself.

It was this same neighbor who lost his life tragically while riding his tractor on a “rural road” that led me to start the “Rural Road Safety” initiative in the Delaware State Grange. This safety initiative has and is educating the Public about sharing the road safely with the farmers whether it be on the rural roads or on a highway. Awareness is the best education!

Our state and country is growing by leaps and bounds and the need to educate the Public about our farmers’ safety is crucial! One interesting note: When I was researching this topic in the beginning of this project, I saw an article online where my Grandfather mentioned in one of his Grange meetings that the speed limit had been raised up from (20 mph to 23mph) on the

Grange was in June’s blood, and it’s amajor part of her life today.

She presented a workshop on her “Rural Road Safety” program at the Eastern Regional Conference in June.

Photo by Philip Vonada

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highways! Can you imagine?? I guess he was concerned about road safety also!

If someone asks you to join the Grange, please consider doing so. It’s educational, it’s fun, it’s rewarding! (I promise!)

GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE www.nationalgrange.org

Grange friendship spans 46 years

By Sue Gray and Joan Phelps

Ekonk Community Grange (CT) and East Pembroke Grange (NY) Our nation’s bicentennial proved to be special in many ways. My husband, Russell M. Gray, served on the Sterling Town Bicentennial Committee, was Master of Ekonk Community Grange and Master of Quinebaug Pomona Grange. We were encouraged to run for Connecticut Young Couple of the Year by our Subordinate Grange. Several competitions later, we found ourselves headed to National Grange in Atlantic City!

Family members handled the chores on our dairy farm and off we went! We had two children then (Rebecca, 3, and Mason, 2).

Arriving at the National Grange Convention, we were immediately drawn to an engaging young couple. We enjoyed each other’s company, had a lot in common and began a lifelong friendship.

Dennis and Joan Phelps, a farm couple and very active Grangers from Basom, New York, represented the New York State Grange. They also had two children (Jason, 5, and Jennifer, 3). Family members were also tending to their beef and crop farm.

Russell’s mother was losing her battle with brain cancer, so Russell was truthful with the judges about his obligations at home. We scored the highest average recorded in the “written” test aspect of the competition on Grange history and ritual, which was quite an honor.

At the Coronation Ball, we were ecstatic when the names of Dennis and Joan were called as National Grange Young Couple of the Year! Then, our names were called, and we were awarded the Potomac Rural Leadership Award!. We stayed up all night talking, laughing, congratulating each other, and regretting that we lived 420 miles apart! For farmers, that is quite an obstacle.

Grange ritual says that the ax teaches perseverance in overcoming obstacles. Dennis and Russell used this lesson and found ways to get together. The first time they came to our farm was 1977, when we asked them to judge the Connecticut Agricultural Fair Queen Contest. They spent a few days in the Nutmeg State, and we delighted in catching up and planning future visits!

We exchanged Grange experience - Dennis was part of a family quartet that won the National Grange talent competition in Kansas in 1965 and in Ohio in 1975 (with Joan and their son, Jason included)! Dennis was Youth Master at National Session in Syracuse, NY, in 1967, while I was there representing Connecticut as Youth Princess. Our paths didn’t cross, yet!

The four of us had also been in Grange Youth Degree and Drill Team competitions, but New York was not part of the New

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England group at that time. They won twice, we won twice.

Russell was 4th Degree Master, and I was 2nd. Dennis served his Subordinate and Pomona Granges as Master. Joan had held numerous offices in Subordinate, Pomona, and State Grange, as I had. I also served as Grange Master and now have 49 years as Secretary. We share a long history of Grange service.

Dennis and Joan spent a week in Washington, D.C., being educated on Grange, sign language, touring the city and planning their adventures as National Grange Young Couple.

Their year would culminate in November 1977 at National Grange in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Prior to their visit, we had spent several days in Washington, D.C. as guests of Potomac Grange, explored the city, presented a program on our farm, and took a guided tour of Washington, as well as Gettysburg, Arlington, and Mount Vernon. That September, Russell’s mother succumbed to cancer.

We have all been very active in our churches. Russell and Joan both served as Deacons. All of us have sung duets, directed programs, and led in worship. Dennis and Joan both served their town on various boards and both had terms on their town council.

The summer of 1979, with our baby Deborah in diapers, we sold our dairy herd and headed to New York! Russell had surgery and while he recovered, we vacationed at the Phelps Farm. They were blessed with a family addition as well, with their daughter, Amanda.

Did I say vacationed? They were haying and Russell put in long days, helping mow away heavy bales wrapped in wire!

Seriously, it was a wonderful vacation, and our children remain great friends! Farmers always pitch in helping other farmers and Dennis and Russell stepped up at each visit, helping with chores.

We came back to our farm, built a milking parlor system, and

Russell and Sue Gray, and Joan and Dennis Phelps at National Grange in 1976.

Photo Provided

GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE www.nationalgrange.org

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began milking cows again.

One summer when their family came to visit, we took them to Barn Island in Pawcatuck, Connecticut, and they dug quahaugs for the first time. By this time, they were blessed with their fourth and final child, Megan, whom Russell immediately nicknamed “Huckleberry”. That nickname stuck!

Joan became social director for our adventures, while Dennis said Russell oversaw entertainment! Joint vacations included Niagara Falls, Howe Caverns, the amazing Mohegan Pequot Indian Museum/village, and a limo ride through New York’s vineyards. Together, we explored Billings Farm in Woodstock, Vermont, formerly owned by Laurence Rockefeller, as well as the Simon Pearce Glassblowing and Pottery.

Twice, we marveled walking through both Vermont Country Store locations in Rockingham and Weston. We enjoyed the antique farm and household equipment displays, sampled the various cheeses and of course, found unique items to bring home.

Our families toured Sturbridge Village, where Russell embarrassed me many times to the delight of the crowds. He was a true jokester, whose favorite holiday was April Fool’s Day. Russell enlisted Joan’s help in “April Fooling” our Pomona Grange, catching a full Hall with an expected visit from the National Grange Lecturer, Mary Buffington (aka Joan)! Russell often caught Dennis, and after a few years, Dennis would not answer the phone on April 1st.

We enjoyed fairs in both states, but the most extraordinary adventure we shared was in 2004, when we took a cruise on the maiden voyage of the 18-deck tall, 997-foot-long Diamond Princess from Seattle, Washington to Alaska and British Columbia, while celebrating Dennis and Joan’s 35th wedding anniversary!

On January 12, 1996, they lost their home in a tragic fire. The next day, Russell drove to their farm with our truck loaded to the hilt with new clothes and supplies.

We lost one of our barns to arson on September 4, 1998, losing 40 calves, a skid steer, tools and more. On September 6th, Dennis, and Joan pulled in with gifts, helped with cleanup and left money. There is no better gift than that of a true friend.

In our journey through life, we have been guided by Faith.

Whatever good deeds that we ever did were returned a thousand-fold after our fire. In the Second Degree, the Lecturer says, “Wherever you go, whatever your calling, aim to do good.

Good deeds are ever fruitful of more good.” And again, quoting Grange ritual, “All through life... Never be discouraged. Hope and Persevere!”

As farmers, both families have been met with challenges, disappointments, struggles… Faith, Hope, Charity, Fidelity, Love, and Perseverance have seen us through!

When State Overseer, Dennis declined taking Master due to the tremendous obligations on his large farm. He did, however, accept a position on the USB Soybean Board, appointed by the

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From L-R - Sue and Russell Gray, Dennis and Joan Phelps in 2011 - Dennis presented Russell with his 50 year Golden Sheaf Certificate (2011) at Ekonk Community Grange.

Photo Provided National Grange and served 11 years.

Russell served as Master of the Connecticut State Grange from 1998-2002. Dennis installed Russell as Master of our State Grange and years later, presented him with his Golden Sheaf certificate. Dennis often said, “Russell, we are good brothers, through and through!”

Russell was elected First Selectman of Sterling in November 2005 and successfully ran the town, being re-elected until dying in office during his 16th year. The part of Route 14 that runs through Sterling was recently changed to “Russell M. Gray Memorial Highway” in May of 2022. He oversaw construction of a state-of-the-art elementary school and helped build four bridges in town that needed replacing during his tenure.

Woodrow Wilson said “Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.” Our two families have been cemented since 1976.

Joan added to this story, “And now, as we get older, it seems I wonder... will I see them again? The years have served us well and our friendship is a lasting and cherished one.”

We drove to New York to attend the ceremony when Dennis received the coveted “Purple Apron” in his Masonic Lodge. We attended their Grange (East Pembroke #1157, NY) and they, ours (Ekonk #89, CT). Both families enjoyed watching each other’s children grow up in Grange. Both families have received Grange Legacy Commendations in 2017; Phelps/Michel 5th generation and Gray/Emmons 7th generation.

Our friendship joined two families. Ultimately, we attended the weddings of our children and sadly, the funerals of parents and Dennis’ brother, Bryan.

Dennis spoke and sang at the Celebration of Life held on our farm after Russell unexpectedly passed away from the effects of Q Fever in 2021.

But the friendship still holds firm! We joined them for Thanksgiving of 2021, have met half-way for lunch/visits and plan to reunite over the summer and again for Thanksgiving of 2022. We know that Russell is watching from above with his trademark smile as we continue life’s journey.

GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE www.nationalgrange.org

Along the Way... Leonard Rhone had a Picnic

By Norman Houser

Pomona Grange #13 that September. Rhone would not

Author, The Pennsylvania Rambler www.thepennsylvaniarambler.com Pennsylvania Grange Member

stop with these two Granges and would be instrumental in organizing many of Centre County’s Granges.

Rhone was very active in the Grange at all levels. In 1875, he was elected Master of the Centre County Pomona

The sun had barely peeked over the distant mountains Grange for the first of six times, and two years later he was as I walked the vacant grounds in search of breakfast – elected Master of Progress Grange #96. In 1880, Rhone despite the fairgrounds being packed with visitors the night was elected the Master of the Pennsylvania State Grange, before, it appeared to be a ghost town. which was a position he held for eighteen years.

After finding homemade doughnuts and a cup of coffee, At the National Grange level, Rhone served on the I sat on a bench to enjoy breakfast in the cool, peaceful legislative committee and – along with National Lecturer morning air. I knew it would only be a matter of time before Mortimer Whitehead – was the first to appear before the grounds would once more come to life as those who Congress to promote rural free mail delivery. In 1888, Rhone stayed the night – in either one of the almost 1,000 army would begin serving on the National Grange Executive tents or 1,500 campers – would begin another day of Committee and the following year would begin service as catching up with neighbors, enjoying the sights of the fair, the High Priest of Demeter, a position which he held until or relaxing as summer comes to an end.

1895.

It is hard to imagine this family tradition grew from a In 1874, Leonard Rhone suggested a Granger's Picnic be simple, day-long “Granger’s Pic-nic” to a ten-day event held at Leech’s Woods, located near Linden Hall – roughly that brings people from all over the world into rural central 3.5 miles west of Centre Hall and the present fairgrounds – Pennsylvania. on September 24, 1874.

When Leonard Rhone proposed a local Grangers' picnic, The October 1, 1874 edition of The Centre Reporter there is no way he could have imagined the small gathering (Centre Hall, PA) describes the one-day event: “The picof Grangers would become the Centre County Grange Fair. nic of Centre Co. Grangers, in Leonard Rhone was born Leech’s Woods, near this place, on July 21, 1838, on the family on last Thursday, was a great farm just west of Centre Hall success. An immense crowd, was in the middle of Pennsylvania. present” with the “number of He attended the public persons present was not far from school before attending the 3000.”

Kishacoquillas Seminary in Mifflin The size of the initial Granger's County.

Picnic covered eight to ten acres With his education finished, and included many speeches Rhone taught for a year, promoting the Grange fraternity before returning to the family and included a parade led by the homestead Rhoneymeade, band from Boalsburg. meaning “Rhone’s Meadow,” to The picnic was held in various pursue agricultural interests – he spots around Centre Hall, took over the responsibilities of Bellefonte, and the Agricultural the farm in 1865.

College at State College The newly-formed National (now Penn State University). It Grange would capture Rhone’s Leonard Rhone started the “Granger’s Pic-Nic” would not be until 1890 that in Centre County, Pennsylvania. He would later attention and in February 1874, Rhone helped organize become Pennsylvania State Grange Master and the Granger’s Picnic found a permanent home. That year, Progress Grange #96 in Centre National Grange High Priest of Demeter.

Picture from “History of Centre and Clinton Counties” Progress Grange #96 under the Hall, followed by Centre County

by John Blair Linn guidance of Leonard Rhone,

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GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE www.nationalgrange.org

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would purchase 26 acres on the western edge of Centre Hall.

The idea of a Granger’s Picnic was not unique to the region as Granger Picnics were encouraged in the early years of the Grange movement.

Picnics were an easy, inexpensive way for Grangers to gather and share new information that would improve agricultural and rural life.

The other Granger Picnics which had been promoted in local newspapers only lasted a year or two before fading away. Despite these other picnics disappearing, the Granger’s Picnic organized by Leonard Rhone continued to grow each year.

Rhone was still at the head of the Grange Encampment and Fair at the time of his death in 1917. Unlike many organizations and events that fail after their founder passes, the fair continued to grow in size and magnitude.

In 2022, Leonard Rhone’s simple Granger’s Picnic celebrates its 148th anniversary as the Centre County

Centre County Grange Encampment & Fair now features 1,000 tents and 1,500 RVs that people from all over the country call “home” for the ten days of the fair.

Photo by Norman Houser

Grange Fair – the 26 acres now spans over 260 acres, bringing families together from all over world. The mini-city is filled with those staying in campers and families in green militarystyle tents, which have been handed down through the generations.

Walking through the modern fairgrounds, it is hard to imagine this all started as a simple picnic, which grew over the years. So much has

Agriculture remains a focus of Centre County Grange Fair, with hundreds of entries of canned goods, baked goods, handicrafts, and livestock each year.

Photo by Norman Houser

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GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE www.nationalgrange.org

changed over the years, yet so much remains the same – traditions handed down from one generation to the next.

The entertainment has changed from speeches about agriculture to music from popular bands and artists at the grandstand, countless games and rides, and tractor and truck pulls.

Vendors no longer promote just agriculture, but sell a variety of goods and promote services available in the region Despite the changes, so much has also been retained from the early years of the fair. Livestock continues to be shown by members of the county’s 4-H and FFA. Contests are still held to see whose garden has produced the best fruit, vegetable or flowers, made the best canned goods, or created the supreme handicrafts. Tents are still being used to house families for the entirety of the fair.

As more people begin to wander out onto the grounds, I stand and stretch to prepare for another day at the fair. There is so much to see and do, and so little time to take it all in.

Plus, I think I hear a homemade sticky bun calling my name.

GRANGE ADVOCACY ADVERTORIAL

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Workhorses, not Show Horses Five ways to promote effective lawmaking in Congress Voters can use these scores to see how their political

By Craig Volden and Alan E. Wiseman

representatives have fared in this measure, perhaps finding

Originally published on The Conversation www.theconversation.com

them among the 23% of representatives or 19% of senators who were highly effective in the most recently completed Congress. And researchers use them to determine the factors that make lawmakers effective in Congress.

Based on our work, we have identified five ways that

Americans dislike Congress, especially when it fails to act on pressing problems. They are then surprised by legislative

legislators, reformers and voters can help promote effective lawmaking in Congress.

accomplishments on climate change, gun control and maintaining competitiveness with China.

But Congress does much more on a daily basis than deal –

1. Lawmakers can focus their legislative agendas on their interests, committee assignments and constituency needs Members of Congress face many demands on their time.

or fail to deal – with high-profile issues.

We have spent more than a decade exploring the

They are almost always campaigning or raising money for the

thousands of bills and hundreds of laws produced by members

next election. Their time on Capitol Hill is punctuated with

of Congress each year. We find that individual representatives

committee meetings and calls to votes on the House or Senate

and senators vary dramatically in how interested they are in

floor.

lawmaking and how effectively they advance their proposals.

Such pressures leave little time to formulate new policies, build coalitions and advance their proposals. Effective

And we see opportunities to build a better Congress.

We have devised and generated a “Legislative Effectiveness

lawmakers do not have more time than others – they simply

Score” for each member of the House and Senate for each

align these various activities toward a common goal of

two-year Congress for the past 50 years. These scores

lawmaking.

(thelawmakers.org/methodology) are based on 15 metrics,

Effective lawmakers introduce bills that combine their own

capturing how many bills each lawmaker sponsors, how far

interests and passions with the needs of their constituencies

they progress toward law and how substantively significant

and their committee assignments.

they are. The scores are politically neutral, with members of

Thus, time spent away from Washington, in their home

both parties scoring higher upon advancing whatever policies

states and districts, is focused on identifying the policy needs

they think are best.

of their constituents and highlighting their policy successes;

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GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE www.nationalgrange.org

time in committee is spent making and refining their policy proposals; time milling around between votes is used to build coalitions.

For the effective lawmaker, all these different activities form

of Congress as a whole.

5. Voters can reward effective lawmaking Without electoral rewards for effective lawmaking, members of Congress may focus on being show horses rather than

a coherent whole.

legislative workhorses.

2. Legislators can view lawmaking as a team sport

The role of voters starts with the initial selection of

No member of Congress can accomplish anything by

candidates.

Voters

might

consider

whether

candidates

himself or herself. Effective lawmakers recognize this and build

demonstrate policy expertise and speak about the benefits of

a successful team.

bipartisanship, for example. They might consider our analysis

Our analysis found that effective lawmakers avoid the pitfall of hiring loyal campaign staffers to handle the legislative work of

showing that effective state legislators and women tend to be more effective lawmakers in Congress, on average.

their offices. Starting on Day One, they hire – and subsequently

Among incumbents, voters do strongly prefer effective

retain – legislative staff who have extensive experience on

over ineffective lawmakers at reelection time. However, when

Capitol Hill.

voters lack credible information about how effective their

They then join with like-minded colleagues to take advantage of the added resources provided by legislative caucuses, such as additional staff support and independent policy analyses,

representative is, it is much easier to vote simply based on partisanship or other considerations.

On the whole, Congress can function much better. Effective lawmakers from the past have shown the path forward. Our

apart from the help provided by party leadership.

Moreover, for effective lawmakers, their team is not limited

analysis of 50 years of data offers lessons that any representative

to their political party. Those willing to co-sponsor bills written

or senator can adopt, as well as reforms and electoral pressures

by members of the other party find more bipartisan support

that can nudge them in the right direction.

for their own efforts. Our analysis demonstrates that such bipartisan lawmakers are the most successful at advancing their bills through Congress.

3. Lawmakers can specialize and develop policy expertise Members of Congress need to be generalists to vote knowledgeably on diverse policy topics on any given day.

Many take that generalist view to their lawmaking portfolio, sponsoring legislation in each of the 21 major issue areas addressed by Congress.

But we find that the most effective lawmakers dedicate about half of their time, attention and legislative proposals to a single issue area. By becoming an acknowledged experts in issues of health or education or international affairs, for example, lawmakers become central to policy formulation in their area of interest.

Disclosure statement Craig Volden co-directs the Center for Effective Lawmaking, which receives funding from the Democracy Fund and from the U.S. Democracy Program at the Hewlett Foundation.

Alan Wiseman is the Chair of the Department of Political Science at Vanderbilt University and he co-directs the Center for Effective Lawmaking, which receives funding from the Democracy Fund and from the U.S. Democracy Program at the Hewlett Foundation.

Connect to your legislators Do you know who your senators and representatives are?

It’s easy to find them on the US House of Representatives and US Senate websites: Representatives: https://www.house.gov/representatives/ find-your-representative

4. Reforms can reinforce good lawmaking habits Individual lawmakers in Congress could adopt any of the practices above to become more effective. But institutional reforms could help reinforce such good behaviors.

The Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress has put forward dozens of reform proposals in the House of Representatives over the past three years. Based on our extensive research, we believe the proposals that would attract and retain experienced staff, promote bipartisanship or encourage the development of expertise through committee-

Senators: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senatorscontact.htm Similar websites exist for your State Representatives and Senators, too.

The National Grange Legislative Department can help you contact your legislators!

Contact Burton (BEller@nationalgrange.org) or Sean (SOneil@nationalgrange.org) for guidance or assistance!

centered lawmaking can increase the lawmaking effectiveness

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GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE www.nationalgrange.org

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Broadband deployment: Smoothing the nation’s path to 100 percent connectivity funds) are available to help overcome the upside-

By Diana Eisner

down economics of deploying costly infrastructure in

Vice President, Policy & Advocacy, USTelecom Our nation is approaching the final stretch in achieving the long sought-after goal of universal broadband connectivity.

Nearly 98 percent of American homes now have access to highspeed internet, as defined by the Federal Communications Commission. But the closer we get to 100 percent, the greater the challenges and costs of reaching those final far corners of our nation.

Fortunately, Congress and the Administration have stepped up with a $65 billion commitment to help finish the job. These resources join the nearly $80 billion of their own capital broadband providers commit each year to U.S. digital infrastructure. These public and private dollars are essential.

But there is more we can collectively do, particularly at

sparsely populated areas?

• What relationships—from local vendors to community partners—can help advance the project?

• Can we access the supplies and equipment needed amid supply chain disruptions?

If everything goes smoothly, the engineering process designs network and creates maps of the deployment areas. Then the permitting process starts – sometimes in a streamlined way where stakeholders work together to keep the project moving forward, sometimes in ways that can delay deployment by 120 days or more.

From here the complexities—and openings for further delay and project cost hikes—continue. These additional steps include acquiring access rights for infrastructure (railroad

the state and local level, to help clear the path to not only

tracks, highways, bridges) and private property (landlord

connect unserved communities, but also upgrade existing

permissions, HOA rules, wiring inside building), negotiating

infrastructure to ensure all Americans have full access to the

utility pole attachments and carefully navigating rules that

digital future.

seek to protect and preserve historic districts.

Alongside the demands of this capital-intensive work,

Now it’s time to break ground. But even the construction

broadband providers and their community partners face many

window requires extra thought. Does the provider bring out

complexities and obstacles along their deployment journey.

the excavator to dig and lay the fiber or do they climb the

This infographic helps visualize some of the most common

poles? This is an ongoing debate across many cities. While

barriers that add time and costs to the overall project.

everyone wants broadband, there can be significant NIMBY

From accounting for every brick on a cobblestone street in an historic district to facing up to two-year delays in the

concerns to address when it comes to erecting new utility poles or digging trenches through a neighborhood.

delivery of equipment and supplies amid global supply chain

Once the build is complete, broadband providers can

disruption, these obstacles can delay and, in some cases,

finally connect customers to the power and promise of fiber.

derail a provider’s ability to connect a community. Luckily,

While the process seems simple: homeowners order the

providers have experienced professionals who help navigate

service; providers set it up.

this deployment maze. When met by local partners equally

But for multi-unit buildings, permission from the landlord

committed to getting the job done, these barriers can be

or homeowners’ association is required – and can take an

reduced to manageable speed bumps.

additional six to nine months.

There are numerous decision points with potential for friction. Among the most common:

that doesn’t stop our nation’s broadband providers from

• What technology can most efficiently deliver reliable,

turning on the GPS and working with communities across the country to connect each and every home and business one

high-quality internet to the most people?

• What public resources (typically, federal infrastructure

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The road to universal connectivity is a winding one, but

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step at a time. We won’t stop until the job is done.

GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE www.nationalgrange.org

PLANNING

Connecting Our Communities Deploying broadband to every community involves many business and financial considerations. Below are just a few of the many complexities and obstacles providers face on their road to connecting communities across our nation.

ENGINEERING

PERMITTING

— ACQUIRE ACCESS RIGHTS —

CONSTRUCTION

­

­ ­­

SET-UP SUBSCRIBERS

­

How New Cancer Detection Technologies Will Benefit Rural Americans areas, this means driving dozens of miles each way to get

By Jeffrey M. Venstrom, MD

screened, one-at-a-time, for each type of cancer that we have

Chief Medical Officer, GRAIL This

a screening test for. year,

an

estimated

Help is on the way. MCED tests, including the Galleri®

1.9 million Americans will be

test made by GRAIL, are starting to become available to

diagnosed with cancer and over

consumers through a doctor’s prescription. And the FDA

600,000 will lose their lives to the disease, according to

is in the process of evaluating them for broader utilization.

the American Cancer Society.1 But cancer does not affect

For rural Americans, the power of these simple blood tests

everyone equally. In rural parts of the country, a person is

is the ability to put them to use in practically any clinic or

significantly more likely to die of cancer than someone living

care setting. Moving forward, it will be essential to ensure

in a metropolitan area. And while this may be partly explained

that the tests are accessible to those at greatest risk of cancer

by demographics – rural areas tend to have older populations

diagnoses, such as older adults with the highest rates for

with more underlying health conditions – it is also an issue

cancer. Congress can help by passing the Medicare Multi-

of access to treatment and preventative care. For example,

Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act (H.R. 19466 /

only eleven percent of oncologists in the U.S. practice in a

S. 18737) that will create the pathway for this type of screening

rural area and people living in these regions tend to have to

to be covered by Medicare for rural beneficiaries.

2

travel further to obtain care.

This leads to diagnoses at more

Living in a rural area shouldn’t consign someone to a

advanced stages when treatment is more difficult and has a

greater cancer burden. MCED screening holds tremendous

lower chance of success.

promise for closing the urban-rural gap in cancer outcomes,

34

As a physician and researcher, I’ve spent a good part of my career working to address this gap and have witnessed the science come a long way in recent years. Today, new cancer screening technologies are enabling early detection

with a simple blood test.

--[1] American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts & Figures 2022.

Atlanta: American Cancer Society; 2022.

for dozens of different cancers, using a simple draw of blood.

[2] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New CDC

By analyzing small fragments of tumors found in a person’s

Report shows deaths from cancer higher in rural America. July

bloodstream, these tests are able to identify the presence of

6, 2017.

cancerous cells and predict where the cancer may be located

[3] American Society of Clinical Oncology. 2021 Snapshot:

with a high degree of accuracy. Known as multi-cancer early

State of the Oncology Workforce in America. JCO Oncology

detection – MCED for short -- these tests are meant to

Practice (2021) 17 (5): 249-249

complement and significantly expand upon existing screening

[4] Longacre, C.F., Neprash, H.T., Shippee, N.D., Tuttle,

methods. The result could be a dramatic transformation in

T.M. and Virnig, B.A., Evaluating Travel Distance to Radiation

cancer care to the benefit of everyone – especially rural

Facilities Among Rural and Urban Breast Cancer Patients in

Americans, with a simple blood draw.

the Medicare Population. The Journal of Rural Health, (2020)

Currently, only five types of cancer have commonly available

36: 334-346

screenings – leaving too many cancers with no means of being

[5] Hubbell, E., Clarke, C.A., Aravanis, A.M., Berg, C.D.,

detected early. These include some very deadly forms of the

Modeled Reductions in Late-stage Cancer with a Multi-Cancer

disease, like ovarian, pancreatic and stomach cancers. In fact,

Early Detection Test. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and

more than 70 percent of cancer deaths are due to those with

Prevention. (2021) 30 (3): 460–468.

no recommended screening test.5 And while the screenings we have today are vital for cancer prevention, some of these procedures – like colonoscopy and mammography – can be invasive and require a specialist. For people living in rural

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[6] https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/housebill/1946 [7] https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senatebill/1873?s=1&r=43

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Fire Sale and store updates

JEWELRY

Vintage Hall Dedication Plaques Designed in 1947, these wooden hand-carved

All Past Officer (Master, Lecturer,

plaques have felt backing. 11.5”x13”, with

Secretary, and Past Junior Master)

space to add an engraving for your Grange.

pins, and various Degree charms

Limited number available.

and ties bars are on sale!

Sold as-is. $25 each, including shipping.

Member recognition pins are available in 5-year increments from 5 years through 80 years

Sesquicentennial Challenge Coin 150th Anniversary 2.25” diameter coin, emblazoned with the “esto perpetua” logo.

Was $25, now $15 plus shipping.

Prices vary.

People, Pride, and Progress

by David M. Howard This history book chronicles the impact of the Grange over the first 125 years of the organization.

Was $12.00, now discounted to $6.00.

Own a part of history commemorating the National Grange’s Headquarters in Washington, DC. These limitededition pins are sure to be collector items! Each pin includes a card with details about the Grange Building. Available in bulk at major discounts!

Kelley Farm Challenge Coin Celebrating the 2013 exemplification of the 1873 Degrees at the Kelley Farm.

2.25” brushed nickel coin.

On sale: $15.00 + shipping

Lapel / Grange Officer sash pins Buy 3 or more for a discounted

Belt Buckle

price.

Solid pewter with antique finish, fits

Available: E, F, H, L, M, O, P, S

most standard belts. Buy 3 or more to receive a discount.

Effective Immediately, any Grange Supply Store “rush” orders that require expedited arrival (7 days or fewer from time of order) will have a $25.00 expedition fee added to the order, in addition to the shipping fee. This includes any seals, certificates, and membership recognition applications.

Order at www.grangestore.org or call (202) 628-3507 ext. 109 GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE ®

www.nationalgrange.org

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GRANGE ADVOCACY ADVERTORIAL

The small town that saved its only grocery store — by buying it

Stub’s Market in Erie, Kansas.

by Michael Waters Originally published in The Hustle www.thehustle.co In the final days of May 2020, residents of Erie, Kansas, received a letter in the mail from their city government. The selfaddressed envelope contained just one question: “Do you support the City of Erie purchasing Stub’s Market?”

It was a dire moment for residents of Erie, a town of ~1k people in southeastern Kansas. COVID-19 was raging, basic household items and food products were running out of stock, and Stub’s Market — the city’s only grocery store — was on the verge of closing for good.

That would have left Erie with only a Dollar General, a chain store with a poor selection of produce and fresh food. To find fresh meats and vegetables, residents — many of whom don’t have cars — would’ve needed to travel 10 to 20 miles out of town.

So, the city council decided it would do just about anything to keep its only grocery store open.

In the subsequent weeks, responses to the poll began to trickle into the Erie City Council. 311 households in Erie responded.

Of those, the vast majority, 213 people (68.5%), voted yes.

What followed is a rare feat of community

Photo courtesy of The Hustle activism. To keep Stub’s Market from shuttering, the city government decided to buy it out.

of farming. Between 1980 and 2020, the town’s official head count fell by 26%, to 1,047 residents.

This population collapse had cascading impacts on local businesses in the city. With a shrinking pool of customers to serve, local stores struggled to turn a profit.

That was especially true for Erie’s grocery stores.

The first warning signs occurred in 2012, when the city’s only grocery store, G&W Foods, abruptly closed because it was losing so much money.

For two months, Erie didn’t have a single grocery store. Residents who couldn’t drive out of town depended on frozen meals from Dollar General. Getting fresh fruit and vegetables suddenly hinged on knowing someone who could make a delivery for them.

The city convinced Stub’s Market, which had previously occupied the location, to reopen its store before the end of the year.

It worked, but only for a few years. The owners of Stub’s were looking to retire, and they couldn’t run Erie’s grocery store much longer. In the late 2010s, they put their store on sale — but no one was willing to buy it.

It was an intractable problem that Cindy Schoenhofer, the treasurer of Erie, learned

How Erie got its grocery store Erie has all the quaint charm one might expect to find in a small, middle-America town.

Its main attractions include a park with dinosaurs made from junk metal and the public library. Each July, it hosts an annual soldiers’ reunion where residents cook beans in cast-iron pots over open fires, watch fireworks, and admire antique cars.

At one time, Erie had a thriving farming community. But today, the town’s core industry has largely disappeared.

“Really there’s not a lot of good jobs here,” Julie Kent, the director of Erie’s public library, told The Hustle.

Though some farming jobs still exist, many people drive outside of town for work, most often to an airplane-parts manufacturer in the nearby town of Chanute.

Like many other small The main street of Erie, Kansas, circa 1906. towns, Erie’s population waned Photo courtesy of Kansas Historical Society in tandem with the decline

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Stub’s Market, Erie’s only grocery store at the time.

Photo via Facebook about quickly.

Schoenhofer, who works part-time for the city and part-time as a controller at a local nursing home, knew Erie couldn’t afford to let Stub’s Market go. Losing a grocery store would lead to much worse problems down the line. If there was no place in town to buy produce, future residents might not move there.

“Like all small towns, if you lose your school, then you sort of lose your town,” Schoenhofer said. “The grocery store is similar. If you lose that, then you don’t have people shopping in town.”

Finally, in August 2019, Shirlene Mahurin, one of the co-owners of Stub’s Market, met with the Erie City Council to discuss an audacious proposal.

Instead of waiting for a private buyer to materialize, she asked, what if the city bought the store?

America’s rural grocery store problem Across the US, countless rural towns are confronting the same dilemma as Erie. Between 1990 and 2015, rural non-metro counties lost 39% of their grocery stores, according to a report by the USDA. Central to the problem is the fact that grocery stores run on razor-thin margins, especially in rural areas.

A 2020 survey of Minnesota grocery stores in towns of under 2.5k people found that the average profit was just 1.1%. That means even the slightest change — inflation, say, or rising costs from supply chain delays — can quickly erase any earnings.

Even the biggest chains, like Kroger, earn just a little over 2 cents for every dollar spent, but they can make up for it with their volume of sales. Small-town stores don’t have that luxury.

Plenty of broader trends are forcing independent grocery stores to shutter, too: 1. Dollar stores and supercenters The share of grocery stores in rural areas that are independent fell from 87% to 82%, thanks to the encroachment of chain stores.

As independent grocery stores disappear, supercenters are taking their place: The USDA found a 237% increase in the number of supercenters in these rural counties between 1990 and 2015. But

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many of these stores, especially dollar stores, don’t have fresh food.

2. Depopulation Between 2010 and 2020, the number of Americans living in rural areas fell by .6%.

“When there are fewer people in town, you just have fewer people that can support that business,” said Erica Blair, the program manager of the Rural Grocery Initiative, a group that also advised Erie.

3. Succession crises In Kansas, the average grocery store owner is 57 years old, according to Justin Carter, a senior project manager at the Center for Rural Affairs, “and they’re having a lot of trouble finding new owners.”

Carter says the failure to secure a new generation of owners has caused many rural grocery stores to close. “You’re getting a situation where the current group of store owners are retiring and just nobody’s taking over the store.”

To keep their stores from shuttering, some communities are applying a range of creative solutions: • Community-owned stores: When Hay Springs, Nebraska (pop. 600) lost its only grocery store in 2019, local advocates

Rural grocery stores face challenges across the US top: Historic Rabbit Hash General Store in Rabbit Hash, Kentucky; Jim Lane/Getty Images; bottom: Squam Lake Inn and Marketplace, Holderness, NH; Jumping Rocks/Getty Images

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Scenes from Erie, Kansas.

Photos by Julie Kent began pamphleting to convince residents to buy out the store as a collective. The Farm to Family Cooperative opened in 2021.

• Self-serve stores: In Evansville, Minnesota (pop. ~700), residents had to drive 40 miles to get many of their groceries. One couple opened Main Street Market, a 24-hour selfserve grocery store accessible via an annual subscription of $75/year.

• Public-private partnerships: Often, cities might agree to cover a grocery store’s rent in order to help it cut costs. In West Baltimore, for instance, the nonprofit grocery Fresh at the Avenue operates out of a city-owned building.

Erie’s approach — to turn its grocery store into a publicly funded enterprise — is far less common.

But it certainly isn’t a stand-alone case.

The St. Paul model When the city of Erie was considering the proposal to buy Stub’s Market, the first thing Schoenhofer did was reach out to Erie’s neighbor: St. Paul, Kansas (pop. 543).

St. Paul is one of the only other places in the country — along with Baldwin Market in Baldwin, Florida (pop: ~1.5k) and Caney Market (pop: ~1.8k) in Caney, Kansas — that accomplished what Erie was trying to do.

The story of St. Paul dates back to 2005, when a man named Rick Giefer became mayor.

The city hadn’t had a fullscale grocery store since 1985, and Giefer decided to change that. In 2008, he used city funding to get a new store, St. Paul Supermarket, off the ground. In 2013, when the couple who ran the store was staring down retirement, Giefer convinced the city to buy it outright.

In 2019, Schoenhofer drove to St. Paul to meet with that city’s clerk, who gave her some tips. The experiment, Schoenhofer found, had been a success. The St. Paul grocery employs ~15 people, and it turns a profit of 3%, slightly better than the average for rural grocery stores.

It has also kept people — and spending money — in town. Similarly, in Erie, residents show up to Erie Market for fresh lunches, like a BBQ pulled-pork sandwich or a taco on Taco Tuesday.

Other positive developments have followed. Erie just opened a new daycare center, a new restaurant, and a new coffee shop. “Once the ball started rolling, we started getting people saying, well, we could do this and we could do this,” Kent said.

By the fall of 2020, after collecting feedback from residents, the City of Erie had agreed to purchase Stub’s Market. The cost: $300k, plus the cost of inventory (~$100k) and a 0.5% cut to the store’s previous owners for the next 10 years — in total, less than ~$500k.

At the start of 2021, the city became the official owner of the store. The city council renamed it Erie Market, and it hired

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a manager with retail experience to run the store on the city’s behalf.

So far, the City of Erie has taken a mostly hands-off approach to running Erie Market.

The store manager submits a monthly report to the city about the finances. Erie will only step in if it slips into the red.

“We run it as a utility, like we do the electric bill and the water bill,” Schoenhofer said. Just like a water bill, if the costs of running the store goes up, Erie would add a small amount — less than $5 per month — to each resident’s utility bill to make up the difference.

Erie hasn’t had to do that yet, but rising inflation is making the city council nervous.

Erie Market’s food suppliers are charging more on wholesale orders, and the store is passing some of the increased cost on to customers.

But when it comes to inflation, running the store as a public utility has an upside.

According to Schoenhofer, the city council is looking into reducing the markup it adds to the groceries it sells.

Erie Market, after all, needs to break even, not make a huge profit. Its first priority is getting residents in the door.

Erie’s only grocery store stayed alive — with a new name.

Photo by Julie Kent

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Cultivemos: Cultivating Farmer Well-Being

by Jac Wypler Farmer Mental Health Director, National Young Farmers Coalition Living through Covid-19, it’s easy to recall times when friends and family sought to relieve stress by tending to houseplants, cuddling with pets, spending time in fresh air, and traveling to open spaces. The opportunity to connect with plants, animals, fresh air, and nature is often readily available to agriculturalists, yet people in these occupations deal with high levels of stress.

Agricultural models driven by capitalism can make it difficult for farmers and farmworkers to reap the restorative benefits of stewarding land and raising food for their communities. In the

one study found that 71% of young farmers met the criteria for

Northeast, Cultivemos is a network designed to cultivate farmer

Generalized Anxiety Disorder and 53% met the criteria for Major

well-being.

Depressive Disorder (Rudolphi et al., 2020). Research shows large

What do we know about the stress farmers and farm workers face?

In December 2021, Morning Consult conducted a poll on behalf of American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) with a sample of 2,000 rural adults (https://www.fb.org/files/Farmer_and_Rural_ Mental_Health_AFBF.pdf). Farmers and farmworkers in the sample named the following as impacting farmers’ mental health: weather or other factors beyond their control (82%), financial issues (80%), the state of the farm economy (80%), farm or business problems (75%), medical issues (75%), and hours of labor (73%).

While this survey’s results suggest important trends, it did not include non-rural farmers or farmworkers, collect information in languages other than English, or oversample marginalized farming communities.

During the summer of 2021, Cultivemos funded six organizations in the Northeast to conduct listening sessions with farmers and farmworkers in their communities to learn about stressors, supports or coping strategies, and recommendations for ongoing needs. The sessions were held in at least three different languages.

The listening sessions included a total of 38 participants who ranged from 24 to 76 years old with one to 20 years of farming experience. From the total 38 participants, 19 self-identified as Black, Indigenous, and/or people of color (BIPOC). Across the listening sessions, the farmers and farmworkers most frequently named the following stressors: feeling overworked or burned out, low pay and wages, unexpected financial crises or pressures, racial issues, weather conditions, and accessing and affording health care.

It’s important to note that stressors are often exacerbated for

numbers of farmworkers with significant stress levels; stressors include the mobile nature of their employment, language barriers, legality and logistics related to immigration status, social isolation, and challenging working conditions (Hiott etal., 2008; Kim, Godwin & Bechtel, 2004).

BIPOC farmers have long faced discrimination in accessing USDA programs (as evidenced by the successful Pigford and Keepseagle lawsuits against the USDA), accessing credit (NSAC, 2019), and purchasing and retaining farmland (Gordon, 2018).

Farmers of color are more likely to rent land and to operate smaller farms with less revenue, both of which can create added stress (USDA, 2018). In addition, BIPOC individuals are affected by COVID-19 at much higher rates than white people (APM Research Lab, 2020).

When stressed, farmers and farmworkers may struggle to seek and receive support. According to the Morning Consult and

Farmer Hotline If you are looking for someone to talk to directly, call Farm Aid’s farmer hotline at 1-800-FARM-AID (1-800-327-6243).

Farm Aid’s team of hotline staff is here to listen. Hotline hours are Monday through Friday 9am-10pm ET / 6am-7pm PT.

young farmers, farmworkers, and BIPOC farmers. For example,

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AFAB poll, 63% of farmers and farmworkers

each of their four regions - South, West,

reported a lot or some stigma in the

North Central, and Northeast- to develop

agricultural

mental

a Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance

health and stress. In addition to stigma,

Network (FRSAN). The regions received

farmers and farmworkers often lack any or

nearly $7.2 million over the three year

sufficient health insurance coverage to be

period (2020-2023) to help ensure that

able to afford professional mental health

agricultural communities have increased

support. Even with coverage or paying out

options for access to supportive services

of pocket, farmers and farmworkers face a

where they live and where they work.

shortage of providers.

NIFA funding supports a suite of services

community

around

The U.S. Department of Health and

including: telephone helplines, resource

Human Services indicates that 111.6 million

clearinghouse, training programs, support

people live in designated Mental Health

groups, and professional behavioral health

Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs). A

services.

majority of Mental HPSAs are in rural areas,

The second pathway of FRSAN funding

with the Northeast region alone accounting

is at the state level. During the Covid-19

for 10% of the national total, or 11.4 million

pandemic,

people. Finally, there is no guarantee that

agriculture producers and supply chain

available professionals can provide care

workers were experiencing heightened

relevant to a client’s agricultural occupation,

stressors, so Congress also provided $28

their various entities, or their cultural

million in funding for State Departments

backgrounds. For example, Black patients

of Agriculture to expand and sustain

receiving support from Black practitioners

stress assistance programs for folks in the

find solidarity and a greater ability to be

agriculture workforce. This funding was for

understood, according to a 2016 study in

one year and 50 states or territories are

the Journal of Black Psychology.

actively engaged in alleviating stress for

Yet, Black practitioners make up 2% of psychiatrists and 4% of psychologists in the country, according to American

Congress

recognized

that

agriculturalists.

A collaborative group of organizations received FRSAN funds in the Northeast,

African Americans as having more severe

delivering the grant under the name

disorders or do not provide the same

Cultivemos. Cultivemos’ vision states, “We

level of treatment as they do for White

envision a future where diverse farming

clients,” (https://www.insightintodiversity.

and ranching communities in the Northeast

com/addressing-the-lack-of-black-mental-

are seamlessly connected to accessible,

health-professionals/). In this landscape,

culturally-competent, timely, and effective

farmers and farmworkers need support and

mental behavioral health care and stress

care that are accessible and relevant to their

assistance programs.”

Cultivemos’ values include: honoring multiple perspectives, structural change, evidence farmer

and and

effectiveness,

inclusion,

farmworker

informed,

There are two pathways to Farm and

racial equity, sustainability (stable and

Ranch Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN)

resilient), transparency, and collaboration.

funding. The first is through regional

Cultivemos’

funding. The 2018 Farm Bill allocated

wellness includes 1) addressing structural

funds for farmer mental health for the first

root causes, 2) prioritizing BIPOC farmers,

time. USDA’s National Institute of Food

farmworkers, and young farmers, and 3)

and Agriculture (NIFA) awarded funds to

regranting funds.

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A structural approach to farmer stress involves forever

What is Cultivemos?

white practitioners “often misdiagnose

What is the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network?

The Farmer Resource Network is a free search tool that can be used to find organizations and resources that are useful for farmers, agricultural service providers, farmworkers, farm communities and farming families across the United States. Use the dropdown menus and check boxes to easily find what you’re looking for. Our media resources include publications, videos, podcasts, training courses and more. https:// farmerresourcenetwork.force. com/FRN/s/

addressing

larger

systematic

issues that can lead to stress such as

Psychiatric Association (APA) data, and

occupation, experiences, and identities.

Farmer Resource Network

approach

to

cultivating

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chemical

contamination,

land

access, and systematic racism. The grant focuses on communities disproportionately disempowered by these structural issues, namely farmers who identify as BIPOC, farmworkers, and young farmers. For example, BIPOC farmers and farmworkers lack opportunities to access land given that “98% of all farmland is owned by white landowners”

(https://www.youngfarmers.

org/land/analysis/land-policy/).

Black farmers in particular have been dispossessed of land and systematically discriminated

against

by

the

USDA.

Additionally, “Farmworkers [with a primary language other than English] … are disproportionately likely to experience workplace violations such as wage theft,” (https://www.dol.gov/general/equityaction-plan/plan#6) and therefore lack opportunities to access capital. Equity is central to our structural approach in order

to ensure that aspiring, new, and beginning farmers have the

On the Cultivating Resilience podcast, farm care starts with self-

opportunity to farm; their engagement is core to a sustainable

care. Join Network Members Hans Hageman and Dr. Kay Megan

farm future.

Washington as they dive into the stories of real, independent

Cultivemos aims to address structural root causes to stress,

farmers and the struggles they face every day, and how they are

especially for BIPOC farmers, farmworkers, and young farmers,

overcoming them—things like family farm succession, economic

by regranting funds. Within the Network, various Cohorts have

burdens, and rural isolation.

formed as communities of practice to connect and identify areas

Throughout the series, resources will be provided to strengthen

for collaboration. Cohorts convene service providers within 1) a

your mental well-being during stressful and uncertain times. And a

geographic area within the region, 2) a community of practice, 3)

community is being built where farmers and ranchers can support

a thematic agricultural area, or 4) an affinity group. Cohorts meet

each other, because even the hardiest plants need the right

regularly and may propose a project to increase the capacity of

conditions to grow. Please support your fellow farmers and the

service providers to address stress and mental health needs among

network by listening, following and liking Cultivating Resilience on

Northeast farming communities. These funds may be used to bring

your favorite platform.

speakers to the Network, work with facilitators, hire contractors,

To learn more about Cultivemos visit: linktr.ee/cultivemos.

develop training, or other projects that improve mental health and wellness or address the root causes of stress in our farming communities.

What is Cultivating Resilience?

Cultivemos’ Farm Communication Cohort project to produce a podcast – Cultivating Resilience – is just one example of the Network’s regranting efforts.

Farming is an amazing way of life, one that is rewarding in so many ways. Farming can also be stressful, from the physical strain to financial pressures to worrying about the weather and how to sustain this work. Often, agricultural workers prioritize everything on the farm before the most important asset: themselves.

Sometimes hearing stories of others who have shared this life and these struggles can be a great way to find support.

Recognizing that others are also challenged – and may have found strategies to meet those challenges – often makes the burden less onerous. Cultivating Resilience uplifts stories from farmers facing challenges ranging from climate change to finances to feelings of not belonging and is available on many platforms including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

The Cultivating Resilience podcast can be found on most major audio platforms.

Daughter of the Tree At 11-years-old, Sojourner Truth created an outdoor prayer house made of willows, and gathered herbs in the forest along the Hudson River in New York. In a new children’s book Daughter of the Tree, Cultivemos Farmer Advisory Board Member Rev Dele opens our spiritual imagination to young Sojourner’s life in nature and how those thoughts can continue to liberate us. In bringing together nature, spirituality and justice, Rev Dele hopes that the young and the young at heart will be inspired to connect to nature and take charge of their spiritual journey like Sojourner.

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Shifting the Focus to Local Food Wisconsin farmers join together to get healthy food to people in their region.

by Julian Emerson

rural parts of Wisconsin live a half hour or more from the nearest

Wisconsin Farmers Union Courtesy of The Daily Yonder

grocery as the stores in their towns have closed.

Those

The 150 or so people attending the Aug. 10 kickoff event of the St. Croix Valley Food Alliance in rural Polk County went one by one through a food line, choosing from vegetables, cheese, meat, honey and other products as they gathered for a meal before a series of speakers outlined the organization’s plans.

Attendees came from different places and backgrounds, but

situations,

combined

with

food

supply

chain

interruptions that occurred during the coronavirus pandemic, have more people looking to access locally produced food, experts say. Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) Secretary Randy Romanski said he hears more people across the state who are interested in accessing locally or regionally produced food.

“It’s always important to make that link between local farms

the variety of food they consumed shared a commonality: all of it

and the food they produce, and consumers,” Romanski said.

was produced by farmers from the surrounding area.

“More and more, people seem to want to know where their food

“That’s what the food alliance is all about,” said Kristy Allen,

comes from.”

one of the founding members of the alliance, as she hustled to

Local or regional food networks in which farmers can sell their

restock a container of seasoned chicken. “We’re trying to create

products to people who live near them benefit not only consumers

a more vibrant local food economy, one in which farmers can

but those producing food. When selling locally, farmers don’t

provide high-quality, healthy food to the people of this community

have to ship their food, reducing their operating costs, Romanski

while farming in such a way as to preserve our environment.”

said. And local food sales offer additional income that can enable

Allen is one of 26 farmers from the surrounding area who have

farmers to stay in business.

signed on as food alliance members. In addition to growing a local

“Connecting those dots between food and consumers is really

market for their products, the group hopes to create a regional

important, especially in a state like Wisconsin where we produce

brand, enabling members to better get the food they produce to

so much,” Romanski said. “You can go anywhere around the state

regional residents.

and you can see food production happening.”

The alliance recently submitted a grant proposal seeking

DATCP has connected farmers to Wisconsin school districts

funding from the USDA Local Food Promotion Program. They

through its Farm to School & Institution Program. The program

secured a 25% funding match, or $60,000, in just two weeks, a sign of strong demand for the initiative, Allen said.

The grant would allow the group to hire a full-time coordinator to connect the local food they produce with consumers, schools and other entities. The food alliance will learn this fall whether it receives the grant.

Discussion of local or regional food initiatives is becoming more commonplace after the coronavirus pandemic, which revealed the fragility of the existing food supply chain that most often relies on food being transported long distances. Grocery stores experienced shortages when the supply chain was disrupted, leaving some people without access to quality, healthy food.

As grocery store competition has increased, and as larger groceries increasingly have put small-town groceries out of business, a growing number of people in both rural and urban areas are left without access to fresh, quality food, experts say.

For example, in Milwaukee, more than 20% of residents live more than one mile from a grocery store, meaning they may have problems constantly accessing fresh food. People in many

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This honey, produced by bees that are part of Kristy Allen’s The Beez Kneez business, were among many locally produced foods that were available at the kickoff event of the St. Croix Valley Food Alliance.

Photo by Julian Emerson

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helps schools procure fresh, regionally produced products grown by farmers to school meal programs.

Using federal coronavirus assistance funding, DATCP also has helped create opportunities to get people in need food produced by Wisconsin farmers. The agency partnered with Hunger Task Force and Feeding Wisconsin to address food insecurity during the coronavirus pandemic, and that work continues, Romanski said.

“Under the umbrella of those two groups, whenever possible, we are sourcing food locally, addressing food insecurity and also connecting people in need to local farmers,” Romanski said. “I think we can build on that foundation moving forward in a way that will help address hunger and also benefit farmers in this state.”

A Local Need Allen said much of the honey she raises through her The Beez Kneez beekeeping

Ayla Dodge and her husband James grow vegetables and raise grass-fed beef and pork as well as chickens on their organic Blackbrook Farm near the Polk County community of Amery. The couple is part of the St. Croix Valley Food Alliance, which plans to expand the sales of healthy food raised in a sustainable way to residents in Polk and Burnett counties.

Photo courtesy of Kristy Allen help each other out,” she said.

wife Emily. The economy of scale available

business, and many other farm products

Ayla said most of her farm’s products

to large farms, and an economic structure

raised in Polk and Burnett counties, is

are sold to Twin Cities outlets. Like Allen,

that most often supports big agriculture,

sold in the Twin Cities, and she and other

she would like to see more farm products

means making a go of it financially as a

producers would like to benefit their local

produced in Polk and Burnett counties

small farmer has become increasingly

communities as well.

sold to people living there. Before that

challenging for decades.

“There is a need for nutritious food,

can happen, she said, more people must

As evidence, Wisconsin – long known

grown by people who are practicing land

become aware of the advantages of buying

as America’s Dairyland – has led the nation

conservation measures, right here where

food from local producers.

in the number of dairy farmers who have

we live,” said Allen, president of the Polk-

“A lot of people don’t yet understand

declared bankruptcy in recent years. Most

Burnett chapter of Wisconsin Farmers

why they should be buying local food, and

of the small farms that once dotted the

Union. Many of the alliance members are

how buying it from certain producers is a

state’s rural countryside like dandelions in

also members of the Wisconsin Farmers

way of not only getting healthy, nutritious

springtime have long since disappeared.

Union, which has helped support the

food but helps keep money local, helps

Klaus and Emily raise organic vegetables

fledgling network.

protect our habitat, helps prevent further

and sheep, and doing so in the current

Ayla Dodge and her husband James

climate change,” she said. “They ask ‘what

farm economy has proven challenging,

grow vegetables and raise grass-fed beef

is organic? What are the advantages of

they said.

and pork as well as chickens on their

buying grass-fed meat?’ There is a need for

“It’s definitely a struggle,” Klaus said.

organic Blackbrook Farm near the Polk

more education about all of that and more,

“We don’t have the infrastructure set up in

County community of Amery. Their farm

and we hope the food alliance can help do

this state for small farmers.”

is one of several where Allen houses bees

that.”

that produce the honey she sells.

Klaus and Emily sell much of their

Even with buyers in the Twin Cities

products in the Twin Cities and at farmers

farmers-helping-

and other existing markets, making a go

markets near the region where they live.

farmers spirit is among the aims of the food

of it as a small farmer is a challenge, said

Establishing more connections with local

alliance, Ayla said. “This is really about

Klaus Zimmermann Mayo, who operates

residents through the food alliance would

farmers trying to support each other, to

Whetstone Farm in rural Amery with his

help them and other small farmers succeed

That

cooperative,

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financially while benefiting the region where they live with healthy food.

“That’s the goal we’re working toward,” Klaus said. “This is about bringing farmers together to work toward a common goal, to connect to our local community … Now we need to see if we can make this sustainable.”

An Investment in Your Life’ Rachael Drumsta said she is optimistic the St. Croix Food Alliance can make a go of it. Drumsta first became aware of some of the group’s farmers when she purchased their products at a farmers market in her previous home in south Minneapolis.

In May 2021, Drumsta, director of workplace well-being for a Minnesota health services company, relocated to a rural area near Balsam Lake in Polk County. She began buying food at a farmers market in nearby St. Croix Falls and realized some of the producers were the same ones she bought from in Minneapolis.

“That was one of my worries about moving to rural Wisconsin, having access to healthy food,” Drumsta said, noting the existence of food deserts in some rural areas. “But with these producers and a local food co-op where I shop, I am finding that high-quality food.”

Drumsta said she hopes other people can do the same through the food alliance. In her job helping provide preventative health care, she said she sees firsthand the importance of access to healthy food, and what happens when that access doesn’t exist.

“From a health care standpoint, the quality of food you are eating is literally an investment in your life,” Drumsta said.

Allen agrees. The food items available at the food alliance’s kickoff event meal, all produced by alliance partners, were meant to show attendees how tasty and nutritious locally produced foods can be. Those foods also are grown in a sustainable manner, a key component of the group’s efforts, she said.

“We’re producing food that is good for people and good for the earth,” Allen said.

People attending the St. Croix Valley Food Alliance’s inaugural event on Aug. 10 choose from foods produced by local farmers. Food Alliance members hope to better connect with local consumers to sell healthy, locally grown food to them.

(Photo by Julian Emerson) about the benefits of supporting food alliance members will be necessary, she said. Securing USDA grant funding to hire a coordinator to do some of that work would be a big help, Allen said.

The large turnout at the food alliance’s kickoff event was heartening, Allen said. So were her many positive interactions about the effort at a recent farmers market she was selling at.

“I had so many people come up to me to talk about how they want to see this happen,” Allen said. “That makes me feel really good, like we can do this.”

Romanski said such efforts are finding more support across Wisconsin. Many farmers selling directly to consumers, at farmers markets and through community supported agriculture outlets say the last couple of years have been among their best years for revenue, he said.

“There are a lot of innovative, creative farmers out there who have had some success recently,” Romanski said. “I’m hearing that a lot of people found locally produced food during the pandemic, and they are staying with those local farmers. We’re hoping this is

Growing Trend Allen acknowledged challenges with making the food alliance viable. In addition to convincing people to purchase some of their food from local producers instead of food transported to grocery stores from hundreds of miles away, establishing a food distribution network will prove challenging, she said.

Simply having time to not only produce food but to market it and track finances associated with the effort also can be difficult, Allen said.

“It can be hard to work together,” she said. “It’s discovering the right system and finding a way that works for everybody.”

a trend that can continue.”

To learn more about the St. Croix Valley Food Alliance, visit https://scvfoodalliance.org Emerson lives in the Chippewa Valley and is the Communications Specialist for Wisconsin Farmers Union. This is part of a series of articles focused on rural infrastructure investment in the state that are being produced through WFU’s Rural Voices project. He can be reached at jemerson@wisconsinfarmersunion.com.

Marketing the group’s products and educating consumers

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Try something new for your Grange and your community Jonesboro Grange #357 (ME) - As a fundraiser, they held

By Pete Pompper National Grange Community Service Director

a duck race with yellow rubber duckies on the Chandler River behind the Grange Hall. That must have been a sight to see 100 yellow duckies floating down the river (very slowly) with a

Nope, we tried that before and it didn’t work 20-30 years ago and it won’t work now! How many of us have either heard these words or said them to a member who wants to try something your Grange has not done before or in recent memory? Then, another member says Let’s just keep doing

Grange member on the bridge catching them in a giant net.

Penns Valley Grange #158 (PA) - This Grange sews Christmas stockings that are then given to the Stockings for Soldiers program. They are filled with different items to be given to soldiers throughout the country. This year they will sew 100 stockings and also provide cards for the military members.

what we always do.

Does this scenario sound familiar? If we are honest with ourselves, the answer is yes… it does. Well, Grangers, I am here to tell you those times are starting to change in small ways

Moses Lake Grange #1151 (WA) - They have become involved with the Youth Fair program which has had the added benefit of new families joining the Grange. For the first time, they were also asked to put their fair display up at another fair,

- but they are changing!

There is a palpable change occurring across the country

not just their county fair.

in Granges small and large. You are stepping outside your

Springwater Grange #263 (OR) - This Grange has created

comfort zone because your Grange understands how important

an Educational Impact Grant for the local elementary schools.

this is not only for the health of the Grange but also for the

It will award two (2) $250 grants to teachers, librarians, etc. to

community. On a national level, I cannot even begin to express

cover a special program not included in this year’s budget.

how much we appreciate when a Grange takes a chance and

Florissant Grange #420 (CO) - For the first time, they are

tries something new. This is an exciting time in the Grange,

holding a combination art show, contest, and sale. Artists can

and I see growth not only in member numbers but a positive

enter one piece of art created from September 1 through

attitude. The “Proud to be a Granger” buttons we used to

October 15 this year with the theme “Colorado.” The public

wear need to be dusted off.

is invited to attend the show, vote for their favorite, and - of course - buy a piece or two. Artists can bring up to 3 more

What are Granges doing outside the box or their comfort

pieces to sell. The idea is to not only promote local artists but

zones?

promote the Grange and get people into the hall.

Pleasant Ridge Grange #135 (ID) – In October, this Grange is

I personally congratulate all these Granges for stepping out

holding their first “holiday bazaar” at the Grange Hall. What a

and stepping up with new ideas for their Grange. Well done

great opportunity to help support local vendors and get people

and keep us posted on how it goes! I encourage Granges to

inside the Hall. As their poster says, “Get your shopping done

take a chance and try something new - you never know how

early”.

well it will go until you try.

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Reducing food insecurity in infants and toddlers Courtesy of Family Features Food insecurity isn’t a new problem in the United States, but the economic upheaval created by the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the problem.

During the pandemic, households in the United States with children experienced an

food insecurity reflects barriers to obtaining

Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women,

food such as finances, physical location and

Infants and Children (WIC), which provides a

transportation.

variety of resources including food and health

Infants and toddlers are particularly

care referrals to support mothers and young

vulnerable to nutrient deficiencies because

children at nutritional risk, including pregnant,

their nutrient needs are high, especially in

breastfeeding and post-partum women, as

relation to the size of their stomachs and

well as infants and children up to age 5.

food-insecure

Another example is the Supplemental

increase in food insecurity, despite overall

households may have little choice but to settle

Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which

rates of food insecurity staying the same. In

for cheaper, energy-dense but nutrient-poor

provides benefits low-income families can

2019, 13.6% of households with children

foods. As a result, food-insecure infants and

use to purchase nutritious foods. For children

were food insecure, but by 2020, that number

toddlers are not receiving adequate nutrition

and adults who are enrolled in certain care

increased to 14.8%, according to data from

even when they may be receiving enough

programs, the Child and Adult Care Food

the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

calories to satisfy hunger.

Program (CACFP) helps ensure they have

appetites.

Caregivers

in

access to nutritious meals and snacks.

In general, child food insecurity rates

Even if a child isn’t physically starving,

are higher than overall food insecurity rates,

inadequate nutrition can negatively affect

according to the annual Map the Meal Gap

health in numerous ways, including immune

study conducted by Feeding America, a

system function, low weight, learning and

nationwide nonprofit network of food banks.

developmental delays, vitamin deficiencies

According to data from the Children’s Defense

and more.

insecurity. For example, for every box of Plum

Ways to Help Promote Better Nutrition

company donates a pouch to a child in need

and Black and Hispanic households.

What Food Insecurity Means for Children

addition to producing foods that encourage better nutrition for children, some brands also make contributions that help offset food Organics Super Smoothies purchased, the

Fund, this is particularly prevalent among lowincome families, single mother households

• Make purchases that work extra hard. In

Support good nutrition during infancy and toddlerhood for your own children and others in the community with these practical tips:

Food insecurity and hunger are closely

• Participate in (or introduce those

related but not quite the same. People who

in need to) aid programs. Government

are food insecure don’t have reliable, ongoing

nutrition assistance programs help provide

access to an adequate supply of affordable,

essential nutrition needs during infant and

nutritious food. Hunger is a physical condition;

toddler years. One example is the Special

through its “The Full Effect” program. The smoothie is a specially formulated blend of fruits, vegetables, legumes and grains with no added sugars designed to fight malnutrition and help fortify the diets of children who don’t have access to regular, healthy meals.

• Act as a role model for healthy choices.

Children learn by example, so be sure your little ones see you enjoying nutritious snacks, filling your plate with appropriate portions and preparing well-rounded meals. When kids are exposed to a wide range of healthy options early in life, those food choices become the norm as they grow older.

• Volunteer at a food bank. Getting hands-on by donating your time at a local food bank can help you understand the complexity of food insecurity. Many nutritious selections are perishable, and transporting and storing perishable goods is costly. Volunteers help offset a food bank’s operational expenses by contributing labor to sort donated items, prepare deliveries and more.

To find more information about foods that provide infants and toddlers the nutrients they need, visit plumorganics.com.

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Debunking insurance myths Courtesy of Brandpoint When it comes to insurance, there are several myths that continue to persist, like the myth that red cars are more expensive to insure.

That’s false, by the way. Car color has no impact on insurance premiums.

Instead, factors like your driving history, annual mileage driven, the cost of your vehicle, and other things will affect how much your insurance will cost.

Insurance is one of the most useful investments you can make to protect your family, belongings and financial assets, but it’s important to know what is actually being purchased. Here are four things you should know about your auto, homeowners or renters insurance policy to ensure adequate protection in the event of an unforeseen or unexpected loss.

1. Myth: Your homeowners insurance policy covers everything One of the biggest misunderstandings many policyholders have is that if their home is damaged or destroyed their homeowners insurance policy will cover the cost of everything. Homeowners insurance covers

comprehensive insurance may not be the right coverage because a vehicle’s value decreases with age,” said Kevin Quinn, Vice President of Auto Claims at Mercury Insurance. “Consider whether the savings

losses or damages to your house and personal belongings in the event

of not having comprehensive insurance are enough to offset the risk of

of a fire, sudden flooding caused by a broken pipe, or theft, but there

potentially having a large repair or replacement bill.”

are some situations that your policy may not cover.

“Generally speaking, homeowners insurance is designed to help

3. Myth: Renters don’t need insurance

you rebuild your home and replace personal property if it is damaged

Renters insurance is affordable, however, only 41 percent of renters

or stolen,” says Christopher O’Rourke, Vice President of Property

purchase it. Without renters insurance, you’ll have to pay out of pocket

Claims at Mercury Insurance. “However, you may need to purchase

if your personal belongings are damaged in a fire or are stolen.

separate flood or earthquake insurance to protect your home from

“Your landlord’s insurance policy will not cover any of your personal

coastal flooding or seismic activity if you live in areas prone to these

belongings and it won’t provide liability protection if a lawsuit is brought

events as they are usually not covered by a homeowners policy.”

against you because a visitor slips, falls and injures themselves inside

Renovating your home or installing any expensive upgrades must

your rental unit,” says O’Rourke. “Renters may not be responsible

also be reviewed by your agent in order to ensure you have adequate

for repairing the home they live in, but there’s always a chance their

coverage.

possessions and valuables will need to be replaced if they are damaged or stolen, so purchasing a renters insurance policy is a smart way to

2. Myth: You only need the minimum auto liability insurance coverage required by your state

Most states require drivers to carry auto liability insurance but this coverage only provides financial protection if you’re found to be legally

provide financial security.”

4. Myth: If you’re hurt in an accident caused by another driver, their auto insurance will pay

responsible for causing injury to another person or their property. Auto

Even if an auto accident is caused through no fault of your own,

liability coverage doesn’t cover damage to your vehicle, items stolen

you may not be able to recover damages if you are hit by someone

from your vehicle, or damage from a storm or vandalism.

who is uninsured or underinsured. The best way to safeguard yourself

Collision insurance covers you if, while your vehicle is in motion, you

is to have uninsured motorist coverage, which is usually an add-on

crash into another vehicle or a fixed object, like a pothole, guardrail

protection. This can protect you if you are hit by someone who doesn’t

or light post. This coverage is typically required by a lender when you

have adequate insurance.

finance a vehicle.

Comprehensive insurance is coverage that protects your vehicle

Insurance is a sound investment, but can be complicated, so it’s

when it is damaged while not in motion. This could include vandalism,

always a good idea to speak to a highly trained agent that can provide

theft or weather-related damage like a hailstorm or fire.

expert advice and guidance to help ensure you are adequately

“If your vehicle is older and it has been completely paid off

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3 tips to boost your children’s self-esteem this school year Courtesy of Family Features

with you, aside from one-on-one conversations. If they find

While packing bags and backpacks for school, there’s one essential that may be overlooked: Children’s self-esteem.

Although many children may feel confident and self-assured at home, they can feel differently in the classroom. When

it easier to communicate their feelings through writing, you can go to the store together to pick out a journal. Children who are not yet proficient writers may prefer to draw pictures about their feelings. No matter the method, be sure to make time to check in with your children.

children have high self-esteem, they’re less likely to reflect Teach Emotional Literacy and Replacement Skill Behavior.

negative feelings toward others.

“If children can treat themselves kindly, they’ll treat others

You can help your children move beyond comprehension

that way,” said Carter Peters from KinderCare Learning

of basic emotions – happy, sad, mad – and toward an

Centers’ education team. “When children feel encouraged,

understanding of more nuanced emotions. When children can

supported and loved, they are able to give those feelings to

identify their feelings, they’re closer to developing healthy

others.”

responses.

Consider these three tips to boost your children’s selfesteem.

Commonly labeled “bad behaviors” are often young children’s way of communicating something is wrong, so they may need help identifying the emotion driving their

Be Your Children’s Cheerleader.

actions. It’s important for children to understand that while

When praising or complimenting children for their

their feelings are acceptable, their behavior may not be.

achievements, be specific and include affirmation for positive

That’s where replacement skills – acceptable ways to express

character traits, such as “You were so kind to help Ms. Delmar

emotions – come in. For example, try saying “It’s OK to be

take her recycling out” or “I’m proud of you for seeing

mad. It’s not OK to hit other people. When you’re mad, you

she needed help and offering it.” Being specific with your

can hit a pillow.”

compliments reinforces the idea that your children are kind and helpful. Eventually, they’ll offer others the same positive

For more tips to help boost children’s self-esteem, visit kindercare.com.

affirmations and be less likely to look to outside influences to define their sense of self.

“When children have high selfesteem and self-worth, they know when someone’s opinion of them is untrue,” Peters said. “Children with high selfesteem become adults capable of believing in themselves.”

Give Children Space to Safely Express Their Emotions.

While it’s important to intentionally connect with your children one-onone, it’s equally important to give them space to come to you for help. Let them know you notice when they don’t seem like themselves but try not to push them to share before they’re ready.

You can talk with your children about the ways they can communicate

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5 steps everyone should take to prepare for natural disasters Here are a few ways to start.

Courtesy of StatePoint

prepare.

Pack Your “Go Bag”: A “Go Bag” is

Stay Informed: There are various apps and

September is National Preparedness

a disaster kit that ensures that you and

alerts you can sign up for to stay on top of any

Month, which means there’s no better time

your family have everything you may

weather developments. You can get the latest

to prep yourself and your family for the

need in an emergency. The American Red

storm forecasts online from NOAA’s National

unexpected. Don’t wait until torrential rain

Cross recommends packing an emergency

Weather Service and the National Hurricane

and high winds beat on your windows or

radio, water container, food supply for three

Center. You can also download the Federal

wildfire flames glow on the horizon. In those

days, a personal hygiene kit, a first aid kit and

Emergency Management Agency app to

moments, your only thought will be getting

any medications your family needs. If you

send notifications to loved ones, locate

your family to safety.

have a pet, ensure you have enough food,

emergency shelters in your area and more.

of

medications, a leash, collar, ID tags and even

T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile customers

International Certified Public Accountants,

a crate or kennel in case you need to evacuate

can call 611 or visit T-Mobile.com to stay up to

nearly 30% of people have not taken any steps

to a public shelter. Some other items to

date on response and recovery efforts.

to prepare their family for a natural disaster,

include are a flashlight, batteries, multi-tools,

yet more than 60% of Americans believe they

duct tape, exam gloves and hand sanitizer.

According

to

the

Association

will likely be impacted by one in the next three

Know What Natural Disasters Could Affect You: According to the Department of

to five years.

While no one likes to dwell on worst-case

Homeland Security (DHS), 90% of disasters

scenarios, taking time now to prepare your

within the United States involve flooding and

family for any unexpected event will save you

an estimated 1,000 tornadoes touch down

precious time when a disaster strikes, and help

every year. Knowing what natural disasters

you evacuate at a moment’s notice if need be.

your region is prone to can help you best

Use Tech to Protect Your Essentials: Using technology to store all your important documents on a secure jump drive or in cloud storage can help keep you protected during an emergency. There are several apps available like Google Scan Drive that allow you to use your phone’s camera as a scanning device. The DHS recommends you capture important documents like insurance policies, identification documents, medical records and pet information. You can also scan memorabilia like family photos in case the physical copies are destroyed.

Stay Charged: To stay connected during a storm, keep your phone fully charged. Make sure you have fully charged portable power banks to keep your smartphones charged and the correct charging cables. Doing so will help you reach loved ones and find safety when disaster strikes. To maintain an optimal battery level, set your phone to power saving mode and use airplane mode when your phone is not in use.

Don’t wait until an emergency is looming to prepare. Taking key actions now can help you stay safe, informed and connected during a natural disaster, and help you recover in the

Photo by Gulcin Ragiboglu / iStock via Getty Images Plus

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aftermath.

Have your voice heard: join a standards committee

by Cleo Manuel Stamatos

make great use of your knowledge in turn. “We need your voice

Consumer and Legislative Outreach Manager, ANSI

at the table to help make products, processes, and services better and safer,” says Linda Golodner, former President of the National Consumers League and chair of ANSI’s Consumer Interest Forum, adding, “It can be hard work, and like other volunteer efforts, can

Many consumers are not aware of how standards are working behind the scenes to improve our lives, every day. From the air

be a commitment, but at the end of the day, your viewpoint will be heard and can make a difference!”

we breathe to the food we eat, to the technologies that support

To learn more about the Consumer Participation Fund and

recreation, health, remote learning, and work—standardization is

opportunities to get involved in standards activities, contact

at play, helping to assure safety, quality, and interoperability.

ANSI’s consumer and legislative outreach manager Cleo Manuel

Product standards aim to help reduce or prevent injuries. They

Stamatos at cstamatos@ansi.org.

are developed by thousands of volunteers who are experts in their

According to Stamatos, “Everyone has a place in standards

relevant fields—such as engineers and designers. Professional

development for products that impact our lives; consumers’ voices

consumer advocates, victims of injuries or their survivors,

are especially important. I’m excited to help consumers find the

government employees (federal, state, and local), those who work

right opportunities to volunteer and contribute to making products

in testing laboratories, academic researchers, physicians, lawyers,

and services safer.”

and others also contribute. But greater involvement in standardssetting from individual consumers - like you - is critical to improving the safety of products that we all rely on, every day.

Both consumer representatives and standards developers cite lack of funding as a major barrier to consumer participation. And that’s why ANSI and five founding sponsors—ASTM International, the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO), NSF International, UL Standards & Engagement (ULSE), and the Toy Association - launched the Consumer Participation Fund (https://www.ansi.org/outreach/consumers/consumer-fund) in May 2022.

Aimed at reducing financial barriers to participation, the fund reimburses eligible travel expenses and participation fees of consumer representatives involved in the development of a new or revised American National Standard (ANS).

Have your voice heard! There is a whole world of opportunity

About ANSI The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private non-profit organization whose mission is to enhance both the global competitiveness of U.S. business and the U.S. quality of life by promoting and facilitating voluntary consensus standards and conformity assessment systems, and safeguarding their integrity. Its membership is comprised of businesses, professional societies and trade associations, standards developers, government agencies, and consumer and labor organizations.

The Institute represents and serves the diverse interests of more than 270,000 companies and organizations and 30 million professionals worldwide. ANSI is the official U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and, via the U.S. National Committee, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). For more information, visit www.ansi.org.

in standardization that could benefit you, and your family - and

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Honoring THE BUILDERS OF OUR

MEMBERSHIP ANNIVERSARIES ®

85 YEARS CONTINUOUS MEMBERSHIP

L egacy

50 YEARS CONTINUOUS MEMBERSHIP (CONT’D)

80 YEARS CONTINUOUS MEMBERSHIP

Maine • Helen Brooks, Perry #324 • Rita Fortin, Victor #49 • Stephen T. Seames, Lakeside #63 • Wanda Shorty, Victor #49

Connecticut • Clarence Ballard, Senexet #40

Michigan • Mark Laupp, Home #129

Connecticut • Minola Terwilliger, Senexet #40

75 YEARS CONTINUOUS MEMBERSHIP Illinois •

Dottie McCoy, County Line #1751

Maine • Clyde Taylor, Victor #49

65 YEARS CONTINUOUS MEMBERSHIP Vermont •

Ann Yandow, Blue Spruce #574

60 YEARS CONTINUOUS MEMBERSHIP Vermont •

Kendal Holden, Blue Spruce #574

50 YEARS CONTINUOUS MEMBERSHIP Colorado • Roger Ayers, Marvel #479 • Karen A. Baron, Green Valley #441

New York • Connie Alonzo, Corfu #142 • Robert Cleverly, Lamson #588 • Stephen Markowski, Owahgena #1358 • Roger Miller, Corfu #142 • Robert Pierce, Albright #440 • Joyce Schultz, Elba #783 • Judy Underhill, Elba #783 Pennsylvania • David Rumbaugh, Dayton #1819 Vermont • Malcom Brown, Blue Spruce #574 • Mary Jo Gillian, Blue Spruce #574 • Kendal Holden, Blue Spruce #574 • Anne Pigeon, Blue Spruce #574 • Michael Pigeon, Blue Spruce #574 • Sandra Thibault, Blue Spruce #574 Washington • George B. Amend, Central #831 • Gerald Carollo, Swauk Teanaway #984 • Rita Fagerness, Oakview #311 • Angelia Potter, East Cheney #884 • Roger Potter, East Cheney #884

Connecticut • Joan Gobin, Senexet #40 • Richard Kelsey, Hemlock #182 Illinois • Leon Lang, Floraville Community #1918 Kansas • Lois Barber, Gardner #68 • Michael Farmer, Bayneville #1810 • Randee Farmer, Bayneville #1810

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Welcome New Members TO THE Grange Family Alamo #1446 (TX) • Max Pena • Jaslyn Rodriguez Ash Butte #802 (OR) • Shane Cowdrey • Chris Symons • Christy Symons • Deena Symons Azalea #786 (OR) • Kimberly Ivey • Kandi Lewis • Aaron Ludlow • Mark Vannoy • Yvonne Zyirek Beaver Homes #518 (OR) • Eric Chavez • Alison Derum • Jay Derum • Shane Edwards • Benjamin Gomez Beavercreek #273 (OR) • Cynthia Hitchcock Beaver Valley #306 (OR) • Danny McKee Bellview #759 (OR) • Miriam Reed Blue Spruce #574 (VT) • Melissa Ham-Ellis • Crystal Ploof Marshall • Donald Marshall • Deborah Ploof • Daniella Ploof • Katrina Ploof • Camden Yandow Buell #637 (OR) • Joe Herring • Gayle Yoder Castlewood #469 (CO) • Stephanie Lawrence Chetco #765 (OR) • Benita Robinson • Linda Stagg-Brown • Brian Walker

Cibolo #1541 (TX) • Susan Lowe • Dotty Short Clarkes #261 (OR) • Victoria (Scarlett) Hartt Clear Creek Valley #1843 (OH) • Braeleigh Blosser • Brandt Blosser • Kaleb Miller

Dorena #835 (OR) • Ashley Burris • Jennifer Ferraez • Corrinne Kaleese

Goshen #561 (OR) • Joe Holpuch • Olivia Holpuch • Shelli Holpuch

Eagle Valley #656 (OR) • David Festa • Andrew Patton • Chet Randall • Ella Rendall • Presley Randall and 5 Junior members

Greenwood #1061 (OH) • Melody Norris • Sam Norris

Columbia #267 (OR) • Desiree Chiu • Jack Chiu • Jackson Chiu • Jordan Chiu • Brenda Dosher • Ryan Dosher • Mira En • Randy Ericksen • Louisa Ford • Cecilia Fowler • Guerro Galvez • Marla Harrison • Andre Mare • David Osborn • Brenda Peltier • Mark Robertson

Enterprise #489 (OR) • John Henwood

Cresswell #496 (OR) • Kurt Blachnik • Geoffrey Brayman • Staci Holt • Donna Hudson • Brittny Hughes • Heidi Laird • Stevi Mcginnis • Georgia Reid • Isabel Cortez Rylko • Tasha Schuetze • Georgann Squire • Joeine Taylor • Lee Taylor • Carmela Trujillo • Laurie Vaale • Kim Williams

Fruitdale #379 (OR) • Carolyn Hartzell • Sarah Macias • Launie Myers • Steve Porter • George Troxcil • Jeff Voight • Mary Ward

Deerfield #1015 (OH) • Steve Best

Goshen #121 (PA) • Gail Switzer

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Fairview #273 (OR) • Cynthia Hitchcock Fernwood #770 (OR) • Stan Beecroft • Sonya French • John Frost • Sarah Frost • Mark Raia Forest #853 (PA) • Stephen Gawlas • Becky Manley • Brian Manley

Gardner #68 (KS) • Tory Roberts • Steve Shute • Dr. Todd Winters Goldson #868 (OR) • Sequoyah Walkingfeather

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Harding #122 (OR) • Velma Strickland Hurricane Creek #608 (OR) • Belinda Kuntz Illinois Valley #370 (OR) • Philip Allison • Guenter Ambron • Cathenne Austin • John M. Bailey • Marueen “Mo” Connelly • Travis Garnier • Sean Hendrix • Craig Hinkel • Judy Hinkel • Dave Hocker • Miguelo Kime • Leslie Kingsford • Jade Merrill • Steve “Eagle” Meyer • David Mills • Stephanie Moore • Cat Moresco • Carol Nolan • James H. Nolan • Betsey Norton • Mary Raby • Judy Vawter • William “Art” Vawter • Stacey Williams • Kelpie Wilson • Justin York Irving #377 (OR) • Benjamin Amacher • Pamela Hague • Tammy Johnson and 1 Junior member Jasper #533 (OR) • Pamela Hites • Trudy Pryor

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NEW MEMBERS (CONT’D) Junction City #744 (OR) • Sophia Reid • Karina Rodriguez • Maria Tall Kinton #562 (OR) • Ursula Kuhn Lake Creek #697 (OR) • Sue Conway • Sandi Hilton • Dannie Moss • Sherrie Moss • Dusti Nelson • Dixon Reed • Elayne Reed • Carol Ries • Roger Ries • Joe Vaccaro • Judy Wilkins

Live Oak #655 (OR) • Sue Conway • Sandi Hilton • Dannie Moss • Sherrie Moss • Dusti Nelson • Dixon Reed • Elayne Reed • Carol Ries • Roger Ries

Nimishillen #1627 (OH) • Deborah Long

Roxy Ann #792 (OR) • Michelle Weidman

North Bayside #691 (OR) • Gloria Titus • Ann Zabriski • Jerry Zabriski

Long Tom #866 IOR) • Al Hrynyshyn • Denna Hrynyshyn Loudon Center #2276 (OH) • Doris Bishop • Barbara Maas

Olney #793 (OR) • Norman Stutznegger

Sauvies Island #840 (OR) • Odessa Abeles • Bruce Andersen • Brenda Enyart • Stephanie Enyart • Penelope McCathy • Chet Orloff • Jackie Petersen • Keith Steenslid • Linda Wisner

North End #820 (OR) • Shawn R. Mallory

Lowell #745 (OR) • Lauren Mitchell

Perry Valley #1804 (PA) • Debra Morrison Phoenix #779 (OR) • Jeanne Mart

Lake View #359 (VT) • John Bishop • Nancy Bishop • Mildred Curtis • Emma Ellis

Marys River #685 (OR) • Yvonne McMillan

Lewis #406 (CO) • Cecilia Berto • Amanda Gillaland • T.W. Gillaland • Bud Griffin • Shelly Griffin • Johnathon Hopkins • Kathy Hopkins • Kevin Montgomery • Tracy Montgomery

Monroe-Dan Emmett #847 (OH) • Sabrina Wade

Lisbon #1568 (OH) • Amanda Esarey • Robert Esarey • Jay Pieren

Pacific #413 (OR) • Desiray Moreira-Bello

McMinnville #31 (OR) • Steven Miller

Morning Star #311 (OR) • Matthew R. Davenport • Emily S. Vaughn • Kimberly A. Wollonberg Myrtle Creek #442 (OR) • Molly Jobe • Shawna Rothacker and 4 Junior members Netel #410 (OR) • Emma Geddes • Andrea Mazzarella • Laurie Wilson

Redland #796 (OR) • Cheryl Castio • Joshua Edwards and 1 Junior member Richland #1899 (OH) • Reegan Ginnery Riverside #731 (OR) • Larry Gauer • Beth Griffin • Altiha Incze Rockwood #323 (OR) • Dianna Senina • Ivan Senina, Jr. • Maria Senina Roseville #1290 (PA) • Albert Bowish • Jeanne Bowish

Scrubgrass #1705 (PA) • Maxine Sullivan • James Sullivan Sheffield Star #1610 (OH) • Arianna Griffith Silverton #748 (OR) • Cindy Gyrgik • Brett Milliken Skyline #894 (OR) • John Chen • Judy Flynn • Natalie Harger • Joan Peck • Diane Todd • Brenton Walker • Mariah Walker • Stacey Wilson Spencer Creek #855 (OR) • Adrienne Clem • Michael J. Gaber Springwater #263 (OR) • Cathy McQueeney Stelvideo #295 (OH) • Beck O’Connor

HAS YOUR GRANGE RECENTLY WELCOMED A NEW MEMBER? Make sure they are recognized!

Anyone may submit the names of new members so they can be recognized in Good Day! by emailing Philip Vonada at pvonada@nationalgrange.org or by calling (814) 404-7985. ®

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NEXT ISSUE DEADLINE: NOVEMBER 30, 2022

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NEW MEMBERS (CONT’D) Sunflower #162 (CO) • Chester Heir • Jody Lengen • Suzanne Nieme • Misty Tapp Thurston #853 (OR) • Ronda Barnard • Gary Copeland • Daryl Cross • Athena Delene • Caren Faber • Pat Henry • Steven Weeks Unity #1710 (PA) • Abigail Gager • Danielle Gager • Pamela Gager Upper Rogue #825 (OR) • Lalah Davis

• • •

Marty Holdsclaw Shelly Rue Glenda Westerfield

• • •

Gary Lewis Jody Lewis Constance Shimek

Wickiup #722 (OR) • Liz Ryon • Scott Ryon

Valley #1360 (PA) • Amber Gunkle • Carrie Nace Walker #786 (PA) • Jennifer Sparks Warren #536 (OR) • Anthon ChamberlainHeimuller Westside #854 (OR) • Steven Lucas White Clover #784 (OR) • Jim Addingon • Karla Allbritton • Ken Baxter • Kendra Hall-Bramall • Erin Laskey

Willamette #52 (OR) • Anna Cassilly • Valerie Kay Hart • Dakota Otto

Welcome New Granges!

The following Granges were newly chartered or reorganized since our last issue.

• Deer Lagoon Junior #344 (WA)

Williams #399 (OR) • Michelle Keip • Jamuna Maloney • Steve Peppercorn • Justis Porter • Azuren Smith

E-MEMBERSHIP Be with us even when you can't be here

Same regular updates from DC and beyond Same benefit savings Same access to online meetings and training resources Ability to enter certain National contests Knowledge that you're strengthen the most trusted voice on rural issues

Learn more and apply today at www.nationalgrange.org/emember

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Associate Membership can bolster your Grange

By Amanda Brozana Rios National Grange Membership & Leadership Development Director

membership numbers and your finances

Associate Member, it creates a bond and

- the Associate Member category.

can keep the Grange at the forefront of

Associate Members are individuals 14

their minds for when they do find the

years of age or older or businesses who

time is right to add another item to their schedule.

How many times have you asked

want to support your good work but do

someone to join the Grange, only to be

not want the “burden” or responsibilities

turned down as they say something like:

of full fraternal membership. They cannot

transition

“I love what you guys do, I just don’t

hold office or vote in Grange matters,

Maybe they never find the time they’d

have the time to commit right now.”

though they are still welcome to visit

need to become what we consider

Grange meetings and events and should

“traditional” Grange members. Maybe

be made aware of your work and needs

some of our ritual and other traditions

through regular communication.

are not for them. However, we can

Time is one of the biggest factors, especially juggling

for

younger

demanding

people

careers,

family

responsibilities and life in general.

Some Associate Members will never to

fraternal

membership.

No Grange should aim to only bring

still leverage their appreciation for all

For Granges that are essential to

in new Associate Members: we need

your Grange – and the organization

their community, however, many people

the fraternal workers to maintain our

as a whole – does for your community,

still want to feel a part and know they’re

Order. But the option is an attractive

rural Americans and those involved in

supporting the many good things – from

one for both those committed to their

agriculture.

charitable projects to community events

communities and for Granges who need

– that your Grange does.

more funds, more connections and more

The Grange has a path to membership for these folks that can both bolster your

Associate

cheerleaders for their efforts.

When

someone

becomes

How does it work?

an

Members

must

apply

for membership, pay a minimum $5 application fee (your State or local Grange may have set a higher amount) and be voted on by the Grange.

Once

approved,

the

Associate

Member need not participate in an obligation or Degree ceremony in most states, and in all cases may not vote on any policy matters of the Grange or participate in Grange member-only contests.

Associate Members, however, are entitled to the same rights as fraternal members in most other areas, such as receiving local or State publications that are included in their membership; access to member benefits including savings on travel, insurance and more; the ability to attend any and all Grange meetings in the Fourth Degree or other activities; and rights related to the judicial process of the Grange.

Per the National Grange bylaws (8.6.1.C; 2022), Associate Members’ Associate Members can help build your Grange through much-needed community and financial support. Consider if this kind of membership might be right for your Grange.

Editorial Photo

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dues may be no less than the minimum dues of a regular member, meaning if your Grange charges $32 per year for

National, State and Local dues, an Associate Member may pay

Consider the following: • Who will make great advocates for your Grange that may

no less than $32 annually to belong.

Your Grange may choose to set the Associate Membership dues at a higher rate, ensuring that dues from the Associate

be interested in this less formal and labor-intensive option to join?

Member helps to sustain your Grange – which is what these

• What are you doing in your community that their

folks supporting your good work without committing the same

dollars and affiliation will support and how are you going

time as fraternal members are typically looking to do.

to communicate that to them? (I suggest having a brochure

A bonus: Your fraternal members who often put in extra

already created that is specifically for this type of potential

money and many hours to the benefit of your Grange may

member. If you need help, the National Communications and

even feel as if they enjoy a “discount” in their fraternal dollars

Membership Departments are here to help.)

• How will you keep in regular contact with these members

because associate dues are higher.

and who will do it?

Follow the right steps

• What incentives might you give for these individuals to

First, it’s important that you check to see if your State Grange has an Associate Member category in their bylaws and any minimum dues set for this type of membership.

feel connected (ex. a shirt, a mug, an invitation to a member appreciation dinner)?

• How often will you let them know that traditional

Not every state has adopted the Associate Member category, so if your state has not, write a resolution or speak

membership is rewarding and they are welcome to take the next step toward fraternal membership?

to your State President who may urge the State’s Grange Law or Good of the Order committee to review and write a section that may be adopted at your State Session.

While it can sound daunting to go through this process, the rewards for your Grange could be great.

Once you are sure your State bylaws include the Associate

For more than six decades, “check writing” organizations

Member category, and you’re aware of any rules related to it,

– those that require little of “members” other than making

then you can move forward with proposing an addition to your

payment to support their work – have soared in popularity.

local Grange’s bylaws.

Grange can never and will never become solely an organization

Before you do so, request that your President appoint a

with disconnected donors, but your local Grange’s financial

committee to investigate the Associate Member option. Make

health – and the mental health of your most dedicated

sure your committee considers the dues structure for Associate

members who are burned out on constant fundraising just to

Members – potentially adopting a different fee for businesses

“keep the lights on” – may depend on taking advantage of

than individuals, or the option to pay dues monthly through

every pathway to membership.

an online system like PayPal. This could make a difference for

If you have questions or would like to implement an

people who are used to monthly subscriptions and supporting

Associate Member program but need some help, don’t hesitate

causes through small, regular contributions.

to reach out first to your State Grange and if necessary, to the

When your committee brings to your membership a

National Grange office, for more guidance.

recommendation, if favorable, write it as you would like it to appear in your bylaws, and note any other changes, such as numbering, that should occur when adopted.

Associate Member Brochures

Your bylaws should indicate the required notice to members and adoption procedures for amendments and additions. In many cases, a notice to all members should be sent at least 30 days prior to the meeting at which changes will be voted upon, and should include information on the proposed changes. A two-thirds majority vote of the members present is needed to adopt any bylaws change.

After you’ve ensured this category of membership is available for people in your community through your bylaws, establish a plan for your Associate Members before recruiting them.

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Once your Grange has its Associate Member category in place, the Grange Supply Store has Associate Membership brochures available to help grow your Grange. These brochures include a membership application, information about member benefits, and more.

Order through the Grange Supply Store at GrangeStore.org.

51

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It has the methodology and the rigor to withstand even the most arduous scrutiny.

It keeps asking questions and, until there’s a breakthrough, it isn’t done.

That’s why, when the world needs answers, we turn to science.

Because in the end,

SCIENCE WILL WIN™

Learn more at www.pfizer.com

Grange Fairs highlight connections to agriculture

County fairs are as ingrained in American culture as apple pie and baseball, and for many people, they signify the end of summer and the start of fall festivities or back-to-school in their communities.

According to the International Association of Fairs and Expositions (IAFE), however, the existence of fairs stretches back to as early as 500 BC according to the book of Ezekiel in the Bible.

Fairs began as markets and commercial enterprises for merchants to trade their wares, which centered around agricultural efforts, including livestock, grains, and more.

The IAFE says “During the early Christian era, the church took an active part in sponsoring fairs on feast days, and as a result, fairs came to be a source of revenue for the church. Possibly, our modern church bazaars possess some rudiments of these religious fairs.”

Over time, these marketplaces and fairs evolved to include entertainment in addition to bartering, trading, and sales. As such, larger festivals emerged, starting to look like rudimentary versions of the fairs we know today.

The County Fair is Born 1765 was a turning point in the idea of fairs, as the first official North American fairs began. The first was the Hants County Exhibition in Windsor, Nova Scotia, which bills itself as the “oldest continuously run agricultural fair in North America.” The grounds are owned and maintained by the Windsor Agricultural Society, which operates throughout the year, but mainly the two-weekend agricultural exposition which highlights livestock, life skills/home economics projects, barrel racing, vendors, rides, and so much more.

Also in 1765, in what was still the colonies, Thomas Penn (son of Pennsylvania’s founder William Penn) issued a charter to the people of York allowing a fair that recognized “the flourishing state to which the town hath arrived through their industry.” In other words, the agriculture in York was good enough to “show off.” Just like the Hants County Exhibition, the York Fair still operates today on a much larger scale.

In September 1811, Elkanah Watson, an author, businessman, and agriculturist from New England, organized the first “county fair” in Pittsfield, Massachusetts with the Berkshire County Agricultural Society. They hoped to stimulate competition, capitalism, and agricultural improvement, and developed the fair to be a community event. “… they sought to involve all parts of the community and every member of the family, not just those who worked the land, and not just male heads of household,” writes Mark A. Mastromarino in his dissertation. This multifunction

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A plaque at The York Fair reads in part “The York Fair, with its rich historical past, highlights the area’s abundant agricultural products, as well as its diversified industrial community.”

Photo from the Historical Marker Database

“edutainment” event “was created as an improving, as well as entertaining occasion… with a flexibility that enabled it to develop according to the various, and often conflicting, needs and desires of organizers, participants, and attendees.”

Education and entertainment could be found side-byside as attendees learned about agriculture while sampling local foods, buying unique wares, and viewing shows of all sizes and genres. This version of the fair endures today in all corners of the United States.

“As other rural institutions, such as agricultural journals, experiment stations, and land-grant colleges, or Grange picnics and mail-order catalogs, and even today’s Internet, came into being and assumed various functions of the annual county fair, fair organizers generally would shift the emphasis of particular features in order to engage more fully a greater crosssection of the rural, and, increasingly, n o n r u r a l , population,” Mastromarino Portrait of Elkanah Watson, by John writes.

The IAFE writes Singleton Copley, American, 1782. Watson “Watson worked is known as the founder of the modern Portrait in public domain diligently for many agricultural fair.

GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE www.nationalgrange.org

years helping communities organize their own agricultural societies and their respective shows (fairs). By 1819, most counties in New England had organized their own agricultural societies and the movement was spreading into the other states.”

The first State Fair would open in Syracuse, New York in 1841, educating and entertaining attendees, with agriculture, animal exhibits, and speeches. This first state fair was a success, bringing in 10,000-15,000 people across the two days.

County fairs would continue to grow and expand across the country over the coming years.

Grangers’ Picnics Amid the agricultural growth and expansion of the mid-1800s, and following the tumult and upheaval of the Civil War, the Grange was born and also flourished across the country. The Grange quickly set itself apart from other agricultural organizations and clubs by working to improve the lives of farmers and others in rural America through education and activism.

The New York Times reports that on June 11, 1873, a “Grange Picnic” was held in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, bringing upward of 600 wagons and “it is safe to say that 10,000 patrons assembled on the fairgrounds.” These early Grange picnics became places for politicians to rally support amid agricultural promotion. The article continues “Every [G]range in the county was represented, and many from adjoining counties… Gov. Carpenter addressed the assemblage, and his remarks were received with enthusiastic applause. Col.

A clipping from The New York Times highlights the Mount Pleasant, Iowa Grange Picnic in 1873.

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Scott, Col. Smedly, and other distinguished persons, were in attendance.” At this time, Cyrus Carpenter was completing his first term as Governor of Iowa, and was campaigning for his reelection – the Grangers’ Picnic was a natural occasion to campaign to thousands of potential voters and their families.

Just a few months later in August 1873, “The farmers’ [G]ranges of the Counties of Andrian, Monroe, and Boone, in Missouri, held a sort of picnic in the woods in Monroe County… a few days ago, and indulged in a good deal of speaking and much sociability.”

These “Grangers’ Picnics” spread across the country, with one of the largest and longest-lasting starting in Pennsylvania in 1873. “The Great Grangers’ Picnic Exhibition, the most commonly used name for the event, combined commerce, entertainment, agricultural education, politics, Grange sponsored activities, and social opportunities to those who attended,” writes Warren J. Gates in his article “The Great Grangers’ Picnic Exhibition at Williams Grove, Pa., 17831916.”

This picnic, held at Williams Grove in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, was partly the initiative of the first Secretary of the Pennsylvania State Grange, Colonel Robert H. Thomas.

The first picnic held in 1873, just months after the formation of the Pennsylvania State Grange, “had purely fraternal and social purposes,” writes Gates. “When the second annual [G]ranger’s picnic convened there in August 1874, however, a new dimension of the outing supplemented the original purposes.”

Gates writes that “In 1885… the attendance was reported as 150,000, with persons present from twenty-nine of the thirty-eight states. More than three hundred freight car loads of implements, stationary and traction steam engines, western livestock, and the like were exhibited.”

By 1881, The New York Times notes that it became a “tristate picnic” hosted by the Granges of Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, with other members from New York, Ohio, New Jersey, Delaware, and West Virginia represented.

“Addresses were delivered by… Leonard Rhone, Master of the Pennsylvania State Grange,” the Times writes. In 1891, the Great Grangers’ Picnic Exhibition became a National Grange effort, but dissolved in 1916 due to internal and external factors, including a looming rail strike, a polio outbreak, and, ultimately, the surrender of the contract with the grounds due to World War I. Unfortunately, it was never resurrected.

Meanwhile, in 1874, Rhone himself had hosted a daylong picnic near Centre Hall, Pennsylvania, which attracted nearly 3,000 people. This picnic at Leech’s Woods was to unite the newly chartered Granges of Centre County, and

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bloomed into a multi-day event over the coming years.

According to Norman K. Lathbury in Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair: “A History of Master Rhone’s Pic-nic”, attendees began tenting in the mid 1880s, then “exhibits and organized tenting first appeared in 1887,” helping it become a portion of the fair that is recognized today. Soon to celebrate its 150th anniversary, this picnic evolved into the Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair, still managed and run by the members of Centre County Pomona Grange #13 and the 11 Granges in the county.

The Evolution into Grange Fairs It didn’t take long for Grange Picnics to become more widely known as fairs (though some retained their “picnic” name over the years.) In 1875, the first recorded “Grangers’ Fair” was presumably held in Alabama, as on October 23, 1876 The New York Times noted that “the second annual fair of the Alabama State Grange opens tomorrow. [sic] The list of entries is quite large, and the stock display promises to be the largest ever seen in the State.

There will be a fine display of machinery and agricultural implements, and the list of premiums to be awarded is very large.”

Presumably modeled after the success of Elkanah Watson’s fair in Massachusetts, the fair offered contests and monetary prizes while supporting and promoting agriculture.

Also in 1876, “The Florida state fair held at Jacksonville… was strongly supported by the [G]range… A committee of fifteen – ten men and five women – helped supervise the interests of the organization, local [G]ranges publicized it, and the state lecturer traveled extensively proclaiming the benefits of this undertaking. This fair was only one of the many varied

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activities of the Patrons.”

Other Grange Fairs popped up nationwide – not just as State Fairs, though the means of creation and the goals of the fair were – at first, at least different for many of them.

Grange Fairs became places to promote agriculture among current farmers and their families and opened to the public to encourage others to understand how agriculture affects them. These fairs were (and are) also important recruitment tools for Subordinate/Community Granges who either ran the fairs on their own or as a county. Membership tables and Grange information can still be found at Grange Fairs, alongside Grange exhibits that tout accomplishments and goals of Junior, Community, and Pomona (County) Granges.

Grange Fairs today From foods ranging from fair staples like corn dogs and ice cream to bizarre and unusual creations, to carnival rides and games to barns full of livestock and buildings teeming with exhibits, Grange Fairs seem little different than any other county fair. But there are still things that set them apart.

Exhibitors from 4-H and FFA Clubs show livestock and other exhibits alongside Grange Youth Fair members, with livestock barns full of excitement

from kids and animals alike, and equine arenas showcasing horse hitches and rodeos. Individual Granges run contests, food stands, recruitment drives, and much more.

Although there aren’t (usually) large political rallies like the late 1800s, political parties still have stands at many fairs, and candidates for local, state, and even federal offices make stops at some fairs. Grandstands have a wide variety of music artists, competition tracks see dirt races, monster trucks, tractor pulls, and more.

Fairs range from small one or twoday festivals to two-week mega-events, drawing thousands of people to the communities, adding millions of dollars to local economies, and advancing the interests of the Grange in communities nationwide.

Here are a few Grange Fairs in existence today: The Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair in Centre Hall, Pennsylvania, is owned and managed by the members of Centre County Pomona Grange #13. Known for being the only encampment fair remaining in the United States, its “tent city” of 14’x14’ canvas Army-style tents becomes home for people from all over the United States during the 10day fair. it celebrated its 148th fair this year.

Fruits and vegetables on display at the Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair in August. Agriculture remains a focus of fairs nationwide.

Photo by Philip Vonada

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contest (based on a 1923 recipe).

The Boone County Fair in Belvidere, Illinois, is owned and operated by the seven Granges of Boone County.

This fair dates back to 1855, which started being managed by Boone County Pomona Grange in 1957. The fairground is now 153 acres, and the executive board of the Boone County Fair Association is still comprised of members of the Granges. According Part of “tent city” at the Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair in Centre to their website, “the centerpiece Hall, Pennsylvania.

Photo by Philip Vonada is still the livestock and non-livestock [exhibits]…”

The Yorktown Grange Fair in Yorktown, New York was Other Granges participate in their local, state, and started in 1923, after “a series of debates… over who could regional fairs – like the New England Granges participating grow the best vegetables,” according to their website. The in The Big E (The Eastern States Exposition), America’s only fair quickly outgrew the Grange Hall and moved to several six-state fair, held in Springfield, Massachusetts. In Oregon, new locations, eventually landing in their current site in the Oregon State Grange manages a log cabin at the State 1954. Some traditions at the Yorktown Grange Fair include Fair. Originally designed to show how pioneer farmers the tractor parade, watermelon-eating contest, nail-driving worked and lived, it is now full of activities and games. contest, and the annual produce auction at the end of According to Suzy Ramm, this year, the cabin “was visited the fair. The Yorktown Grange Fair is managed, in part, by by several thousand fairgoers, mostly non-Grangers over the Yorktown Grange #862 (New York). eleven-day run of the fair. The photo display of Grange hall In 1948, the Middletown Grange Fair in Wrightstown, from around the state which included 125 of the 163 Oregon Pennsylvania, began because of a Farm Journal Magazine Granges was popular with visitors as usual and since the contest to raise 300 bushels of corn on a single acre. Grange weather was really nice most days visitors enjoyed playing members planted the corn, then invited the public to attend Cornhole, disc golf and Jenga on the grounds surrounding and asked local farm equipment dealers to help with the the cabin.” harvest. Only 105 bushels per acre were harvested, but Still other Granges manage buildings or events at county the next year a two-day fair was held for the harvest, plus a fairs, providing community service, premium awards, family produce competition and cattle show for Grange members fun, and activities that everyone can be a part of – all while were held. In 1950, more than 5,000 people attended and maintaining agriculture as the focus of the fairs. the Middletown Grange Fair was born, now a five-day event featuring “fun, good food, entertainment, and to appreciate the talents of our neighbors as they enter over 5000 items Sources used in this article include: ranging from cows to quilts,” according to the Fair’s website.

Garwood, Saunders B. (1968) “Florida State Grange,” Florida It is still overseen by the members of Middletown Grange Historical Quarterly: Vol. 47 : No. 2 , Article 6. Available at: https:// #684. stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol47/iss2/6 In Dartmouth, Massachusetts, the Dartmouth Grange Fair “History of Fairs.” International Association of Fairs and is held annually, run by the members of Dartmouth Grange Expositions. https://www.fairsandexpos.com/History-of-Fairs. #162. This two-day family-friendly fair features judged Lathbury, Norman K. Centre County Grange Encampment and exhibits, food, demonstrations, carnival games, a pie-eating Fair: “A History of Master Rhone’s Pic-nic” contest, and an auction. The first Dartmouth Grange Fair was Mastromarino, Mark A. “Fair visions: Elkanah Watson held in 1897, making this a 125-year tradition.

(1758-1842) and the modern American agricultural fair.”

The Springwater Grange Community Fair is hosted by (2002) Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. William & Springwater Grange #263 near Estacada, Oregon. 2022 Mary. Paper 1539623398. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2marked the 100th year of the fair. The day-long event featured xynb-q465 cornhole, a 50-foot banana split, craft activities, horticulture and craft contests, and a special Devil’s Chocolate Cake

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As biopharmaceutical researchers keep searching for breakthrough cures they don’t have to look far for inspiration.

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Worksheet for World Discovery #71

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Kids Helping Kids®, One Door at a Time.

Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF is the original Kids Helping Kids campaign! This October, kids can Be Scary Good by collecting donations, big and small, that add up to life-saving change for other children around the world.

Any amount can make a difference for children around the world:

50¢

Empowering Kids for Over 67 Years When kids Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, they learn the value of helping others and feel empowered to make a difference, shaping the next generation of global citizens.

Ways to Be Scary Good • Costume parties • Facebook fundraisers • Trunk-or-Treating • Go Trick-or-Treating!

Where Donations Go Kids have raised almost $180 million to help children in greatest need.

• Healthcare • Nutrition • Safe Water • Education • Emergency Relief

can provide 1 packet of therapeutic food to help save a malnourished child

$2

can provide 10 bars of soap to keep kids clean and healthy

$5

can provide 1 UNICEF backpack for a child to go to school

$7

can provide 1 volleyball for kids to play and learn teamwork

UNICEF has helped save more children’s lives than any other humanitarian organization!

VISIT trickortreatforunicef.org all October long and enjoy daily treats.

Use #BeScaryGood, #TOT4UNICEF, #KidsHelpingKids to spread the word on social media.

Donations!

There’s no right or wrong way to collect donations from family, friends and neighbors.

Once collected and counted, complete this form and return it to UNICEF USA. Organization (if appropriate): Last Name:

First Name: Address:

Name for recognition Certificate (e.g. “Ms. Smith’s 3rd grade Class”):

Use one form per school, group or individual.

1 I/We participated in Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF as a(n): { School

{ Group

{ Individual

2 Make checks and money orders payable to UNICEF USA. Send this form and all checks, money orders and/or Coinstar® receipts* together to: Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF 125 Maiden Lane New York, NY 10038

3 Please update your address above, if necessary, so we can acknowledge your generosity.

Other ways to submit funds • Make a secure credit card donation: trickortreatforunicef.org

Total Donations Total number of checks or money orders enclosed: _____________________________________ Check/money order subtotal:

$ ____________________________________

Coinstar® receipt(s)* total (send original receipts):

$ ____________________________________

Total amount to be credited to this donation:

$ ____________________________________

Your donation to Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF is a contribution to UNICEF USA. For more information, visit trickortreatforunicef.org or call 1-800-FOR-KIDS. *Find a machine near you at coinstar.com and use code “5555”

• Donate by phone: 800-FOR-KIDS

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Rural Adult Literature: Suggestions for Spooky Season Reading

By Chea Parton, Founder, Literacy in Place

and Rob Costello, Author Every October in my rural classroom, we read, analyzed, and wrote spooky stories. Whether full-length books or short fiction, students got to choose a spooky story, worked in small groups to analyze the elements and techniques authors use to craft spooky stories, and then wrote their own. Their stories, then, were put in the school library for other students to check out and read. It was always a big hit.

I was reminded of this practice recently by Rob Costello, a rural writer of (really good) spooky stories and co-author of this article, after he watched my Author Talk interview with Melissa Wyatt.

In that interview, I lament the lack of rural representation in young adult literature. He brought to my attention that while rural representation might be an issue for realistic rural fiction, there are quite a number of rural YA horror/dark fantasy stories out there. I had no idea.

Horror, like YA more generally, is seen as a “fluff” genre where the stories aren’t worthy of critical analysis and are more like “brain candy” because they are perceived to lack in critical substance.

As Rob and I read, thought, and talked about these stories together, it became easy to see how that simply isn’t true.

The best of these stories are layered and complex - they are both critical and fun.

Like rurality itself, opinions of YA horror have been shaped by a dominant deficit narrative that pushes them to the margins. What we’d like to do in this article is challenge that narrative by highlighting one rural YA horror book, as well as to provide suggestions for others that teachers could use in their classrooms.

Horror can be thought of as a genre

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of fiction that seeks to generate feelings of fear, dread, repulsion, and terror in its audience. The best horror, however, transcends fear to also traffic in the full range of darker human emotions and experiences, including grief, loneliness, trauma, disgust, hatred, and despair.

There are many ways of categorizing horror into various sub-genres (slasher horror, body horror, folk horror, etc.), but in general, horror seeks to explore our deepest fears and associated dark emotions.

Horror is based in primal empathy.

As mortal beings we all share the same weaknesses and vulnerabilities that make us prey to similar threats from death, disease, loss, etc. We are each programed by instinct to avoid these threats, and to be suspicious or even fearful of that which is unfamiliar or unknown, since it may present a threat we have yet to identify.

At its most universal, horror taps into these common human fears - for example our fear of the dark, our fear of being eaten, or our fear of the other. Yet, as individuals, we each have our own unique fears based on lived experiences and personal traumas. In his essay “Haunted Castles, Dark Mirrors: On the Penguin Horror Series,” Academy Award-winning filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro writes, “To learn what we fear is to learn who we are.”

This “learning who we are” is deeply connected to where we’re from. For rural folks, horror stories set in rural places don’t just explore our deepest fears as people; they explore our deepest fears as rural people. They spotlight the often subconscious ways we have been conditioned by the larger social prejudices that have shaped and defined rural places for generations.

Horror enables us to resist that conditioning within ourselves, so that we as individuals may begin to question the ways those same external prejudices are challenged - or reinforced - in our own

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communities.

A good horror story can thus enable a young reader to process their own trauma through the buffer of abstraction provided by fiction and metaphor, while simultaneously offering external validation of what they see as cruel, unjust, and untrue in the world they live in every day.

One excellent illustration of this is Adam Cesare’s Bram Stoker Awardwinning Clown in a Cornfield, which takes place in a fictional rural resource extraction community in rural Missouri.

In the story, terror is unleashed upon the teenagers of Kettle Springs, when a killer dressed as Frendo, the clown mascot of the recently defunct Baypen corn-syrup factory that was the town’s lifeblood, goes on a homicidal rampage to cull the rotten crop of kids and make Kettle Springs great again.

Clown in a Cornfield is straightforward slasher horror, featuring a human threat in the form of a killer in a clown suit.

The book introduces us to an extraction community whose factory has burned to the ground. The ways that shapes the nostalgia and politics of the adults, particularly in relation to their own kids, is especially poignant.

Cesare brilliantly demonstrates how horror can offer a lens through which readers can think critically about the state of our world. Through the clever use of generational disparities, economic failures, and political ideologies, Cesare offers rural readers an opportunity to explore, consider, and confront how larger social forces have influenced and shaped the darker aspects and characteristics of rural living, as well as to think critically about how to prune those not-so-great community traits to continue to grow and progress.

In some aspects of the story, Clown in a Cornfield breaks down negative stereotypes about rural life. For example, one of the characters who fulfills most

Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare is a great example of rural young adult horror.

Photo Courtesy of Harper Collins of the rugged and survivalist (positive) stereotypes of rural men is gay, and in that juxtaposition he disrupts the notion that rural places are a heteronormative monolith.

However, the book also leans into some of the ugly stereotypes of rural places, especially those experienced by young folks pushed to the margins. It’s as if the book is saying to these young

Other Rural YA Horror/Dark Fantasy Recommendations • All These Bodies by Kendare Blake • The Dead and the Dark by Courtney Gould • This Poison Heart and its sequel This Wicked Fate by Kalynn Bayron • To Break A Covenant by Alison Ames • The River Has Teeth and Ghost Wood Song by Erica Waters • The Violent Season by Sara Walters • Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand • Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas • Small Favors by Erin A. Chang • The Coming Storm by Regina M. Hansen

readers, “Hey, I see you. I see the kinds of threats, bigotry, and oppression you face where you are, and you are not alone.”

The Margaret A. Edwards Awardwinning author, A.S. King, recently told School Library Journal that, “I believe there’s trauma in the soil of this country - from genocide, slavery, serial systems of oppression, serial exclusion and devaluation - and it’s seeping into us, and into the children.

I think we’ve walked with it through each generation who chose to lie about real history, and eventually we will have to face it.”

This is one thing that YA horror does particularly well - to hold up a mirror to the ugliness within us and our society while simultaneously showing us that it’s survivable and changeable.

Horror doesn’t have to shy away from the darkness and threats in society. And because there is an abundance of horror fiction featuring rural people and places, YA horror offers a unique opportunity for teachers using critical rural pedagogical approaches to offer lifelines to rural students - especially those with marginalized identities.

Rob Costello (he/him) writes dark speculative and contemporary fiction with a queer bent for and about young people. Find out more at www.cloudbusterpress.com.

Photo provided

Resources for reading rural gems Reading Guide Questions for Book Clubs and Classrooms • What makes a place feel spooky?

• What about rurality specifically can feel spooky or scary? Are those things different for insiders and outsiders of rural communities?

• What feels spooky about nonrural areas? How are they similar to and different from rural places?

How does the author capture those things?

• What specific parts of the book felt the most spooky or scary and why?

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• What are the fears and societal issues the author is holding a mirror to? How does the spooky nature of the book help us think about those in new ways?

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To learn more, visit literacyinplace.com

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CONNECTING AMERICA’S HEARTLAND “As a local company, born and raised in northeast Arkansas, Ritter Communications takes pride in what we do by supporting the local communities we serve and employing local people.”

ALAN MORSE, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, RITTER COMMUNICATIONS JONESBORO, ARKANSAS

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ounded in 1906, Ritter Communications is committed to growing and evolving to meet the demands of its customers. The company has grown rapidly over the years, investing hundreds of millions in technology infrastructure serving over 113 communities with over 45,000 customers in Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, and Tennessee.

Under the leadership of CEO Alan Morse, Ritter Communications is helping bridge the digital divide and improve the quality of life for residents and their communities by investing in and actively working to improve fiber broadband access and affordability. Ritter Communications is in the middle of a 5-year, $250 million expansion project.

Additionally, the company continues to partner with the state of Arkansas to deploy over $67 million in new fiber funded by the state’s Rural Connectivity grants that provide customers with

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reliable fiber infrastructure to support economic growth and improved quality of life.

Ritter’s “Right by You” pledge is a reflection of how the company strives to operate in all areas of business. The company believes the best formula for continued growth and success is staying close to its customers as a local provider and doing what is right for them, its employees and the communities it serves.

Thank you, Alan and the Ritter Communications team, and all our nation’s broadband providers for keeping America connected to today’s opportunities and tomorrow’s dreams.

Learn more at USTelecom.org

GRANGE ADVOCACY ADVERTORIAL

AGRITOURISM FEATURE

Pacific Northwest delights in varied agritourism

By Elizabeth Hiner Senior Communication Fellow

While Idaho is mostly known for

The Cheese Trail is sponsored by the

potatoes, you can find many types of

Cheese Guild and offers a destination

agricultural experiences. One of these

guide that can be ordered, downloaded,

Join me on another adventure, as I

is the annual herding festival in Ketchum

or viewed on Google Maps. The Distillery

explore the Pacific Northwest. We will

and Halley. The Trailing of the Sheep

Tour is sponsored by the Oregon

be visiting Alaska, Washington, Oregon,

Festival takes place in early October,

Distillers Guild, this first of its kind in the

and Idaho. Of the four states, Alaska has

where you can participate in the three-

nation, meant to advertise the quality

the fewest “official” agritourism venues,

day event, a slice of living history. You

and the vast offerings of Oregon Spirits.

tying with Nevada at 9 (give or take), and

can find shearing, preparing wool, and

You can find several farm trails or

Washington has the most at 89! Oregon

cooking classes along with farm-to-table

loops throughout the state. A couple of

has 51, and Idaho has 39.

dinners. Traveling through the state, you

these offerings are in the Portland-Salem

Since we finished our tour of the

can also find wineries, farm stores, and

area and contain 15-25 farms in each

southwest in Nevada in the last issue,

dude ranches where you can participate

loop. There are the South Clackamas,

we are going to head north and start this

in ranch life for a real cowboy experience.

Farmlandia, Marion, and Yamhill Loops.

tour in Idaho, the land of the potato.

In Blackfoot, Idaho, you can find The

Idaho Potato Museum. A visit here is a

The tour takes us west into Oregon.

Here, you can find more than 250 distinct products produced and grown -

fantastic way to learn more about Idaho’s

second only to California. Oregon’s top

most famous product. Built in 1912, the

agricultural producers include the cattle

museum has everything you could want

industry, with products like milk and

to know about potatoes. You can see the

cheese. Oregon offers three agritourism

largest potato chip ever made by Pringles

trails - the Cheese, Distillery, and Farm

and a timeline of potato consumption in

Trails.

the U.S. There are group tours available,

The Cheese and Distillery tours can

and as a bonus, you receive free tater

be taken together or separately as they

tots with your admission.

follow the I-5 and Highway 101 corridors.

For a change from standard farming, you might want to check out the Farm 2 Fork Coastal Tour, a guided tour that focuses on the oyster and seafood farms along the Oregon Coast. It is a five- to six-hour tour, with transportation included. You will learn about shucking oysters and how to catch crab and tuna, depending on the season and the availability of the fish and the farms. As you visit each farm, you will be able to try what is in season. Farm 2 Fork also offers two other tours.

Washington is the next stop on our tour of this region. Washington is the top producer of apples, blueberries, hops, sweet cherries, pears, and spearmint oil in the United States.

With

apples

being

the

largest

agricultural commodity in Washington, you can find apple festivals throughout the state starting in April with parades and going through the harvest season in October.

Some of the biggest festivals are Green Bluff’s fall festival, sponsored by the Green Bluff Growers; the Walters

Fruit Ranch holds a festival for 6 The Trailing of the Sheep annually sees 1,500 sheep make the trek through Ketchum, Idaho, on their way to their winter pastures. Photo Courtesy of trailingofthesheep.org

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weekends, ending the last weekend of October; or Becks Harvest House which features something new each month.

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Have you ever wanted to hang out with Santa’s reindeer?

There are two opportunities to visit reindeer farms. The first is near Fairbanks and the other near Palmer.

In 2007, the Running Reindeer Ranch near Fairbanks was started as a 4-H project for the owners’ 12-year-old daughter with just two reindeer, Ruby and Moon from the Reindeer Farm in Palmer, and morphed into the Running Reindeer Ranch. The Ranch now offers an hour-long reindeer walk through the birch trees, with homemade cookies and drinks, as you learn a bit more about reindeer. If a walk is not to your taste, you can do yoga with the reindeer or attend an evening in the pasture In Seattle, the Pike Place Market spans nine acres, features more than 500 shops, vendors, restaurants, and bars, and is visited by over 10 million people annually.

Photo by Daniel Schwen, Courtesy of Wikimedia CCA license You can also find unique farm tours like the Pelindaba

Lavender Farm in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. You can

listening to music with them.

In Palmer, you can visit the Reindeer Farm with 100 head of reindeer, Rocky the Moose, Appa the Yak, Dolly the Bison and 2 Rocky Mountain elk. The farm is open to the public for tours seven days a week from May 1st through August 31st for selfguided tours, vintage tractor-pulled hayrides, and pony rides for children under 13. From September until March (with April

take a walk through the lavender fields, harvest your own

being calving time), there are limited tours by appointment

bouquet, learn everything you might want to know at the

only. During the holiday you can hang out with Santa and the

distillery and education center, and browse the Gatehouse

reindeer, also by reservation.

shop for all things lavender. They also rent out the gardens for events such as family gatherings.

In Seattle, we are going to head to the famous Pike Place

Market which was founded in 1907, is known as the “soul of

If reindeer are not the thing for you, how about a trip to The

Musk Ox Farm, also near Palmer. The Musk Ox Farm is a nonprofit which is dedicated to the domestication of the Ox. This once-endangered animal (called Oomingmak in the Inupiaq

Seattle,” and is perhaps most famous for being the home of

language, which means “bearded one”) is making a comeback.

the first-ever Starbucks in 1971.

The Musk Ox produces qiviut (kiv’-ee-ute), the finest wool in

The Market is host to fish and other foodstuffs, arts, and

the world. You can visit the farm and take a guided tour for a

crafts, produce and eateries. My daughter Sara visited here on a band trip and enjoyed the shops, but not the fish market as she was accosted by multiple fish. First, she was rounded up with her friend Crystal by the famous fliers for a photo with a salmon. The vendor at one of the other stalls tied a string to the tail of one the fish, “The ugliest fish you have ever seen,” said Sara, that when it is pulled back and then released it causes the fish to jump out at unsuspecting passersby. Needless to say, we had shrieking, tears and laughter, and have a memory to last a lifetime.

Our last state to visit is Alaska. Fishing and livestock are the major commodities, which include cattle, buffalo, and musk oxen. You can find about 500 small farms around Anchorage, some of which host farm tours or have weekly farmers’ markets.

The first stop around the state is a trip to the Glacier Gardens

Rainforest Adventures, which is in the temperate zone of the state, like Washington and Oregon. Nestled in the Tongass Rainforest, you can go on an hour-long guided tour of the gardens, and see old-growth trees, upside-down gardens, and bald eagles. The Gardens can be rented for events such as weddings.

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The Running Reindeer Ranch in Fairbanks, Alaska offers unique experiences to get up-close and personal with the reindeer, like reindeer yoga or music with the reindeer Photo Courtesy of www.runningreindeer.com

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close-up experience with these Paleolithic ruminants that once

package, so you can take your catch home with you. Each day,

roamed the earth with the wooly mammoth and saber tooth

you go out on a boat for six, plus a deckhand and a captain,

tigers. The farm offers group tours, virtual tours, field trips, and

fishing for salmon (King, Coho, Pink, and Chum), rockfish,

farm tours. Check out the gift shop for yarn and products Ox-

halibut, and cod.

related.

The fun part of fishing here is that it changes day to day

Our final stop on our visit to the Pacific Northwest is in honor of one of the biggest tourism areas of Alaska – fishing.

depending on the weather and if and where the fish are biting.

Catch the big one!

My friend Phyllis Larson and her nephew took a 3-day/4-night

“I have been coming here for years and enjoy catching that

fishing trip to Sitka. She has been fishing here for 14 years and

first King Salmon, the camaraderie with my shipmates which

highly recommends the Alaska Premier Charters, Inc, and Wild

leads to making new friends,” said Phyllis, “the crew and

Strawberry Lodge.

This

is

a

family-oriented

management help you have a successful adventure... I would business

which

offers

recommend this to anyone who loves to fish.”

accommodations for any size group. Day trips are available if

While you might not be able to walk with Santa’s reindeer

there is room on any given boat that day. Included in the price

or get wool from a musk ox in your area, you can find farmers’

of the package are all meals as well as all gear, from poles to

markets, wineries, and farm tours. Enjoy what you find in your

raingear and boots.

area and share those unique finds. I am on the lookout for

Packaging and flash-freezing your catch is also a part of the

more unique locations for us to enjoy as we vacation away from home. Our next region will be the western states of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico.

See you there!

Support some of the locations mentioned in this article: • Trailing of the Sheeptrailingofthesheep.org • Idaho Potato Museum idahopotatomuseum. com • The Cheese Guild Trail oregoncheeseguild.org • The Distillery Trail oregondistillerytrail.com • Oregon Farm Loops oregonfarmloop.com • Farm 2 Fork Tours farm2forktours.com

• Pelindaba Lavender Farm pelindabalavender.com • Pike Place Market pikeplacemarket.org • The Running Reindeer Ranch -

runningreindeer.com • The Reindeer Farm reindeerfarm.com • The Musk Ox Farm muskoxfarm.org • Wild Strawberry Lodge wildstrawberrylodge.com

• Green Bluff Growers Association

greenbluffgrowers.com Phyllis holds a freshly-caught king salmon while aboard her charter off the coast of Sitka, Alaska.

Photo Courtesy of Phyllis Larson

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NOTES FROM A SMALL TOWN

Some Seasonal Things that are Impossible to Miss

By Christopher Dean Massachusetts Grange Member

When you live in a charming little seaside town, you notice certain things that are as natural as the seasons because, even though human-made, they’re as much a part of reality as snow or leaf-peeping.

During the winter and early spring, there are no cars parked on the streets anywhere in town. You could drive and always park right out in front of your destination, like Doris Day parking on Fifth Avenue. Beginning the week before Memorial Day, the parking spots abruptly disappear as “summer people” and their friends come by to open up their summer homes. Just like that: one week, abundant and unneeded parking, then it’s gone.

Tourists and unfamiliar faces are suddenly everywhere, some wearing

exotic clothes or speaking with impenetrable accents. The numbers go up right at Memorial Day weekend; they come in on trains or they park at the transfer station and walk down our street and take photos of our house. The tourist district is filled quickly, it’s mostly a single street, lined with shoppes and people going into and out of them holding ice cream in tiny cups. Sometimes, I see them carrying art they’ve bought, wrapped up in brown paper. They like to wear T-shirts with the town’s logo on them.

The local coffee shop, where everybody goes year-round, fills up with strangers, large clumps of parents and children, wearing clothing much more expensive than the year-round people can afford.

In the off-seasons it’s a democratic place, but it fills to the brim each summer with the well-off who like to think they’re locals because they own a house here with a view of the sea.

The town of Rockport, Massachusetts brings fun for locals and tourists alike.

Photo by Corey Spence

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The one year-round clothing shop in town sells very swanky brands of clothing.

If you’re a year-rounder who’s known to the owner, you’ll get a discount. If you’re not a year-rounder, you can afford it anyway, so it doesn’t matter what the prices are, but you also won’t know that there’s a discount available at the owner’s discretion.

If there’s a ham-and-bean supper at the Congregational Church, or the annual rummage sale at Saint Mary’s, the summer people go, but they don’t know the locals and don’t bother to mix with them.

At the Scandinavian Vasa order, down the street, there’s a Swedish pancake breakfast every spring. Locals show up in a Norwegian sweaters, the people from away wear too much of the wrong kind of jewelry and talk amongst themselves about their summer homes and how hard it is to find a good gardener. When they go to their fancy-pants lawn parties, they’re unaware that we’re going to amateur theater productions right up the street to see our cousins and neighbors singing and dancing. The two versions of the town co-exist, only they have no contact at all.

People always want to know about when the fireworks are on July 4th after the Firemen’s Association parade. There aren’t any, but there’s a bonfire at Back Beach topped off with an old garden shed. Rockport does fireworks on the second Saturday of August, the event is called “Illuminations Night” and people vie with their neighbors at buying battery-powered LED lanterns to see who can come up with the best display in their front yard. This custom is fairly new, only about ten years old, but everyone gets into it.

Summer people often want to know what’s happening in town. The answer is usually: nothing much, but you can go

to the American Legion bandstand at Back Beach to hear a free concert by the amateur musicians who live nearby doing 90-minute themed concerts every Sunday night from 7:00 to 8:30. There have been concerts there for 85 years, so far.

There’s always popcorn and kids like to run around and around the octagonal bandstand while their parents and grandparents gossip and listen to the music.

Cars become huge. There are suddenly dozens of enormous black SUVs with high black sides, and tinted windows and they’re always taking up two parking spaces. Or there are sports cars shaped like a glistening wedge of cheese, their hoods only at the level of my hips zipping in and out of traffic, roaring up the hill on Main Street. These cars call attention to themselves, of motorcycles. And there are dozens of expensive German

Elaborate Halloween decorations keep Rockport’s residents amused and entertained.

Photo by Corey Spence

cars, bland-looking but glaring status symbols. All of these

Seven Brothers. People talk about it and look forward to it:

they’re loud and rude and they make noises like the worst kind

cars are owned by white-haired men who think that owning an expensive sports car somehow makes them younger and more desirable as a result.

“What’ll they do this year? Did you see what they did last year?“ At Christmas, the same family puts up a new diorama every

After Labor Day, things calm down some. The number

single day, with a pair of adult-sized Elves on a Shelf having

of available parking spots explodes until you realize that the

various adventures. Last year, they did a whole wedding with a

streets are now empty and everything is much quieter. The

honeymoon vacation that started on Christmas Eve.

motorcycles without mufflers are gone. The houses along the

Christmas is when things here really start to shine. Santa

waterfront are empty now. Everyone sort of breathes a little bit

comes to town on the first Saturday of December to light the

more slowly.

town’s Christmas tree and he reappears on Christmas morning

When fall comes, there are theatrical performances and a local orchestra that does a concert or two. In fact, there’s always

at 10:30, so that children can go and thank him for the presents he brought them the previous night.

some kind of art or theater or music nearby. There’s a small

On the last Saturday before Christmas, the whole town puts

theater in Gloucester that does a full season of performances,

on a pageant on the front lawn of the historic Congregational

sometimes with well-known actors. We’ve seen several original

Church, with readings from Luke, broadcast from a truck with

productions, world premiers, even Hamlet and Macbeth and

a speaker on top, and Mary and Joseph, and some donkeys

The Importance of Being Earnest to name a few.

and shepherds which is immediately followed by a Christmas

Every Halloween, a family around the corner puts out an

carol sing-along at the performance center, and then a ham-

elaborate display on their front yard with dozens of life-sized

and-baked-bean supper at the same church. You see your

plastic skeletons dressed up as pirates or Seven Brides for

neighbors and people from your own church, and people you went to high school with.

Then there’s a New Year’s Eve celebration with musicians in eighteen different venues (church basements, the old fire station, the performance center), and a small ceremony where a ball of light drops and lights up the New Year at exactly midnight.

My hometown has a lot going for it, the events are small, sometimes they’re a little rough around the edges, but they have their charms. I don’t think there’s anyone who leaves here after high school who doesn’t think about returning to stay again, just like I did. Every year, the cycle of events is almost exactly the same, yet each has within it some little variation that

Residents gather for the annual lighting of the town’s Christmas tree.

Photo by Corey Spence

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adds something that feels a little bit like spice. It’s all small and homegrown, born from years of tradition, totally predictable, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

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Life on the Homestead...

The Creative Homesteader

By Suzann Gilliland Peterson High Desert Grange, Nevada Homesteading today is very different from homesteading in the mid-to-late 1800s and early 1900s. In 1976, upon the repeal of the Homestead Act of 1862, homesteading took on different characteristics. Gone were the requirements of plot size, head of household or minimum age, residency, size of home, land improvement, attestation, or title.

Basically, homesteading in our current environment means anyone who grows produce or raises livestock on their own property in order to support themselves and to sell in that effort. Homesteading in today’s world is as varied as the homesteader.

And homesteaders are among the most creative people.

Audra Borders, Battle Born Stockton Well Grange (NV) Take, for example, Audra Borders, Secretary and Homestead Instructor for Battle Born Stockton Well Grange in Silver Springs, Nevada. Audra hates waste, everything from “junk” on the side of the road to missed opportunities to help someone in need. Finding ways to creatively use waste is what drives her.

“Everybody’s creativity takes different forms. I can take throwaway stuff and repurpose it,” she explained to me.

Her almost five-acre property is legally homesteaded in Lyon County and she manages it with her mother. Her boyfriend lends a hand as needed.

Being selfsufficient is Audra’s main goal. Repurposing everything she has on hand supports that goal.

She preserves much of her garden produce.

To help maintain the homestead, her mother and Audra Borders making potting soil. boyfriend run a

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cleaning business. Through that business, they are able to work with estate agents to help close houses, thereby affording them the opportunity to remove unwanted items for use at home.

Finding furniture, equipment, wood, machinery and more on the side of the road has allowed them to build the roof of their rabbit hutch from parts of a walk-in freezer. Their chicken house is an old camp trailer; the buck shed is made from garage door panels.

Waiting for a future project are 150-year-old rough-cut Tahoe cedar 2x4s from an old house whose owner bartered with a family member - wood in return for work.

Because of Audra’s commitment to homesteading, her three children can go anywhere in the world and utilize the survival skills she has taught. Those skills come in handy for Nykolas (Army National Guard), Jasmyne (Naval Reserves), and Jaclynne (Coast Guard) who have taught those skills to some of their supervisors and peers.

With all that she has learned and taught, what does Audra think is the most creative thing she has done? It remains, she says, “Taking a pile of junk and turning it into something useful.”

Sandy Specht, Yucaipa, California For Sandy Specht of Yucaipa, California, creativity was all the things her dad did for her and her mother to ease their somewhat solitary life on their farm in Rupert, Idaho.

At the age of four she and her parents left Los Angeles for Idaho, where her father had purchased 175 acres of dirt and legally homesteaded it. That was 1958, and Rupert’s population was 5,000.

Crops failed their first two years which meant no income. Sandy’s mother missed her mother, city friends, and the amenities of Los Angeles. What does a creative person do? Spend the winters in Los Angeles, of course! Each December through February found the Spechts living with Sandy’s grandmother while Sandy’s father worked at various aerospace companies to recoup any losses.

To make farm life more bearable, Sandy’s father found ways to uplift his family’s spirits. He made a playhouse out of cardboard and one out of haybales He taught Sandy how to ice skate on their irrigation pond. He built a raft for her and her mother out of used telephone poles. Those simple “gifts” went a long way in making a plot of land a loving home.

Sandy’s father sold the farm in 1985 and moved his family to Yucaipa, and her parents have since passed on.

I asked her what the ‘funnest’ thing was about living on the farm.

She replied, “The wide open space. I’d ride my bike every day.”

Would she like to live the farm life again? “Someone else’s farm on vacation!” she exclaimed. “Probably not under my own responsibility. It is a lot to care for. It was challenging.” But a creative mind, willingness to adapt, and creative hands carved out a satisfactory life and a joyful existence.

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Michele North, North Star Farm, Norwell Grange (MA) Like most homesteaders, Michele North faces constant opportunities to adapt and overcome. Making ends meet with increasing costs, along with locating educated buyers who will spend a little more money on her locally grown and processed products, causes her to lament that there are only 24 hours in a day.

Michele is a new member of the Norwell Grange in Norwell, Massachusetts. North Star Farm, a name designated by her father in 1966, was originally located in Marshfield as a small backyard farm. Eight years ago, it was relocated to its current site and now provides produce, meat, lobster, and homemade products to the local area around South Shore.

The farm is run by Michele and her boyfriend. She is the owner, trainer, instructor, and head decision maker. Her boyfriend owns and operates their commercial lobster boat.

Together, they own a small flock of registered Natural Colored Wool sheep and Shropshire sheep, selling wool, wool products, lambs, and fresh lamb along with chickens, ducks, rabbits and a small variety of herbs and vegetables which they sell mostly to private chefs.

To farmer’s markets, she brings items she makes, including leather balm, bird houses, candle holders made from old barn boards, seasonal herbs and vegetables, fresh eggs, sand dollars, and sea shells. Additionally, they take lobster orders, and their equine

facility offers boarding, training, lessons, and summer horse and farm programs. She has also hosted interns from the local high school.

What does Michele consider to be the most creative things she has done?

“Developing new products from what I have available and crossbreeding my sheep for a better fleece for wool, and at the same time developing a meaty carcass,” she responded.

There is no lack of creative endeavors.

Her advice for beginning homesteaders: “Don’t just focus on the wool or the meat, have a combination of both. Then, develop products from there. For example, making and selling products from the wool, or selling special sample boxes of meat to gain new clients, and processing the sheep skins after the butchering process.”

Michele lives by an old saying: “Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without!” She adds, “That sentiment fits homesteading and small farming perfectly.”

Marissa Ames, Ames Family Farm, High Desert Grange (NV) As the Editorial Director of Ogden Publications, which includes Mother Earth News, Countryside, and Backyard Poultry, among others, and the owner of Ames Family Farm, Marissa Ames has very little time for anything other than work... work on the farm and work at her job.

Stories of what she grows, how she grows it, how she processes it, what she makes from it, and how she stores it often end up in her publications. She also raises small livestock, including the rare San Clemente Island goat.

Marissa was the first person to bring them into Nevada and now has established breeders and a system where they can work together to exchange breeding stock and keep genetics good. Additionally, she leads the Homesteading Club for High Desert Grange. She and her husband work hand-in-hand on the farm. According to Mother Earth News, Marissa spends her free time eating lunch.

I recently asked her what she considers to be the most creative things she has undertaken on her Michele North at the Vermont Morgan Horse Show with her Jack Russell Terrier, Fernando.

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Marissa Ames with her purebred La Mancha goat, Dulcinea homestead. Without hesitation, she listed three: • I Am Zambia. She and her husband are part of an organization that teaches sustainable farming methods to rural villages and schools in Zambia. She trials crops here that grow well in Zambia so she can demonstrate them or understand what the farmers are going through. Each year, she grows seedlings that she sells to raise money to feed the children of those farmers.

• Raising endangered San Clemente Island goats.

• Maximizing human and animal feed throughout her garden. Everything she grows is carefully considered so that all parts of her plants are utilized. For example, this year she planted Painted Mountain corn for human consumption.

After each ear matured past the milk stage, she cut the stalks off right above the ears and fed them to the goats. In this way, the corn could keep maturing but the feed still had nutrition. She has saved hundreds of dollars utilizing this method.

Creativity and Marissa are inseparable.

She says she lives and breathes homesteading. “I’m even working on a new fiction series where the protagonist is an urban homesteader and many issues surrounding food sustainability become a driving force in the plot. There’s really nothing I do that isn’t homesteading – except maybe when I relax at the end of the night to a few superhero movies.”

So let your creative juices flow!

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Let’s Talk

Turkey

By Ann Olson Bercher Lecturer, National Grange President, State Grange of Minnesota Certified Culinary Specialist It’s time to talk turkey! I got to wondering what that phrase referred to, and of course Google came to the rescue. Generally, “Talking Turkey” means to engage in a frank and practical discussion about a matter, usually a business matter.

A tale passed down a since the 1800’s involves a white man and Native American who were dividing up the results of a hunt. The white man suggested that he (the white man) take the turkey and the Native American take the buzzard or the Native American take the buzzard and the white man take the turkey.

The two options sound different due to the order they are presented in, but ultimately the white man would get the turkey. Allegedly, the Native American recognized this and said to the white man, “Now talk turkey to me.”

There is no evidence that this actually happened, but it has been a popular origin story for the saying. Another example of “talking turkey” is a teacher explaining to a class that while extra credit for additional work had never been offered in the past, the teacher was willing to discuss it with the class. The teacher leaves it up to the class to determine what the

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practical details should be, and the students suggest, “Lets talk turkey!” Of course, when we say “Let’s talk turkey,” we might actually be talking about turkeys!

I live in the land of turkeys! Not only does Minnesota boast the largest number of independent turkey farmers in the nation, but it has also been the turkey capital of the U.S. since 1939 when Minnesota’s turkey farmers gathered to form the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association. Every year, Minnesota turkey farmers raise 40-42 million birds. That’s a lot of turkey!

Turkeys are of the sedentary pheasant family, Meleagris lopavo, and were descended from ancestors that ranged through North America and Asia.

A breeder in British Columbia developed a 40-pound bird between 1927 and 1930 that boasted oversized flight and thigh muscles. Breeders in the United States used his birds to perfect the Broad-Breasted Bronze turkey. This breed was then crossed with Holland’s turkeys to develop today’s most commonly produced Broad Breasted White turkey that grows quickly and produces more meat than any other turkey breed. The little-used breast muscle is tender, mild and lean, while the thigh and drumstick muscles that support the bird are well-exercised and are dark and flavorful.

Like all livestock farmers, turkey farmers take very good care of their birds housing them in barns to protect them from predators and severe weather conditions; keeping them cool in the summer and warm in the winter. They roam freely in the barn which is designed to

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maximize the health and

for 12 – 14 hours. If you don’t have the space, place the

comfort of the birds.

turkey and brine solution (chilled to 40 degrees) in a

Turkey eggs incubate

turkey-sized oven bag. Seal the bag removing as much

for 28 days until hatching

air as possible and place it in a cooler with 15 pounds

occurs. Baby turkeys are

of ice. Check the temperature and add ice to keep the

called poults, male turkeys

brine temperature at 40 degrees. Brine no longer than

are toms and females are

24 hours. Remove the turkey from the brine one hour

hens.

Hens

before roasting. Rinse carefully and pat dry. Be sure to typically

reach

maturity at 14 weeks and weigh 15-20 pounds. Toms typically reach maturity at 18 weeks and weigh up to 38 pounds. All turkeys raised in the U.S. are raised without any added hormones or steroids. A balanced diet of corn and soy mixed with vitamins promotes growth and good health.

Autumn is a great time to explore cooking methods for turkeys. Probably everyone has their trusted handeddown family recipe or have developed their own favorite.

I recommend trying some new techniques that maybe you haven’t explored before.

One process I discovered several years ago and continue to use is to brine the turkey before roasting.

clean your sink immediately after rinsing the bird!

While I am not going to offer a traditional roasted whole turkey recipe, what follows are a few recipes to help with some ideas for using up the leftovers! For those who don’t want to cook up a whole turkey, there is a recipe for roasting just the breast. I am also including one of my favorite recipes from the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association using ground turkey.

I am reminded that Benjamin Franklin proposed the turkey as the official bird of the United States. When the eagle was selected, Franklin responded, “The turkey is a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original of America.” I might have to agree, especially when “Talking Turkey” at Thanksgiving!

This works best with fresh turkeys, but it can also be used for a frozen turkey once thawed, if it hasn’t already been injected with salt or is “self-basting”.

Read the label: If it contains salt, or other additives, skip brining the turkey. Brining causes the protein strands in the meat to break down over time, so the meat gets tenderized, absorbs more flavors and retains more moisture. Even with a long roasting time, the end result is a very juicy bird.

To wet brine a turkey, plan to brine the turkey at least one day in advance. You will need 1 cup of kosher salt for every gallon of water used. You will also need a container large enough to hold the turkey and brine solution, enough to cover the bird, and space in your refrigerator

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President’s Recipes shared by President Betsy E. Huber

Slow-Cooked Turkey Dinner 1 onion, diced 6 small red potatoes, unpeeled, quartered 2 cups carrots, sliced 1 1/2 - 2 pounds boneless, skinless turkey thighs 1/4 cup flour 2 Tbsp. dry onion soup mix

Giant Stuffed Turkey Burger 2/3 cup water 1/3 cup long grain rice ¼ teaspoon salt 1/3 cup chopped onion ¼ cup shredded carrot 2 Tablespoons snipped parsley 2 Tablespoons butter ¼ teaspoon dried sage, crushed 2 pounds ground raw turkey Leaf lettuce Orange slices (optional) Tangy Cranberry Topper (below) Shredded carrot (optional) 1. In small saucepan, combine water, uncooked rice, and salt. Bring to boiling, reduce heat. Cover and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in onion, carrot and parsley. Cook, covered, 5 minutes. Stir in butter and sage, set aside.

2. Divide meat in half. On two sheets of waxed paper, pat each half to form a 7 inch circle; sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Place vegetables in bottom of crockpot. Place turkey thighs over vegetables. In medium bowl, combine remaining ingredients, blend well, pour over turkey. Cover, cook on high 30 minutes.

Reduce heat to low, cook on low seven hours.

Serves 4.

Stuffed Shells

Leftover Turkey

serves 8

1 12-ounce box jumbo pasta shells 2 cups cooked turkey, cubed 1 ½ cups leftover stuffing 4 ounces cream cheese, softened

½ parmesan cheese, grated 1/3 cup mayonnaise 4 cups mozzarella, shredded 1 ½ cups leftover turkey gravy

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9X13 inch baking dish.

2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta shells and cook, uncovered, until pasta is cooked but still firm to the bite, about 13 minutes. Drain.

3. Place turkey and stuffing in a food processor and pulse until finely ground together.

4. Place turkey/stuffing mixture in a large bowl and add cream cheese, parmesan cheese, mayonnaise and 2 cups of mozzarella. Mix together until well blended.

5. Spread ½ cup of gravy on the bottom of the prepared baking dish.

6. Stuff the pre-cooked shells with turkey mixture and place in dish.

7. Top with remaining gravy and remaining 2 cups of mozzarella.

8. Bake covered for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake for and additional 10 minutes. Allow to cool 5 minutes before serving.

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3. Spread stuffing mixture evenly over one circle to within ½ inch of edge. Invert second circle of meat atop; peel off top sheet of waxed paper. Press meat around edges to seal. Invert stuffed burger onto a greased grill basket; remove waxed paper.

4. Grill over medium coals 15 minutes. Turn grill basket; grill 15-20 minutes more. Serve on lettucelined board with orange slices, if desired, and the Cranberry Topper.

Sprinkle shredded carrot atop, if desired. Serves 8.

Tangy Cranberry Topper

In small saucepan combine ½ cup water and 2 teaspoons cornstarch. Add one 10-ounce package frozen cranberry-orange relish, thawed, and ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly, then continue cooking and stirring for 2 minutes. Serve warm or cool.

Leftover Thanksgiving

Nachos serves 12

48 scoop-style tortilla chips 2 cups cooked turkey, shredded ½ cup salsa Verde 1 ½ cups pepper jack cheese, shredded 1/3 cup jellied cranberry sauce 1 tablespoon lime juice 1/3 cup sour cream 1 small bunch cilantro, coarsely chopped 1. Preheat oven to 450o. Line a baking sheet with foil and arrange chips on it.

2. Stir turkey and salsa together in bowl. Fill chips with the mixture and top with cheese.

3. Bake for 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

4. Meanwhile, stir together the cranberry sauce and lime juice.

5. Top each chip with some sour cream and cranberry/lime sauce. Sprinkle with cilantro.

Jalapeño Turkey

Meatballs

serves 4

20 ounces ground turkey 1 large egg 1/3 cup yellow onion, finely diced ¼ cup dry breadcrumbs 2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 garlic cloves, minced 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes ½ teaspoon black pepper 1 jar jalapeño jelly 1 tablespoon butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Combine all ingredients except jalapeno jelly and butter in a bowl, mix well.

3. Shape into balls and place on a baking sheet.

4. Bake until internal temperature of meatballs reaches 165 degrees, about 30 minutes.

5. In a small pan, melt the butter on low heat, then add the jelly. Stir until the jelly turns to liquid.

6. Place meatballs in a shallow dish and pour the jelly over them.

7. Serve warm.

Courtesy of the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association

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Apple Curry Turkey Pita

serves 3

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 cup sliced onion

1 medium apple, cored and thinly

2 tablespoons lemon juice ½ pound cooked turkey, cut into chunks

sliced 3 pita bread rounds ½ cup plain yogurt

1. Heat oil in skillet over medium high heat. Stir in onion and lemon juice.

Cook until onion is tender.

2. Mix in turkey, curry powder and continue cooking until heated through.

3. Remove from heat and stir in apple.

4. Stuff pitas with the mixture and drizzle yogurt on top.

Turkey

Roulade

4 Tablespoons butter, softened 1 stick celery, diced ½ small head fennel, diced ½ medium onion, diced 4 ounces chorizo 1 ½ tablespoons sage, rough chopped 1 teaspoon rosemary, chopped fine ½ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon pepper Red wine, brandy or apple juice for deglazing 1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place a roasting rack in a roasting pan.

2. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in skillet over medium heat.

3. Add celery, fennel and onions. Cook, stirring often until tender (about 5 minutes).

4. Add chorizo and cook until browned through (7-10 minutes).

5. Stir in sage and rosemary, cook for about 1 minute. Add salt and pepper.

6. Add wine, brandy or apple juice to deglaze the pan, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan.

7. In a large bowl, combine the sausage mixture with cornbread stuffing, chicken stock and egg.

8. Lay the turkey breast skin side down. Season with salt and pepper.

9. Spread the stuffing mixture in an even layer over the meat, then tightly roll the meat up. Tie the roll with kitchen twine 3-4 inches along the length of the roll. *Make sure the skin side is up if using a breast.

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serves 4

1 ¼ cups dry cornbread stuffing ½ cup low-sodium chicken stock 1 egg 1 ½ pound boneless, turkey breast tenderloin, butterflied and flattened, or a 2-3 pound boneless, skin-on turkey breast* 1 ½ tablespoons flour ¾ cup low sodium chicken stock ¼ cup red wine, brandy or increase chicken stock Salt and pepper to taste

10. Rub the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter over the surface of the roll. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place on rack in roasting pan.

11. Roast for 30 minutes, then decrease the temperature to 350 degrees. Continue roasting until the skin is crispy brown or internal temperature reaches 155 degrees, check after an additional 30 minutes. *More time is required if using a larger turkey breast.

12. Remove from oven and cover with foil to rest.

13. Set roasting pan over medium heat and whisk flour into the dripping in the pan. Cook, stirring constantly until the roux is golden brown, (3 minutes).

14. Add chicken stock, turn off heat and add wine, brandy, or additional stock. Turn up the heat again and cook, whisking constantly until the gravy thickens (5-7 minutes). Season with salt and pepper to taste.

15. Slice the turkey breast/tenderloin and serve drizzled with gravy.

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THE LAST

Word

By Marla Calico President/CEO, International Association of Fairs and Expositions In recent years, two phrases are oft-repeated when

carnival rides to individuals or groups that might not

members of our Association gather, as well as when I

otherwise be able to attend. From the outset of the

am speaking with the media about the agricultural fairs

COVID-19 global pandemic, fairgrounds facilities

(county fairs, state fairs, and other agricultural shows) of

were used to host massive testing and vaccination

our membership: “Fairs Change Lives” and “What We

sites, operated temporary field hospitals, and as

Do Matters.”

warehouses for personal protective equipment for their

To say that fairs change lives and that what we do

communities.

matters is a long-held truth. Fairs provide the platform

Every year, we see stories of buyers banding

for youngsters to participate in activities that provide

together at the annual market animal auction to pay

leadership development. Sure, the project may be a

extraordinary amounts for an animal that belongs to a

heifer or a pig or a lamb, but a child showing livestock

kid who is ill or just lost a parent. The stories of the

at the fair is learning about finances, record-keeping,

kids themselves turning over their auction proceeds to

time management, goal setting, decision-making built

help a friend or a cause abound. More and more, we

around priorities and change of circumstances.

see fairs of all sizes offering differently-abled youth the

But fairs also change lives in other ways: many other

opportunity to participate in the fair showing an animal

youngsters get what may be a first job working for

by being paired up with youth exhibitor. Each of these

the fair or one of its vendors; stories abound of first

moments changes countless lives.

dates and a kiss on the Ferris Wheel leading to life-

Fairs are oftentimes the single largest driver of

long love; fairs award scholarships to youth; for many

economic activity in their communities. The fair

civic organizations their activity at the annual fair (food

itself buys goods and services within the community,

stand, taking tickets, bingo stand, etc.) is likely their

supporting businesses and the tax base. Vendors,

group’s largest single source of income for the year;

exhibitors, concessionaires, and the mobile amusement

fairs organize food, clothing, book and blood drives as

company purchased goods and services, too! One

part of their event; and fairgrounds serve as emergency

concessionaire I know from Florida says he loves his

shelters for people and animals during times of severe

local tire dealer back home in Florida, but all of his tire

weather and fires.

purchases and repairs are done out on his 10-month

Fairs of every size around the globe provide everything from admission tickets to stuffed toys or

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route traveling to fairs!

The majority of fairgrounds around the globe also

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drive economic activity when their facilities are rented to others to host events throughout the year. For these fairs, the non-fair rental revenue also helps their bottom line and creates a source of funds to continually improve the grounds and facilities.

And what fairs do in terms of agriculture education and awareness matters today even more. The county or state fair becomes the place where consumers can meet the farmer that grows their food and have a face-to-face conversation to answer some of the concepts being pushed by entities who are striving to end modern agriculture as we know it. Fairs provide the platform to tell kids that milk comes from a cow, not the grocery store, and fairs around the globe do this in increasingly sophisticated ways – from hands-on activities during the fair, to offering year-round programming to school kids in their communities, to operating a year-round farm on their facilities.

Unless you are a board member, volunteer, or staff member at a county or state fair, you may never know

the “magic” and what it takes to pull off these events.

For most fairs, when the gates swing wide on opening day it is the result of hundreds upon thousands of hours spent by dedicated volunteers, as well as professional staff in the instance of the larger events. Every fair operates at the mercy of the weather and has no guarantee of return on the hefty investment made in producing the annual event.

Even so, these dedicated and resilient people continue to press forward, to overcome the odds, to provide the place where the community comes together. The place where memories are made, and lives changed. The next time you attend, exhibit, or volunteer for a county or state fair look around at the smiles. Listen for the “oohs and ahs” of exclamation, the roar of the crowd at the grandstand. Know that fairs change lives. Every day. Everywhere.

And if you are a fair board member or staff member, know this: What YOU do matters!

www.grangestore.com

PROMOTIONAL BUSINESS CARDS & STICKERS

Perfect for conventions, fairs, and festivals promotional materials for the National Grange!

Business Cards - with information about the National Grange and a QR code that directs to a "Thanks for Visiting Us" page on the National Grange website.

$30 for 250 cards or $50 for 500 cards plus shipping Die-Cut Vinyl Stickers - in two designs, celebrating the National Grange "Raised Right Here" theme.

$15 for 50 stickers or $25 for 100 stickers plus shipping

Limited Edition!

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Get yours by ordering online through the Grange Supply Store at grangestore.com or by calling Loretta at (202) 628-3507 ext. 109.

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Grange Membership

BENEFITS Below is an overview of some of the benefits that are available to Grange members across the country.

A full, detailed list can be viewed on the National Grange’s website: www.nationalgrange.org/benefits

$

SHOP

We have partnered with Office Depot/Office Max Lenovo, UPS Saving and TicketsatWork. When you shop at these locations or use these services, you are giving back to the National Grange and receiving special deals in the process.

FINANCE

The National Grange has partnered with TSYS Merchant Solutions, which has been serving merchants for more than 30 years and offers a payment processing program tailored to your business needs. If you have a small business, this advantage could help you.

TRAVEL

HEALTH

R/

X

PHARMACY

INSURANCE

With discounts from Choice Hotels, Wyndham Hotels, Worldwide Hotel, and Avis, Budget, Hertz, and Enterprise rental car services, as well as RV accommodations with Harvest Hosts, these exclusive Grange benefits are sure to help you when planning your next vacation.

Our partnerships with Life Line, Hear in America, Start Hearing, Comfort Keepers, and eHealth Medicare are sure to give you peace of mind about your health.

We have multiple partnerships to help Grange members obtain discount pharmacy cards. CVS Caremark offers the RxSavings Plus Card. The U.S. Pharmacy Card is a free discount prescription card available to Grangers.

Last offer excludes members in NC.

We have partnerships with Member Options, United of Omaha Life Insurance Company, AFLAC, Farmers Insurance, and pet insurance through Nationwide to give our members discounts on insurance rates and deals. Clouse Insurance Agency can help find the coverage you need to protect your Grange Halls.

State-based and property-based restrictions apply. Contact agency directly.

Excludes Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, and North Carolina.

... and many more plus new ones added regularly. Check our website for all active benefits. www.nationalgrange.org/benefits

We must reap for the mind as well as for the body, and from the abundance of our harvest, in good deeds and kind words, dispense Charity.

- Steward, Grange Ritual