Community

Growing up on a farm near Casselton, Michael Howe never imagined his family’s dinner conversations would inspire an initiative he would later launch as North Dakota’s secretary of state.

“My parents, I would say, are very civically engaged, and I grew up talking about policy at the kitchen table. My parents never ran for office, but we had the 6 o’clock news on during dinner, and you would hear about the events of the day,” he says.

Now, Howe encourages other North Dakotans to understand the benefits of those types of dinner table conversations.

VELVA, N.D. – A crowd gathered in Velva on July 15 for a public announcement and open house for the future home of the North Central Regional Grocery and Local Food Hub.

FEEDING THE WORLD
Matt Perdue, president, North Dakota Farmers Union

As America marks its 250th anniversary, North Dakota will celebrate a milestone of its own with the grand opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library July 4 in Medora.

Built within the buttes of the Badlands, the library showcases Theodore Roosevelt's character and vision, and tells the story of the nation’s 26th president who influenced conservation, preservation of public lands and true American leadership.

Long before North Dakota’s statehood, Indigenous people shaped the Northern Plains.

Along the banks of the Missouri River, Mandan and Hidatsa women crafted earth lodges from willow, grass and sod. With hoes made of bison bones, they tended vast fields of corn, squash and beans – the Three Sisters. These nutritious crops could be dried and stored, making them valuable for trade.

While farmers across the nation faced an economic collapse during the 1980s farm crisis, Brian Maddock studied.

As a legacy farmer, his family heritage runs deep. Maddock Ranch, located near the town of its namesake, traces back to Brian’s grandfather, who homesteaded in the area in 1889; the same year North Dakota gained statehood.

But it wasn’t until Brian attended a course on holistic resource management (HRM), that he put his faith into treating the ranch as one interconnected ecosystem. It worked.

Each spring, Thomas Hanna walked alongside his father and grandfather, surrounded by the sweet scent of clover and the hum of hundreds of hives. There, he learned the rhythms of beekeeping, watching, listening and gaining hands-on experience all through high school. By 2009, he became a full-time beekeeper. Today, Thomas and his family continue their grandfather’s legacy at Hanna Honey Farm.

Most mornings, before the sun even rises, Ashley Bruner starts her day checking backpacks, making breakfast and mapping out the day before shuffling her four children off to elementary school. From there, she heads to a garage about 250 feet from her house. It’s a space her dad helped convert into a mini meat shop, complete with a walk-in freezer stocked with beef.

Routine, Bruner will tell you, is the last word to describe life on the ranch.

“No two days are the same,” she says.