• Traveling Purposefully: Flavorful Coffee Adventures with Coffeewomple

    Coffeewomple fans notice how Nicole and Zach’s process highlights the natural flavors of the beans in nuanced ways. “You can make good coffee just by starting out with a good bean. That will get you 90% of the way there,” explains Zach. “That final 10% requires a lot of testing. The palette is huge. One thing you learn early on is that you can’t add a flavor that’s not there. If it’s not in that green bean to start, you’re not going to find it.” 

  • Playing with Fire: Facepunch Foods Brings Flavorful Heat to the Table

    Mark Petersen of Stillwater’s Facepunch Foods fell in love with heat when he was six years old.  Facepunch has since produced tens of thousands of bottles of sauce, both as Facepunch and as white label recipes for other businesses.

  • Minnesota’s Perennial Percent Pioneers: Meet Bang Brewing and Sturdiwheat

    Does your favorite pancake mix or locally-crafted brew filter stormwater runoff, improve water quality and work towards a healthier future for Minnesota’s rivers? If it carries the Perennial Percent label, it already has. 

  • Drinking is an Agricultural Act at Far North Spirits

    The founding of America’s only certified Bee-Friendly Farm Distillery began with a homework assignment. Cheri Reese and Mike Swanson, owners of Far North Spirits, were living in St. Paul following careers in marketing and communications. Mike was pursuing an MBA from the University of St. Thomas where his entrepreneurial class project included a business plan for a distillery that grew its own grain.

  • From Fish Tanks to Farmers’ Fields: Clear Water Nitrate Reduction

    This story starts with a couple of 25 gallon fish tanks in a St. Olaf dorm room.  Growing up in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Ian became interested in reducing fertilizer runoff when he learned that sources of pollution like nitrate and phosphorus were invisible as they leached into the groundwater or local streams. Parts of the watershed were overloaded with nutrient pollution whose negative impact increased as it moved downstream.

  • Simple Cider Co: Pressing Apples to Build Community

    “Half of our company is about the apples. The other half is about the space,” explains Nick Revoir of Simple Cider Co. “The space will be designed for all generations of a family. It will be a place of wonder, like walking into a children’s museum, where the ceiling and the floors aren’t just a normal design. It will be built as a safe place for the kids to be themselves while adult friends connect, commiserate and support each other.”