The second and third days of our mid-west field trip took us in an anti-clockwise circular trip south of Eau Claire. We visited in order (a) the Durand Smokehouse; (b) Lock and Dam #4 and adjacent vineyards at Alma; (c) Suncrest gardens and (d) Cowsmo Compost - the last two located near Cochrane. Durand is a tiny village but is home to an award-winning smokehouse producing a wide variety of meat dishes.
Businesses like this one can add considerably to the value of rural produce and help market particular farming locations. However, we didn't get to sample any of the produce.
From Durand we traveled south through corn growing country like that shown below: lush green fields with massive corn crops.
Our target destination was the Mississippi River which separates Minnesota to the west from Wisconsin, where we were, to the east. In particular we visited a spectacular site where (a) the flow of this mighty river was controlled and (b) a lock system enabled the lowering of commercial craft carrying a lot of rural produce to water levels downstream.
This photo shows both the lock system in the foreground and the barrage controlling river flow in the background.
Here a tug awaits an incoming barge train - helping it to enter the lock system. Just look at the size of the river both up-and down-stream!
Here come the barges - something like 6 or 7 of them attached to a central vessel, and just narrow enough to get through the lock system.
And the whole floating system is driven and steered by this rear-end vessel.
You must agree that this display was worth a long look!
And so to lunch! This was held at an award-winning vineyard on the banks of the Mississippi. And we had some time explore the modern wine processing facilities.
This operation was fairly small-scale - only 7.2 Ha. of grape-vines. And so we traveled on southwards through more large fields of corn.
We eventually came to Suncrest gardens, a very small organic farm (6.5 Ha.) specializing in vegetables (1 Ha.) and growing animals on lush grass.
From there, we traveled to the last main destination of the day - the Rosenholm Farm which is dairy that produces a side product: Cosmo Compost. The latter is sold nation-wide and even overseas, but admittedly much is sold locally in line with sustainability culture.
We were greeted at the farm by massive rows of compost lying in the sun. And here below is the main source:
You've probably guessed by now where this came from! Yes, you're right. It's the dairy cows, which produce the other main farm output: milk. We had the chance to look briefly at the animals housed in a large barn, eating hay provided from elsewhere on the property or regionally. This shouldn't surprise one since climatic conditions just south of the Canadian border (the 49th parallel) are severe in the long winter people endure in these parts.
We also saw the next generation of cows coming along, albeit drinking milk from a bottle rather than a teat.
That was the end of another interesting day.
AS
Businesses like this one can add considerably to the value of rural produce and help market particular farming locations. However, we didn't get to sample any of the produce.
From Durand we traveled south through corn growing country like that shown below: lush green fields with massive corn crops.
Our target destination was the Mississippi River which separates Minnesota to the west from Wisconsin, where we were, to the east. In particular we visited a spectacular site where (a) the flow of this mighty river was controlled and (b) a lock system enabled the lowering of commercial craft carrying a lot of rural produce to water levels downstream.
This photo shows both the lock system in the foreground and the barrage controlling river flow in the background.
Here a tug awaits an incoming barge train - helping it to enter the lock system. Just look at the size of the river both up-and down-stream!
Here come the barges - something like 6 or 7 of them attached to a central vessel, and just narrow enough to get through the lock system.
And the whole floating system is driven and steered by this rear-end vessel.
You must agree that this display was worth a long look!
And so to lunch! This was held at an award-winning vineyard on the banks of the Mississippi. And we had some time explore the modern wine processing facilities.
This operation was fairly small-scale - only 7.2 Ha. of grape-vines. And so we traveled on southwards through more large fields of corn.
We eventually came to Suncrest gardens, a very small organic farm (6.5 Ha.) specializing in vegetables (1 Ha.) and growing animals on lush grass.
From there, we traveled to the last main destination of the day - the Rosenholm Farm which is dairy that produces a side product: Cosmo Compost. The latter is sold nation-wide and even overseas, but admittedly much is sold locally in line with sustainability culture.
We were greeted at the farm by massive rows of compost lying in the sun. And here below is the main source:
You've probably guessed by now where this came from! Yes, you're right. It's the dairy cows, which produce the other main farm output: milk. We had the chance to look briefly at the animals housed in a large barn, eating hay provided from elsewhere on the property or regionally. This shouldn't surprise one since climatic conditions just south of the Canadian border (the 49th parallel) are severe in the long winter people endure in these parts.
We also saw the next generation of cows coming along, albeit drinking milk from a bottle rather than a teat.
That was the end of another interesting day.
AS
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