When Lisa Braddock, creator of the Sunshine Harvest Sharing Project, over-planted her garden in the fall of ’09, she “really didn’t know what to do, there were squash everywhere.” That is when she started thinking about a project to help get extra food from local farmers and gardeners to the kitchens and food banks. The [...]

Imagine hundreds of volunteers gathered around wood fires, stirring into the night over pots and pots full of meats, veggies and spices. You may have heard of burgoo before, but if you haven’t, you’re in for a treat. Burgoo, or chowder as some call it, is a thick stew made with a variety of different [...]

Rural life has its advantages and many people yearn to live there or return there, which was the case of Lu Ann Scheiferdecker, a Cambridge resident and Corn Belt Energy member. But like many, she was faced with leaving a lucrative business in an urban area, for a life in the country that offered little in [...]

            As the Barn Quilt Heritage Trail-McLean County started making headway on its project, someone said to Kay Henrichs, a Barn Quilt Heritage Trail committee chair and Bloomington resident, “it takes a village to raise a child, but it also takes a village to raise a barn quilt.” Henrichs said, laughing, “Yeah, that’s true.”              [...]

Another of the largest cooperatives in the nation is set to celebrate 75 years since its beginnings. Next year, Prairie Farms with its headquarters in Carlinville, will mark the milestone, having grown from its beginnings as Illinois Producers Creameries, a statewide association for co-op creameries. What started out as primarily an Illinois cooperative, has grown [...]

As the Barn Quilt Heritage Trail-McLean County started making headway on its project, someone said to Kay Henrichs, a Barn Quilt Heritage Trail committee chair and Bloomington resident, “it takes a village to raise a child, but it also takes a village to raise a barn quilt.” Henrichs said, laughing, “Yeah, that’s true.”             When [...]

By Maurice Martin, Cooperative Research Network Look at a piece of copper and you can see why it’s been popular with artists for 10,000 years. Its reddish-orange luster enhances jewelry and other decorative art. Ancient weapon makers also found it useful — axes with copper heads date back at least 5,000 years. More recently, engineers [...]

While Farm Credit Services is acknowledging 2012 as International Year of the Cooperative, like other cooperatives, it considers every year to be something to celebrate. Farm Credit Services of Illinois is a farmer-owned and farmer-directed cooperative that serves more than 8,200 farm families, rural landowners and agribusinesses with competitive flexible financing and crop insurance risk [...]

In addition to regular maintenance by a professional, keeping your air-conditioning unit free of debris and dirt can help keep it running efficiently. It is wise to make sure your existing central air conditioner is running as efficiently as possible to reduce your electric bills. And the way this summer started your air conditioner may [...]

Just as the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 brought power and lights to rural homes, an amendment in 1949 was passed “to assure the availability of adequate telephone service” bridging the way for rural families and friends to hear one another across lines for the very first time. Of course a lot of work ensued [...]