Rural Revival

Reflection and Action on Rural Issues

Mission:

  • promote and enhance local food markets
  • provide information and tools for thoughtful generational land transfer
  • educate the community on a diverse set of rural issues

Meetings

  • the 4th Monday evening of each month
  • open to the public
  • at the Freeman Public Library

The Latest News & Stories

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Tending The Margins

By S. Roy Kaufman on Jan 15, 2014

The margins in mind are those boundaries between human habitation and cultivation and the wild places of nature, those intersections between settled places and wilderness. It may be nothing that more than that patch of weeds in the corner of the garden or field, or the few scrub trees and bushes springing up along the fence lines. It may be the roadside ditches on country lanes. Or it may indeed be the boundary between farmland and a state park or between the field and the creek or river or prairie or forest.

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New Raw Milk Rules to Take Effect Dec. 11

By Nathan Torberson on Nov 30, 2013

South Dakota's agriculture secretary says new rules covering the production, testing and labeling of raw milk sold in the state will take effect Dec. 11. The Agriculture Department had been trying to pass the rules since last spring and has held three hearings on the issue. The Legislature’s Rules Review Committee approved the changes earlier this month.

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SDSU Extension to host Soil Educational Forums

By Nathan Torberson on Nov 22, 2013

BROOKINGS, SD – SDSU Extension regional centers in Sioux Falls and Watertown will host soil health educational forums next month. The SD's Soil Health Challenge: Don't Get Left in The Dust events will feature information on soil organic matter, weeds, cover crops and wet soils. Each will also feature a panel of farmers who will share some tips on what has, and what has not, worked on their farms.

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Wasn’t This a Treeless Prairie?

By S. Roy Kaufman on Nov 20, 2013

So why should it be troubling to see more and more shelter belts and fence lines and pioneer wood groves being bulldozed and burned and buried? Or hasn’t anyone else noticed the disappearance of landmarks that have graced our landscape for some 100 years now? Even those of us native to this place find ourselves lost on familiar country roads when we come to intersections that used to mark a farm or a grove of trees, as my brother who now lives in Michigan and I discovered when we were out for a drive a few weeks ago.

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