“Twenty years ago, we were the weird hippies. Now you can go into Target and buy our coffee.”

“Upscaling’s not a healthy thing. What gets lost is sustainability.”

According to USDA figures, close to nine million birds died on Minnesota poultry farms during the avian flu outbreak in the spring of 2015—either of the virus or euthanization to prevent the spread of the disease.

Resourceful organic grain farmers go to great lengths to bring their product to market.

Apples from the bluff.

Daniel and Hannah Miller farm 30 acres in the Zumbro River valley outside of Zumbro Falls, Minnesota.

Sno Pac has been one of People’s suppliers since the earliest days of the Co-op. Pete Gengler, the current CEO (and grandson of Sno Pac’s founder J.P. Gengler), remembers driving Sno Pac deliveries to People’s when the La Crosse store was located in the old Bruha’s Grocery building on Adams Street.

“This weather has been very disruptive,” Jack Hedin said as he brewed us a cup of coffee in their office kitchen. “Anytime you get thrown off the bell-curve of your production schedule—we’ve got a number of things ripening throughout the summer—you compound your problems as your schedule compresses into a smaller season.