- [Bret] Here we go!

(bright music) On today's "Prairie Sportsmen," we head to Blue Mountain State Park to learn about action Trackchairs.

- [Chris] One is going to be your slow speed.

- [Bret] A chair that helps people with mobility issues explore the park.

- Nah, this is great.

(gentle music) - [Bret] Then we check out 21 Roots Farm.

A non-profit that's connecting people with developmental disabilities to the outdoors and agriculture.

- They say, "If you build it, they will come."

It's happened...

It's true.

(air whoosh) (gentle music) - [Bret] Finally, Nicole Zempel shows us the upside of nettles.

- [Nicole] They're one of the most iron-rich plants on the planet.

- Welcome to "Prairie Sportsmen, I'm Bret Amundson.

We got a great show for you this week and it starts right now.

(gentle music) (lively music) (gentle music) Funding for "Prairie Sportsman" is provided by: The Minnesota Environment and Nature Resources Trust Fund.

As recommended by the Legislative Citizen Commission of Minnesota Resources.

(gentle music) And by Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen, on behalf of Shalom Hill Farm.

A retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org (gentle music) (upbeat music) - Welcome to Blue Mountain State Park here near Luverne, Minnesota.

In the winter you may not think of visiting state parks this time of the year.

But there's actually a lot you can do.

From hiking and snowshoeing, checking out the bison herd while you're here, maybe bird watching, things like that.

And in recent years there's been a lot funding devoted to getting more people into the outdoors all year around, including helping those with mobility issues.

(gentle music) The goal of walking through a state park is to really immerse you nature.

That means it's not always easy to get around.

So you'll see little things like this bridge, for example, to help you navigate some of the terrain.

But there's a company in Marshall, Minnesota that produces a product that is now featured in a number of state parks around the state to help people get around these beautiful areas.

(gentle music) Action Trackchair makes an all-terrain electric-powered chair, and helps those with a need explore areas that aren't suitable for regular wheelchairs.

Now Chris, I know you don't get a lot of people using these chairs in the winter, but it's Minnesota.

So we're gonna take it out in the snow and see how it does.

- Yeah.

(wind ripping) - Check out the park a little bit, we'll see how this thing operates.

- Sounds great.

(gentle music) - You can see right now you're on three.

So you can toggle that up and down with the blue buttons.

One is gonna be your slow speed... Up to five.

There's a horn.

That doesn't really give a lot of attention, but you can do that.

This is gonna run just like the video game at home as far as steering you.

You can see right and left here.

(gentle music) And forward.

- I'm not sure people have Ataris anymore.

- Yeah, sorry.

Nintendo, what do we got?

I don't know, Switches.

Anyway, there is a headlight.

This time of day you're not gonna need it.

If you're out late at night, it does give you some light right over here.

That toggle switch over there on your left is going to adjust your chair tip.

- Okay.

- Yep, there you go.

- Weee!

- Yep.

I'll let you maneuver around the truck and around the van, and we'll head over to the little slope and so you can get some practice on going up and down a slope.

- Okay.

- And as you feel comfortable, you can adjust your speed up to five.

(gentle music) - This is really the beauty of the chairs is they're meant to be able to take people into... Yeah I mean, you're not gonna go rock climbing in this thing but you're gonna be able to go over some different terrain.

So we're gonna try taking to a few inches of snow here.

He said six-to-eight inches of snow it's supposed to go through.

- Correct, yep.

- So here we go.

(gentle music) - This is all about increasing access for people to get outdoors in places they couldn't before.

- Nah, this is great.

(gentle music) I feel like this would just be a fun way to get around the park anyway.

(gentle music) All right, so I passed the obstacle course.

But you got a path.

Do you wanna hop on and take us down this path right here?

- Sure, we can do that.

- Show us a little bit more of the park.

- [Chris] Yep, you bet.

(gentle music) The park was established in 1937.

It was actually first called Mountain Spring Recreation Area.

It was the landscape you see right behind me.

Was just a few acres on either side of Mountain Creek.

Is a WPA project to bring water recreation to a place that didn't have any.

They built a dam that constructed about a 20 acre impoundment.

Made a lake in this area.

And then upstream a little ways there's a dam that's still currently standing that made a second lake.

In 1960, a small acreage of prairie came up for sale.

And the city of Luverne approached St. Paul and asked them to purchase it and establish a bison herd.

And at that time they also changed it to Blue Mountain State Park.

(gentle music) The area is an uprising of Sioux quartzite.

That on the horizon looks blue at a distance.

So it was a prominent landscape mark as people were crossing the prairie.

You could see this mound of quartzite from a long distance away that blue on the horizon.

(gentle music) - [Bret] So you guys have had these chairs for a couple of years now?

- [Chris] Yeah, let's see.

We got this chair in '23.

Part of the get outdoor more funding initiative that Minnesota had to increase outdoor access.

Been pretty popular.

(gentle music) This trail we're headed down right now is the Mountain Creek Trail.

A little bit is part of our hiking club trail system.

And so a trail user can actually pick up the hiking club trail and get the password and participate in the hiking club program using the Trackchairs.

(gentle music) We've got 14 miles of trails and we actually checked every trail, and have a map that shows which trails are safe to operate on.

There's a few that absolutely aren't safe to operate on.

So we'll show you which trails you cannot use it on and point you in the right direction that way.

(gentle music) There's no cost to reserve them, you do need your state park vehicle permit.

But beyond that, there's no cost.

You can reserve it ahead of time, and we strongly recommend that you do.

(gentle music) So you can see prairie, you know, it's 1% of our landscape that used to cover all of Minnesota, or a good chunk of Minnesota is left.

So this tall grass prairie here.

Beyond that, rock climbing.

There's a Sioux quartzite... Is a bedrock here.

Up where we are on the north end of the park, there's about a 30-foot cliff.

But as you work your way south, the cliff line is almost 90 feet high.

Some of the best rock climbing in southern Minnesota.

Excellent hiking, there's 14 miles of trails.

There's a bicycle trail that you can ride through the park and then connect to a trail that leads you into the town of Luverne nearby.

There's birding opportunities.

We actually have bald eagles that roost here almost year-around.

Mountain Creek typically doesn't freeze entirely.

And so they tend to roost.

You know compared to a lot of Minnesota, our winters are pretty mellow.

And so there's, I think, some pretty good winter recreation here.

There's climbers that climb here all winter long.

We do have snowshoe opportunities.

There's the snowmobile trail that runs through the park.

(gentle music) We got a bison herd, so you get to... A chance to see bison.

We actually have our tour.

So you can get on a truck and take bison tours out on the prairie landscape.

(gentle music) - [Bret] So how many bison do you have out here?

- [Chris] We got 67 this winter.

We try to winter right around 65.

Our bison are as close to being free of cattle genetics in the country.

Our current bull, breeding bull right now has Yellowstone genetics.

You know those are really rare genetics around the country.

So we're excited to have those.

Our herd is really strong with those genetics right now.

And we're working on introducing Theodore Roosevelt genetics on to this herd.

Bison, especially our patchwork grazers, has approached.

Cattle will graze a piece of ground immediately and graze it off entirely.

Where bison will move on the land.

So they'll eat a little bit and then they'll move on, and they won't graze a whole piece off.

As they graze they really stir that land up.

And so they're really good for a prairie landscape.

(gentle music) But we do have winter camping.

We don't plow all campsites.

We don't get overly busy in the winter.

But if the interstate is running, we do get some campers.

(gentle music) There's parks holding their candlelit events right now.

And if you see a park that's having one, find out if that park has a tractor available.

Because you could be using it for that.

We haven't had a lot of use of it in the winter.

We got a great opportunity this winter.

You know, they'll get too deep and they won't operate in that deeper snow.

But we got just the right level of snow right now.

So if people see this and they get an opportunity, please come out and use it.

It's just a nice place to be.

(gentle music) - And this is our barn.

And then we have our goats and alpacas over here.

(air whoosh) - And it's also helps with healthy blood sugar and healthy blood pressure.

And it tastes very, very, very good.

(gentle music) (upbeat music) - Here at the farm, like working here with animals.

It actually helps me be more, a good employee.

I really love my job working here.

And I really like sharing about my experience.

That is my dream about working here, like full-time job.

(upbeat music) (chill music) At 21 Roots Farm in Grant, Minnesota, Molly tends to the goats, chickens and alpacas.

She grows beans, tomatoes, and a variety of other produce that is packaged and sold to customers.

Like many of her farmer friends, Molly was born with an extra copy of chromosome 21.

A genetic condition known as Down syndrome.

All the farmers at the non-profit have some type of development disability.

And 21 Roots provides them with meaningful work as they develop life skills.

The farm's co-founders, Brittany Wiitala and Amy Peterson, started dreaming about a joint-venture while they worked together at a camp for youths with autism.

(upbeat music) - It was just kind of this idea of something to do and be able to serve and work with people with developmental disabilities.

We didn't start, set out to start a farm, but it kind of evolved just kind of naturally.

I grew up in a dairy community in central Wisconsin.

And so I always knew where my food came from.

Amy has this passion for animals, and just like their therapeutic benefit that we kind of put it together, and it was like it kind of sounds like a farm.

(chuckling) Working at a group home, I kind of realized people didn't have a choice in what they ate, let alone knowledge of where their food came from.

And then kind of the task that people were employed to do just weren't very meaningful, and so they weren't motivated.

And so we kind of thought, "Yeah, is there an opportunity to make meaningful work "and get to eat the fruits of your labor?"

And so we're doing it.

(chuckling) (upbeat music) - [Bret] After forming a non-profit in 2019, Amy and Brittany purchased the 21 acre farm and started the youth club.

- I was working for a family that had adopted three kids with Down syndrome.

They were young, and so that was kind of the pull we had.

And then kind of did a separate adult program as we were like starting out and not knowing where.

They say, "If you build it, they will come."

And so it's happened, it's true.

(laughing) (upbeat music) - We had to start somewhere.

And so we had like maybe 12 chickens.

They were all free ranging in the orchard.

We had two goats.

And it was one of those things we're like, "Oh shoot, the goats are coming."

And we had to like run to Fleet Farm and buy everything that said "Goats."

And like they came the next day and that was kind of it.

Chickens and a couple of goats.

(upbeat music) We started and it was very simple.

We kind of just threw out some programming to see what would stick with families.

We had port-a-potties.

We didn't have chairs.

We didn't really have a lot of money.

(chuckling) So we rented a couple of things, rented some chairs.

And we just launched some programming.

- [Bret] Today, adults with disabilities work at the farm year-round, three days a week.

Farmer Molly showed us around last summer.

- Okay, right this way.

- Molly comes in and she's just ready to go.

She gives me the energy that I need sometimes to just get ready, 'cause it's like, "Well, Molly's gonna be here."

And she's gonna make me work.

She's amazing, I love her.

- And then here's our apple trees and pear trees.

(upbeat music) This is a chicken tractor.

This is where they have food and water, and eggs.

For our chicken chores is like give them water, and hand out food.

These lovely girls are so nice.

And like they lay one egg per day.

We do have like different colors of eggs.

(upbeat music) Okay, let's now work our way down.

This is one of the beehives, because we have two beehives.

And this is our barn.

This is where our donkeys are.

Their names are Izzy and Dolly.

And then we have our goats and alpacas over here.

Come here, girls.

They're really nice.

They do have names.

There's a crowd of goats just like coming like around me sometimes.

Because I am the goat whisperer.

(upbeat music) - I lead the animal time.

And so it's usually a very intentional animal project that happens to be maybe mixing feed or trimming goat's hooves, or sometimes it's just spending time with the animals and getting them used to people and being handled.

And maybe just, "Hey, we're gonna put some grain "in the back of the barn and see which cows come in."

To see who is comfortable with us.

(upbeat music) We will go outside rain or shine, cold or snowy, or sunny and hot.

You know, depending on how hot and how cold and snowy.

We tell everyone that they're farmers.

You know, like I'm a farmer and our program participants, they are farmers.

So everyone's a farmer and farmers have to work in rain or shine.

We're looking for frozen chicken waters.

We're you know, thawing things out sometimes.

We are going on snowshoe walks instead of nature walks.

We have beef cows.

We've raised just a few for beef.

And we usually just use it as like kind of a fundraising thing.

It's not like we're raising beef every single year.

Our programs, we do charge for that.

So those offset the cost of operation.

Hiring some more staff.

That sometimes just gets higher in cost.

So then we have to fill in for some fundraising.

(gentle music) - [Bret] The property came with pole barn that's been remodeled to include a kitchen.

Tower gardens named after the farmers favorite celebrities.

(gentle music) And community space, where farmers package produce for their customers.

(gentle music) - Remember if you see really giant beans- - We wanna give them.

- It's up to the cows.

- We'll give them to the- See look at these ones?

- [Bret] While farmers bag up goods- - [Bret] Molly shows us where the food is grown.

- This is our garden.

This is where we planted carrots and beets, and onions, and some beans as well.

This is kind of like different kinds of beans.

There's like rattlesnake beans.

Rattlesnake beans are kind of like rattlesnakes.

Kind of like really curly.

These are all the cabbages we have.

We do have like purple cauliflower and green cauliflower.

It's so good.

(upbeat music) So this is where our tomatoes are.

Sweet tomatoes.

And this is actually it helps that.

It tastes really good, make us healthy bones.

Makes more healthier, so that we eat more.

This is all of our herbs.

We do have mint down there and cilantro.

I like to grow my own food a lot sometimes.

Sometime is just like awesome for me to eat them for dinners and stuff.

(bright music) - [Bret] After produce boxes are packed, farmers write notes of thanks that are emailed to customers.

- My favorite experience of this week was picking zucchini.

We loaded them on the belt cart.

I want to thank you for giving you meals.

- Great, and then we'll send it off.

- And we will send it off.

- As far as products year-round, we have eggs that we sell.

We do our honey and we tap our maple trees.

So we do maple syrup, as well.

- [Farmer] Nice work, Katie!

- [Bret] Farmers also craft items to sell.

- [Speaker] Are you guys all working hard?

- [Worker] Harder, yeah.

- [Speaker] He's working hard.

- Last year we've kind of been been experimenting with making some dryer balls from our alpaca and sheep wool.

And so we'll process that fiber with our farmers.

And that's a very long and tedious process, but it's really fun.

- [Speaker] Teamwork!

Teamwork makes the dream work!

- And then we'll also do some soap making.

We'll do some crafty-type things.

We'll maybe do a pop-up little market that's like seasonal.

Or we do a big winter market every December.

(upbeat music) - [Bret] 21 Roots Farm primarily serves young adults.

The nonprofit continues to welcome up to 15 kids for three-hour summer sessions on Tuesday and Thursdays.

- They're kind of just getting used to the farm and just seeing like is it something they'd be interested in as adults.

I think those (gate clanking) younger exposures kind of have guided me in my life.

So I think the same with our youth.

- I think a big next step for us is that employment program.

And just like you know, we've been able to see our adult farmers become experts here on the farm and really take ownership in whatever area that they are interested in.

- I often look at myself as like I'm a guide.

And so I'm not really like leading or directing, I'm kind of guiding.

And then whatever supposed to happen, happens.

(upbeat music) We had this guys who's in his 30s.

And we get like a sheet of paper that says he's dreamt of being a farmer his whole life.

So I'm immediately jazzed.

And I'm like, "Yes, we're gonna get a job "at a farm down the road, this is gonna be awesome."

And we meet him and he's like the slowest moving guy.

And every speck of hay he's picking off.

And so I was like, "Maybe not the idea "of a farmer that I had in my mind."

So like bring it back.

So I watched him and he was at the fence line, and he's telling everyone, "Be nice to the cows, "Be nice to the cows."

And so then I thought, "What if he did showmanship?"

And so we were able to like work with a steer.

And he trained the steer.

And I think his attention to detail and needing everything to be clean got to shine.

Because he has to make sure every spec of hay is off of his prized show steer.

- [Bret] 21 Roots Farm held a fair so the young man could show off his skills.

- He got to show his family the grooming process.

And so he got the cow into the shoot.

Did everything that was necessary.

We're all in tears because it just like all came together.

And his mom sat back and said, "He won't even put his dishes in the dishwasher "when he's at my house.

"How did you get him to do this?"

But being able to just see that independence and that confidence that he had.

It kind of all came together in that moment and it was beautiful.

(gentle music) - [Bret] After a day of witnessing the pride 21 Roots farmers take in caring for their animals and packaging the fruits of their labor, Molly bid us a fond farewell.

- Thank you everyone for your support, and everything that we make and do.

And my, well, teachers are fun and they really like me a lot.

And thank you so much, and have a good day!

(upbeat music) (lively music) (gentle music) - We are standing by the nettle plant.

The scientific name, which of course I can't pronounce.

But it means to burn.

But the nettle plant is either completely loved and adored, or it's one people don't wanna get close to at all.

I am encouraging you to get to know this nettle plant, get close to it.

You will get food, you will get medicine, vitamins, minerals.

Why people don't particularly love the nettle plant or get to know it, is because again, that scientific name meaning to burn.

But if you know how to handle the plant, it will not burn or sting you at all.

Now the reason people say it stings, is because the underside of the leaves and the stem have all kinds of little, teeny, tiny hairlike structures that are actually like hollow needles.

There's a few different things in there.

One of them is folic acid.

So when you break the tip of the stem, it does kind of inject that just under your skin, which will give you swelling, welts, maybe some rashes, and that itchy, burny feeling.

But that doesn't have to happen.

There's a plant that naturally just happens to grow nearby the nettle plant, which I find amazing.

It is burdock.

And the greens of the burdock plant will actually alleviate some of that stinging, or swelling.

So if you handle the nettle plant, and you just go in an upward fashion, all those little stingy bits are not stinging me at all.

(gentle music) I encourage everybody, do a simple search on the stinging nettle plant.

You're gonna get lists of medicinal uses and histories.

Same with the nutritional.

What I find it super useful for, I have been anemic in my life and I placed on iron pills.

Well years later now, I've done research and I consume an awful lot of nettles, because they are one of the most iron-rich plants on the planet.

I also have allergies.

And they are fantastic in helping to treat like the symptoms of allergies.

You can make a nettle tea, or you could even just bring some water to a boil and inhale the nettle plant.

One of the most nutrient-rich plants literally on the entire planet.

Helps with so many different, different things.

(gentle music) If you're into making natural plant dyes, nettle plants at different stages will give you different colored dyes.

I personally love to harvest nettles also for eating when they're younger, maybe one-to-two inches.

And their leaves look a little bit purple, which when you go to create the dye, you're gonna get kind of a rich, purple-y, pinky shade of dye.

As they grow like these here, it's gonna be more in the green and gold area.

(gentle music) And something that I recently learned from one of my friends who is very interested in just outdoor skills, taught me how to make cordage from the nettle plant.

It's simple, it is time-consuming.

This is kind of what a finished nettle cordage rope looks like.

It's very strong and you can use it just like you would any other kind of rope.

(gentle music) So I'm gonna take this, I'm gonna set it on a hard surface.

I'm also gonna remove the leaves.

And I'm just basically going to pulverize, gently though, the whole stem.

And it's gonna turn kind of moist and kind of stringy.

Give it a good gentle mashing.

And when you feel like you've got it where the skin, the outer skin easily separates, you're just going to peel those outer layers.

And that will give you pieces then that look like this.

And then you can start braiding.

(bright music) Something else, too, I would like to say about the nettle plant... All of the nutrients create antioxidants in your body.

And that's gonna help fight against all sorts of free radicals that we take in.

And it's also, helps with healthy blood sugar and healthy blood pressure levels.

And it tastes very, very, very good.

Also people wonder, "How can I cook with these wild things?"

There's, I call them dumping grounds.

But maybe that doesn't sound so appealing.

Omelets are a great way to throw any variety of wild greens and utilize.

Soups are a fantastic way.

Also just mixed wild green salads.

The nettle plant, you will wanna boil down a little bit.

But it has the flavor of spinach, it's very, very good.

But mixed wild green salads, an easy way to kind of balance all the different flavors coming at you is with feta cheese and balsamic vinaigrette.

So a little tip for you.

(gentle music) I hope you get to love the nettle plant and utilize it as much as I do.

(upbeat music) (gentle music) Funding for "Prairie Sportsman" is provided by: The Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.

As recommended by the Legislative Citizen Commission the Legislative Citizen Commission of Minnesota Resources.

And by Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen, on behalf of Shalom Hill Farm.

A retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org (bright music)