Greener Pastures: Decorah, Iowa

(Page 3 of 3)

June/July 2002
 
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Decorah is home to an active farmers market twice a week, and three farms—including ours— offer community supported agriculture shares. The Oneota Community Food Co-op provides an excellent supply of local, organic produce and other organic foods. For a community this size, Oneota Co-op is a real boon, and compares favorably to the food coops where I shopped in much larger Madison, Wisconsin, in the early 1990s.

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The "alternative" scene goes far beyond food. The homeschooling community—both secular and religious—is large and active, despite an excellent public school system. An artisan building-crafts group provides alternative home construction, and another local company installs and services renewable energy systems. The Windermere School of Eastern Healing Arts has assured a plentiful supply of massage therapists and other natural health practitioners in the area.

I've had the good fortune to live in a number of dramatic landscapes and flamboyantly alternative places—Aspen, Colorado; Bar Harbor, Maine; and Seattle, Washington, among others. In Northeast Iowa, you'll never drive around a corner to discover a dramatic mountain scene, or find a group of people to march on the county courthouse with you. The beauty here is subtler and sneaks up on you like the dawn of a new day, or settles in around you like a summer fog. The people are wholesome and good. We've found it a great place to come home to.

We invite you to nominate locations to be featured in future Greener Pastures columns. Please tell us as much as you can about rural or urban places where sustainable living is gaining ground. Send your nominations to: Greener Pastures; % MOTHER EARTH NEWS; 1503 SW 42nd St.; Topeka, KS 66609-1265.

The scenic Upper Iowa River winds its way near Phelps Park in Winneshiek County, Iowa.

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