Mankato Magazine by Free Press Media

mankato ICE COLD, BABY!

Cold water immersion is a thing. Are you ready to try it? Also in this issue:

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2 • APRIL 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

FEATURE S APRIL 2022 Volume 17, Issue 4

Ice, ice, baby If you’re new to cold water immersion, consider this your introduction. There are people in this world who intentionally dip themselves in freezing cold water for the health of it.

POD people Everyone’s got a podcast these days, right? We caught up with some of the cool ones in southern Minnesota. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts.

Where does all the garbage go? The waste management systems in place today, while an integral part of society, haven’t been around long. The systems have come a long way, but advocates say there is still much to be done.

ABOUT THE COVER Our chilling cover photo of Vusa Bentley, on location in Antarctica (just kidding, it was shot south of town) was taken by Pat “Frosty” Christman. MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2022 • 3

DEPARTMENTS 6

From the Editor

This Day in History

Faces & Places

12 Avant Guardians Jill C. Miller

14 Beyond the Margin

Hope and psychological peace

16 Familiar Faces

Samantha Rubene

18 Day Trip Destinations Alexandria

40 Let’s Eat!

Mis Tres Flores

42 On Tap

Engineered to refreshment

44 Wine

On the wine trail

45 Community Draws Solar gardens

46 Lit Du Nord: Minnesota Books and Authors

The writerly wisdom of Snoopy

48 Ann’s Fashion Fortunes Prerequisites to red

50 Garden Chat Dirty logic

52 From This Valley

When life gives you lemons

45 4 • APRIL 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

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FROM THE EDITOR By Robb Murray APRIL 2022 • VOLUME 17, ISSUE 4 MAGAZINE Robb Murray EDITOR DESIGNER Christina Sankey PHOTOGRAPHERS Pat Christman Jackson Forderer

COPY EDITOR Kathy Vos CONTRIBUTORS James Figy Jean Lundquist Kat Baumann Leticia Gonzalez Ann Rosenquist Fee Pete Steiner Nick Healy Dana Melius Renee Berg Natalie Rademacher ADVERTISING Danny Creel SALES Jordan Greer-Friesz Josh Zimmerman Theresa Haefner Tim Keech ADVERTISING Barb Wass ASSISTANT ADVERTISING Christina Sankey DESIGNER CIRCULATION Justin Niles DIRECTOR

PUBLISHER Steve Jameson EXECUTIVE EDITOR Joe Spear

Mankato Magazine is published by The Free Press Media monthly at 418 South Second Street, Mankato MN 56001. To subscribe, call 1-800-657-4662 or 507-625-4451. $35.40 for 12 issues. For all editorial inquiries, call Robb Murray 507-344-6386, or email rmurray@mankatofreepress.com. For advertising, call 344-6364, or e-mail advertising@mankatofreepress.com.

6 • APRIL 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

A song of ice, trash and pods B y the time this issue gets to you, the amount of ice covering lakes and rivers should be minimal. But because we love our readers and we didn’t want them to forget the fact that we, as Minnesotans, are bold and hardy and aren’t afraid of a little cold, we thought we’d introduce you to people who submerge themselves in ice water for the health of it. Have you heard of the cold water immersion wellness trend? It’s not exactly new, but it isn’t mainstream either. The practice goes back, literally centuries. Ancient Greeks and Egyptians are said to have dabbled in it. Even our own Thomas Jefferson reportedly began each day with a cold water foot bath to keep him healthy. (Oh, the mysteries of Monticello!) In our neck of the woods, people are practicing the art of cold-water immersion to a rather extreme degree. Vusa Bentley, known regionally for her work as a personal trainer, is one such person. We followed Bentley into the woods recently (in a totally legit, non-creepy manner, by the way) to watch her dip her tiny-but-athletic frame into the icy waters of the Blue Earth River. While it was certainly a spectacle, Bentley did a nice job of explaining its physical and mental health benefits. She even brought along a first-time ice dipper. It looks insane. It’s absolutely freezing. But it might be worth your time if you’re looking to spice up your wellness routine. But maybe start with a cold shower, right? Leave the river to the experts. If you choose to go all out and replicate Bentley’s “in the presence of nature” approach, we suggest you first read our piece this month by Natalie Rademacher. She did a deep dive on waste disposal in the Mankato area, so while you’re soaking in 35-degree water and

the adrenaline gets your mind reeling about ways to make the world a better place, let it reel over to environmentalism, pollution and the ways our community has come up with — or hasn’t come up with — to deal with waste in a manner that best suits the needs of a warming climate. Natalie has a passion for this stuff, and it shows in the care and depth she brought to this reporting. Elsewhere in this month’s Mankato Magazine: n You might have noticed something a little … different about the cover. It’s been revamped. Every few years we decide to shake things up a little bit around here. This is one of those times. We thought the new design gives it a bolder, cleaner, fresher look. It’s the brilliant work of Christina Sankey. She doesn’t get a lot of credit, but the magazine looks as good as it does because of her. n The next time you fire up a podcast, consider listening to some produced right here in the Mankato area. From the hip confines of the Triple Falls solarium studio to the cyber crime student experts at Minnesota State University, to the drag queens behind the “Drag Me With a Spoon,” there’s podcasting creativity in every corner of this community. You just have to look for it. n Patrons of Mankato Brewery’s taproom, such as myself, will recognize Samantha Rubene in our Familiar Faces feature. Sam’s forgotten more about beer than you’ll ever know. And you won’t find a friendlier face to pour a pint of Mad Butcher fresh from the keg. Robb Murray is associate editor of Mankato Magazine. Contact him at 344-6386 or rmurray@mankatofreepress.com.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY Compiled by Jean Lundquist

Rehabilitation in LeHillier awaits end of pumping

April 2, 1965 Fish were described as jumping gleefully in the water between houses in flooded LeHillier. Others were lying dead in streets and muddy yards where floodwaters had receded. Three pumps were operating 24 hours a day to rid the area of water at 3 gallons per minute. Still, many houses remained in water, some of them with water up on the roof. When the water receded, inspections were conducted on the soggy buildings to determine if they were safe to enter for cleaning and repair. After inspection, passes were issued to families allowing them to go inside. Nine homes had lost basements due to wall cave-ins, but more were expected.

Italian automotive visitor gets 47 mpg

April 18, 1938 It was unlike anything that had been seen locally. It was a tiny Fiat coupe, made in Torino, Italy. It contained a motor described as being the size of a washing machine, with four cylinders. With its 47 mpg, it could seat four and reach speeds above 65 mph. The car was owned by the Gasamatic Oil Burner Company of Austin and was making a promotional circuit across the area, including to Mankato. Delivered to Minnesota, the cost was about $600.

Annual plane, glider, kite contest

April 6, 1933 Open to all boys 16 and younger, the annual contest was announced for 1933. The boys had to be the sole builders of their crafts. They were judged on design, weight, strength and neatness, plus the length of time the planes and gliders remained in the air. The grand prize was one-half week at the YMCA boys camp. The air show was staged at the Mankato Airport.

Being in harmony with nature

April 12, 1985 Artist Marian Anderson was profiled in a feature article. She talked about her early forays into appreciating nature while accompanying her father while hunting and trapping. While still in high school, Anderson began selling her paintings in shopping malls. Years later, her works were featured at top art shows throughout the country. Anderson explained that material things “really don’t do much for me,” but being in nature and expressing it through art did excite her. She was one of the few women painting wildlife art. “My favorite feeling is when I’m doing a painting and I get to a point I don’t think of brush size or color. It’s just a natural flow.”

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FACES & PLACES: Photos By SPX Sports by David Faulkner

Hockey Day Minnesota Week

1. Minnesota State men’s hockey head coach Mike Hastings (middle) poses with former head coaches Don Brose (left) and Troy Jutting (right) before the start of the MSU Alumni game during Friday night. 2. Peewee A celebrates with their trophy after beating Minnesota River on Tuesday night. 3. Team Brose goalie Westy Graves makes a save on a shot by Ryan Rintoul during the Hockey Day Minnesota MSU Alumni game during Friday night at Blakeslee Stadium. 4. Dan Myers, digital content coordinator with the Minnesota Wild, poses in his purple and gold suit during the MSU men’s hockey game against St. Thomas on Saturday. 5. Minnesota State women’s hockey player Sydney Langseth (#3) looks off at the stands during the lineup against St. Thomas on Sunday.

8 • APRIL 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

FACES & PLACES: Photos By SPX Sports by David Faulkner

1. A jammed packed Blakeslee stadium on Saturday saw crowds huddled together in the wintery conditions. 2. Minnesota State men’s goaltender Dryden McKay smiles through the snow. 3. A fireworks display capped off Saturday evening. 4. Connor Lee celebrates after scoring a goal for Steele County Blades against Minnesota Mullets Sunday evening. 5. The atmosphere in a packed Blakeslee stadium for MSU men’s hockey against St. Thomas, in combination with the falling snow, will go down in memory.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2022 • 9

FACES & PLACES: Photos By SPX Sports by David Faulkner

Pedal Past Poverty 1. Heath Cram with the MEI team cycles in heat two. 2. The Rev., Andrew Whiting cycles in heat three with the Ss. Peter and Paul Youth Group. 3. Sister Anna Marie Reha of Notre Dame, with team Women on Wheels, moves her arms to the sound of the music blasting. 4. Team Community Bank poses for a group photo. 5. Janna Kurth with team Mankato Clinic Team A cycles in heat two. 6. The stationary bike race has teams of 10 cycling for 20 minutes in heats. Each team is tasked to raise at least $1,000 to tackle homelessness with Partners for Housing.

10 • APRIL 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

Meet some of our contributors

Dana Melius

Leticia Gonzales

Jean Lundquist

Dana is a longtime journalist and writer who has lived his entire life in southern Minnesota. In addition to being a former restaurant owner, Dana spent many years with the St. Peter Herald.

A graduate of the University of Minnesota’s journalism program, Leticia is a freelance writer for the Mankato Free Press and Mankato Magazine. When she isn’t working, she is running, reading or spending time with her three teenage children.

Jean has many years of experience in southern Minnesota’s media landscape. For the past 15 years, she’s dispensed top-shelf gardening tips and advice for Mankato Magazine. A Master Gardener, Jean lives near Good Thunder with her husband.

Jackson is a former Free Press photographer whose work has been published throughout the region. A winner of multiple photojournalism awards, Jackson lives in North Mankato. Jackson’s work on a major reporting project about a gay couple in Wells earned him a Minnesota Newspaper Association award.

Jackson Forderer

Longtime radio personality for KTOE, Pete has written his column for Mankato Magazine for almost as long as it’s been around. As a journalist he covered everything from disasters to presidential visits, and has long been one of the most trusted figures in southern Minnesota.

Pete Steiner MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2022 • 11

AVANT GUARDIANS By Leticia Gonzales

Artist Jill C. Miller emerged from the tragedy of losing a husband, and channeled that heartache into her art.

From heartbreak, beauty Miller ventures into watercolors, welding, stained glass

espite having many creative relatives help her hone her artistic skills as a child, Jill C. Miller didn’t become immersed in the field until her first husband died. “When (Paul) passed from a car accident in 1990, I found myself a little lost and at loose ends,” said Miller, who grew up in Iowa but has lived in North Mankato since 1994. “That is when I found the ad in the paper for a watercolor class.” Although Miller studied art for two years at Buena Vista College in Storm Lake, Iowa, her growth didn’t take shape until she took that watercolor class and worked with instructor Jackie May, who soon became a mentor. “I found my art was always something I could turn to 12 • APRIL 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

when I was feeling lost,” said Miller, who will soon turn 60. “It felt like connecting with an old friend again.” She also began experimenting more with her skills. “That is where I first tried the ice crystal freezing thing,” she said. “I would never have thought about trying welding to produce lawn art, but here I am with a flower in my front yard and collecting items I hope to weld into more pieces. I have also become a little less critical of my pieces and more just go for it and see what happens.” Through her mentorship with May, Miller said she also became more familiar with local art shows and art programs. “She was a wealth of information. I was still a little sporadic in working on my art. I would mostly just paint

when the mood would hit.” After Miller remarried in 2007, she created a new outlet for her artwork. “My creativity would come out in my cooking or in decorating my home,” she said. “When my second husband, Randy, passed away after a short illness in 2014, I found myself feeling overwhelmed. I found it easier to focus on only one project at a time no matter how small the project.” Once her projects were complete, Miller made a goal to enter local art fairs in 2019. “My creativity would take a backseat when big events happened in my life, and it would sometimes take a while before I would get the creative bug again,” she said. “It has been more front and center in my life since I made the conscious goal of attending art fairs to try to make some money to help support my craft.” Miller said she went to about eight art fairs that first year. But in 2020 the pandemic shut down most of them. She said she used that time to take additional classes to learn new skills, such as welding and working with stained glass.

Although Miller said she has always been drawn to watercolor “because of the fluidity of the paint and the ‘happy accidents,’” she dabbles in a variety of art mediums. She said her style is more abstract and that she is more of an intuitive artist. “I recently found alcohol inks, which are similar to watercolor but much more vibrant colors. There is always a learning curve on how to control a new medium and how different colors react to each other on the paper.” She often combines the two techniques, which can be a challenging process. “It is difficult to retain the ice crystals on the paper,” she said. “The water content has to be just perfect.” Miller recently had a piece in the Member Show at the Art Center of Saint Peter and has had pieces in the juried show for the Twin River Council for the Arts, even winning the McKnight Award one year. “Everything you try gives birth to new ideas to try to see what will happen,” she said. “One is always learning when creating and new products spark the imagination.

Jill C. Miller There really is no limit to what you can experiment with and create. Confidence in yourself is the biggest and best influence.”

MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2022 • 13

BEYOND THE MARGIN By Joe Spear

Hope, and psychological peace, spring eternal W e should never underestimate the psychological importance of spring in Minnesota. It’s been a rough winter. January was colder than normal. Our psyche was whipsawed by hopes of spring, when the temperatures would rise to the 40s one day and -2 the next. January’s average daily temperature was 10 degrees — about 4.5 degrees cooler than normal. Snowfall was 14 inches, 6 inches higher than normal. Still, we look forward to the melting rivers that ease over the ice like syrup, the black and blue earth that steams with the sun while warmer breezes usher in the spring redemption. The vernal equinox says spring was supposed to arrive March 20 this year. We have gained some three hours of light since the winter solstice, about 20%. There’s a hint of pre-spring when the late-afternoon sun hits a soft patch of ice on a river and gives a warm reflection. Snow still sticks to trees but on the north side only. And on the first day of 60 degrees, life goes crazy. The hotrods, the Harleys and the Alumacrafts all take their cue from the warm spring wind that hails, on average, about 12.3 mph in Mankato, down from 12.9 mph in March, according to weatherspark.com. The average daily April temperature rises during the month from 50 degrees to 65 degrees at the 44th parallel, named by Parsons King Johnson and Henry Jackson as Mahkato — the Dakota word for Blue Earth. Ah, spring. There’s plenty to take in during a Mankato spring. The Minnesota River. The Red Jacket Trail. The awakening of Front Street with its neon beer signs beckoning Labatt’s Blue and Special Export. Franklin Rogers Park rises like a cathedral as the spring sun hits its all-season turf. And we know that all ends well at Caswell — the North Mankato complex that has hosted the legends of Minnesota state high school girls fastpitch softball players whose whispered screams you can hear when you walk onto the dormant field. Entities emerge. The MoonDogs. The Legion teams. High school baseball. Track and field. Lacrosse. Sounds carry the spring air with them. The crack of the bat, the slap of the ball hitting the glove, the grunts and heaves and the joyous screams of victory, the smacking of the hard ball against a vulnerable body. And we smile at the queued-up auto glass ads as the foul ball sails into the parking lot. Ah, spring. A fine article by Anthony Scioli in Psychology Today notes spring gives us feelings of hope, which gives our serotonin a boost. “Spring and hope are intertwined in the mind, body, and soul. In spring, nature conspires with biology and

14 • APRIL 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

psychology to spark the basic needs that underlie hope: attachment, mastery, survival, and spirituality,” writes Scioli, a professor of clinical psychology at Keene State College (the university system of New Hampshire). And volunteer ice watcher Steve Schoeb looks for the ice-out date on Madison Lake, taking over a few years ago from his aunt Mary Buschkowsky. She watched the ice for more than 40 years. By March 26 last year, ice-out was about a week away, and the median ice-out on the lake is April 5. There’s a certain anticipation of marking a date earlier than last year — than a decade ago. But prospects may not be good with the colder-than-normal January and February. The added light and heat of spring also boost our psychological mood with light igniting the serotonin our body produces, which Scioli describes as “a major excitatory neurotransmitter in the nervous system, and the target of many antidepressant drugs.” And there’s positive news for gardeners and farmers: “Among the indirect effects of spring on mood are increased exercise, and the physically related but psychologically distinct activities of gardening and farming.” The endless forests emerge in spring. The valleys and ravines of Mankato and North Mankato guarantee a view of trees for most any house at most any window. This also cannot be underestimated. Science tells us that trees give off life-redeeming oxygen. The more oxygen we have, the happier we are. Color has a similar psychological effect. Flowers give us a choice of blue for cool, and the daffodils and tulips give us those psychologically excitable colors red and yellow. Spring can be as unpredictable as weather. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it snows. Flying kites can be an activity that previews spring. Sean Beaver of Great American Kites held an expedition with his 200 foot-inflatable kites on a frozen Clear Lake in Waseca Feb. 20 with temps in mid 40s. Beaver had his business model down. “We’re in the amazing memory business,” he said to The Free Press, in a mantra he repeated. “At our core, I mean, we fly kites — that’s not who we are. We’re all about getting the kids off the couches and their Xboxes and their gaming consoles and their smartphones.” Scioli had his own view: “Spring is full of psychic potential because it satisfies the four basic motives that underlie hope.’’ To which Beaver can add: “Life’s not a dress rehearsal, man. You don’t get these days back, so you gotta finish with your fun meter on high.” Amen to spring. Joe Spear is editor of Mankato Magazine. Contact him at jspear@mankatofreepress.com or 344-6382. Follow on Twitter @jfspear.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2022 • 15

Familiar Faces

Sam’s club Mankato Brewery taproom manager knows her brews (and true crime podcasts!)

I Photos by Pat Christman

NAME:

Samantha Rubene AGE: 27 OCCUPATION:

Taproom lead manager at Mankato Brewery

HOMETOWN: Riverside, California

PET’S NAME:

Dog named Roman, cat named Gari and two snakes, Ragnar and Moosh.

FAVE MANKATO BREWERY CREATION:

That’s a hard one. Hopbiscus IPA or Kato Black.

16 • APRIL 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

n the 10 years that Mankato Brewery has been with us, its taproom has evolved into a warm and welcoming gathering place for beer lovers. One of the reasons for that success is taproom manager Sam Rubene, a California transplant with a refined beer palate who is always ready with a quick pour and a friendly smile. Pro tip: If you want to get on Sam’s good side, ask her about her favorite true crime podcast or give her a book recommendation. Mankato Magazine: You grew up in California. What brought you to Mankato? Samantha Rubene: At the end of 2012 my parents decided they were moving to Shakopee. I had just graduated from high school so I thought, “Why not move across the country and try it out!” Honestly, when they told me they were planning on moving to Minnesota, I didn’t 100% know where the state was! But once we moved and got settled, I realized this state is pretty awesome! One minute you can be surrounded by pine trees in the middle of the northland and the next minute you’re enjoying the sunshine on a pontoon on Lake Washington. I moved down to Mankato originally for school (MSU). I dropped out of school but ended up staying in the area because of Ethan, who is now my fiance. And we are now proud St. Peter homeowners. MM: Tell us how you landed at Mankato Brewery. SR: I was a regular. Ethan and I would come in two to three times a week. We lived very close at the time so it slowly became our favorite place to be besides our apartment. The taproom manager at the time, Curt Van Asten, knew me from New Bohemia and it became a joke of “You should hire me since I live a block away” or “You should hire me because you know I love beer and I know my beer.” Then one day, he contacted me about an opening in the taproom. So I, of course, jumped at the opportunity! This coming July I will have been with the brewery for five years, two of those years as taproom lead manager.

MM: You’ve got a pretty refined beer palate. Tell us a little bit about your history of beer appreciation. SR: It started with the job at New Bohemia (a Mankato bar that closed). All bartenders went through a beer training class with a licensed cicerone. That training laid a good foundation for me to build my beer knowledge and get comfortable trying beers, learning what makes them similar and different. Our general manager, Liza Wilde, did a fantastic job keeping a wide variety of great beers on our tapline, which helped grow my beer knowledge and willingness to try anything and everything. Plus I have always enjoyed a great beer so that helped make the process fun. MM: You’ve worked at a few different places in the service industry. What’s different or special about the clientele of a brewery taproom? SR: The atmosphere of the taproom is unique yet feels familiar and inviting. Which is the perfect recipe for some cool guests and regulars. Craft beer lovers are always very personable, kind and have a great sense of humor. Which makes our guests a bit different from restaurant-goers. There’s always a welcoming smile and interesting backstory ready to be told. MM: How knowledgeable do you have to be about all the different beers available at the brewery? SR: Very knowledgeable I would say. Since I’m the taproom lead manager, it’s up to me to know what beers we have available on tap so I can A) sell it to our guests, and B) inform all my bartenders so they are knowledgeable of each beer and its style. Which then helps them to sell our beers to guests. Plus I think it comes naturally for me. If there is a new beer on tap, I immediately try it. Especially if it’s a new style for the brewery or one we haven’t made in a while. Recently we released a SMaSH IPA beer, which is a single malt, single hop style of beer. The first release is made with Pacifica hops, which I would consider a gentler, more approachable hop. It’s hoppy but not bitter, citrusy and fresh tasting. It’s a good introductory IPA for those non-hopheads.

Samantha Ruben came to Minnesota from California with her parents shortly after graduating from high school. MM: What do you do for fun? SR: I’m a bookworm. My dream is to have a library so I am slowly working toward that goal. I also enjoy being up north. Ethan and I typically make at least two trips up to Effie and Deer River each year. And it’s definitely my happy place. Also love a good concert. I saw Todd Day Wait and Nick Shoulders in October at 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis for my 27th birthday. But mostly I’m a homebody. On my days off, you can find me curled up on the couch watching my current favorite show or rewatching a movie. Or in my rocking chair, reading a good book. MM: Tell us something about yourself that would surprise Mankato Brewery regulars. SR: I’m a true crime nerd and religiously listen to my lineup of true crime podcasts every week. Right now my lineup includes: “Crime Junkie Podcast” (I’m even a fan club member so I get my episodes a day early and ad free, total game changer), “Anatomy of Murder,” “Something Was Wrong” and “The Deck.” I also just love podcasts so I have finished all seasons of “Dr. Death,” “Counter Clock,” “To Live and Die in LA,” “Hell and Gone,” “Red Collar,” “Park Predators” and many more. I have recently enjoyed listening to scripted podcasts as well. I just finished “Last Known Position.” They use immersive audio so it’s a whole experience. Would definitely recommend it to everyone!

MM: What’s your current Netflix binge? SR: I just finished “The Women in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window.” Man oh man, was that an awesome series! It was the perfect true crime satire yet legit mystery. “Chef’s Kiss.” I have also recently gotten into “Schitt’s Creek.” It’s the perfect cringe comedy to watch after a long day. But when it comes down to it, I’m a creature of habit so I will forever rewatch some of my beloved series. Right now I’ve been rotating through “Glow,” “Series of Unfortunate Events,” “Gilmore Girls” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” And for non-Netflix, “Euphoria,” “The Great” and “Dollface” are all amazing and part of my show lineup. MM: If you created your own beer, what style would it be and what would it be called? SR: Some type of fruited pale ale. Either peach or blueberry for the fruit with Pacifica hops or mosaic hops. With a 5% ABV, for more drinkability! I’ve always loved the floral, citrus and botanical notes of hops. I started my craft beer journey with IPAs and I always seem to gravitate back to them in one form or another. Lately, I’ve been loving pale ales with a strong forward hoppiness or even IPAs that aren’t too terribly bitter. The name would be: Stay Weird, Stay Hoppy.

Compiled by Robb Murray MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2022 • 17

DAY TRIP DESTINATIONS: ALEXANDRIA By Renee Berg

Alexandria has long been a weekend getaway for many Minnesotans. With its natural beauty and lake-heavy lifestyle, it’s easy to see why.

Alexandria the great

Dating back to 1858, Alexandria is ‘a place for a relaxed vacation’

Photos by Kvidt Creative, courtesy of Explore Alexandria Tourism

e careful: If you visit Alexandria, you might decide to buy there. Lots of tourists have made the town their second home, said Joe Korkowski, executive director of Explore Alexandria Tourism, because of the lakes and relaxing atmosphere. “Alexandria has brought in top-level people in the areas of medical care, engineering and innovating, education and the nonprofit world. All of those professions and areas have people who have moved to Alexandria after vacationing here and falling in love with it.” For visitors, Alexandria is an easy getaway because it’s right off a number of main highways, yet within minutes you are immersed in lake country. “It is a combination of innovation and a place for a relaxed vacation,” Korkowski said. The town got its start in 1858, the same year

18 • APRIL 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

Minnesota became a state. Brothers Alexander and William Kinkead of Delaware traveled along the Red River Trail, stopping to establish a settlement on the shores of Alexandria’s Lake Agnes. Alexander served as the town’s first postmaster, and it was named in his honor, according to the Alexandria Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce. Tara Bitzan, executive director of the Chamber, said her entire life has been spent in the rural Alexandria area and she can’t imagine living anywhere else. “We’ve got it all,” Bitzan said. “From miles of trails for walking, biking, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, to 300-plus area lakes for boating, fishing, swimming to plentiful lodging options including B&Bs, hotels, motels, resorts and campgrounds. ‘There is something here for all ages and interests, year-round. Our lakes and trails are just as much fun

You’re never more than a few miles from a good time in Alexandria. Ever tried paddleboarding? in the winter as they are in the spring, summer and fall. And we are easy to get to, located right off I-94.” In addition to the recreational and fishing lakes, there are other standbys when visiting Alexandria. Make sure to snap a photo with the town’s 28-foot-tall Big Ole statue, visit the Carlos Creek Winery and check out the town’s newest attraction, Veterans Memorial Park, said Korkowski of Explore Alexandria Tourism. “Alexandria is a great community,” said Kim Swenson, who has made it her home for 18 years. “We have great restaurants with many varieties of food. Our downtown is amazing with many locally owned shops. And you can’t beat our lakes and resorts,” she said. “We also have great familyoriented places to go. We have the Garden Center Bowling Alley, Cinema Theater, Andria Theater, plus Theatre L’Homme Dieu. We also have our Runestone Museum and Legacy of Lakes Museum to visit.” Trendy, gourmet food can be found at LaFerme and the Garden Bar on Sixth, and a number of places offer a good dining

experience, including the Pike & Pint Grill, Great Hunan, Longtrees Woodfire Grill, Lure Lakebar and Interlachen Inn. For that great American experience, Fat Daddy’s Bar & Grill, Willy T’s Tavern & Grill, The Depot Express, Angelina’s Restaurant & Bar, D. Michael B’s Resort Bar & Grill, DJ’s Tap House & Grill, the Deck Bar & Grill and Zorbaz are a few to try, Korkowski said. If it’s breakfast you seek, he said to consider checking out The Traveler’s Inn Restaurant, Northwoods Café, the Coffee Pot or Jan’s Place, to name a few. Downtown you’ll find a strong atmosphere of history, but it’s also quite modern with many boutiques. “There are also a number of seasoned store owners who have a lot of fun antiques, one-of-a-kind items, and just know how to make the shopping experience fun,” Korkowski said. “As a guy, I really like shopping at The Dashery for clothes, but I also like Past & Present Home Gallery and Yesterdays to help decorate our home.” If you’re in the mood for live music, check out local breweries

Copper Trail Brewing and 22 Northmen Brewing Co., which have entertainment year-round. The Andria Theatre and Lakes Area Theatre also have shows each month of the year. During the spring, summer and fall, outdoor venues include Concerts on the Courthouse Lawn, the Legacy of the Lakes Gardens and Carlos Creek Winery. “There is always something going on,” Korkowski said. “We have hiking trails, biking trails for both casual/road biking and mountain biking,” he said. “There are so many golf courses in the area, you’ll be able to find one that matches your playing level and liking. A lot of people come to the area just to play baseball or softball or simply enjoy camping and picnicking.”

Renee is a reporter for a weekly newspaper in Kasson. She also contributes freelance work for area newspapers and magazines. A graduate of Minnesota State University, Renee is mom to two teenagers and has two cats, Frankie and Hazel, whom she can’t tell apart so she calls them both Frazel. MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2022 • 19

Vusa Bentley spends her Saturdays chilling out. Literally. The fitness nut practices the art of cold water immersion at a secluded spot on the Blue Earth River.

Brrrrrrr!!!!! Cold water immersion is all the rage. Are you ready to jump in? By Robb Murray | Photos by Pat Christman

he’s got to be crazy, right? I mean … Look at her? Most people would run from a gaping hole in the ice covering the frigid waters of the Blue Earth River. For most, this is a nightmare. 20 • APRIL 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

In Minnesota, we tell our kids horror stories about people who walked on frozen lakes for fun only to fall through and drown. We caution them against wading too deeply into rivers; the undertow has claimed more

than a few thrill seekers But here’s Vusa Bentley, dipping herself willingly in water just a shade above 32 degrees — painfully, ridiculously, laughably cold. Turn your shower valve all the way to the cold side sometime and see how you react. That water, which will have you gasping for breath and struggling to get out, might be around 55 or 60 degrees. Believe it or not, she does it for the health of it. Bentley, who is somewhat well known in southern Minnesota for her work as a personal trainer and healthy living advocate, is a firm believer in a wellness trend known as cold water immersion — the practice of willfully subjecting your body to the cold water temps that would make most of us shudder. At her Mankato home, she uses an ice-filled tub, or the aforementioned cold shower. But on Saturdays, she ventures south of town to Dain Fisher’s secluded

compound. On this day, the insanity starts with the roar of a chainsaw, its steely teeth ripping through 8 inches of Blue Earth River ice and creating a 3-foot by 3-foot square. Fisher does the chainsaw work in anticipation of Bentley’s visit. He’ll also be dipping in. Bentley addresses the group — Dain Fisher, firsttimer Ray Satnik and a small group of journalists — and outlines a few rules. Fisher interrupts her. “Did you put makeup on for this?” he says, slyly. “I did,” she says, explaining that a magazine was here to document the process with writers and a photographer. “Was I supposed to do that?” Fisher says. He’s known Bentley for years. The two are close friends. “No! You’re a natural!” she says. “I did it because I looked like a lost cause. And I’m like, ‘Well, if it’s gonna be the cover page —’” “You look beautiful,” Fisher says. “I know, I know. Tell me more, tell me more — OK, shut up!” she says to Fisher, jokingly. “Let me explain this to (Satnik) because I don’t care if something happens to you — you have money. I don’t know if this guy has money, OK?” She turns to Satnik. “It’s not going to be like a spa,” she says. “The idea is to push our comfort zone. Rule number one: Be safe. Cold is harsh. It is merciless. You don’t mess with it. You don’t play with it. You don’t do stupid things on it. Rule number two: Challenge yourself. You have to prepare your mind. It’s one of the hardest things you’re ever going to do. But when you face that, when you overcome that, the next step — I believe you will get to the next step — you will instantly release adrenaline.” She explains the process, how they’ll meditate for a bit just before entering the water, how the body fightor-flight response gets triggered, how it all feels like chaos inside the body. She explains phases of “letting go” (surrendering to the cold), “allowing” (acquiescing to accepting the cold) and finally “no man’s land.” “You feel like you’ve just reached the state where you’re completely disconnected from everything,” she says. “That’s when you go get out.” Square cut, Bently, Fisher and Satnik make their way from a sauna-heated cabin near the river’s edge to the middle of the river. Fisher and Satnik take a utility vehicle. Bentley walks. On the way, she offers a little context about how she got into cold water immersion. “Nature heals, right? Nature is a tool. Everyone goes through the challenges of life. When I did my challenges in 2019 to 20 — it was like life ended,” she says. “I looked through nature. I have two hobbies that are kind of parallel but harsh: planking and ice dipping. One (helps keep my) core strong, and one helps me stay sharp in the mentally. And I want people to look and see that this is free. I don’t charge for this. This is volunteer. I would love to teach more people about this.” After a short walk, Bentley meets Fisher and Satnik at the hole of doom. nnnn Bentley’s not insane. At least not in the sense that she’s doing something dangerous or reckless. She’s actually right in line with a fitness trend based on MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2022 • 21

Ray Satnik and Dain Fisher prepare for their dip in the icy Blue Earth River. science, data and, practitioners say, results. If you’re a follower of fitness trends, you’ve no doubt heard the name Wim Hof, a cold-weather fitness fanatic — some say “guru” — who has ushered in a wellness movement utilizing cold, his own breathing technique (YouTube it) and willpower. But it’s the cold that garners all the attention. Hof holds several world records, including longest time in an ice bath (nearly two hours), has scaled Mount Everest in shorts and shoes and run half marathons barefoot. In the snow. Uphill. (OK, not uphill, but you get the point: Hof has earned his nickname, “the ice man.”) He claims that embracing cold has many health benefits, such as boosting immunity and reducing chronic inflammation (which, some studies suggest, is a major health issue that deserves more attention). There still isn’t a hill of research to back his claims. But there is some. In 2013 researchers injected several disciples of the Wim Hof breathing and cold exposure method with E. coli bacteria. The Wim Hof’ers had much milder 22 • APRIL 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

symptoms than the control group. And a 2019 study found Wim Hof’ers experienced much lower rates of inflammation than the control group. Hof also says, and many practitioners agree, that cold water immersion has many mental health benefits. The practice is invigorating, they say, and forces you to be “in the moment.” That rationale, actually, is why Hof began doing it in the first place. After his wife killed herself, the cold-water dips kept his mind off the heartache of losing her. From there, he says, he began noticing his entire health and wellness improving. Thusly, the iceman cameth. nnnn While may be an enigma in the wellness world, Bentley is her sort of enigma in southern Minnesota. Hailing from Azerbaijan, Bentley’s upbringing was very different from most people in southern Minnesota. “Up until Jan. 19, 1990, I was a ‘normal’ child. This all changed overnight as the current political structure collapsed and was

replaced by Soviet tanks rolling through the streets and curfews, followed by family-couponapportioned bread lines, limited utilities and government services,” Benlety told Mankato Magazine in late 2018. “As the political system changed and democratic ideologies flourished, the Soviet-era, MarxistLenin literature was now utilized as ‘fire starters’ in the bread-line bonfires. As a child, I did not comprehend much, though I do remember long and high-pitched sirens warning of curfews to this day.” Bentley, who in previous lives was an interpreter and FBI trainee, has garnered most of her attention through her work as a personal trainer. One of her more interesting endeavors is her plank initiative. Bentley doesn’t just do planks — she’s almost redefining them. On her “United We Plankout” Facebook Page she’s documenting her effort to do hourlong, steadyhold planks — that workout move where you get in push up position, except you upper body is resting on your forearms instead of your palms, and then you just … stay

“Bentley says she’ll happily instruct anyone on properly and safely exploring the practice of cold water immersion.” there, suffering, building core strength by forcing your body to remain steady. But she’s not doing planks today. Today she’s got better things to do. Fiddling with an iPhone, her mittened hands struggle to operate her Spotify app. Hastily, she hands the phone to a bystander to figure it out while she removes her coat and prepares for the real work. “How deep is that water?” someone asks. Fisher says it’s a few feet deep, not deep enough to truly worry about a tragedy occurring. “What if the river takes her away?” Fisher, pondering the question, smirks and says, “We’ll get her back.” Coat to the side, music settled, quips frowned upon — Bentley instructs Fisher and Satnik to join her in mental preparation. Intentional, slow breathing … breath producing misty puffs in the air, which is now filled with a flurry of delightful, fat snowflakes … three shivering people becoming one with Old Man Winter. And then, with little fanfare,

Bentley drops her tiny-butmuscular frame into the water. What happens next is … a scene of serenity, wrapped in surreality, nestled in a bed of “I can’t believe she just did that.” Bentley’s eyes close, her head tilts back slightly, her arms rest on the edges of the square hole. If you didn’t know any better, you might think she’s lounging in a hot tub … ONLY IT’S 33 DEGREES! A few minutes later, Dain Fisher dips in, sharing the hole with Bentley. He gasps, struggles for a moment to catch his breath, then faces Bentley. She instructs him how to breathe, encourages him, calmly guiding him and, within a few seconds, Fisher’s breathing comes under control. Then it’s the rookie’s turn. nnnn Ray Satnik, a burly guy with a big smile who seems to be down for whatever, hails from Stillwater. He came to Mankato to work with Fisher. “I moved down here in September and it’s been great ever since,” he says, moments before he’d be, literally, the coldest he’s

ever been. “It’s been a work in progress building up the store and the outfitter and doing cool stuff like this. We go snowshoeing and find whatever adventures we come up with. We get out there and get after it.” He says southern Minnesota is “kind of a hidden gem; you don’t really think about everything there is to offer here and most people go north instead of going south.” Which is true. “It’s only an hour and a half from the city. It’s just beautiful down here and the rivers are the main draw,” he says. Which is also true … But he probably never thought he’d be jumping into a hole carved in the ice covering a river, underneath which is water cold enough to kill a guy. Right? “I’ve always wanted to try this,” he says. “The opportunity presented itself and to be honest with you, I wasn’t planning on it. I thought it was just Dain going in. But he said, ‘Hey, might as well bring your swimsuit!’” He says he’d heard and read about the Wim Hof method and MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2022 • 23

that embraces the magic of cold. Maybe. “My girlfriend is actually in California right now,” he said, rubbing his hands together to keep warm. “She sent me a picture. It’s 80 degrees and she’s hiking in the woods. I said, ‘OK, I’m jumping in the river.’” nnnn

Bently coaches Ray Satnik on breathing and Earth River in January. was familiar with cold water immersion before Fisher dragged him out here. “There’s a lot of stuff out on the internet, and (cold water immersion) has become much more popular in the last few years. I think the benefits of it, from what I understand, outweigh the pain,” he says. “When you get to those

surviving the freezing temps of the Blue extremes, the way that your body reacts, being really hot or really cold, can be beneficial. So I think there is more research and science into it.” Prior to his maiden voyage into the icy waters, Satnik said he hoped this could be a starting point, a beginning, a launching point to a new era in his life, one

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Satnik dips in. And, surprisingly … He doesn’t seem to mind the cold much. He struggles for a second to catch his breath, his shoulders shiver a bit, shakes his upper body like a dog who just woke up from a nap. But if anyone thought this cold-water-immersion virgin was going to lose his mind when he felt the stinging pain of the icy Blue Earth River waters, they’d thought wrong. Satnik weathers the cold like a champ. Still, Bentley coaches him. Like she did with Fisher, she instructs him how to breathe, encourages him, calmly guides him and, within a few seconds, Satnik’s breathing comes under control. He’s learning. Just before he’s ready to hop

out, she orders him (advised, requested, suggested — you get the picture) to dunk his head. Unsupervised, a head dunk in these circumstances can be risky; it can trigger the gasp reflex, which can be deadly if trapped underwater. But here, under Bentley’s tutelage, Satnik emerges safe, ice cold water dripping off his mustache, thick brown hair whipped into a Hershey’s Kiss cone. He hops out, cold as hell, as Bentley smiles wide. Eventually, Bentley hops out. But before she’s ready to head back to the cabin, she does a few dozen dips, her derriere plopping in the water with each rep. After that, it’s time for a quick plank over the square opening in the ice. Then, together with Fisher and Satnik, she leads the group in a few exercises to warm up after the cold water immersion. Push ups, jumping jacks, high fives, smiles … Joy. They head back. Fisher and Satnik hop into the utility vehicle. Bentley, again, walks. On the ride back, Fisher and

After a moment or two, Bentley ordered Satnik out of the water. Satnik chat about it. “I start losing it and then I look into her eyes and I’m fine,” Fisher says. “Her brown eyes are warming,” Satnik replies. “I could’ve gone for longer, I wish I did,” Fisher says, “but when

she tells you to get out, you get out.” MM Ashley Opina contributed to this article.

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REFLECTIONS By Pat Christman

26 • APRIL 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

innesota lakes stay as busy during the winter as they are in the summertime. The wakes of boats criss crossing the lake are replaced by the tire tracks of trucks and snowmobiles making some of the same wakes in the ice and snow. Everything from fishermen to snowmobilers to the occasional ice race keep many area lakes busy during the hard water season. MM

MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2022 • 27

Triple Falls records their shows, available on YouTube or on their website, in the fourth-floor solarium of Bases’ apartment building.

POD people There are podcasts everywhere. Some of them are actually pretty good! By Robb Murray | Photos by Jackson Forderer

28 • APRIL 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

n 24% (68 million) listen to podcasts weekly — up from 22% in 2019. n 16 million people in the U.S. are “avid podcast fans.” n 27% of US podcast listeners have a 4-year college degree — vs 19% for the U.S. population. n 63% of podcast listeners are white — vs 58% for the U.S. population. Southern Minnesota has produced its own share of podcasts, on everything from Maverick hockey to local entertainment. Mankato Magazine thought it’d be interesting to sit down with a few of them to see how they got started, what their goals are and how it’s going so far.

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t’s almost become a joke in recent years. “Everybody and their dad’s got a podcast!” Untrue. But the proliferation of the medium certainly has been impressive. Here are some facts, courtesy of the website podcastinsights.com: n 75% of the U.S. population is familiar with the term “podcasting” — up from 70% in 2019. n 50% of all U.S. homes are podcast fans. n 55% (155 million) of the US population has listened to a podcast — up from 51% in 2019. n 37% (104 million) listened to a podcast in the last month — up from 32% in 2019.

It’s impossible to have a discussion about podcasts in southern Minnesota without talking first about the biggest fish in the local podcast pond: Triple Falls. If you’re like most, you probably saw the black and white “TF” local popping up all over social media around the time of the George Floyd protests. They made a point to be on the street, talking to people, documenting a moment in time none of us will forget. But they didn’t stop there. (They didn’t start there, either, but that’s beside the point.) In the brief time Triple Falls has been a player in the local podcast and media scene, they racked up an impressive list of interviews. In fact, most of your favorite local bands and personalities in the arts and entertainment scene have found their way to the Triple Falls recording studio. Which, technically, isn’t truly “their” studio. Triple Falls operates out of a fourth-floor solarium in the apartment building of one of its founders, Jacob Bases (the other founder is Will Stout, and they’ve added a third member, Zack Sproles). While the majority of podcasts are strictly audio, Triple Falls excels in the smaller, but growing, video realm of podcasting. Audio podcasting is relatively easy to pull off; you basically just need a microphone and an internet connection. For video podcasting, however, you need a little skill and expertise to avoid looking like you don’t know what you’re doing. In the solarium, it certainly looks like they know what they’re doing. Multiple cameras on tripods, wires running everywhere, adequate lighting, soundboard. And over by the sink, refrigerator and coffee maker there’s a dedicated laptop for sound and video editing. This doesn’t appear to be an amateur operation. “I grew up doing it,” says Stout. “And I’m like a self study on a lot of it. But I had a couple of friends that I grew up with who got even more into it than I did. So I’ve kind of picked up stuff from them as it were. Now they run a production company up in the cities.” While they do some contract work recording music performances for bands, the bread and butter of their operation is the sit-down interviews with interesting people. This is where Bases, an affable and gregarious fellow, uses his interpersonal skills to probe the minds of his guests. Bee Balm Fields, Good Night Gold Dust, Dana Sikkila, Eli Hoehn, Dagger Chuck, Jessica Potter, Nate Boots, Joe Tougas & Ann Fee, Sabrina Mercedes, Brenda Byron, Dinah Langsjoen — the list goes on and on. Roughly 90 shows, each recorded in their trademark solarium. Bases says he’s in charge of booking guests. At first MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2022 • 29

Top: Triple Falls is made up of (from left) Jacob Bases, Will Stout and Zack Sproles. Bottom: Bases handles marketing and books all the guests for the shows. “I try and be a good listener, an active listener. I’ve not been trained. I just like to listen to people.” he wondered if there’d be enough material or people to have a continuously running podcast about people in the Mankato area. 30 • APRIL 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

He doesn’t wonder about that anymore. “My idea of the scope of Mankato just changed,” he says. “I

remember when we started I was like ‘How am I going to find the people to do this? This is gonna be such a headache.’ And now we’ll be at 100 episodes soon. We have had people come on twice but it’s because their work is so broad or event-tied. But I don’t think that you could run out of people to talk about who are doing the things that we cover here in Mankato.” Bases says his interview technique has improved over time. “If you watch the first episodes, some of those are pretty rough,” he says. “It’s just kind of digging in on the project a little bit, finding out what’s going on. Generally I try and follow what I believe to be the thing that sparks the guest’s passion. When I hear them get excited about something, I would rather listen to them talk about that than the thing that I wrote down that I think is like my objective. There’s probably a reason why they elected to speak about that at the interview, you know. So I try and

be a good listener, an active listener. I’ve not been trained. I just like to listen to people.”

Cyber cops

Cyber attacks are having a moment. Whether it’s Russian hackers breaking into government databases or simple thieves sending out ransomware attacks, we all, unfortunately, know way more than we ever thought we would about cyber crime. At Minnesota State University, they took that as an opportunity to use the podcast medium to educate people on campus about cyber security issues. “Cyber Aware” began spring semester 2020 and has rolled out episodes on topics such as finding work in the cybersecurity field, cryptocurrency, backing up data, “ethical” computer hacking and more. “We had a couple of students on our cybersecurity team here at IT solutions at the college who were both super passionate about starting a podcast having to do with cybersecurity,” says Lexi Poetter, strategic communications coordinator for MSU’s IT Solutions department. “This is about broader cybersecurity awareness across campus, really focusing on boosting that digital literacy in our community, making cybersecurity approachable and engaging for students and employees. And then the other side of it for us is that we employ the student workers. We want to give them an experience, we want to give them those real world skills and a chance to really have the authority to make decisions and have a project that feels like their own, and also relates to what they’re studying.” Nathan Sloneker is one of the current hosts. He says being able to act as host not only allows him to engage with topics he’s learning about in class, but also help the university community in a fun way. “I’m making as much of a cybersecurity experience as I can through school,” he says. “This podcast gives students like me a really good chance to just learn more about our field and share with our community.” So far, Poetter says reviews have been as good as they expected. “General campus feedback from those who have heard it has been positive,” she says. “It is kind of a

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tough subject to market. It’s not the most exciting when you hear cybersecurity, a lot of people kind of turn away. So we’ve been pretty pleasantly surprised with how well it’s been received.”

Drag time

Wyatt Otto’s podcast “Drag Me with a Spoon” has grown in popularity, largely due to its following in the Twin Cities.

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If you’re wondering where all the drag queens in Mankato are, check out the podcast “Drag Me With a Spoon.” Wyatt Otto is one of the show’s creators. (He happens to be a distant relative of Wanda Gag, but that’s neither here nor there.) He says he started doing drag in the middle of the pandemic. “We were just kind of separated from most of the community, which is in the Twin Cities,” he says. “And there was no way to get to meet them by performing or doing anything like that. So I thought, ‘Why not use my passion for radio and do a podcast where we would talk to them and interview them about what their drag is like and what they do?’” So he did. Setting up interviews over Zoom, “Drag Me With a Spoon” launched a podcast exploring the lives and motivations of some of the Twin Cities most popular drag queens. “We would talk just about like philosophy of drag and what we believe in,” Otto said. “It’s a really fun podcast just like to check in basically about what we’re doing every few months.” Sometimes, Otto says, they bang out a few episodes in a row. Other times, when life gets in the way, they may go a few months between episodes. While the podcast is produced in Mankato, it’s not necessarily listened to in Mankato. “I don’t think most of our listeners are actually in Mankato.

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Unfortunately, most of them are in the Cities, because it’s like the rest of the drag scene and the other performers up there listening. But I think if people here knew about our podcast more, I imagine it would grow pretty significantly.” Otto says that, when listeners in the Twin Cities learn his show is actually recorded and produced in Mankato, they wonder why. “There are a lot of times people are like, ‘Well, what are you doing down there? Why aren’t you up in the Cities where all the action is?’ And, you know, this is kind of our home. We really like Mankato a lot. And I’m able to do everything that I want to do here. So I don’t feel the need to move up there. “But people are always really excited to see that Mankato has a drag scene and to see that people are actually doing things down here and creating content and making fun things happen. So I was excited.” MM

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Xcel Energy’s Wilmarth power plant burns trash. Sounds like a good idea, but not everyone agrees with the practice Courtesy Blue Earth County.

A messy history A look at solid waste in Mankato and where it’s at today By Natalie Rademacher

34 • APRIL 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

ost garbage goes into a bin and then gets picked up by local waste haulers. Recyclables go into a separate curbside bin that is also picked up. Organic material such as food scraps can be brought to a drop-off site. This is the part of the waste stream visible to consumers, but many may not know what happens to these materials after this step. The waste management systems in place today, while an integral part of society, haven’t been around for very long. The systems have come a long way in the last several decades and advocates say there is still much to be done to reduce waste and keep it out of landfills.

A history of waste

The history of waste management is a messy one. All kinds of waste were deposited at open dump sites in the 1940s. People would scrounge at these sites for reusable items. Other people dumped cans, bottles, even cars and washing machines along riverbanks. While this practice hasn’t been commonplace in decades, many of these dump sites are littered on riverbanks throughout the region today. Brand Frentz, who died in 2019, told Minnesota Public Radio News he mapped more than 200 miles of rivers in the Mankato area and found there is an average of one abandoned dump site every mile. As the state’s population continued to grow in the MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2022 • 35

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1950s and ‘60s, the garbage kept piling up. This put pressure on the state to find new ways to contain solid waste. Welcome to the era of closed landfills. Open dumps were closed and sanitary landfills — which use covers, linings and pipes to keep the waste out of the environment — were established throughout Minnesota in the 1970s. These landfills provided a better way to prevent waste from seeping into the ground and waterways. Around this time, the state was looking for ways to reduce how much waste was ending up in these landfills. Legislation was enacted in 1973 that gave the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency authority to promote waste reduction, recycling and resource recovery. One way to slow the filling of landfills was the establishment of resource recovery facilities in the 1980s, including the Wilmarth plant in Mankato. Rather than garbage going directly to the landfill, it could be incinerated and used to generate electricity. Recycling programs also were mandated in Minnesota counties in 1989, and recycling facilities were built in North Mankato and Mankato in the early ‘90s. More items began ending up in the recycling bin – about 15% of waste in the state was recycled at the beginning of the decade. By 2000, about 30% of generated waste was recycled, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s SCORE Report, which tracks waste management. Industrial composting still would not be established in the area for a while. The Full Circle Organics Composting Facility opened in Good Thunder in 2014, and Mankato Area Public Schools began bringing cafeteria food scraps to the facility around that time. Mankato Zero Waste, a group of local advocates, saw the new facility as an opportunity to divert even more waste from the landfill. The group went to the Mankato City Council in 2015 and got permission to do a one-year pilot study of a program where households could bring their compostable items, like food scraps, to a weekly drop-off site at the Lamm Street bus facility. “We saw food waste as one of the

Mankato Zero Waste volunteer Betty Winkworth guides a local resident through the process of organics recycling on the first day of a organics drop-off service in 2015. Free Press Media file photo. most critical ways to reduce emissions because of the methane produced by food in landfills,” said Betty Winkworth of Mankato Zero Waste. The program was a success and there are now drop-off compost bins in Mankato, North Mankato and Lake Crystal. Today there are 1,300 households that bring their compost to a local drop site. There are also 42 cities with organics recycling programs throughout the state. These systems were put in place to divert material from ending up in landfills, but there is still much that ends up there today.

Following the trash

So what happens between when a local hauler picks up a resident’s waste and when it ends up in the landfill? A unique part about Mankato’s waste is that it stays local throughout the process. Imagine a to-go coffee cup. To dispose of the cup, it needs to be put in the garbage stream because the plastic film on the cup makes it non-recyclable. The cup, crammed into a trash bag along with other household solid waste, is moved

from the kitchen garbage to the large bin for pickup day. A Waste Management truck dumps the bag into the truck along with the rest of the neighborhood’s waste. The cup doesn’t have to travel far before it arrives at its next destination — a place where it will be combined with tons of other solid waste from the Twin Cities and around the region. At the Minnesota Waste Processing Company on Summit Avenue, the cup is shredded, dried and baled, along with the other waste and turned into material called refuse-derived fuel or RDF. It is then fed through a tunnel to the neighboring Wilmarth power plant for the next stage. There the material is burned at about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Xcel Energy, which owns and operates the plant, then gets the energy that is produced. People who get their electricity from Xcel may be using energy generated by local waste. The Wilmarth plant can produce enough electricity to power 2,000 homes, said Bill Goebel, waste management specialist in Blue Earth County. All that remains of the cup now is

the leftover ash. The ash is collected and sent to the Ponderosa Landfill a couple of miles outside of Mankato where it is dumped into a separate landfill dedicated to ash. The waste-to-energy model, also called resource recovery, is meant to be a way to keep garbage out of the landfill. Even though the ash ultimately ends up there, when the waste is burned, it is reduced in size by about 85-90%, greatly reducing how much space is needed at Ponderosa. “When you look at the big picture, it’s a neat process of stuff that would just be wasted,” Goebel said.

Under heat

The Wilmarth plant has faced criticism since before it opened. Environmentalists at the time opposed it because of the ash ending up in the landfill. The county uses double lining to keep the ash from getting into the environment. Today there is pushback because of the greenhouse gases emitted by the incinerator and because it’s a system that relies on the production of more waste. “The problem with incinerators is that they incentivize making waste,” MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2022 • 37

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Winkworth said. “The other issue is the ash it produces has toxins. While there are filters to catch these toxins, they aren’t able to capture all of them.” Incinerators release dioxin, lead, mercury, carbon dioxide and other pollutive greenhouse gas emissions, but the county has invested heavily in filters and other systems to capture as much of the gases as they can before it gets into the atmosphere. Dave Kronlokken, waste and recycling supervisor for Blue Earth County, said studies show burning waste in an incinerator is more favorable from a greenhouse gas perspective than landfilling. He said that’s because waste breaks down in a landfill and generates methane, which warms the atmosphere much more quickly than carbon dioxide.

Diverting

The waste hierarchy is an inverted pyramid, with reusing and reduction at the top and treatment and disposal, such as landfills, at the bottom. Even though most local garbage is incinerated, some is still brought to landfills. “Landfills – we recognize they are

critical because there are some things that just can’t go anywhere else,” Goebel said. “But in general, we try to do everything we can to keep things from ending up in the landfill.” County staff works to find ways to keep certain items, such as mattresses, from ending up in the ground. They established a mattress-recycling program with a local company to take and reuse these materials. They also try to take car batteries, scrap metals and recyclables out of the waste stream so they can be properly recycled. Education is one of the biggest components of the work. They try to teach the community about what shouldn’t end up in the solid waste stream and how to properly dispose of it. Jane Dow and Winkworth of Mankato Zero Waste say they hope local organics recycling continues to expand as a way to divert compostable waste. They said many residents would like to see curbside pickup available for compost material. Participating households now have to bring their compostable material to a drop-off site.

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Another area they are interested in is establishing a commercial program that incentivizes businesses to recycle their organic material because so much compostable waste is generated by places such as restaurants. To get the program to this scale, they say the cities need to be on board. “We can propose ideas, but it has to be seen as a priority that will take city commitment to form policies, educate the community and some staff time,” Winkworth said. As the history of waste has shown, where waste ends up has changed drastically in the last 50 years and continues to evolve today. Experts say that while we have found other ways to divert waste, the focus instead should shift to reducing waste in the first place. Dow said she wants more pressure put on companies to produce less plastic and single-use waste. She said it’s been the responsibility of communities to find ways to recycle and compost these materials while companies continue producing more single-use

Jane Dow waste. “I think there’s an awareness about needing to produce less waste,” Dow said. “But there’s still such a large production of material. Landfills are as happy as ever.” MM

MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2022 • 39

Food & Beer

LET'S EAT! By Dana Melius

southern mn style Pablo Rivera, owner of the Mis Tres Flores Mexican restaurant in Waseca, is shown here with dos of his tres flores: Ailim and Emely.

Mis Tres Flores

Waseca’s ‘People’s Choice’ winner loves its community

nn Fitch, executive director of the Waseca Area Chamber of Commerce, wasn’t certain how the organization’s 2021 business award vote would go. Billed as the “People’s Choice,” online voting was opened up to the general public. “This is the first time we have done an award like this where we have the public choose,” Fitch said, reflecting on last fall’s decision. “Typically, it is only Chamber members that get to vote.” You see, Fitch’s job is to promote 40 • APRIL 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

Photos by Robb Murray and support all Chamber of Commerce members. Waseca voters made it easy on her. Pablo and Lucy Rivera, owners of Mis Tres Flores, won the firstever crystal trophy as the “People’s Choice.” “The response was great,” Fitch said, “and they were a clear winner. They were surprised to win and it was an emotional reception of the award.” Over five years on the south side of Waseca, starting from scratch, the Riveras had won the community’s solid support. And

Pablo has since made sure to let Wasecans know how appreciative his family is of that patronage. Coming into the U.S. in the late ‘90s, Pablo and Lucy were neighbors, living just outside Mexico City. The journey took them to California in 1998 before Pablo heard Minnesota might be the place to call home. “I like Minnesota, especially Waseca,” Pablo said, taking a brief break from serving customers. “And I love Waseca. They have a very nice heart.” It was that heart of community

What: Mis Tres Flores Where: 100 10th Ave. S.E., Waseca, MN 56093 What they’re known for: Authentic, homemade Mexican food, smiles and community support When: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Saturday https://www.facebook.com/MTFPABLO members who convinced Pablo to stay put in Waseca. He had worked several years at another established and popular Mexican restaurant, El Molino, which had won Waseca’s “Business of the Year” in 2016. But family and friends were trying to talk Pablo into starting a restaurant in Faribault. Pablo told those friends he was happy for their support but wondered if that support might instead be provided to his family for a start-up venture in Waseca. Couple that with what Pablo proudly calls his “farmer friends,” “Mis Tres Flores” became a reality. The name and signage are tributes to his wife and two daughters – My Three Flowers. They, too, love Waseca and the Minnesota life. “My daughters, they enjoy the weather,” Pablo said. “They enjoy the snow.” As Pablo kept waiting tables, two young out-of-town customers arrived one recent Monday afternoon. Skye Jensen, 20, and Skylar Larsen, 19, made the 35-mile trip from Albert Lea on the recommendations of friends. And their love of Mexican food wasn’t disappointed. “It was good. It was really good,” Larsen said. Jensen nodded. “It’s a good drive, but we like to go out of town (for Mexican food),” she said. The Riveras aren’t sitting still though. Pablo was planning to add a homemade ice cream counter in March, “La Michoacana Waseca,” a growing franchise devoted to successful Mexican restaurants. “For them, we have to use fresh fruit,” Pablo said. Pablo’s also considering a food truck venture with partners into the Rochester area by April. Pablo, 44, was originally joined by younger brother, Alejandro, 29, who eventually gave up his

ownership for a stop in the metropolitan area. He’s back now, helping as a server out front. Fitch, as chamber director, continues to promote the “many fantastic businesses in Waseca,” but she acknowledged the special way in which the Riveras received the award. “It was tough to get either Pablo or Lucy to come to the event; they had no idea they were going to win, and they have their restaurant to run. Luckily, lots of close friends were able to coax Lucy into attending,” Fitch said. “After the awards were all given out,” she said, “a contingent of Chamber members went to present the award to Pablo at Mis Tres Flores, in front of a room full of customers. The floor erupted in applause for Pablo and Lucy. They are simply wonderful people, and we are beyond thankful to have them as a part of our community.” For Pablo, it was a proud moment. “I’m very happy,” Pablo said in his quiet way. “Very happy being here.”

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A kitchen worker prepares a burrito at Mis Tres Flores.” MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2022 • 41

ON TAP By James Figy

For Tin Whiskers, electrical engineering expertise plays a role in production as well as branding. (James Figy

Engineered to Refreshment

elieve it or not, drinking and writing about beer is not my full-time gig. But beer still finds me, even in my day job at a global automation technology vendor. (It doesn’t hurt that it’s a German company.) One of our top engineers, Matt, is also an avid homebrewer. As a resident beer buff, I often get to try his test batches and offer feedback. One day we discussed how many brewers start out in engineering, listing several examples. The conversation was brief, but the idea lingered. Engineers, of course, are details people. But there must be more to it, right? And do many folks involved in beer making actually come from engineering? I tracked down some Minnesota brewers with engineering backgrounds to find out.

How many engineers are in brewing?

A non-exhaustive list of Minnesota breweries with engineering professionals includes August Schell Brewing Co., BlackStack Brewing, Lost Sanity Brewing, Tin Whiskers Brewing Co., Uncommon Loon Brewing 42 • APRIL 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

Co., Urban Growler Brewing Co. and Utepils Brewing Co. This excludes folks from broader STEM fields and those who received brewing engineering degrees but don’t identify as engineers. The list highlights people like Deb Loch, master brewer at Urban Growler in St. Paul. She put in 20 years as a biomedical engineer and product manager, then received a degree in brewing and went to work at Northern Brewer, the homebrew supply store. She noticed engineers made up a good share of customers and often focused on gear more than others. That made sense to Loch. “When I transitioned to brewing, I never transitioned out of engineering,” she said, adding she’s an analytical, problem solver by nature. “It wasn't like I stopped doing any of those things. I just applied it to a different situation.”

Why do engineers make good brewers?

Two key themes were process and measurement. These are critical for recipe development, reliable

Deb Loch worked in biomedical engineering for 20 years, including eight years at Medtronic, before becoming master brewer at Urban Growler. (Urban Growler Brewing Co.) production and fixing issues with ingredients or equipment, said Schell’s brewmaster Dave Berg, a former aerospace engineer. “In the brewhouse, we measure t e m p e r a t u re s , v o l u m e s , p H , specific gravity, to name a few. In fermentation, we measure temperature, pH drop, specific gravity drop, the time it takes to reach attenuation,” he said. “Knowing what your targets are and what to do for something out of specification is critical for consistency.” Brad Klatt, co-owner and head brewer at Uncommon Loon in Chisago City, sees the craft’s multidisciplinary nature as another key reason. “Brewing contains a number of mechanical, chemical, electrical, controls/automation and microbiology sciences,” said Klatt, who retired after 36 years in

engineering to open the brewery. Collecting data at each step and using that to enhance the brew is also critical, said Jeff Moriarty, founder and president of Tin Whiskers. The downtown St. Paul brewery also draws on Moriarty’s electrical engineering career in its branding, with a pint-wielding robot mascot and beers titled Short Circuit Stout, Reverse Breakdown Maibock and the Bot IPA series. “Brewing beer is also very science-based,” Moriarty said. “I like to think of it as engineering, but with beer instead of electronics.” How to enjoy beer like an engineer Are there any lessons nonengineers can apply when tasting beer or homebrewing? Pretty much all of the engineers-turned-brewers responded something like: Sure, but why?

Jordan Nordby, lead brewer at Utepils in Minneapolis, emphasized her chemical engineering k n o w l e d g e w a s n ’t h e r m o s t important tool. “It is having the mindset to know that things can always be improved and being able to see those opportunities when they present themselves,” she said. Still, Nordby suggested homebrewers add a light lager or blonde ale to their rotation. These seem simple but don’t hide mistakes well. Stick to the recipe, don’t dump in extra hops, taste carefully and make intentional changes, she said. “Do you want to know how different yeasts change the flavor of beer? Split your wort in half and ferment each half with a different yeast,” she said. “There are a lot of ways to experiment with recipes. But it is important to make sure you have the basics down first before going crazy with styles.” The engineers’ main advice was to calibrate your palate. Don’t limit yourself to specific styles. Try to describe what you’re tasting. And always remember to enjoy each new drink and brewery — don’t turn it into a science fair. As Klatt put it, brewing is highly technical, but beer itself remains more ethereal. “While engineering is an important skill set, equally important is appreciating the art and beauty in crafting beer,” he said. “I'm continually in awe of the miracle that combining four simple ingredients – grain, hops, yeast and water – can produce such a magical beverage.” James Figy is a writer and beer enthusiast based in St. Paul. In Mankato, he earned an MFA in creative writing from Minnesota State University and a World Beer Cruise captain’s jacket from Pub 500.

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MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2022 • 43

WINE

By Leigh Pomeroy

On the wine trail Revisiting old haunts, discovering new wines

t the end of January of each year, I head west to points warmer than what Minnesota offers in February. I visit friends and family in Colorado, then head south to Santa Fe to visit old college buddies. This year I picked up one friend, a retired airline executive, who drove with me to a shared family house in Newport Beach, California, where the weather is mild, the fish excellent, the restaurants terrific (and, if chosen correctly, reasonably priced) and the wine shops awash in choices I haven't even heard of. Surprise of surprises, I didn't have to wait till arriving in southern California to find some compelling quaffs. First of all, my go-to wine shop in Colorado Springs is Coaltrain Liquors, less than a block away from the campus of Colorado College, of which I am an alum. Its location is not by accident, as one of the owners is also a Colorado College grad. (Note to parents of high school students: Like many private colleges in the country, Colorado College offers generous scholarships for outstanding students wishing to study there.) At Coaltrain I found some intriguing Coloradoproduced wines, which hail from a splendid ShangriLa-like climate near Grand Junction known as the Grand Valley. The bottle that most impressed me was a Colterris Cabernet Franc 2019, young but inherently drinkable and similar to the terrific Cabernet Francs of Washington. An aside: Cabernet franc was once the primary varietal of the Saint-Émilion region of Bordeaux. Regrettably, and this is true all over Bordeaux, cabernet franc has been replaced by merlot, which is easier to grow, yields better and is more resistant to diseases. Yes, in some Bordeaux areas, such as Pomerol, merlot reaches its pinnacle, and these wines, due to their scarcity, command astronomical prices. But, in my humble opinion, merlot does not yield a wine anywhere near that made from cabernet franc or cabernet sauvignon. Arriving in Santa Fe, I was greeted with a culinary and enological surprise at an off-the-beaten-track place called the Tesuque Village Market, in a little valley about 15 minutes north of downtown Santa Fe. While the wine list is limited, the store and restaurant combination offers impressive choices of unique wines on the store's shelves, which one may bring into the restaurant. 44 • APRIL 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

I selected a 2018 Pinot Noir Cuvée Gilbert Gruet, made by the now well-known New Mexico producer of high-quality, reasonably priced sparkling wines, Gruet Winery. While the grapes for this wine were not entirely grown in New Mexico — the label reads "American" as its appellation — the wine was impressive and well made, and paired well with our dinners of chile rellenos with roasted corn, sautéed mushrooms and piñon nuts, and green chile chicken posole. Pinot Noir with Southwestern cuisine? Que paso? The next day we trekked west to one of my favorite hotels, the La Posada Inn, in the town made famous by the Eagles, as in "Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, such a fine sight to see ..." There's a long history behind the La Posada, a former Harvey House railroad hotel, originally designed by Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, who worked her way up from summer employee to lead architect for both the Fred Harvey Company and the National Park Service. After many years of standing derelict, the La Posada was rescued in the 1990s by a young couple from the East Coast and is now a gem. The hotel restaurant, called the Turquoise Room, is also a gem and features unique Southwest dishes such as Elk Ribeye Medallions with a Black Currant Brandy Sauce, which I enjoyed, and Cassoulet of the Southwest with grilled quail, elk and smoked andouille sausage, which more than stuffed my traveling companion. While the wine list does not quite come up to the uniqueness of the cuisine, we took a breath and sampled the improbably named 2019 Chateau Tumbleweed Le Blend, sourced from the Willcox AVA in southeastern Arizona, not far from the Mexican border. I know what you're thinking: Who the heck drinks wine from the Arizona desert? Not so fast, pardner. The growing area is 4,000 feet in elevation, which modifies the hot days and allows for relatively cool nights, perfect for the cultivation of warm climate varietals like the Italian sangiovese and the Spanish graciano and tempranillo, the three of which make up over 75% of the neighborhood muttlike blend. The result? A really surprising and exotic red that paired perfectly with our entrées. Thus well fed and well wined, we continued on to California, where our culinary and enological adventure resumed.

COMMUNITY DRAWS By Kat Baumann

MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2022 • 45

LIT DU NORD: MINNESOTA BOOKS AND AUTHORS By Nick Healy

The writerly wisdom of Snoopy

ho is the best writer work was good for a laugh. But Minnesota ever produced? while it could be silly and sweet, it Who is the state’s most also connected to more complicated important writer? realities of childhood — and of life at Those questions might be fun to any age. To get a sense of how Peanuts discuss and debate in classrooms or over a cup affected of coffee, individuals and the but they are impossible broader to answer culture, conclusively. there’s no better Identifying t h e s t a t e ’s place to look most read than “The and best Peanuts loved writer, Papers,” a however, is comparatively 2019 book simple work. published Nobody by the comes close Library of America. t o C h a r l e s Charles Schultz is the creator of the “Peanuts” comic strip. Schulz. “The As the creator of Snoopy, Charlie Peanuts Papers” includes an Brown, Linus Van Pelt, Peppermint engaging mix of essays (along with Patty and the rest of the Peanuts dashes of poetry and comics) from gang, Schulz reached more readers 33 well-known writers, and each has and affected more lives than any something interesting to say about other Minnesotan who has made a when and why Peanuts became life as a writer. Some might quibble important in their lives and how it and point out he was a cartoonist altered their perspective lastingly. and not a literary author, not purely a “It was reading Peanuts, lying on writer. But anyone who read Peanuts the floor beneath the piano in my with care will be unmoved by that parents’ suburban home in Newtown argument. Square, Pennsylvania, that I first saw Schulz was the son of a St. Paul evidence of the terrible truth: that my adorable parents resided in a cartoon barber, and after World War II, he lived for a time in an apartment above universe. It was Charlie Brown and his father’s Selby Avenue barbershop his friends — children who lived in a while pursuing his dream of world defined by unrequited love — becoming a professional cartoonist. who resided in the real one,” writes His Peanuts strip debuted in 1950, Jennifer Finney Boylan, a New York running in seven U.S. newspapers. Times opinion writer and the author Fifty years later, Schulz died on the of several novels and a best-selling day before his final Peanuts strip was memoir, “She’s Not There: A Life in scheduled to run in Sunday papers. Two Genders.” By that time, Peanuts was appearing In the anthology, novelists and in 2,600 papers around the world. essayists such as Ann Patchett, And, of course, his strips live on in George Saunders and Jonathan reprints in many newspapers and in Franzen are joined by cultural paperback compilations. commentators and thinkers Gerald Comic strips are supposed to be Early, Maxine Hong Kingston and funny, of course, and often Schulz’s David Hajdu and by familiar voices 46 • APRIL 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

“The Peanuts Papers” Edited by Andrew Blauner including Ira Glass, host of public radio’s “This American Life,” and Chuck Klosterman, the writer and journalist behind books such as “Fargo Rock City,” “Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs” and, most recently, “The Nineties.” For anyone who has ever chased dreams of being a writer or an artist of another stripe, Patchett’s essay should be mandatory reading. She describes summertime visits to her grandparents’ home in Paradise, California, where she got a break from a childhood that was strained after her parents divorced and her mother took her to live on the other side of the country. “I found Snoopy in Paradise the way another kid might have found God,” writes Patchett, the admired author of novels including “Bel Canto,” “State of Wonder” and “The Dutch House,” and the 2022 essay collection “These Precious Days,” a wonder in its own right. Patchett explains that she was an introverted kid and an indifferent reader who found company and inspiration in a pile of Peanuts

mass-market paperbacks her grandmother had chosen from a drugstore rack. In compilations with titles like “You’ve Had It, Charlie Brown,” Snoopy often sat at a typewriter and endeavored to write a novel of his own, and he modeled important aspects of a creative life. “Snoopy didn’t just write his novels, he sent them out. In those dark days before electronic submissions, he taught me what it would mean to stand in front of a mailbox, waiting to hear from an editor. He taught me — I cannot emphasize this enough — that I would fail,” Patchett explains. In Schulz’s comics, Snoopy received piles of rejection letters from editors, and he failed in other pursuits. (Remember how the biplane he flew as a World War I ace was often marred by bullet holes?) Still, that little dog endured. “He was willing to lose, even in the stories he imagined for himself,” Patchett writes. “He lost, and he continued to be cool, which is to say, he was still himself in the face of both failure and success.”

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ANN’S FASHION FORTUNES By Ann Rosenquist Fee

Prerequisites to red

DEAR ANN: I really want to try a bold red lip. How do I do this in a way that looks like I want it to look? Versus looking like I am just mindlessly walking around wearing too bright, too dark lipstick? DEAR READER: The first step is finding a shade that complements your eye-skin-hair tones, and before you can figure that out, you need to eliminate the possibility of a potentially wearable shade seeming like a big mistake because its main effect is that of making your teeth look movie-popcorn yellow. You’re welcome for the time and money I’ve spent figuring out this common pitfall. It started a few months ago when our local Ulta had a post-holiday clearance sale on the MAC cult favorite Ruby Woo, a matte red lipstick legendary for its reputed power to look great on a broad range of skin tones. I bought the gift pack (packaged as a “Holy Grail kit” with some leave-in conditioner, and frankly I didn’t appreciate the instructions on the holiday-themed box, which claimed these two things together would deliver all the holiday glamor a person might need, which I guess is helpful if you plan to create your holiday look after the gift exchange, which is true for no one, which I guess accounts for the clearance sale) and strode confidently out of the mall and into my car to apply my new color in the rear-view mirror. I was sure I’d acquired not just lipstick but a whole new beauty lifestyle. Well. Turns out, Ruby Woo’s main effect on me was to make my previously white-looking teeth seem decidedly yellow. I hated it. I loved Ulta for its return policy and I was proud of myself for slinking right back into the mall to return the product and regroup. I advise you to plan ahead for a less distressing ordeal, which will require both time and money, as 48 • APRIL 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

The key to making cheap red lipstick look good? Not-cheap professional whitening stuff. follows: 1. Buy yourself some decent product in the shade of red you think you want. Feel free to go cheap, like Elf or Wet & Wild, because at this point you’re just using the color for research, not real life.

2. Try it on. Smile. Now wipe it off. Smile. Now put it back on. Note the changes in levels of apparent tooth yellowness, with the product on and off. 3. Make a dentist appointment. Explain that you cannot go further in your red lip journey until you

5. Bleach as directed. Don’t hurt yourself, i.e., don’t squirt so much gel in the trays that it squishes out and starts burning your gums. Coat your gums in a little bit of vitamin E oil in advance, and go easy on the gel because this is long-game beauty we’re practicing now.

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4. Pay the $180 or whatever to have your dental office make a custom-fitted teeth-whitening kit, because yeah sure you can buy cheaper whitening products at the drugstore, but they’ll be less potent and less perfectly aligned with your teeth, likely resulting in less dramatic and far less consistent whitening. And you know how that would go. You’d end up buying a different over-the-counter kit, and then another, and next thing you know, you’re irritated with yourself for not spending the $180 in the first place to get the good stuff. Remember how dental offices were shut down during early #StayHomeMN? They could use your support as much as any local business. Do it for the economy.

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eliminate the possibility that an otherwise-perfectly-good red is doing the opposite of what you wanted, i.e., casting your teeth in the worst possible light and undermining your whole look and any related self-assuredness.

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6. Ta-da! It’s two weeks later, and now, apply your previously purchased red. See how much better it is, now that your teeth are more the color of teeth, not corn on the cob? See how glad you are that you didn’t go buying a bunch more makeup without first fixing the root problem? You are now in a position to buy whatever cheap (or not-cheap) product in any red shade that calls to you, because you’ve set the stage for success. Congratulations, and enjoy your new life as a confident wearer of a timeless look. Got a question? Submit it at annrosenquistfee.com (click on Ann’s Fashion Fortunes). Ann Rosenquist Fee is executive director of the Arts Center of Saint Peter and host of Live from the Arts Center, a music and interview show Thursdays 1-2 p.m. on KMSU 89.7FM.

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MANKATO MAGAZINE • APRIL 2022 • 49

GARDEN CHAT By Jean Lundquist

‘To forget how to dig the earth and tend the soil is to forget ourselves.’ -Mahatma Ghandi

Dirty logic I

Take care of your soil, and your soil will take care of you

saw a poster not too long ago that read, “Don’t treat soil like dirt.” The meaning, of course, is healthy soil means healthy plants. But if you think of soil and dirt as the same thing, that is all right with me (though, I think “soil” is what I have in the garden and “dirt” is what’s tracked in the house). But before we set plants outside in the garden next month, this is a good time to think about your soil — and amend it if needed. Years ago I bought something from a local big-box store that claimed to be a soil test. It had some funky little capsules in it and a color graph to compare your results with those on the packaging. I don’t remember what it cost me, but I know the value of that test was zero. Because I’m going back into the garden this year in 50 • APRIL 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

a big way after a couple years of gardening in grow bags, I’m opting for a full-fledged soil test from the University of Minnesota Extension Service. According to the website, it will cost me $17 and will be well worth it. Unless a serious imbalance is found in your garden, soil testing is not necessary every year. The results will let you know what types of fertilizer or other soil amendments are needed. As a rule of thumb, the only thing you need not worry about adding too much of is compost or organic matter. That is not true in a pot or grow bag but is almost always true in your garden. Before you spend, and potentially waste, money buying fertilizer for your garden, it will benefit you to know what your garden needs. When buying commercial fertilizer, you’ll see three numbers separated by a dash. For example, 10-10-10.

The first number is the percentage of nitrogen (N) in the mix. Nitrogen is needed for all plants to allow for lush, leafy growth. Higher amounts of nitrogen are great for green, leafy vegetables. The second number is the percentage of phosphorus (P) in the mix. Phosphorus is needed for flower and root development. Some flower formulas of fertilizer may have a number of 10-54-10 on the label. However, if phosphorus is not needed in your soil, it can run off and become responsible for contamination in lakes and streams that causes excessive algae blooms. Use carefully. The third number is for the percentage of potassium (K) in the fertilizer. The potassium helps the overall development of the plant. When you see references to NPK, these are the nutrients to which they refer. There are also micronutrients that may be lacking in your soil, or the pH balance may require amending. A soil test can alert you to these needs. When I put fertilizer in my garden this year, I will be fertilizing the plants, not the whole garden. I’m known to spread manure through the whole garden and compost manure/compost when possible. This may be more trouble than it’s worth, but considering all the weeds I let grow in my plot last year while I wasn’t using it, I won’t broadcast fertilizer across the whole garden. I don’t want to fertilize the weeds. I’ll put the fertilizer by each plant I want to nurture, instead. In addition, it will be my attempt at being frugal.

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nn n n If you’re looking for a good, natural nitrogen fertilizer for your garden or your plants, I will advise against fish emulsion. It is exactly like it says — fish. I can’t stand the smell of it in the house, and the raccoons and skunks can’t resist the temptation of it in the garden or in a pot or in a grow bag. Yeah, it’s good fertilizer, but use at your own risk, and don’t let it hit the leaves of your plants.

Jean Lundquist is a Master Gardener who lives near Good Thunder. gardenchatkato@gmail.com

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FROM THIS VALLEY By Pete Steiner

When life gives lemons L

ong story short, massive winter storm Landon had stranded Jeanne and me in Nashville. Ice to the north of us, a foot of snow to the west. Life-threatening to drive in such conditions. Thus getting back to Minnesota, the state renowned for cold and snow, was put on hold. The weather gods had given us lemons. It was still 58 degrees in Nashville that evening, so we decided to walk several blocks from our downtown hotel to Broadway to hear live music. On our way, we encountered lots of fans heading for the Predators home hockey game at Bridgestone Arena. We commented how, since our last prolonged stay in Nashville 40 years ago, the city has transformed to rival Las Vegas for All-American tourist status. Broadway, too, has metastasized as an entertainment scene; its pawn shops and used furniture stores gone, the avenue now is lined with venues owned by the likes of Kid Rock, Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan. Scores of young musicians hoping to “make it” play nearly ‘round the clock on multiple floors of these venues. Mankato actually has a connection here: Nudie’s Honky Tonk, named after Ukrainian-born Nudie Cohn, who somehow ended up in Mankato in the 1930s, where he married Bobbie Kruger. They eventually ended up in Hollywood, where they crafted the elaborate “Nudie suits” for Elvis and many country stars (average cost: $15,000). Nudie and Bobbie would occasionally return to Mankato to visit her family. My brother, Billy, fondly recalls the day he accompanied Dad to his Jackson Street office. Out of the window, Billy saw, coming down the street, a big-finned Cadillac with splashy decorations and the rack of a longhorn steer mounted on the 52 • APRIL 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

grille. Billy exclaimed something, and Dad looked out and said, “Why that’s Nudie Cohn!” But as I often do, I digress. nnnn The tourists along Nashville’s Broadway are a pleasing mix of young and old, gawkers and funseekers. Jeanne and I strolled past the venerable Ernest Tubb’s Record Shop, although at 7 p.m., it was closed. (The building and business sold for nearly $5 million two years ago, and no longer hosts the Midnight Jamboree featuring up-and-coming stars.) We listened to the sounds of bands wafting from open windows; I noted many of the venues still feature the same southern rock and country rock we heard at the Caledonia Live Radio Show I hosted for nine years, back in the ‘80s from Madison East Center — you know, songs like “Long-haired Country Boy” or Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll.” Great songs, but I’ve heard ‘em a thousand times. We finally settled on the historic and still vibrant Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, where revered icons such as Hank Williams would come to have a drink after — or even during — a Grand Ol’ Opry performance at the legendary Ryman, just across the alley. (These days, the Ryman, the “Mother Church of Country Music,” hosts mostly special concerts; the Opry in 1974 moved to a Disney-style theme park on the edge of town.) Tootsie’s walls are still lined with the old signed black-and-white photos of the stars. I searched out a couple of favorites: Don Williams and Willie Nelson on the second level. Then I bought a $10 bottled beer and left Kristal in her pink leggings a $2 tip. We settled in with the other

tourists as well as some locals to listen to The Crystal Rose Band. Featuring a female lead singer, a super lead guitarist, a fiddler, bass and drums, they played some Elvis, some Conway and Loretta, some southern rock. The crowd applauded heartily. I enjoyed it but couldn’t stop thinking about how cruel the music biz is: These guys are excellent, and yet they have about a 1 in 10,000 chance of making it. The competition in Music City is so extreme that talent alone won’t do it; you need luck, you need a lightning strike, the right person has to hear you on the right night. As we left, I dropped a five-spot in the tip jar, landing it beside a couple of ones. Not gonna pay the rent that way. It was 8:30 p.m., close to my bedtime. Next day, in the rain, as Landon still raged to the north and west — we spent three hours at the Country Music Hall of Fame, looking at legendary Gibson and Martin guitars, and yes, Nudie suits worn by the stars. We were surprised to find nearby the National Museum of African American Music. As lovers of gospel and blues, we logged three more hours there. Yet we had barely scratched the surface of what the city offers. Nevertheless, I concluded as we dared to hit the road the next day, we really had mixed up some tasty lemonade. Longtime radio guy Pete Steiner is now a free lance writer in Mankato.

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Mankato Magazine

Articles inside

From This Valley

Beyond the Margin

On Tap

Avant Guardians

Garden Chat

Wine

From the Editor

Lit Du Nord: Minnesota Books and Authors

Let’s Eat