Brothers Brad and Rod Anderson reflect on farming in Goodhue County, suburban growth, and shifts in rural–urban relationships over 50 years
When we think about the past in rural Goodyear County, there were 50 or 60 dairy farms in our township. Everybody had the same goal. Everybody was working the farm. That's not the norm in rural Minnesota because farms are not that. There's only three dairy farms left in Leon Township.
Brad Anderson:My neighbors today, there's a handful that actually are
Brad Anderson:active farmers and the rest are rural residentials.
Brad Anderson:They may have hobby farms, they're not actively farming for a living.
Music (Jim Griswold):We didn't have a post office prayer. This was really a village and becoming a small city. We didn't have our own zip code. It wasn't until a few years later that we had a post office developed in Etonford, and we now have freeways that crisscrossing the community.
Ellen Wolter:That's Brad Anderson talking about how agriculture has changed since he was a kid growing up on his family farm in Leon Township, Minnesota, and his older brother Rod Anderson describing Eden Prairie, now a major suburb of Minneapolis St. Paul, and what it was like in the 1970s when he first moved there. Brad and Rod Anderson grew up on their sesquicentennial family farm in Goodhue County, Minnesota. Brad still resides on the farm and is now a county commissioner in Goodhue County. Rod is now Pastor Rod, a Lutheran pastor in Eaton Prairie.
Ellen Wolter:Brad and Rod join me to talk about what it was like to grow up on their family farm in the 1950s and 60s, and how rural and suburban areas have changed in the last fifty years and become more urbanized. They share their experiences of how agriculture has changed, including the decline of the small family farm, aspects of rural life they hope are preserved, and how rural land is being used for more than agriculture these days. And they raised an important question: Are rural and urban communities, despite the dominant narratives that we hear, more connected now than they were fifty years ago. This is Ellen Wolter from the University of Minnesota Extension, and welcome to the Side by Side podcast. So Brad and Rod, would you like to introduce yourselves?
Ellen Wolter:Who goes first? I don't know the oldest or the fifth oldest.
Music (Jim Griswold):I'm a Rodney Anderson. I'm a eldest of six boys on the Anderson farm, our parents, Eldon and Gloria. I'm a Lutheran pastor. So I seldom go by rod around town here in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Everybody just calls me pastor Rod.
Music (Jim Griswold):I'm Brad Anderson, number five of six boys,
Brad Anderson:ended up staying on the, on the family farm. So I moved whopping six thirty two feet. So we were in Leon Township, Goodyear County, about halfway between the twin cities real close to Highway 52. Been on the family farm. It's a Sesquicentennial farm, so it's been in the family one hundred and fifty years.
Brad Anderson:It's just a pleasure to be able to stay on that land that has so much history to it.
Ellen Wolter:Well, welcome Brad and Rod. We are so happy to have you on today. Highway 52, I think is one of my favorite highways in Minnesota, but it also goes down in Iowa, right? And it's such a beautiful drive. That's one of my favorite drives.
Brad Anderson:It actually goes from the Canadian border and it ends somewhere in either North Carolina or South Carolina if you follow it the whole way.
Ellen Wolter:So Brad used to live on the family farm, so we know where home is for you. And Rod, where is home for you?
Music (Jim Griswold):We're 47, Eden Prairie, Minnesota, Southwest suburb of the Twin Cities and, Minneapolis St. Paul. And, we built our own home here when we moved here in 1977.
Ellen Wolter:You have seen a lot of changes in Eden Prairie.
Music (Jim Griswold):Yes. When we came, there were 7,000 residents approximately, and now there's 77,000 residents approximately. So, we grew up with a community. Sometimes when you come to work in a church in a community that's long established, you've got to learn everybody's name all at one time. But if you've been here forty seven years and they come, you know, one family at a time or a group at a time.
Music (Jim Griswold):So I think that's unique about our experience growing up in a community related vocation in a rapidly growing fastest growing community in America, 1997, '98, and '99.
Ellen Wolter:There's probably not a lot of room to grow anymore in Eden Prairie.
Music (Jim Griswold):You know, you can't grow out to grow up. We get multi housing, multi resident housing apartments and various other created, new kinds of construction.
Ellen Wolter:Well, tell me about about your family farm. So the Sesquicentennial Farm, and what was it like to grow up on your family farm? What was a day in the life?
Music (Jim Griswold):Well, Brad, do you want to go first or Nope.
Brad Anderson:Nope. We got to hear what you got to say. Well,
Music (Jim Griswold):you know, I was first born in the family and, growing up on the farm as a little kid was, kind of exciting, especially in the early fifties. The farm was being passed from my grandfather on my dad's side, John Leonard Anderson and his wife, Ida grandma Ida to, my parents and. Dad was working with old tractors as, very, very early on steel wheel, John Deere tractors. I remember the day we went to Wanamingo to pick up a brand new '19, I think Brad, it was 51 Massey Harris, 44 diesel tractor and a new combine. And it was, switching from the, harvesting, using a thrashing machine and bundles and so forth and so on to, the new newest kinds of equipment back then.
Music (Jim Griswold):Now of course, bigger and better equipment is available. It was all about work doing chores in the morning and chores at night and feeding the dairy cows and the hogs and the chickens. Doing even some of that work before going to school, working down the long driveway. Well, the first year that I was in school, I was in a one room school, and my mother had been a one room school teacher. So that was kind of special.
Music (Jim Griswold):And then going to a consolidated school, meaning many one room schools put in one consolidated building of, eight grades of about maybe 125 students. Is that about right, Brad? Yep.
Ellen Wolter:Yep.
Music (Jim Griswold):And then, later when high school came going to town at, in Cannon Falls to nine through 12 high school and mom was always going to the hospital and bringing home another brother.
Ellen Wolter:Did some hope for a girl at one point or was it?
Music (Jim Griswold):Oh, every time she wanted a Christina because her grandmother had been a Christina and she wanted to have a Christina. And every time she kind of took a look and said, well, I'll have to come up with a different name.
Brad Anderson:So for me, you know, being like eleven years younger than, than Rod, things had changed quite a bit probably by the time early sixties rolled around. But it was pretty much the same. I mean, you did chores in the morning. You did chores at night. I always joke.
Brad Anderson:I never got to watch a lot of TV shows as other kids got to watch because I was out of the barn doing chores. So, but for me, early on, probably eighth or ninth grade, I had pretty much decided I was going to farm. That's what I wanted to do. So I stayed, by the time I was a senior in high school, started doing more of the field work besides doing the chores. I think my senior year in high school, I planted all the corn and all the grain that year and continued with that through my whole life, which is kind of a little bit odd because a lot of times the last thing dad hands over to a son or to someone taking over the farm is really taking over that planting.
Brad Anderson:That's a critical point in the operation. I was able to do that at a very young age and continued it farmed for twenty six, twenty seven years actively after that. A little bit different growing up where I was at, because dad was ten years older. I took on a little bit different role at that point, cause of health reasons for dad and ability get all of those things. So it was a little bit different, but, and then continued to farm and added buildings and different things over the years after that.
Ellen Wolter:When you were growing up, did you, did you love farming? Was that a similar or different experience for the both of you?
Music (Jim Griswold):I always enjoyed it. Yeah, I did. I did. I thought it was, it was meaningful and, you know, dad was hoping to, to, to keep somebody on the, on the fire and, you know, and he, I think he looked at all of us and said, gee, I want to make it possible for, for this one and this one and this one to stay on the farm and have the farm. And of course we all had different callings and maybe even had to find different things in our futures.
Music (Jim Griswold):So
Brad Anderson:for me, it was, it was, I really enjoyed it. I, you know, to this day I'm awake at 04:30 in the morning, quarter to five. That's when I used to go to the barn to milk cows. I still miss, I miss walking into the dairy barn on a cold morning, and spend an hour working inside where it was nice and warm with the, with the livestock. I miss that.
Brad Anderson:I really do. The field work, not so much. I'm, I was more a livestock person and that's just, you know, you kind of grow into what your, vocation is. And that was kind of where I was at, but I, I do miss it. I, I absolutely enjoyed the years I got to do that.
Brad Anderson:Yeah.
Ellen Wolter:And now in the farm, so the farm is still operational.
Brad Anderson:The farm, I, we don't have any livestock that we own. We rent out the land. I have some neighbors that I grew up with absolutely doing a fantastic job taking care of the property, taking care of the land. They they're very conscious of, of soil health and soil conservation and that. And then I have someone else, a good friend of ours, son that is running a beef herd and he brings, beef cattle out to, to put in the pasture in the summer.
Brad Anderson:So I get to, I get the best of both worlds. I get to watch the guys put in crops, take out crops. I get to watch the cows and the calves grow up in the summer. And then in the winter, I don't have to worry about making sure they're fed and they go home for the winter and come back next spring. So we're looking forward to the first day that he brings cows out this spring with a whole herd of calves with them and they take off running down the pasture.
Brad Anderson:Cause that's just one of our highlights in the spring time and, and getting cows back on
Music (Jim Griswold):the, on the land.
Brad Anderson:So I don't operate the farm myself. I still live there. We still take care of it, but not, not actively in farming. You know, when we think about the past in rural rural Goodyear County, pretty much rural anywhere. You know, it was a community because there were 50 dairy farms in our township, 50 or 60 dairy farms in our township.
Brad Anderson:Everybody had the same goal. Everybody was working the farm and y'all had the same struggles and y'all had the same, you know, you talked about it at church. You talked about it when you got together at the school for local events. Farmers talked to each other all day long about, about what they were trying to, trying to struggle with. That's not the norm in rural Minnesota anymore because, farms are not that way.
Brad Anderson:There's only three dairy farms left in good, you got in Leon Township. And then that used to be 60. There's just a couple with, with swine left in good Yukonian. And then there's a smattering of people who raise beef cattle, but it's not that same community that was there fifty years ago, because you're not all doing the same thing. So in that aspect, there's a lot of differences in what I grew up with in the sixties and early seventies to what is out there on the land right now.
Ellen Wolter:What are some of the aspects of agriculture that changed over the last thirty, forty years that have eliminated the number of farms in Goodhue County?
Brad Anderson:Well, I think it's just purely economic. You know, we had 200 acres here.
Music (Jim Griswold):It had been in the family since 1872. You can make
Brad Anderson:a living on 200 acres up to a point. After that, it took probably two full incomes off the farm
Music (Jim Griswold):to support a farming operation. Markets have changed. Selling
Brad Anderson:15 odds at South St. Paul isn't
Music (Jim Griswold):a thing anymore.
Brad Anderson:There's just a limited market
Music (Jim Griswold):and the limited ability to market things
Brad Anderson:the same
Music (Jim Griswold):way you did in the seventies or in the sixties.
Brad Anderson:So even to the point, if you're a small dairy farm and you lose your processor for your
Music (Jim Griswold):milk, you're going to have a
Brad Anderson:real hard time finding another processor to take to you
Music (Jim Griswold):because they're geared towards semi loads instead of 4,000 pound pickups at little dairy farms. It's just
Brad Anderson:a totally different market system that we've gotten to today.
Ellen Wolter:Is it that farms were consolidated too? Is that part of it as well?
Brad Anderson:I don't know as, I mean, there certainly has been that part, but even family farms,
Music (Jim Griswold):that are totally run by the family themselves
Brad Anderson:have had to get larger. 3,000 acres, 2,000 acres, 5,000 acres. If you're going
Music (Jim Griswold):to raise swine, probably need buildings that hold 12 to 2,400 head. And then you market them consistently through
Brad Anderson:the year at certain points and you're sending semi loans, not
Music (Jim Griswold):pickup loans to market.
Brad Anderson:Price discovery has gone for small independent farmers to market smaller numbers of livestock.
Music (Jim Griswold):Those packages, those operations have changed drastically. And that's, that's part
Brad Anderson:of it. You rarely see 200, 300
Music (Jim Griswold):acre farms sell today with the buildings and the farmland together. The buildings get sold off separate.
Brad Anderson:The farmland gets sold off separate, and then they may even separate off the woodland if there's some woodland
Music (Jim Griswold):and sell that off separate too. So just the way things are transferring
Brad Anderson:in that
Music (Jim Griswold):rural area have consistently changed,
Brad Anderson:probably starting in the late eighties
Music (Jim Griswold):when there was a farm crisis there, a little late eighties, a farm crisis with
Brad Anderson:a lot of foreclosures and then continuing on from there. It's
Music (Jim Griswold):just, it's just changed.
Brad Anderson:So my neighbors today, there's a handful that actually are
Music (Jim Griswold):active parlors and the rest are, rural residentials. They're not farmed.
Brad Anderson:They may have a hobby farm. They may have a few livestock, but they're not actively farming for a living.
Ellen Wolter:So Rod, you moved to Eden Prairie in the 1970s. Would you say that was kind of a rural area at that point? I mean, it wasn't quite yet suburban. Was it? I'm just guessing.
Music (Jim Griswold):You're guessing correctly. Some examples would be we didn't have a post office in Eden Prairie. This was really a village and becoming a small city that was reflected in governance. We didn't, we didn't have our own zip code. We were all just kind of included in the Hopkins District, the Hopkins post office.
Music (Jim Griswold):And as, as a pastor, starting our congregation, when I did the church newsletter and had, newsletters mailing, I had to drive it to Hopkins and drop it on the dock outside the Hopkins post office. Wasn't until a few years later that, we kind of post office developed in Eton Prairie. When I came to Eton Prairie, there was, just two elementary schools and the same principal chaired the referendum committee, chaired the building committee and became the principal. And when the second school was going to be built, he chaired that referendum committee. He became the principal of that school.
Music (Jim Griswold):And the middle school was a school that had a very limited old building. My son was the band director in that building and the concerts were held in a little part of the cafeteria with a small stage on the end that reminded me a lot of my consolidated school out in the summer. Now we have two beautiful, large high schools with each beautiful, large athletic facility and performing arts center. So, the community has changed generatically. Now we have lots of large corporate centers, buildings and so forth.
Music (Jim Griswold):And we now have freeways that are crisscrossing the community, whereas before we had just roads that came, they came to the corner of the Eden Prairie, which was the most Southwest corner suburb for the twin cities. And that place was called the Y and there was a restaurant called the Y. And then from that restaurant and from that Y, people either went Northwest to Minneapolis or further North East to Saint Paul. So there was kind of a why to this community and a why out of it was interesting and affected the development of the community.
Ellen Wolter:When you moved from the farm, were you intentional about wanting to be in a more rural space?
Music (Jim Griswold):When I left the farm is when I went to college and I didn't expect to go to college. I received a very, generous, the largest scholarship that the, that the high school in Cannon Falls offered. And I had not even thought I was going to go to college. I was going to go and hopefully be on a construction crew running excavators or heavy equipment. In fact, I went and interviewed near our farm with, with an excavator to see if he would hire and, and, and then I got this scholarship and, and I came to the university and my resident counselor wrote a little, about me, Rodney Anderson, born of grass and sod, nothing there, but latent God, grass and sod turned gopher hole, inky dinky people, because I was kind of overwhelmed by being in a class of 7,000 freshmen.
Music (Jim Griswold):When I graduated with a class of, I don't know what we were, '96, and started out in a one room school with a class of four first graders.
Ellen Wolter:Did you have a little bit of culture shock when you were on campus and in Minneapolis? And what was that adjustment A like for
Music (Jim Griswold):poem that was written represents that for sure. Virtually my girlfriend had moved to the twin cities with her family. And another illustration of the rural community was her father. He was a he was a traveling salesperson. He had a panel truck and on the side was the big letters for JR Watkins.
Music (Jim Griswold):He sold Watkins, out of his panel truck, which he drove from farm to farm to bar. And, when my dad saw him, his panel truck coming across on the county road, my dad would get on a tractor and go out in the field. He didn't have to talk to Melvin. My mother bought nectar and such from the Watkins truck and my dad bought fly spray through the barn, keep the flies away. You know, that came to our house instead of us go to Menards.
Ellen Wolter:Well, so as kids and as teenagers, did you come into Minneapolis Saint Paul? What was that connection like for you, or did you mainly spend your time on the farm?
Music (Jim Griswold):Well, we had an uncle who was a pasture in South Minneapolis. So we would make family trips to family gatherings at their house with some frequency when we were very little, and they would come to the farm too. But otherwise sometimes we'd ride along when dad took a load of hogs, Brad talked about 15 pigs in the truck and ride up in and mom and dad would, after unloading livestock, would go over to Montgomery Wards and go and buy husky pants for us boys that were growing up.
Ellen Wolter:What about you, Brad? What are your memories of going into Minneapolis St. Paul?
Brad Anderson:Really, truly, it was only to see
Music (Jim Griswold):our uncle and our cousin that than that, I virtually don't remember going to the Twin Cities and don't remember going to Rochester. Rochester only,
Brad Anderson:you know, nowadays it's thirty minutes, one direction
Music (Jim Griswold):and thirty minutes the other.
Brad Anderson:I don't remember going either way now,
Music (Jim Griswold):you know, going to the Twin Cities is like, you know, that's like what used to be going to Cana Park,
Brad Anderson:almost 10 miles away. It's not, it's not at all the same. So it's changed drastically that way. So yeah,
Music (Jim Griswold):it was state fair.
Brad Anderson:State fair. Yep. That was the only other thing. Yeah.
Music (Jim Griswold):The Kennen valley fair, the Goodyear county fair and the state fair were a quite big part of our lives because we, our dad wanted to have somebody stay on the fire. So we started raising registered purebred hogs hoping that one of these boys was dead in the fire. Of course, that's why he loved bread more than the rest of us.
Ellen Wolter:Which kind of makes sense.
Music (Jim Griswold):Likely stories.
Brad Anderson:Yeah. No. Well, no, I loved us all.
Ellen Wolter:That's really interesting because, you know, there's a lot made, I think, of how disconnected rural and urban are. But it's interesting to hear that as as kids growing up at the farm, you didn't really get to Minneapolis, Saint Paul all that much. And I imagine there weren't the highways, and, you know, of course, Minneapolis St. Paul was smaller then. So I'm curious, your perspective on what's made now of this rural urban divide.
Ellen Wolter:And are we as divided as folks say we are? You know, it seems to me, just talking with you, that we may be even more connected in some ways than we were back in the day.
Brad Anderson:You know, being a county commissioner and seeing the
Music (Jim Griswold):means that
Brad Anderson:we have in rural
Music (Jim Griswold):versus what the needs are in urban. We all have the same issues. We all have the same issues with healthcare. We all have the same issues with
Brad Anderson:housing. Housing is critical for
Music (Jim Griswold):rural Minnesota to be, even considered for
Brad Anderson:any kind of industry and any kind of development.
Music (Jim Griswold):And
Brad Anderson:we chat, we have the same challenges with figuring out how to do housing as
Music (Jim Griswold):they do in urban areas and healthcare and mobility,
Brad Anderson:all those challenges. They really are not, are not as much rural, urban, different
Music (Jim Griswold):than we think they are.
Brad Anderson:And I go back to to that whole community and everybody being in the same boat. I think we, if we really look at what's important to us, there's not much difference. It's really, really, really similar. It really is. And it takes all of us.
Brad Anderson:We can't survive out here without urban, and urban really needs what can be produced out here.
Ellen Wolter:Roz, what's your experience and perspective on the connections with with rural and urban?
Music (Jim Griswold):Well, I think people find community in similar ways. And of course, being involved with the church, you know, the church creates community. You need to develop an experience of community and caring, compassion, and support. And that's true in urban, suburban and, and rural communities. I think we have to, work hard on community in either place.
Music (Jim Griswold):We live in a suburban area where, you know, I don't know all the neighbors in a, in the, in a, in a one block or a two block or a three block or a half mile radius, but we have to create community and work at community. And that's that's about loving your neighbor. That's true everywhere.
Ellen Wolter:There's so many ways, I think, that we can be more connected now, right? I think people had an idea that, -MICHELLE: you know, I've heard people say the Internet was one way we're going to become more connected, and that didn't turn out quite as folks had Right. You know? There are, you know, fewer, I think, community organizations based on some of the research that I've seen recently. What are some of the ways that people can connect across rural and urban spaces?
Ellen Wolter:Or maybe ways that you're seeing that happen? You know, how can folks do better to get out of, out of their rural bubbles or their urban bubbles, or suburban bubbles to connect with each other?
Brad Anderson:Yeah, that's a, that's a really hard question. You know, part of what I, I see is
Music (Jim Griswold):we're all so busy. I mean, the athletics
Brad Anderson:have taken up so much time. People are, are they get home from work
Music (Jim Griswold):and they're running to soccer or running tee ball or running to
Brad Anderson:any number of these different activities. But I think it's hard because we're all busy. We're all really busy and it's hard to find, find that time to go meet the neighbors.
Ellen Wolter:Rod, faith is one way that folks can connect. And do you find that that's a way that people can get out of their kind of rural urban suburban bubbles?
Music (Jim Griswold):Well, absolutely. The church is unique in that it is, is ministry of caring for neighbors, but at all ages and stages of life. So when we're together for baptisms and confirmations, or we're together for funerals and attending the sick and making visits in hospitals and senior care centers and, and interrelating in caring ways in service, you know, a broader definition of that service organizations doing service, that is caring for the neighbor. That's really, really important. And, you know, and in some ways on the farm, we didn't have as much of that.
Music (Jim Griswold):I mean, we were working from sunrise to sunset. I mean, it was a family, family farm. Now it's a corporate farm. Corporate farms would say less of that connection out in the room environment as well. So the church is a, is a, is a key community, civic organizations, Rotarians, different organizations bring people together.
Music (Jim Griswold):The lion's clubs, community clubs, they have a very important role connecting.
Ellen Wolter:So, I wanted to ask you about this. So I live in a suburban community that it kinda looks like cornfields were carved out and then the houses were plopped down. So my backyard is a cornfield. And, Brad, you obviously saw this with Eden Prairie. And, Brad, you alluded to this with how agriculture is sold now.
Ellen Wolter:It's the buildings and then the land. And sometimes that land goes to housing developments, right? And so there's this tension, I think, between suburban areas creeping into rural areas or becoming suburban areas. And there are people that really want to preserve that rural way of life, right, or even just rural land, right, so that everything doesn't become a commercial development. But then, of course, people want to be prosperous and to develop things.
Ellen Wolter:And, of course, that makes sense and is important for our economies. But I'm curious what you both see as the future of rural in Minnesota. And what do you think is important for preserving rural? How should we preserve rural in Minnesota? What's that value that we need to be sure is continued on?
Brad Anderson:Well, when you speak in those terms, the things that come to mind to me are what's the pressures to
Music (Jim Griswold):rural Minnesota?
Brad Anderson:Well, I can I can tell you one of them that's showing up? And and it's, I don't think it's a bad thing. I think it's just,
Music (Jim Griswold):it's just the nature of where
Brad Anderson:it needs to be. Solar firms. We we got the area. We got the grid that we can connect to.
Music (Jim Griswold):So solar farms have become a popular way to develop
Brad Anderson:some areas within the county. We're seeing that happen. We're also seeing, in some instances, they're seeing wind generation, which isn't going to, isn't going to happen within the city or within the
Music (Jim Griswold):urban area. Just because it
Brad Anderson:needs to open space. And even now areas around palatable communities,
Music (Jim Griswold):data centers are coming in.
Brad Anderson:So, but the need for
Music (Jim Griswold):certain things is getting driven in rural Minnesota by just sheerly having the open space for TAB. Rural is different
Brad Anderson:in Northern Minnesota than it is in Western Minnesota
Music (Jim Griswold):than it is Southeast Minnesota. We're still Stuget County
Brad Anderson:because it's along the Mississippi River and it has the bluffs and it's got
Music (Jim Griswold):Redwing and it's got
Brad Anderson:all kinds of little towns that are, are finding that niche to draw tourists. We do see tourists, all of those amenities people are looking for right in our backyard. And sometimes I think
Music (Jim Griswold):rural doesn't realize how important that is for the rest of the population. So I think we have to be cognizant of that as you move forward.
Brad Anderson:But it is really about a connection.
Music (Jim Griswold):And I think for people's mental health and people's well-being, have to find those things that are that connection for you, whether, whether you're an urban and it's the park or the trails or the community organization, what
Brad Anderson:it is that seeds your soul to make you happy where you're planted or blooming. I think rural is that for some people, urban is
Music (Jim Griswold):that for some people, but
Brad Anderson:I think we all are thirsting for the same kind of satisfaction in their life.
Ellen Wolter:Many cities do this well, but Minneapolis St. Paul has amazing nature and trails. It's unbelievable. Eden Prairie is the same way, Rod. You all are so lucky to have that in such an urban environment.
Ellen Wolter:For
Brad Anderson:sure.
Music (Jim Griswold):For sure. It's a little bit in our name. It's an Eden, it's a garden. We have an identity that's kind of like Eden and it's kind of like being on the Prairie. It's not quite North Dakota or Montana, like your, your favorite places or where you've been.
Music (Jim Griswold):And we're the largest suburban community geographically, 36 square miles in the twin cities,
Brad Anderson:out
Music (Jim Griswold):on the edge of the urban ring.
Ellen Wolter:What do you hope rural urban and suburban looks like for your kids, for your grandkids?
Music (Jim Griswold):Well, I hope that Brad will stay on the farm and that we could come and visit every once in a while. You know, and that was true a few years back where our cousins who lived in the city might've been just a small town like Cannon Falls or Hastings, but also lived in Minneapolis. We not only went to Minneapolis, but they also came and spent weeks and maybe a whole summer and, working and sharing the joys of all of that.
Brad Anderson:I think that's, I think that's the key thing is we need to compliment each other.
Music (Jim Griswold):And I think we do. And I think we
Brad Anderson:lose sight of that sometimes as a
Music (Jim Griswold):rancor that happens with
Brad Anderson:the political fields. But when I meet with people from
Music (Jim Griswold):the city areas, whether that be people from Rochester, from the
Brad Anderson:Metro area,
Music (Jim Griswold):the seven town Metro or St. Cloud or St. Louis,
Brad Anderson:number of those areas, there is so much that is the same.
Music (Jim Griswold):We have to be careful, I think, in
Brad Anderson:planning to be able to address all the needs, not just some of the needs, but all the needs. But as far as what I hope for elders,
Music (Jim Griswold):I hope it doesn't become chopped up, but you can't see the
Brad Anderson:farming for what it is
Music (Jim Griswold):and the agriculture for what it is and and still enjoy the peacefulness of a drive through a gravel road, through a valley that you haven't been on before, which is something I truly enjoy, but just to enjoy the beauty that we all live in. That's the same for urban people in their communities to be proud of where they live, to take care of the amenities that they have. We all need to be good neighbors. Nobody's gonna get out of this world alive. Better get along while you're here.
Ellen Wolter:And we can't do it alone. Might as well figure out how to work together. Rod and Brad, it is such a pleasure to talk with you today. And thanks so much for sharing some of your history with your family farm and growing up together and what that looks like crossing rural and urban spaces.
Rod Anderson:Thank you for inviting us, and thanks, Brad, for taking care of the farm.
Brad Anderson:I may give you a job
Brad Anderson:or two. You never know one of these days.
Ellen Wolter:Thank you for listening to Side by Side. We welcome your emails at sidebysideumn dot edu. Side by Side is a production of the University of Minnesota Extension and is written and hosted by me, Ellen Walter. Special thanks to Jan Jekula, who designed our wonderful logo, and Jim Griswold, who sings and plays guitar in our opening and closing credits.
Music (Jim Griswold):Really doesn't matter at all.
Ellen Wolter:You can find episodes of Side by Side wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back next week with another episode. I'm Ellen Walter, and this is side by side.
Music (Jim Griswold):Singing a song side by side.
