June 2020

When the Directors Guild of America recently presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to Ridley Scott, the Hollywood banquet featured wines from Ohio’s Ravenhurst Champagne Cellars.

Shipping Ohio wines to California may seem counterintuitive, but for Ravenhurst vintner Chuck Harris, the Guild’s order acknowledged that he and his wife, Nina Busch, produce premium estate wines amid Union and Hardin counties’ farm fields near Mt. Victory. “It shows that great wine is great wine regardless of where it comes from,” he says.

I began writing about industry issues in this magazine two years ago, shortly after I became president and CEO of Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives. I noted then that these are “interesting times.”

Actually, these times are more than simply “interesting.” Fact is, we’ve gone through a period of historic change: Older coal plants have been cleaned up or closed, while natural gas, wind, and solar power generation have increased, surpassing the role that coal once played as the leading source of power generation. The electric power that’s produced today is cleaner than it has ever been.

You may have room to grow culinary herbs in your garden, but a group of potted herbs growing right outside your door offers both portability and easy access to your favorite herbal seasonings in the kitchen. Growing herbs in containers also solves many gardening problems: it allows easy improvement of poor soil; curbs invasive herbs such as mint; and even spares gardeners the agony of sore knees.

Casey Longshore and his family are on a mission to improve soil quality at their Delaware County farm. Protecting drinking water by preventing runoff and nutrient losses at the farm are a high priority. In 2015, the Delaware Soil and Water Conservation District named the Longshores the Conservation Cooperators of the Year.

“We’d like not to be the bad guy,” Longshore says, referring to evidence that certain farming practices have led to water quality problems in Ohio waterways.

Rebecca and Ben Wever, members of Marysville-based Union Rural Electric Cooperative (URE), attended their first co-op annual meeting this year, and they say it got them thinking more about the electricity they use.

Rebecca says she and Ben are keenly aware of events and factors that affect their energy bill, so the meeting was of particular interest. “My husband and I may be a little bit unusual there, but we want to protect our piece of paradise,” she says. “We always want to know why we pay what we do.”

Dragonflies have long been considered a sign of good luck — and it seems with good reason. Much like hummingbirds, dragonflies are quite agile. They can fly both forward and backward with lightning speed, and can hover, dart, or change direction with ease. That aerial agility makes dragonflies highly efficient carnivores, with voracious appetites that help keep fly, gnat, and mosquito populations in check. They have even been known to snatch winged termites as they fly out of the ground.

It’s often said that bigger is better, and there’s some evidence to support that when you look at Ohio’s contributions to the “world’s largest” things.

If a leisurely, relaxing train ride, combined with watching wildlife — particularly bald eagles — sounds like fun, you might want to head east to Romney, West Virginia, where, in the spring, summer and fall each year, the trains of the Potomac Eagle Scenic Railroad leave Wappocomo Station for a three-hour, 35-mile round-trip deep into the mountains.

The tracks parallel the south fork of the Potomac River, and the highlight of the trip is a wild stretch of stream where eagles soar.

Ohio is one of only three states that does not recognize a state fish, but if ever our lawmakers should decide to name one, there’s but a short list of great candidates: the yellow perch, for example, or the Ohio Muskie. A particularly strong case, however, could be made for the smallmouth bass — the gamest fish that swims.