Co-op People

Harvesting hops plants

According to the Ohio Craft Brewers Association, there were 434 craft breweries in the state of Ohio at the end of 2023. More are opening all the time. 

Hops add bitterness to balance the sweetness of malt in beers. Different varieties of hops contain varying levels of oils and acids, and those are what give beers their distinct flavors. 

Brad and Joy Ryan pictured at a national park.

No one could have known when Brad Ryan’s parents divorced years ago that it would result in a long, record-breaking, heartwarming journey. 

Joy lives in Duncan Falls, a sleepy town nestled against the rolling hills along the Muskingum River southeast of Zanesville, where she’s a longtime member of New Concord-based Guernsey-Muskingum Electric Cooperative. When they finally reconnected, Brad noticed she was suffering some health issues, and clearly needed a change. 

Residents of Woodland Country Manor enjoying their garden.

Jerry Banks has a green thumb — something to which his family could always attest. Now, so can the residents and staff at Woodland Country Manor in Somerville.

Banks and his wife, Kathy, residents of Somerville and members of Oxford-based Butler Rural Electric Cooperative, always had a home garden but expanded their gardening activities when her parents (Homer and Phoebe Polser) moved to the retirement community not far from the “homeplace.”

“They used to tend a 1½- to 2-acre garden,” Banks says. “He was not one to sit around without getting some dirt on his hands, so Kathy and I thought a garden would help with the transition.”     

Co-op members posing in front of a pole barn built by the company their family owns and operates.

The pole barn — as familiar a fixture on modern farms as a pickup truck — is an architectural innovation born in the 1930s, the result of a marriage of necessity and opportunity.

For decades, the pole barn has reigned supreme on American farms. But the pole-frame structures of today have come a long way from the simple pole barns of the Depression, says Caleb Miller, owner and president of MQS Structures in Lancaster. Pole framing remains a popular design for farm outbuildings, but these days, Miller’s company, a member of Lancaster-based South Central Power Company, may just as likely be using pole-frame construction to build the shell for a far more complex structure.

About 30 of the 150 goats that live at Harrison Farm in Groveport are “Yoga Goats” that are free to roam among the students taking yoga classes there (photograph courtesy of Dana Bernstein).

On Katherine Harrison’s farm in Groveport, every animal has a job. The chickens offer eggs. The cats provide comfort. And the goats help teach yoga.

The idea for the program arose organically, says Harrison, owner and operator of Harrison Farm. (Her secondary title, she says, is “chief minion” to the goats.) She met yoga instructor Dana Bernstein in 2016 while she was planning Bernstein’s wedding, and the two hit it off. 

South Central Power member Beth Murray found a love of training herding dogs after adopting a border collie with natural herding instincts.

Beth Murray didn’t quite know what she was getting into when she adopted her first border collie, a rescue, from the Parkersburg (W.Va.) Humane Society.

Beth Murray didn’t quite know what she was getting into when she adopted her first border collie.
close up of white turkey in a field

Plump hens and toms are living on borrowed time these days at Bowman and Landes Turkeys near New Carlisle in Miami County.

Baby turkeys, known as poults, arrive at the farm the day they hatch, each weighing one-fourth to one-third of a pound. The poults initially spend time in climate-controlled barns but quickly move, at 6 to 8 weeks of age, to outdoor ranges equipped with feeders, water, and shade shelters. Fencing keeps them in and predators out.

"Celebrity" - one of Mac Worthington's signature looks. He is best known for his metal sculptures.

A Mac Worthington piece of art is almost instantly recognizable. Worthington’s work (he’s best known for his metal sculpture) can be found in public, private, and corporate collections across the country and around the world.

Worthington was born in Canton, the son of artists. His father, Jack, made many of the bronze busts in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His mother, Marion, worked with enamel and silver. 

Before turning to art, Worthington built washing machines, served in Vietnam, and worked for a finance company — all good experiences that proved useful when he opened his own galleries.

We all take a trip down memory lane once in a while, reminiscing about special times and meaningful life events.

That experience helped her realize two things: first, that she proudly came from a long line of strong, influential women; second, how important it was to engage with her grandmother, listen to her story, and record her family history before it was lost forever. “Listening is good for all of us,” Sanders says. “When they tell their story, it gives them purpose. There’s a reason they’re here.”