March 2025

Electric vehicle at charging station

Seemingly every week brings a new story about how electric vehicles are growing in popularity. While that’s true in general, the trend isn’t consistent everywhere. 

In Ohio, the penetration of EVs in rural regions is less than half of that in cities and suburbs. Electric cooperatives in the state recognize that there’s some portion of their membership that might desire an EV but holds back based on outdated or incorrect assumptions.    

A woman using a hunting horn to call her hounds during a fox hunt.

Ohio Cooperative Living outdoors editor W.H. “Chip” Gross spent a morning this past autumn observing a fox hunt with the 100-year-old Rocky Fork Headley Hunt in Gahanna, one of more than 100 such traditional foxhunting clubs throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Hebron State Fish Hatchery sign

Do you like to fish? Me too. As a kid, one of my earliest memories was of sitting beside a pond fishing for bluegills with my father.

“The majority of Ohio’s fish populations are sustained through natural reproduction,” says Chris French, fish hatchery program administrator. “However, stocking expands and diversifies fishing opportunities in waters where existing habitats don’t support some fish populations. Stocking is only one of many fish management tools used by the Division of Wildlife to improve angling.”

Ohio State University's new dairy facility

Ohio State University’s herd of Jersey dairy cows will soon have a permanent new home. The cows, currently in temporary housing at OSU’s Wooster campus, should be back in Columbus in a new $6.2 million facility by the end of the year.

The dairy’s prime location just off of Lane Avenue, near the main entrance to the Columbus campus, reinforces the importance of agriculture to the university and the state, says Maurice Eastridge, senior associate chair of animal sciences and dairy extension specialist at Ohio State, and the new dairy was designed with education of students as the top priority. “Public education and research needs are its second and third missions,” Eastridge says.

Kite with key on string in front of stormy sky

My still-new role leading Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives, as you might expect, requires a good bit of trying to see into the future in order to make the best decisions about our path ahead. Part of knowing where you’re going, however, also means understanding the past.

Steve Graham, an Ohio farmer

It’s easy to tell you’re approaching the farm of Union Rural Electric Cooperative member Steve Graham.

The original farm contained a few small woodlots, which Graham kept. Also, because much of his ground is made up of water-loving hydric soil, he built a sizable pond and large wetland, paying for their construction through cost-sharing. The wildlife haven now attracts myriad songbirds, waterfowl, pollinators, white-tailed deer, and even a bald eagle or two.

Sausage-Stuffed Mushrooms

As we considered themes for this year’s annual Reader Recipe Contest (see page 26), we noticed that there are some dishes that come in over and over — the theme notwithstanding. Here are our versions of some of the most common contest entries through the years.