The February Edit
"Friluftsliv is the Norwegian concept of embracing nature and the outdoors as a way of life. It roughly translates as open-air life.
It’s no surprise that we’re enjoying the great outdoors so much after a challenging year. Contact with nature is healing, studies show. Expect to spend more time outdoors in three ways", says Candace Nelson of The Spruce. See how here.
Minnesota Monthly features two local best friends. "A Scottish Highland mother, named Cassia, and her calf Snowball have winter-ready coats at the 100-acre, sustainable Tangletown Farm in Plato, which serves Tangletown Gardens and Wise Acre Eatery. Even when it snows, the farm’s 100-plus cattle spend lots of time outside."
"If we can’t gather safely indoors, where the cold and dark of winter usually drive us, what will we do? For inspiration, we can look to Scandinavia, where people live with some of the darkest, longest winters and yet are consistently ranked as the happiest people in the world.
How do they do it, and what can we learn from them?"
Read the New York Times' 3 strategies for a positive winter mindset here.
Stephanie March of Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine shares, "If ever there was a year for ice bars, it's feeling like 2021. Our cold weather tech has been dialed back up to circa-1971 snowmobile suit levels and dammit, we already have the ski-masks on. Grab a pair of choppers and belly up to these ice bars which heat you from the inside out."
"The only decision you’ll have to make while visiting is how you want to explore", writes Minnesota News and Events. "You can walk paved routes like Three-Mile Walk, or step off the pavement into some snowshoes or cross-country skis to traverse miles of trails among frozen streams, gullies, hills, and trees of every kind. Arrive after a snowfall and you just might be the first to crunch new snow underfoot."
"We admit it: In years past, we’ve found ourselves tending to hibernate during Minnesota winters. But not in 2021. It’s been almost a year since the coronavirus outbreak ushered us all indoors, and, like the hardy set we are, we proud Minnesotans are enlisting the great outdoors to help us escape from our isolated reality — no matter the weather." Visit Artful Living to see 5 ways to explore Minnesota this winter.
"Sometimes it takes time to incubate an idea—other times it just takes a few guys, a bonfire on the ice, and family conversations to make things happen.
That’s how the Riverbend Skate Path came to be. The request of a teenage daughter to connect neighborhood rinks turned into a 2-mile path connecting the entire community." Visit Warroad Live Life Here to learn more about the project that brought together the community.
"Meal kits just got an upgrade,"
says Sharyn Jackson of the Star Tribune. "Top Twin Cities chefs are designing make-at-home dishes that celebrate the goods coming out of northeast Minneapolis' Food Building, and James Beard Award-winning chef Tim McKee is headlining."
