• The American Countryside is truly a slice of Americana. It might be a well-known music or TV star or just someone with an interesting story that lives down the street. From Iditarod sled dog mushers, to NASA scientists... from the Rooster Crowing Championships to NFL greats...The American Countryside is sure to be of interest. Click the button above to listen to the latest show, or visit the American Countryside archives.
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A Museum for a Date

A new museum is opening that is perfect for you and a date. It’s a bad pun but a fun new attraction, telling the story of crop brought to the U.S. by adventure seeking explorers…..

The Blue Owl Restaurant

The flood of 1993 almost washed away this restaurant, but the levy saved the building and provided the inspiration behind their best selling item…..

A Hawaiin Luau

When visiting the Hawaiian Islands, there’s no better experience than a traditional Hawaiian luau–except that’s not what you’ll get here. It’s one of the top shows on the islands and it goes far beyond what most people expect…

An Anchorage Vendor

When we think of reindeer we may have visions of animals pulling Santa’s sled. However, if you head to downtown Anchorage, you’ll learn what happened to the reindeer that couldn’t fly…

Cheese in the Windy City

As a veterinarian, Brian Gerloff knows a lot about helping animals. However, his business model is also helping farmers and big city consumers in the process…

Prairie Pure Cheese

When this veterinarian began his practice just outside of Chicago, he may never have imagined how the growing city would affect his work. Now he and dairy farmers in his area have found a way to use the city to their advantage.

Skydiving to Food

If you have trouble finding the Lucky Nickel Ranch, just look up. Wherever you see the skydivers floating to the ground could easily be the spot where you can find his produce.

Making a Living on 40 Acres

Some people might say you can’t make a living on a forty acre farm. Michael McKenzie is out to prove people wrong. His combination of high quality agriculture and perfected public relations skills have people driving to his farm to buy their produce each week.

The Lucky Nickel Ranch

California produce growers rely heavily on hand labor to tend their crops. For Michael McKenzie, that labor has come from a unique source…

Date Farming

Some farmers need expensive, high tech equipment to harvest their crops. This crop requires a very low-tech method of harvest, but it does help if you aren’t afraid of heights…

Farming the Trees

David’s farm is just 2 ½ acres in size…but that does not mean he’s not busy. In fact, the crop he grows will require full time labor and nice earnings as well. Where is the farm and what crop is it…?

When Life Gives You Lemons…

When life throws you a lemon, you make lemonade. Mark certainly has plenty of lemons, but he doesn’t have to make them into lemonade to compete. Even though trade rules have made this a difficult business, his family is still finding ways to thrive in growing lemons…

A Citrus Family Tradition

You’ve probably bought their fruit and not even realized it. This is a family-owned citrus packer that grows, packs, markets and ships around the world. We head to Southwestern Arizona for a look ourselves…

A Chocolate Display

unionstationchocolateFor 90% of this agricultural product’s history, it was used as a drink. People certainly still drink it today, but its form has changed and perhaps our waistlines have as well as we’ve gobbled up too much of it. The crop, its history and how it changed the world is today’s American Countryside…

Food Fight!

foodfightIf you began a food fight in school you could be headed to detention. If a farmer or rancher starts a food fight– that’s another thing–and may be part of a new campaign to share their story.

Helping Rural Business Thrive in Developing Nations

rootcapital2Willie Foote saw farmers and farmer cooperatives in developing nations often struggling to survive. What resulted was a vision turned non-profit organization that is making great strides in helping small rural businesses thrive…

Root Capital

rootcapital1American farmers know the financial difficulties that result from conditions that are often out of their control. Now imagine you are a small farmer in a developing nation and those challenges increase exponentially. Today we visit with an organization working to change that…