Podcast

Turn Here Sweet Corn Returns

December 28, 2019December 31, 2019 Mike Nowak a play about organic farming, Atina Diffley, Jim Stowell, Koch Industries, Megan Wells, Organic Mitigation Plan, Peggy Malecki. Turn Here Sweet Corn, The Mike Nowak Show, urban sprawl

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(December 29, 2019) When I write that Turn Here Sweet Corn Returns, it has a double meaning. First, some background. Turn Here Sweet Corn: Organic Farming Works is a book by Atina Diffley. It garnered a 2013 Minnesota Book Award in the category of Memoir and Creative Non-fiction from Friends of The Saint Paul Public Library. It also made her an icon in the organic farming world. Well, that and the fact that she helped to create an Organic Mitigation Plan for organic farms in Minnesota.

In 2016, I received word from Chicago theatre director Scott Jones that Turn Here Sweet Corn had been adapted for the stage by Jim Stowell. Scott and I are theatre colleagues from way too far back, so don’t ask. The play was having its world premiere at Madison Street Theatre, starring Megan Wells in the one-woman production. Here’s what I wrote then.

Here’s a tip for all of would-be farmers out there. If you’re cultivating land and you can see the tallest building in the nearby large metropolitan area from your porch, you might be in trouble. At that point, you need to pay attention to the sign, “Warning, tall buildings are closer than they appear.” What I mean is that, unless you’re independently wealthy, your land is likely to be gobbled up by developers and turned into suburbs

Which is exactly what happened to a woman named Atina Diffley and her family in Minnesota about 25 years ago. That would be bad enough, except that when she and her husband Martin managed to purchase another property, they were informed that Koch Industries (yes, that Koch Industries) was planning to run a crude oil pipeline straight through their organic farm.

Scott Jones and Megan Wells appeared on the program before I saw the play. Regardless, it was moving and wonderful. Today, they return to the show, which takes me back to the first sentence about a “double meaning.” Because the play is also returning, this time in a full run by Saltbox Theatre Collective. The production runs January 3-26 at The Edge Off-Broadway, 1133 West Catalpa Avenue in Chicago.

Peggy and I are thrilled that Atina Diffley also joins us on the show this morning.

My advice? Go see Turn Here Sweet Corn and be inspired about the possibility of saving our farms, our backyards and our planet. God knows we need some inspiration right now.