At The Buttered Tin, you’ll find more than award winning pastries and a delicious brunch spread: care of place is central to their values and everyday practices. Founded in 2013 by James Beard-recognized pastry chef Alicia Hinze. The Buttered Tin creates a welcoming space to enjoy elevated American breakfast & lunch classics and sweet treats.…  Read More →

Caring for our natural places is an important part of caring for the people who live near them.  Research has shown there’s a connection between green spaces and health and wellness benefits. HealthPartners, which operates 90+ hospitals and clinics across Minnesota and Wisconsin, brings natural green spaces and sustainable landscaping practices together to improve the…  Read More →

When Max Musicant and his group of neighbors left their apartment building when the fire alarm went off, he quickly realized something: he didn’t know anyone around him. As the founder and principal of The Musicant Group, placemaking and public space activation firm, he knew something had to change. After a quick trip to the…  Read More →

“Food from here, for here” is the driving force behind The Good Acre (TGA), a nonprofit food hub that links local growers & food producers with communities in the Twin Cities. TGA is helping build a strong, healthy food system that celebrates and supports Minnesota’s incredible farmers. Their role as a food hub is uniquely…  Read More →

For over a century, the Iron Range of Minnesota has been a center of mining activity—creating jobs and driving economic growth.  And the Iron Range also has a unique and distinct natural personality.  Tamarack bog, craggy ridges and beautiful expanses of pine forest distinguish this area as a gem for Minnesota’s outdoorspeople.  Mining activity has…  Read More →

Join a special video Voices of Upstream for a conversation with Food Building founder Kieran Folliard about how this iconic Minnesotan cares for our natural places by keeping food local, nurturing producers and growers and celebrating the community building that happens over good food.   From Kernza grains to Irish Pubs, Kieran shares how his…  Read More →

Do you love where you live? We are looking for individuals who have stories to tell about their natural Minnesota place, and how they care for it.    Upstream Initiative announces an open call for the A Care for Place fellowship! This call will support a cohort of 10 Minnesotans with $1,200 project stipends to create and…  Read More →

In the Dakota language, “earth lodge” is maka tipi. But it’s also a verb meaning “they live.” Lisa Johnson Jim Rock’s great-great grandparents made the thousand-mile trek into exile from Minnesota to Saskatchewan on foot in the 1860s.  His Dakota father, Tabdoka Sapa Itokab Nażiŋ Šni, was one of the last five first-language speakers of…  Read More →

The health of our natural places has a big influence on the length and quality of our lives. As the largest consumer-governed, non-profit health care and financing organization in the nation, Upstream Partner HealthPartners is committed to doing its part to bring health and conservation together. The health care industry generates a considerable amount of…  Read More →

Upstream is thrilled to announce the selection of our 2023 Upstream Artist Fellows.  Upstream Artist Fellows are 13 artists from a variety of mediums who share a love for Minnesota’s natural places and care for them personally and through their work.   The artists will embark on a nearly year-long relationship with each other and…  Read More →

Tom Glines remembers one of the first times he went on a turkey hunt. It was in the fields and woods near Lanesboro in southeastern Minnesota’s driftless region. It was a spring hunt, and the state was waking up from a long winter slumber. A lifelong hunter, Tom was comfortable in the still and quiet…  Read More →

Debi Kohlhardt may not have been born in Minnesota, but this Jordan, MN mom loves where she lives.  Debi, who went to college in Moorhead, MN and now teaches yoga through Community Education in Jordan, takes a daily walk around Mill Pond Lake–the crown jewel of Jordan’s park system.  Debi walks rain or shine, in…  Read More →