Newspaper Page Text
American 1
i Artisan.
Fashioning Seed
into Bird Feed
From a perch in bushes surrounding
her farmhouse, Ann Hoffert watches a flock of warblers
as they fly across the open prairie against a clear, blue sky.
“Ever since I was a child, I loved to watch the birds,” says
Hofferc, 58, of Carrington, N.D. (pop. 2,268).
After traveling across the country and working as a
registered nurse, Hoffert returned to Carrington in 1987
with her husband, Ernie, and their four young daughters
to live on the grain farm where she grew up. Wanting to
spend more time with her family, she looked for a way
to work from home.
Surrounded by the farm’s 6,000 acres of wheat, flax,
barley, soybeans and sunflowers, Hoffert found inspira
tion in the seeds that birds love. “Birds will eat a lot
of things," she says. “But sunflowers, that’s what they
really want."
“In my mind, I pictured a sunflower with a hole cut
out of it, like a wreath," Hoffert adds. "Then I saw I
had everything right here to do that.”
Taking seed-laden sunflower heads
and decorating them with dried
blooms and suet, she created .viiijlfc;
wreaths with a double purpose: ■
The\ .ouid :hv. ::>:dc
of a house, and then be placed
outside later as a feast for the
birds. "I worked ar rile kitchen table j '3HBUB
until early morn; tic." she recalls Tile
next day eager customers snapped * 9HH
them tip at a local craft fair. *4l^^9B
That experience gave birth to Pip
estem Creek, Hoffert's home-based business,
which produces edible birdhouses and feeders, all built
with sunflower heads, sunflower seeds and other natural
ingredients that birds savor, as well as wreaths of grains.
OWBOYb J
TEAM 2 fa
by
CYNTHIA
ELYCE
RUBIN
Ann Hoffert makes birdhouses, feeders and wreaths from natural ingredients on her North Dakota farm.
grasses, berries and dried flowers.
Hoffert also uses an ever-changing palette of red
amaranth, green flax, purple thistles, black-and-white
sorghum, and multicolored Indian corn cultivated in
Pipestem Creek’s 16 acres of gardens and fields, or that
grow wild nearby, to decorate her products.
“I love being able to take something that comes from
nature and make it into something beautiful and share
it with the rest of the country,” Hoffert says. “And
even better, have it be able to return to nature.”
Rgc Pipestem Creek has two full-time and
five part-time employees who work year
qjyPgggfac round planting, cultivating and harvest
ing. Numerous “stay-at-home" women
|Bk from small towns around Carrington
work a flexible schedule during
season to construct and ship as
gSjaSaffiEgjy many as 20,()()() products each year.
"Ann has a wonderful talent for
ifk'B using North Dakotas natural resources."
WmmWp says Sara Otte Coleman, the state's tourism
director in Bismarck.
An interest in architectural preservation moti
vated Hoffert to recycle abandoned buildings from
around the state for use on the farm. Two former gra
naries serve as Pipestem Creek’s dlying sheds. Another
m.' 1 nl
■ MZ
10-sided granary is the gift shop, and a fourth was reno
vated to provide overnight lodging for birdwatchers.
When a coalition of communities and agencies dedi
cated to the promotion of bird-watching formed Birding
Drives Dakota in 2002, Hoffert helped develop a net
work of off-the-beaten-track birding trails. As current
president, she works to promote the organization’s Pot
holes and Prairies Birding Festival, held each June. “Ann
is a wonderful ambassador for North Dakota birding,”
says Kim Hanson, project leader of nearby Arrowwood
National Wildlife Refuge Complex.
Today, in addition to the multitude of customers
around the nation who have fallen in love wfth her all
natural products, people come from all over to tour Pip
estem Creek’s gardens, observe the production process
and share Hoffert’s artful vision.
"Using the skills and ingenuity of a true pioneer,"
says former North Dakota Gov. Ed Schafer from his
home in Fargo, "Ann creates products of worldwide
appeal that allow her to live and work in the rural area
she loves.”
Cynthia Elyce Rubin is a writer in Orlando, Fla.
Click on this story at americanprofile.com
to see additional photos and access the
Pipestem Creek website.
PREMIERES FRIDAY
SEPT. 14 AT 8/7C
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Photos by Eric Hylden