Chokecherry Adventures

Chokecherry Adventures

Author: Prairie Public September 5, 2026 Duration: 5:03
I’ve been describing the community culture of berry-picking that emerged during the 1880s, focusing first on juneberries and then on chokecherries. Wagon caravans carried townsfolk, particularly young people, into the countryside to pick. Every community had its known thickets that were transformed into ritual places; press reports referred to them with affectionate familiarity.

The written essays of historian Tom Isern, long enjoyed in regional newspapers, find a new voice in the Plains Folk podcast from Prairie Public. This isn't a sweeping historical documentary, but a series of intimate, thoughtful commentaries rooted in the everyday rhythms and deep memories of the North Dakota plains. Each episode feels like a conversation with a neighbor who has spent a lifetime observing and cherishing the details that define a place-the shared meal of a fall supper, the weathered boards of a homestead, the collective energy of a barn dance. The podcast moves beyond geography to explore the intangible character of the region, asking what it means to live and persist here. Listening, you'll hear stories that connect the past to the present, finding the extraordinary within the ordinary landscape. It’s a quiet celebration of the patterns, traditions, and people that shape this particular corner of the world, offering a gentle reminder that a sense of place is built from countless small, enduring things. The Plains Folk podcast provides a regular moment of reflection on the culture and society of the plains, one carefully crafted story at a time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 35

Plains Folk
Podcast Episodes
Unto the Least of These [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 4:12
This short item from the Fargo Forum of 11 December 1916: “The towns of the state seem to have taken up well with the community Christmas pageant idea.” The “idea” of a Christmas pageant—the phrasing intimates that in 19…
Terroir in Grassy Places [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 6:05
“Terroir” is a term deployed by wine enthusiasts often with more mystique than precision. There is a sort of magic by which the environmental qualities of a particular place are supposed to pass through into the aestheti…
The German Card [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 5:12
It was a lovely spring morning when we arrived early for Sunday services at Bethany Church, in Tanunda, South Australia, in the heart of the Barossa region. I inquired after the congregational president, who was up in th…
A Generous and Steadfast Friend [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 4:53
In a meeting on campus a few days ago, along with many of the best and brightest at NDSU, interviewing a candidate for a high position in the university, I asked the question often on my mind these days as a senior dude…