North Dakota
The power of flowers draws visitors to Oxbow Orchards
GRAFTON, N.D. — Trevon and Beth Unruh sell a fall flower rooted in ancient times that they produce with an old-fashioned work ethic and market with contemporary techniques.
The owners of
Oxbow Orchards,
together with their six children, grow chrysanthemums in a rainbow of colors on their farm near Grafton. They direct-market them to individual customers and sell them wholesale to boutiques, specialty stores and grocery stores.
This year, the Unruh family produced 10,000 pots of chrysanthemums in colors that include bronze, coral, purple, white and yellow. The Unruhs also sell tri-colored chrysanthemum pots — three chrysanthemums of different colors grown in a single container.
The Unruhs founded Oxbow Orchards in 2008 as an apple orchard. It’s so named because the Oxbow River, a branch of the Park River, used to run through their property. The family sells about 20 varieties of apples, including the perennially popular Zestar, Honeycrisp and Frostbite.
The apples are grown on more than 200 trees in an orchard on their farmstead. Customers purchase bags of apples like Zestar and Honeycrisp for fresh eating, and others, such as Frost Bite, to make apple sauce and cider.
Ann Bailey / Agweek
Unruh was conceiving ideas of how to produce a crop on small acreage when he conceived the idea of planting an apple orchard.
“I’ve always been a tree nut,” he said.
Besides planting apple trees and selling their fruit at farmers markets and to customers who come to the farm, Unruh enjoys experimenting with grafting apple trees, and during orchard tours, shows visitors a single tree that has several apple varieties on its branches.
Oxbow Orchards sells apples from late August until mid-October. The Unruhs also sell about 50 gallons of honey made from their bees, and pumpkins and purple fountain grass grown on their farmstead.
Oxbow Orchards’ chrysanthemum sales typically begin in late August and run for about six weeks.
In the past couple years, the chrysanthemum sales have boomed, nudging out apples as their main product.
Oxbow Orchards branched out into chrysanthemums in 2018 after Trevon Unruh visited a family member who grows the flower commercially on a farm near La Crosse, Wisconsin. He figured the chrysanthemums would be a niche crop in northeast North Dakota, which would contribute to the flowers’ marketing success.
Meanwhile, the flowers can be grown on a small piece of land.
Ann Bailey / Agweek
“We like to think outside the box,” he said. “Crops don’t have to grow in an 80-acre field to make a living.”
While creative thinking led to the development of Unruh’s chrysanthemum business, a measured approach to its operation has contributed to its success.
“Oxbow Orchards is a great example of local entrepreneurship that hits the mark in a variety of ways related to rural development,” said Dawn Mandt,
Red River Regional Counci
l executive director.
The Red River Regional Council, based in Grafton, is one regional planning council in North Dakota that was established to improve the ability of local governments to plan, address issues and take advantage of opportunities that go beyond county boundaries. The North Dakota counties of Walsh, Nelson, Grand Forks and Pembina make up the Red River Regional Council.
“As a home-grown business, Trevon has created an agriculturally based business that includes fall mums and apples. In its rural setting, delivering a superior quality product, it is a visitor destination in the region,” Mandt said.
“While Oxbow Orchards is a frequent seller at the Farmers Market in Grand Forks, we would sure love to see these customers travel to our countryside and enjoy the full experience that this location has to offer.”
Unruh started the chrysanthemum portion of Oxbow Orchards relatively small so he could gauge the demand and wouldn’t end up with a product that he couldn’t sell.
Ann Bailey / Agweek
The Unruhs raised 600 chrysanthemums the first year. The flower’s sales have grown exponentially since then, as each autumn the demand has increased, and in turn, Unruh has planted more chrysanthemums the next spring.
Oxbow Orchards sells about three-quarters of the flowers wholesale; the remainder are direct-marketed from the farm.
A niche market that he has developed is
chrysanthemum sales
to small boutiques in the area that have a loyal customer base that would rather buy from a local business than a large retail store, Unruh said.
Producing a quality product is one of the keys to the success of the chrysanthemum business, he said.
The growing season begins when the Unruhs plant chrysanthemum plugs purchased from a nursery. It takes about a day and a half for the couple and their six children — ages 4 to 17 — to plant the plugs in individual pots.
Ann Bailey / Agweek
The pots are placed on fabric-covered ground, lined up in dozens of rows that are a few hundred feet long. Each pot has a drip waterer in it that is fed by an underground irrigation system.
The plants require close monitoring so they don’t dry out and wither. During hot summer days, the Unruhs water them as many as three times a day.
During the growing season, the family also picks out thousands of weeds and cottonwoods that have grown from seeds blown into the containers by the summer wind.
Chrysanthemum production, like apple production and harvesting, requires a lot of hand labor, and the Unruhs work long days to raise flowers that not only are lovely to look at, but hardy enough to last throughout the fall in customers’ yards or inside their homes.
“It’s a good life, but it’s work,” Trevon Unruh said.
During the past five years, the Unruhs’ chrysanthemums have drawn hundreds of North Dakota and Minnesota customers from about a 150-mile radius of Grafton to Oxbow Orchards.
Unruh markets the chrysanthemums by word-of-mouth and through his Facebook page. The page includes his cellphone number, which he frequently answers when he’s working with the flowers, picking apples or making honey.
Ann Bailey / Agweek
“It’s been busy, busy, busy, which is good,” Unruh said on Sept. 18 as he watched a steady stream of customers carrying pots of chrysanthemums from the flower plot to their cars. Oxbow Orchards had sold 7,500 of the 2023 crop of chrysanthemums as of that day.
“I always say, ‘It’s miles of smiles,’ ” Unruh said.
He credits the popularity of the direct sales to giving customers an opportunity to have a unique, enjoyable experience at Oxbow Orchards.
“These ladies like to come out and pick the perfect mum,” he said. “It’s a little like picking the perfect Christmas tree with the family.”
Meanwhile, Unruh encourages the men who visit Oxbow Orchards or stop by farmers markets to buy chrysanthemums for their wives, telling them “it’s cheaper than taking them out for supper, and she’ll be happy for a month,” he said.
Oxbow Orchards’ tentative future plans include offering tours, hosting a fall festival and finishing up the interior of the shop building so it can be used for sales.
Unruh believes that perseverance in the core business is essential to the success of businesses like his.
“I tell people when they’re starting something like this, don’t give up just as you’re ready to crest the hill,” Unruh said.
GRAND FORKS — Three area teams landed a pair of players on the North Dakota all-state 9-man football team, which was released Monday by the North Dakota High School Coaches Association.
North Border, Cavalier and Four Winds all saw two players named to the all-state team, leading area squads.
North Border’s picks included quarterback Grant Cosley on the first-team offense and second-team pick Brody Berg.
Cosley, a senior, threw for more than 1,000 yards and rushed for more than 1,000 yards during the regular season.
Berg finished the regular season with 50 carries for 499 yards and five touchdowns.
Cavalier’s selections included Kayden Rose on the first-team defense and second-team choice Logan Werner.
Werner, a 5-foot-8 and 160-pound senior, ran for more than 1,500 yards and 20 rushing touchdowns. He also had 15 catches for 132 yards, while passing for 507 yards and eight touchdowns. Defensively, he had 51 tackles and two interceptions as a third-year starter.
Rose, a 6-foot-1 and 215-pound senior, was the offensive guard for a team that averaged more than 250 yards per game. Defensively, he had 56 tackles, 19.0 tackles for loss and 8.0 sacks. He was named the Region 4 Defensive Player of the Year.
Four Winds landed second-team picks Francis Belille and Kashton Keja Jr.
Keja, a 5-foot-9 and 190-pound senior, ran for 895 yards and threw for 755. He had 24 combined touchdowns. Defensively, he had 70 tackles and 9.0 tackles for loss.
Belille, a 6-foot-3 and 290-pound junior, led the line of scrimmage for Four Winds, which hosted a playoff game for the first time in school history.
Noah Clooten / Devils Lake Journal
North Prairie’s Brett Tastad, a North Dakota State commit, was also a first-team offensive choice.
Tastad, a 6-foot-5, 270-pound senior, was a three-year starting guard and blocked for an offense that gained more than 2,800 yards rushing. Tastad, who was a second-team pick last year, had 8.0 tackles for loss this year.
Griggs-Midkota’s Levi Kautzman was a first-team defensive pick.
Kautzman, a 6-foot-1, 220-pound senior, had 54 tackles, 13.0 tackles for loss and 8.0 sacks. The three-time all-region player was the Region 2 Defensive Player of the Year.
May-Port-C-G’s Bohdi Peterson and Nelson County’s Axel Anderson rounded out the area selections as second-team choices.
Peterson, a 6-foot-2, 220-pound defensive end, had 30 tackles, 13.0 tackles for loss and 10.0 sacks. He holds the school records for sacks in a season and career.
Westhope-Newburg-Glenburn’s Walker Braaten, a North Dakota State commitment, was named the division’s Senior Athlete of the Year, while New Rockford-Sheyenne-Maddock’s Elliott Belquist, the dad of UND All-American wide receiver Bo Belquist, was named Coach of the Year.
The North Dakota Native American Hall of Honor welcomed several new inductees Friday — including a superintendent, a former Bureau of Indian Affairs attorney, two accomplished athletes and the 1997-98 United Tribes Technical College basketball team.
The four individuals who were inducted are all members of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. The basketball team included players from the Cheyenne River, Fort Berthold, Turtle Mountain, Crow and Omaha reservations.
Two inductees received the Hall of Honor’s leadership award: Marc Bluestone Sr., former superintendent of New Town Public Schools, and tribal law attorney Thomas Fredericks.
Bluestone, who is now retired, worked for the school district for more than three decades. Student attendance, graduation rates and test scores all improved under his tenure.
Bluestone advocated for a law passed by the 2021 Legislature requiring all North Dakota primary middle schools to teach Native history, and he has helped develop numerous educational resources on the subject.
Fredericks received a leadership award for his work as a Native American rights lawyer.
He said he first developed an interest in tribal law when he became the director of Standing Rock Sioux Reservation’s Community Action Agency in the 1960s. The agencies were established as part of former President Lydon Johnson’s Administration’s War on Poverty in the 1960s.
“It was a very, very eye-opening time,” Fredericks said.
In 1970, Fredericks helped start the University of Boulder School of Law’s American Indian Law Program.
He later served as associate solicitor for Indian Affairs — the first Native American to hold the position — and assistant secretary of Indian Affairs under President Jimmy Carter.
Fredericks also helped start the National Native American Bar Association and is a founder and former executive director of the Native American Rights Fund. He retired in 2020.
Terry Kraft received a sports award for winning state titles in high school football, basketball and track.
MHA Chairman Mark Fox, who grew up with Kraft in Parshall, described him as a “natural athlete.”
Both reminisced about playing sports outside regardless of the weather.
“In a small town on a reservation, that’s all you did was play,” Kraft said.
Kraft served as a caretaker for Minot High School for nearly four decades, according to his nomination. He also coached junior high and tackle football for Minot Middle School and flag football for the Minot YMCA.
Rusty Gillette of Bismarck earned a sports award for his success as a high school basketball player, coach and powwow dancer.
His former coach at Bismarck High School, Steve Miller, described him not only as a star athlete, but someone of “great character.”
“Rusty took great pride in being a team player,” Miller said.
Gillette is also an accomplished graphic artist and business owner, his nomination notes.
The 12 members of the United Tribes Technical College basketball team were also recognized Friday night: Lonny White Eyes, Joe Howe, Dusty Traversie, Robert Webster, Galen Eberhard, Jon Derby, Travis Albers, Tanner Albers, Lee Logg, Jason Logg, Erik Abbey and Aron Abbey.
It was the first UTTC team to qualify for the National Junior College Athletic Association finals. The team is also remembered for achieving the program’s first 20-win season.
“That team, at that time — what they did was unheard of,” said former coach Kevin Finley. Gillette also coached the team.
The North Dakota Native American Hall of Honor is a collaboration between the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission, the State Historical Society of North Dakota and the State Historical Society Foundation. In addition to leadership and sports, the Hall of Honor also recognizes individuals for military service and arts and culture. An exhibit honoring inductees is on display at the North Dakota Heritage Center.
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NOTRE DAME MEN’S BASKETBALL
Fire up that flat top. Throw some more cherry-flavored wood on the smoker. Make sure there’s plenty of propane available for the gas grill.
It’s time for Notre Dame men’s basketball to enjoy some home cooking.
The Irish are out of the gate at 3-0 after three games in 11 days. They have a chance to get to 5-0 with two winnable home games this week. That precedes four straight games away from home, starting next week in Las Vegas. That means win this week and win at home.
Notre Dame is a together group. Notre Dame is a confident group. Notre Dame believes that it can be even better than it’s shown three games in.
Time to continue to cook.
When does Tuesday’s game between Notre Dame and North Dakota begin? Is it on TV? Are tickets available?
☘ WHO: Notre Dame (3-0) vs North Dakota (2-1)
☘ WHERE: Purcell Pavilion (9,149).
☘ WHEN: Tuesday at 7 p.m.
☘ TV: None. The game can be seen on-line at ACC Network Extra (ESPN+).
☘ RADIO: WSBT (960 AM).
☘ TICKETS: Available.
☘ ONLINE: Follow every Notre Dame game with live updates from Tribune beat writer Tom Noie at X (formerly Twitter) at twitter.com/tnoieNDI.
Three pressing questions for Notre Dame
☘ Is scoring 80-plus points now the norm for these Irish?
☘ How about junior forward Tae Davis?
☘ Can power forward Nikita Konstantynovskyi bottle that eight-point, eight-rebound effort he offered at Georgetown?
Scouting the Hawks
In a game that featured seven ties and a staggering 23 lead changes, North Dakota scored 44 points in the second half Thursday at home to beat Utah Valley, 77-71. The Hawks have been idle since that win. … A school of 15,000, North Dakota is located in Grand Forks. … The Hawks returned two starters and 10 players off last year’s team that finished 18-14 overall, 10-6 and tied for second place in the Summit League. North Dakota was picked in a preseason coaches’ vote to finish sixth in the nine-team Summit League this season. It received one first-place vote. … North Dakota had a game at UTSA postponed on Saturday, Nov. 9 (rescheduled for Dec. 13) because of flight issues/weather in Texas. That means the teams (originally scheduled to play on Dec. 15) will play a unique hone-and-home series in Grand Forks and then San Antonio on Dec. 13 and 15. … The Hawks are in a stretch of seven of eight games away from home.
By the Numbers
0.68: North Dakota ranks 335th nationally in assist/turnover ratio (0.68).
1: In its lone NCAA tournament game in program history in 2017, No. 15 North Dakota lost to No. 2 Arizona 100-82, in a West Regional first-round game.
4: North Dakota ranks fourth in the country for 3-point field goal percentage defense (.190 percent). Opponents are a combined 12-of-63 from 3 against the Hawks in the first three games.
2008: Year that North Dakota elevated all of its athletic programs to Division I.
2016-17: The Hawks’ 18 victories last season were their most since 2016-17 when they finished 22-10 as a member of the Big Sky conference.
Keep an eye on …
Treysen Eaglestaff, a 6-foot-6, 190-pound junior guard from Bismarck, North Dakota. Eaglestaff is averaging a team-high 20 points with 2.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 27.0 minutes per game. He scored a game-high 31 points in 34 minutes Thursday against Utah Valley. A first-team All-Summit League preseason pick, Eaglestaff can play point guard, shooting guard, wing guard and small forward. As a senior in high school in 2021-22, he was named Mr. Basketball in North Dakota.
Quoting the Hawks
“We have so much growth in front of us, and our goal is to be the best team we can be. We don’t want to just be satisfied by getting a win. Winning’s nice, but we have a lot to learn and a lot to improve on. If we stay with that truth, then we can get those things done.”
— North Dakota coach Paul Sather.
Series history
The teams have met once – on Feb. 2, 1941 – in the old Fieldhouse. Notre Dame won 46-38.
Scouting the Irish
Graduate student Matt Allocco scored 17 points with five rebounds and seven assists and Tae Davis added 13 points and eight rebounds in Saturday’s 84-63 win at Georgetown. Notre Dame led for the final 35:18 and by as many as 25. … Davis is averaging a career-high 16.3 points through three games while Allocco has 11 assists to one turnover in 90:21 minutes through three games. … Opponents are averaging only 68.45 ppg., against Notre Dame’s defense, which ranks eighth in the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring defense (66.6 ppg.) and third in field goal percentage defense (.352). … After ranking 86th nationally last season in field goal percentage defense (.422), tied for 289th in 3-point field goal percentage (.318) and 330th in field goal percentage (.407), the Irish are at 30th (.352), 58th (.391) and 14th (.534) nationally. … Notre Dame looks to start 4-0 for the first time since opening 5-0 in 2022-23.
By the Numbers
1: Notre Dame leads the ACC in rebounding margin through three games (+13.00).
20: Notre Dame finished with 20 assists against Georgetown, its most under Micah Shrewsberry.
14:24: Amount of time that Notre Dame has trailed through 120 minutes over three games. That doesn’t include the exhibition win at Fort Wayne when the Irish never trailed.
86.3: Average points for Notre Dame through three games. The Irish averaged 64.0 ppg., last season.
4,626: Average attendance after two home games for the Irish.
Keep an eye on …
Graduate student forward Burke Chebuhar, who went from DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) against Buffalo to nine points and three assists in 10 minutes against Georgetown. Despite averaging only 7.7 minutes per game, Chebuhar is averaging 6.0 points and 2.0 rebounds while shooting 80 percent from the field and from 3 this season.
Quoting the Irish
“As we’ve gotten better offensively, our defense hasn’t shifted at all. We want to play in the 80s. We want to hold you in the 60s. That’s the kind of effort it takes. There’s no drop-off when we sub defensively.”
— Irish head coach Micah Shrewsberry
Looking ahead
Notre Dame remains at Purcell Pavilion for a game Friday (7:30 p.m. tip) against Elon before four straight away from home.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
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