THE RURBAN FRINGE

Rural Town Names Inspire Beer Business

Nicole Courides has a confessed passion for Intercourse … it’s her business.
Courides founded the Intercourse Brewing Company which she named after the rural Pennsylvania Amish community of Intercourse, ironically a dry town.  
Click here to read the full article.

After ‘Black Friday’ Comes ‘Small Business Saturday’

American Thanksgiving has traditionally been the kick-off to the holiday shopping season.  And with many retailers offering blockbuster deals on what has come to be known as Black Friday, a new, localized movement has also sprung up, encouraging folks to support their local stores on Small Business Saturday.
The Small Business Saturday campaign is designed to [...]

On the Edge: Land-Use Planning in the ‘Fringe

When land use changes, there’s any number of impacts which affect a community’s social, economic, and environmental features. 
And although land-use planning tends to be dry, it can also be made that much more interesting when the land-use plan in question involves Prairie Merchant, Brett Wilson’s private holding company which focuses on business opportunities in the energy, agriculture, [...]

Small Canadian Community ‘Sardine Capital of the World’

Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick – a small fishing village of only 950 people along the Bay of Fundy shoreline - is home to the world’s largest sardine industry. 
Fishing has been a vital part of this community’s existence for over 200 years.  In 1885, Connors Brothers Ltd.- one of Canada’s oldest food producers – founded a sardine cannery in Blacks Harbour.  Soon [...]

$1 a Day Keeps the Creditors Away

A rural community in Australia, desperate to encourage new people to move in and revitalize the town, is offering to rent out local farmhouses for $1.
The Hamlet of Trundle, 350 km northwest of Sydney, has a population of 380 people.  Like neighbouring communities, Trundle has struggled for years with drought and is hoping that the cheap [...]

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