Prairie Ally Outdoor Center

08/19/2026

Join SDSPA and SDSU Extension for an in-person workshop on permaculture and food forests on September 19th from 9am-12pm in Brookings, South Dakota. They will start the day at the McCrory Gardens with a presentation from SDSU Horticulture Field Specialist Robin Buterbaugh on the principles of permaculture and how you might get started implementing permaculture design on your land. They will then move to the Brookings Food Forest to see permaculture in action.

Join SDSPA and SDSU Extension for an in-person workshop on permaculture and food forests. We will start the day at the McCrory Gardens with a presentation from SDSU Horticulture Field Specialist Robin Buterbaugh on the principles of permaculture and how you might get started implementing permacultur...

08/10/2026

Learn about the importance of the NORTHERN TALLGRASS PRAIRIE REFUGE to the ecosystem with naturalists from US Fish and Wildlife during the walk on Wednesday, August 12th at 9 am (rain date - August 13th). Meet at the Prairie Waterfall Trail for a 2.5 mile walk. Reception to follow.

08/08/2026

Somerset and Valiant grapes are ripe now on the grape arbor. Just enough for a taste on our small vines, but it is worth it! Beat the birds! Somerset is a super sweet nearly seedless variety, while valiant has a taste closer to a conchord (think grape juice) with seeds that can be eaten or discarded. Anise hyssop, a favorite of pollinators and for use in tea, is in full bloom right now. Continue to pick aronia/black chokeberry, elderberry, and toka plum. Head to our .25 mile out and back trail that begins by the vegetable garden for larger quantities of elderberry.

08/07/2026

An encouraging project to share in the area: Work is underway this summer on the last pieces of a 587 acre habitat complex protecting a rare fen, creating a spawning area for a federally endangered fish, and preserving or reconstructing native prairie in Nobles County. The site is visible from Interstate Highway 90 just west of Adrian. The project, notable for its size and its location within largely agricultural area, involved three landowners working with local, state, and federal agencies. Click the link below to read more on this impactful and collaborative work.

08/05/2026

Harvest Alert! Aronia (also known as black chokeberry) and elderberry. You'll find the most aronia in the food forest and the most elderberry in the riparian buffer across the bridge on the east side of Prairie Ally. The darkest, least firm aronia berries will have a dry red w**e taste. They are high in antioxidants and can be eaten raw, though many people prefer them frozen and added into smoothies or baked into tasty treats with other fruits and/or sweetener. Elderberries need to be removed from toxic stems and cooked thoroughly before consuming. They are most commonly used medicinally for their immune boosting benefits. There are still plums on the toka plum tree in the food forest too!

07/24/2026

It's mostly a wrap on raspberries and gooseberries. There are a few plums left on the two plum trees in the food forest. Pick when pink and let ripen on the counter until soft and sweet smelling! Wild plums on the east side of the property are not ready yet.

07/19/2026

Toxic Plant Post! Bittersweet nightshade is a vining plant with star shaped small purple flowers. Plants can have two distinctly different types of leaves; deeply lobed at the base or simple, ovate to oval leaves without lobes. Leaves have an unpleasant odor when crushed. The plant produces red berries. All parts of the plant are mildly toxic. While we try to keep them weeded out of the food forest, they are growing around the property at Prairie Ally, so avoid them or pull them out for us!

07/18/2026

Likely a few more days to pick raspberries! Once you find the first patch in the food forest, keep heading north. There are patches the rest of the way down! There are just a few gooseberries left here and there. If you're here past 7pm when it cools down, you may want bug spray!

07/18/2026

Unfortunate courtesy reminder. The large pear tree here had very light fruiting after a big fruiting year last year. This is common, and the drought didn't help. We just put out a fruit picker and signs by our plum trees in the food forest early this afternoon (the wild plums will be a while still!). Just now we saw that the fruit picker was under the old pear tree and all but 4 pears had been picked. We hope for as many people as want to to be able to taste the various fruits we have, which means with many of our varieties just taking one of something when there isn't much to go around. This may have been innocent children getting excited to bring home fruit to family. It may also have been someone thinking it was the last of the pears, when in reality it was the only pears.
More on the plums: We let our plum trees get a little too dry and stressed this year and some fruit began to drop early, but you may pick a pink plum or two and let ripen on the countertop until soft before eating!

07/15/2026

Grab some gooseberries!...Gently...See those thorns!? Want to beat the heat and still harvest? Come by 11am or after 7:30 am when there's plenty of shade. Taste them at all stages of color to see what you like best! Eat raw, frozen, or cooked. There are still red raspberries too!