Author: Joanna Werch Takes

If you’ve seen a Minnesota license plate, you know that the state is known as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes.” Ever wonder just how many of those are in Eden Prairie? The answer, according to the Parks and Recreation page on the City of Eden Prairie website, is 17. Since you’re now wondering what exactly those 17 lakes are, we’ve compiled a handy list, alphabetically. You’re welcome. Anderson LakesBirch Island LakeBryant LakeDuck LakeEden LakeGrass LakeLake IdlewildMcCoy LakeMitchell LakeNeill LakeRed Rock LakeRice LakeRice Marsh LakeLake RileyRound LakeLake SmetanaStaring Lake Just where are these lakes? You can find them on the map…

“Farm-to-table” isn’t just a trend at high-end restaurants: it’s also happening at a childcare center in Eden Prairie. Serving healthy food has always been important to Lisa and Ben Adams, owners of Primrose School of Eden Prairie and Primrose School of Chanhassen. They hire trained chefs to prepare breakfast, lunch, and morning and afternoon snacks at the schools, and a “Primrose Patch” garden at each location is part of the curriculum. Lisa is also the fourth generation with ties to a family farm between Watertown and Montrose, Minn. She had always dreamed of using that connection to grow food on…

Have you checked out the Eden Prairie Puzzle Library? Eden Prairie resident Paul Kautz’s project appears to be the first of its kind. Modeled somewhat on the concept of the Little Free Library boxes that hold books for the taking, the puzzle library is free for community members to use, but it also requires users to register and check out, then return, the multi-piece pastimes. Kautz (pronounced “Cow-tz”) started the puzzle library in 2020, as a way to help people maintain connections during the COVID-19 shutdowns. After hosting a puzzle exchange table in his neighborhood during social isolation, “We had…

These days, you’ll find Sever’s Fall Festival on a 100-acre campus east of Highway 169, south of Shakopee — but it all started in Eden Prairie. Sever Peterson III, a resident of Eden Prairie, and his wife, Sharon, still live on the farm in the Minnesota River valley where both Sever and his father were born. In the mid-1990s, as they faced a struggling economy for their corn and soybean crops, “We were thinking, ‘What else could we do to keep our family involved in agriculture?’” Sever said. The idea for a corn maze arose after the Petersons visited an…