Profile on Plow & Hearth--Reaping What You Sow (2,623 words)

Peter Rice explains the business model: "In 1980, the prime interest rate was 18 percent, and it still boggles my mind. It was tough to get money, but the concept was really around back-to-basics: rototillers, wood stoves, food preservation, kerosene heaters, bulk vegetable seeds."

The back-to-basics movement emerged from two 1970s social phenomena: increased environmental activism and a broad-reaching energy crisis. Driven by a blend of idealism and pragmatism, Rice claims, "Country living has been at our core from the very beginning."