This is a story of American ingenuity and entrepreneurship. It is the story of the meat straw. Yes, you read that right.

“It is a straw made out of pork,” explains Ben Hirko of Coralville, Iowa, the man behind Benny’s Original Meat Straws.

It’s a half-inch in diameter, the same length as a standard plastic straw. And it has a hole running down the middle of it, through which you’re meant to slurp up Bloody Marys.

Like many good stories, this one involves a snowstorm — and maybe one beer too many. Back in February 2009, Hirko was tending bar, and there was only one couple there to drink, so as the snow piled up outside, he poured himself a beer. The bar didn’t serve food, but the couple brought a bunch of meat sticks to snack on.

“After a few beers, I reached over and grabbed one of the snack sticks,” says Hirko. “And I was like, ‘You know, this would make an amazing Bloody Mary garnish.’ It just had great flavor.”

But there was a problem: Only the bottom of the meat stick was soaking up the spicy tomato juice and vodka.

“And so I grabbed a plastic straw out of one of the dispensers, and I grabbed a new stick from them. And I literally started digging a hole in it and eating the meat out of it until I got all the way through,” says Hirko, recounting the moment his meat straw concept was born.

And right there, Hirko had created his first prototype.

“I held it up to the guy that was there,” Hirko says. “And I looked him in the eye, right through the hole, and I said, ‘That’s awesome.’ And he looked at me and said, ‘Yes, it is.’ “

Now, if you are thinking, “Does America really need meat straws?,” you’re not alone. Even Hirko’s father had doubts. “He didn’t really say it, but he looked at me like, ‘You know you have a family to support now, don’t you?’ ” Hirko recalls.

But it turns out, Bloody Mary meat straws actually can support a family. For Hirko, the big break came when he got a call from the Detroit Lions football team, which serves a Hail Mary Bloody Mary drink.

“We serve it in a plastic mason jar,” says Joe Nader, executive chef for Levy Restaurants at Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions. He oversees food service at the stadium. “So it’s a pretty good-sized portion, and it’s got a bunch of other garnish with it. The meat straw is kind of the piece de resistance.”

Last year, the Lions sold 30,000 Bloody Marys with meat straw garnishes. The meat straws are also sold in grocery stores and bars, and on the Benny’s website.

And the hankering for meat straws has spread. At a recent Washington National’s baseball game in D.C., meat straws were prominently displayed at a “make-your-own-Bloody-Mary” bar in one of the luxury lounges.

Jonathan Stahl, executive director of ballpark operations and fan experience for the Nationals, demonstrates a meat straw in action, using it to stir horseradish into the Bloody Mary mix.

“As you can see, it comes straight through the meat straw,” says Stahl, taking a gulp to demonstrate. “There you go.”

The straw infuses each sip with a hint of meaty, umami flavor. And by the time imbibers have finished guzzling the drink, the meat straw is well-soaked in Bloody Mary and ready for snacking. Stahl says they’ve been a hit.

“We couldn’t get them one time, and so people were asking where the meat straws were,” says Stahl. “We never have a Bloody Mary bar unless we have the meat straws available now.”

Nat’s fan Bill Foster sits on a patio overlooking the ballpark, testing out a meat straw Bloody Mary. He isn’t convinced this product is really answering a great need.

“Sometimes, as Steve Jobs pointed out, we don’t know what we needed until he put it together, so maybe enough people will think we need this,” says Foster. “I don’t know. I doubt if I’ll be in that crew, but maybe others will.”

The Steve Jobs of meat straws, Ben Hirko, recently sold his company to a larger firm with better distribution channels, but he stayed on. So now he can spend all his time convincing people that meat straws are the answer to a problem they didn’t know they had.

Mining moves in boom-and-bust cycles. It’s busting right now as metals prices are the lowest they’ve been in years. In states like Montana, that means small mining towns are looking for other options.

Transcript

ARUN RATH, HOST:

Mining for metals like copper, gold and platinum has long been a story of boom and bust, and it’s busting in the U.S. right now. Metals prices are the lowest they’ve been in years. In states like Montana, that means small towns with their futures tied to mining are looking for other options. Montana Public Radio’s Eric Whitney reports they’re hard to find.

ERIC WHITNEY, BYLINE: Buddy Hanrahan runs a one-man computer services business in White Sulphur Springs, Mont., population 900.

BUDDY HANRAHAN: Bring ’em over. They can come down…

WHITNEY: Hanrahan’s also president of the local chamber of commerce. He’s trying to stay on good terms with other local businesses. So when I ask him how the local economy’s doing…

HANRAHAN: Oh boy, I’ve got to be careful what I say just ’cause I don’t want to offend – steady, level, but at a very low level.

WHITNEY: Way lower than when Hanrahan was in high school. Back then, White Sulphur Springs still had three thriving timber mills. But when federal forest management policies changed in the ’90s, the mills closed, and two-thirds of the town’s residents moved away. That’s why Hanrahan and a lot of other Main Street businesses here now have signs in their windows saying they support opening a new copper mine nearby.

HANRAHAN: Any industry right now is an improvement. I mean, agriculture’s great, and tourism is great, but it’s – it’s tough. It’s a hard road to hoe when you just have that.

WHITNEY: When a Canadian mining company set up a storefront here about four years ago, copper prices were up, and prospects looked good for it to open the mine and create about 200 good-paying jobs. Kim Deal, who’s been here 41 years, would love to see that happen.

KIM DEAL: I moved away after I graduated out of high school, was gone for nine years, and I come back. It’s home.

WHITNEY: Deal spent 31 years tending bar in White Sulphur Springs because she says it’s one of the few steady jobs available here. But she just bought a property management business and is hoping something will come along so her family can stay, too.

DEAL: There’s just nothing here for people to do. There’s no work. You know, and it’s sad when your kids don’t have the option to graduate and say, oh, you know, I’m going to stay at home for the summer and work, or, you know, I don’t want to go to college so I want to get a job, and they can’t do that here. There’s nothing here for them to do that with.

RATH: The proposed copper mine is near the Smith River, one of Montana’s most prized boating and fishing experiences. Environmental groups are trying to stop the mine, but a pretty effective barrier right now could be that the price of copper is only about half of what it was in 2011. K.C. Chang, an economist with the financial research firm IHS Global Insight, says that’s mostly because of China’s economy. It’s shifting away from the rapid industrialization that caused a spike in prices for raw materials.

K.C. CHANG: That shift towards a market that’s more driven by their domestic consumer means that there’s going to be an overall lower copper demand in terms of the global picture.

WHITNEY: A weak forecast for rising copper prices means hopes for another natural resources boom in towns like White Sulphur Springs are fading.

HANRAHAN: Yeah, that three screens really does people in sometimes.

WHITNEY: Back in Buddy Hanrahan’s computer shop, he says local leaders have no choice but to keep looking for other economic options.

HANRAHAN: The mine is a possibility. It may never happen. So we’re just rolling the way things need to roll to survive, not necessarily depending on the mine. It’d be great if it happened, but we’re not going to rely on it.

WHITNEY: Right now, Hanrahan thinks his town’s best hope still lies underground – but not in copper ore. Federal subsidies helped lay fiber-optic Internet cable to White Sulphur Springs, and Hanrahan’s trying to lure some telecommuters who want to be surrounded by the great outdoors. For NPR News, I’m Eric Whitney in Missoula.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MINING ALL DAY LONG”)

MIRACLE OF SOUND: (Singing) And I feel good ’cause I’ve been mining all day long. Hey, hey, hey, I’ve been mining all day long. I feel…

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