Keener Farm

Matthew, Candice and I squeezed into a pickup. 

The door at the Fox News channel was locked and a fellow let us in after buzzing. 

We sat in a room with big couches and waited to go on set. The wait was made shorter by Matt's natural humor, jokes abound about most everything. 

We slipped on mics and met Megan, the smooth host of the morning show, who asked us some questions casually as we waited for a couple segments. 

After a story about firefighters in drag in Minnesota, we went on. The segment was brief and seemed to be over in less than a minute, although after we heard it was three minutes. Megan expertly redirected focus and intertwined our brief conversation from moments earlier, all the while relaying vital information like when and where the screening would be. 

De-mic'd we hopped back in the truck.

Brunch back at the homestead prepared by Karen Keener, who shares her son Matt's sense of humor and generally upbeat presence. We had egg, sausage, and Irish soda bread, and yes all from the farm, and damn good. 

We talked about orchestras and wind ensembles, a passion of David Keener, father of Matthew and husband of Karen.

The Keeners are gracious hosts- opening their home and their kitchen. They have a farm- Keener Farm- that's been around since 1830. A Century Farm- one that's been in the family 100 years.

Again, Candice, Matt and I got in the truck and headed to Winner's - where we picked up a whole hog raised by Hank- who raises for Keener, and then drove it to Antioch College where a young enthusiastic chef named Isaac, and a few of us carried the whole dead hog through a cafeteria at lunch hour. 

Back at the Keener's kitchen, we had lunch, cheeseburgers that were from the farm and caesar salad, Karen being quite a cook. After, David, Matt and I collected eggs. I had a hard time getting one of the hens off the eggs. It eventually happened when grabbing the chicken by the feet. 

130 people showed at the Neon theater which was about right since we had about 140 seats in the theater. Appetizers were served before using meat from Keener farm- the food prepped and cooked by a great new restaurant- Olive

Following, we talked about GMOs, policy relating to the 2012 farm bill, and helping young farmers get started. Free Chipotle burrito coupons were given out, and some DVDs were sold, and we had a culminating dinner at Olive to cap a full, exciting day. 

 

 

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published this page in Ruminations 2012-07-18 12:01:35 -0400