A busload of folks from the Twin Cities got up with the chickens to take a Sunday drive and learn first hand where their breakfast comes from.
As part of a unique field trip, they boarded a chartered bus at 6:00 a.m. in Minneapolis. As the sun climbed, they traveled two and a half hours to their destination: the Schmidt family farm near Starbuck in rural west central Minnesota.
“Remember how much fun field trips were when we were kids, sitting on the bus with our friends and going someplace new?” asked Sheletta Brundidge. “We need more family field trips.”
Brundidge, who owns the media and marketing firm ShelettaMakesMeLaugh, put together the bus and breakfast event. Brundidge publishes a daily “newsletta” with her humorous take on the news and her relatable family adventures that is e-mailed to thousands of her followers.
To thank them for supporting her and her sponsors, she offered about 50 readers and their guests a free outing to experience farm-to-fork dining.
“In that two and a half hour drive, I felt the collective blood pressure on the bus fall by ten points. Everyone was smiling like Christmas morning,” Brundidge said.
As they spilled out of the bus, an outdoor culinary experience awaited them. Breakfast featured ingredients raised by the Schmidt family or on neighboring farms. Once seated in front of the century old barn at tables decorated with zinnias in Mason jars, guests passed platters of fresh-cracked eggs, homemade sausage, pancakes made from locally milled flour and locally produced maple syrup and honey.
“It’s been a while since I connected with nature like that and I definitely needed it,” said Kristinah Henderson, a Community Service Officer with the Minneapolis Police Dept.
Henderson spends her work days in a squad car patrolling downtown streets. She said the opportunity to get out of the city accompanied by her three children felt like “a relaxing mini-vacation” for her family.
“We don’t just get to just exist in nature with each other often enough. It was a such a good thing to do, to sit outside together and make that deeper connection with the land and our food,” she said. “It fed our spirit.”
This agricultural experience was curated by The Crowded Table. Owned by spouses Matthew and Amber Jensen, the Alexandria-based business regularly sets up farm-to-table meals on farms in Greater Minnesota to give diners an opportunity to sample their fresh ingredients and build word-of-mouth on them.
“We want guests to make authentic connections with farmers. By bringing them out to taste locally sourced meals prepared right there on working family farms, they experience some of the amazing products Minnesota farmers are raising,” Matthew Jensen said.
After the breakfast, the guests toured the farm, meeting barn cats and the dairy herd and asking their farm family hosts to dish on their work.
“A teenager asked, what do you do when you go on vacation, who takes care of the farm? When the farmer said, we don’t go on trips, we all kind of gasped,” said Nneka Onuma.
The owner of bakery brand Sweet Heaven by Nne, Onuma said observing the operation up close gave her a new perspective.
“As a baker, I use a lot of eggs. This gave me gratitude. Too often we don’t think about who makes it possible for food to be in our bellies. These are the families who get up early and work hard all day every day, no shortcuts,” she said.
Brundidge said she hopes the field trip left her guests with both sweet summer memories and a broader view of the farmers’ role in the food chain.
“We keep hearing how food we buy will make us sick; every time you turn on the news it’s about eggs recalled because of salmonella, lettuce that is contaminated. We got a breakfast with no preservatives or additives and everyone came home nourished and safe,” she said. “I’ve been eating eggs all my life and I never tasted eggs so fluffy!”
