AUGUST 13, 2021, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A17
Farm to Fork brings culinary creativity to McNary
By BROOKLYN FLINT
Of the Keizertimes
Many people believe that good
meals require expensive equipment
and lots of training. However, some-
times all you need is a bit of creativity
and the right mindset.
Gerald Hosler and Christopher
Feskens are both teachers at McKay
High School and advisors for the Farm
to Fork camp program at McNary High
that fi nished on Friday, Aug. 6th. They
have been doing the program at McKay
for four years prior to this one, but this
time, they decided to do things a little
diff erently.
“This year we kind of put a diff erent
twist on it with a barbecue theme cause
we were expecting to still have to do the
camp with COVID rules and so every-
thing needed to be more spread out,”
Hosler said.
Using a barbecue as the main
method to cook things allowed for
campers to be socially distanced out-
side. Even though it seems like this
method of cooking limited their menu,
it ended up sparking some creativity
with what could be cooked.
“They’ve been amazed to cook pies,
cobblers and crisps on the grill. They’re
like, 'wow, I never did this before'. Some
kids have kind of opened up their eyes
McNary culinary teacher Wendy Bennett gives instructions during the Farm to Fork camp at McNary High School on Friday, Aug. 6.
to what can be cooked on the grill,” Photo by BROOKLYN FLINT of Keizertimes
Feskens said.
Campers have also used the grill for techniques based on what part of the were able to watch campers learn from the camp program in the future and
their mistakes and grow from them as if the pandemic restrictions go down,
macaroni and cheese, scalloped pota- meat it is.
Campers were able to create a main well.
they plan to do fi eld trips to a dairy
toes, and more which they claimed
dish, side dish, a sauce to go with the
“One of the cool parts about camp farm or cattle ranch.
gave the food a smoky fl avor.
side dish and a has been just creating a safe space for
Campers left the program with a
A large part of
dessert.
They learning to just actually organically T-shirt, apron, small grill, grill kit, and
the program has
would work in take place,” Feskens said.
stomachs full of delicious food.
also been edu-
teams and were
Hosler and Feskens hope to continue
cating the kids
even allowed to
on where their
make their own
food comes from,
restaurant name
starting with the
and logo.
animal.
Once the kids
“A lot of kids
Saluting the people that make
fi nished
their
don’t get that the
us proud of our community
food, it would
product
comes
then be tasted
from an actual
presented by
and judged. A
animal and that
few of the camp-
we need those
ers admitted that
animals in order
they
enjoyed
to facilitate a lot
the competition
of the things that
aspect and some
we enjoy,” Hosler
would even prac-
said.
tice their dish
They also learn
the night before
the diff erent parts
camp.
of an animal and
Hosler and Feskens noticed an
the process involved with cutting the
meat and then turning that into food. increase in confi dence with the camp-
They are also taught diff erent cooking ers every day with the program. They
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