The Inaugural Event of Prairie Talks was considered a success by all! Author and journalist Alan Bjerga's talk about agricultural markets and food security around the world, including Kenya and Ethiopia, was welcomed by attendees, and there was no shortage of questions following his presentation. "This was one of the most sophisticated audiences about farming I've seen," Bjerga told me after the event (and he approved being quoted!).
Sixty miles from the nearest bookstore, many attendees purchased copies of Bjerga's book, as well as upcoming Prairie Talks speaker Roxana Saberi's book. Jared Mack's photographs of fishing and tea harvest in Tanzania, and Easter in Ethiopia, were on display. The photography will be donated to Rugby High School, of which Jared Mack (and I!) are graduates.
And, to boot, area resident Susan Hoffert won the Winner-Takes-All Trivia Challenge -- taking home two bottles of Ethiopian wine -- for naming the grain from which the flat, spongy Ethiopian bread injera is made. (Audience members tasted injera and successfully resisted the temptation to put butter and sugar on it as though it were Norwegian lefse.) After an already well-attended event, I'm afraid that we'll be turning people away at the door once people hear there is booze involved in Prairie Talks.
Thank you again to the Alan Bjerga, Jared Mack, the Pierce County Tribune and Benson County Farmers Press, the Eagles Club, and the volunteers from the Pierce County Farmers Union who brought treats and made everything run smoother in general. It takes a village.
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| Alan Bjerga at The Geographical Center of North America |
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| Prairie Talks - Bjerga Event |
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| Prairie Talks - Bjerga Q&A |
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| Prairie Talks - Bjerga book signing |
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