| Koepl
is essay winner
Idaho Farm Bureau is celebrating Farm/City Week during the week of Thanksgiving. 
Besides being thankful for the bountiful harvest on this Thanksgiving Day,
the aim of Farm Bureau is to promote consumer understanding of the efforts
and purpose of farmers.
Each year Idaho Farm Bureau sponsors an Essay Contest for 5th and 6th grade students from the area schools or home-schooled students. Carmen Koepl, age 14, Nezperce, wrote the winning essay with the theme "Celebrating Agriculutre in Idaho." Her essay won first on the county level, and was submitted to District V competition. She placed first, making her essay eligible to be submitted to the state level. She placed first at State, winning $50. She is the daughter of Andy & Michelle Koepl. Here is her essay: Dinner for Idaho
Where should I have it? I think the best place would be my big back yard. The yard is lush with growing bluegrass, from seed like my Dad raises on our farm. If farmers didn’t raise bluegrass there wouldn’t be any grass to plant in our yards and gatherings wouldn’t be very much fun. What food should I serve? Well, I think hamburgers and buns, lettuce salad, potato salad, three-bean salad, cake, ice cream, peach pie and a choice of apple, cherry or grape juice will do. You know if it weren’t for the Idaho cattlemen, we wouldn’t have the meat for the hamburgers. Wheat farmers provide the flour for the buns and cake. Dairy farmers provide the milk for the ice cream and cheese. If farmers didn’t raise potatoes, tomatoes, fruit, beans and lettuce, we wouldn’t have much for salads. In fact, we wouldn’t have salad at all. I am sure glad our Idaho fruit farmers raise peaches for the pie and apples, cherries and grapes for the juice. Now my dinner is complete. I have the food and the picnic site-but I forgot the third question: whom should I invite? To start my progressive dinner I will invite George Anderson from Anderson Ranch in Boise basin to bring the meat. I am sure my Dad, Andy Koepl, has enough wheat from the beautiful Camas Prairie of North Central Idaho to bring the buns. Dan Gordon milks thousands of dairy cows down in the Magic Valley and I’m sure he could bring ice cream and cheese. Nancy Cady raises sugar beets by Bear Lake in Southeastern Idaho so she would have the sugar for the cake. Pat Kimberly down by Twin Falls in the South Central of Idaho raises acres of potatoes, so I’m sure he would have enough for the potato salad. Bill Ashton from Eastern Idaho could maybe bring the three-bean salad for he has fields of beans and they grow well there. The Wagner Farms of Meridian raises tons of fruit and produce. I’ll invite the whole family and they will top off the meal with peach pie, juice and whatever else we need. I have a lot to do and with Idaho agriculture, it makes this dinner easy. One last detail is to invite Robert Moyie from Bonners Ferry to bring picnic tables since he operates a huge lumber mill in Northern Idaho. Well, I guess I had better e-mail the invitations so everyone can join me in this wonderful celebration of Idaho agriculture. Okay, now that that is finished, I can – oh, do I see someone coming down the lane? Gee, that e-mail sure works fast! If you have time, come on over. Good-bye! |
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