The Keppers Story

Greetings and welcome to Keppers' Pottery and Produce. We are Ken and Judith Keppers. We make and sell wood - fired pottery and vegetables we grow on chemical free soil.

Ken grew up gardening. He can only remember two seasons when he didn't garden. Ken's grandfather was a farmer in rural Minnesota, and some of Ken's fondest memories are time spent on his grandfather's farm - a small, diversified farm with dairy cows, pigs, chickens, small grains, and a large kitchen garden.

Ken found art in high school. He went to Bemidji State University with the intention to go into forestry, but discovered there would be more paperwork and less forestry than he wanted. He got a job in the art department, and a key to the pottery studio! Upon graduation he discovered people were hesitant to buy a painting from a twenty something, but people would buy pottery from the same young guy.

Ken worked and saved and bought land. In this glaciated area finding local clay was a long shot, but finding land with wood to fire pottery was possible. So forestry became an avocation. Ken moved out with his shovel, bow saw, and wheelbarrow. He carved out a garden space and camped. He had read Small is Beautiful and Silent Spring and was organic. Fortunately this property had been clear cut for cash during the depression and pastured. It had never seen chemicals.

Ken spent weekends at pottery shows for three years to establish his business. He built a mailing list. He gardened and built soil. He got a dog, Abby (like Dear Abby, she was a good listener), then chickens, and then a draft horse, Nina. He and Nina pulled culled wood off sections of the property each year. He cut dead and dying trees for heating his house and firing the pottery. He developed glazes from ashes he made from trees, bean husks, raspberry canes, corn husks, etc.

In 1990 he met Judith while folkdancing.

Judith grew up in Massachusetts with grandparents who had a dairy farm in Vermont and grandparents who ran a guesthouse (precursor to B & B) on Block Island, Rhode Island. She felt constricted by the small town where she grew up and graduated form high school in three years so she could get out into the big wide world. She attended college in Baltimore and St. Paul, and got a very practical degree in theatre. After several menial jobs in several locations, she landed a job in a law firm in St. Paul. Judith shopped farmers markets and joined a food co-op. She bought a house and loved growing many flowers and a few vegetables.

Ken on the other hand grew many vegetables and a few flowers. Now they grow a lot of both! People knew it was serious when Ken planted more carrots (a favorite of Judith) and Judith started moving perennials to Turtle Lake.

She and Ken married 1993, and had the opportunity to go to Japan for a year through a sister city program. They met a natural farmer who intoduced them to what is known here as Community Supported Agriculture. In Japan this is known as "farmer with a face". Consumers pay ahead and the farmer grows for them. Each farm is different, but the concept is the same.

Once home from Japan, Ken wanted to farm, and Judith agreed, In 1995, Keppers' Pottery added Keppers' Produce. As Ken says in jest, "Now we have two high paying professions."