Abi-Haus will be hosting a special dinner in which all the foods featured on the menu will be made only out of ingredients found at a local farm.

Kerry Hedges, owner of the Slowpoke Farm, and Kyle Clemmer, Abi-Haus’ chef, have been friends for quite a while and decided to team up and create Abilene’s first ever farm-to-market dinner.

“We just kind of proposed that we have a dinner at Abi-Haus where all the food comes directly from Slowpoke Farm,” Clemmer said.

Clemmer said he is excited to be able to help with slaughtering and gathering the ingredients for the recipes as well as to cook them.

“It’s also challenging because there’s so much stuff to work with,” Clemmer said.

Hedges said Slowpoke Farm has everything from cows, chickens and pigs to okra, squash and watermelon.

“It’ll take a lot of creativity and work but I think it’ll be great,” he said.

Clemmer said one of the biggest challenges for creating the menu is figuring out what foods they can make using only the things grown at the farm.

“We all love bread, but they don’t grow wheat, so we won’t be having that,” Clemmer said.

Both Clemmer and Hedges said they are excited to bring the farm-to-market dinner to Abilene because it is a new concept here.

“This is a really good way to expose the market to what farm-to-market means,” Clemmer said.

He said he is looking forward to the opportunity to support his friends in their business.

“It’s not just coming from a local farm,” Clemmer said. “It’s also coming from our community and our friends.”

Clemmer said he is a strong believer in the fact that Jesus built community with others over food.

“To me, food is sacred,” Clemmer said. “We do ourselves and we do our beliefs well by paying respect to that.”

The Slowpoke dinner will be Nov. 14. There will be seating available at both 6 and 8:30 p.m. Reservations are $60, but students will receive a 10 percent discount with their student IDs. To reserve a spot, call 325-672-7452.