Partner Spotlight: Maine Prairie Studio

JD and Megan Jorgenson, not only ceramicists of extraordinary talent and generosity, but the best dressed at the Story Feast table, too!

The Ceramicists Behind Every Piece On Our Story Feast Table

When I began planning our inaugural gathering at St. John's Abbey, I knew I wanted the table itself to be extraordinary. Not just the food, not just the venue, but the objects we'd eat from. I wanted to celebrate a local ceramicist whose work could hold the meal in every sense.

I reached out to JD and Megan Jorgenson of Maine Prairie Studio. I knew it was a big ask: 180 guests, a multi-course family-style dinner, custom pieces for an event that had never happened before.

To my astonishment and delight, they said yes.

1,300 Original Pieces

What JD and Megan created for Story Feast was nothing short of extraordinary.

They made 1,300 original pieces in 13 different glazes, fired specifically for this event. They walked through the entire family-style menu with Chefs Mateo and Erin Mackbee, listening carefully to every element of the evening, and then designed original serving vessels for every single dish. Platters, bowls, dishes, hundreds of pieces, each one made by hand. They made original water tumblers and whiskey tumblers, vases, platters. Every single element made with tremendous care by JD and Megan.

It was like having a ceramic museum on the table. It added so much visual depth and warmth to the long tables our guests gathered around.

They kept adding elements to execute the vision, refining and expanding as the event took shape. Their generosity and artistry transformed the gathering into something none of us could have imagined.

A Standing Ovation

On the night of the feast, JD and Megan joined us as guests. During the evening, they shared their story with the room, how they'd built Maine Prairie Studio, their philosophy of craft and community, what it meant to create work for an event like this.

They received a standing ovation.

The night overflowed with appreciation and gratitude for them and their work. Guests understood, viscerally, that they weren't just eating an exquisite meal, but that it was being presented to them on a work of art.

Connections Run Deep

One of the most emotional moments of the evening happened before dinner even began.

I looked over and saw JD embracing Phil Steger, the founder of Brother Justus Whiskey. They knew each other and are old friends. Both are alumni of Saint John's University. JD had apprenticed at The Saint John's Pottery. the very studio we'd toured earlier that day, and Phil had built his distillery on Benedictine values he'd absorbed during his time at Saint John's.

The connections kept revealing themselves: ceramic artist and distiller, both shaped by the same place, reuniting at a table set with JD's work and toasted with Phil's whiskey.

That's what Story Feast is about. The people, the places, the invisible threads that tie us together.

About Maine Prairie Studio

Maine Prairie Studio is the pottery studio and home of Megan and JD Jorgenson, located in Kimball, Minnesota, about thirty minutes from Saint John's Abbey. Their mission is to nurture creativity and elevate the ceramic arts through community education for rural Minnesotans.

JD trained at The Saint John's Pottery, apprenticing under master potter Richard Bresnahan. He brought his infant son along to his shifts in the studio, that baby is now a young man in his twenties who joined us at the Story Feast dinner alongside his father. The lineage of craft, passed down through generations, was present at our table in more ways than one.

Beyond their own work, JD and Megan support artists at every stage through internships, apprenticeships, residencies, and retreats. They offer pottery classes for all skill levels, from introductory "Come Try It" sessions to intensive summer workshops. They host private groups, field trips, and parties.

And they welcome visitors. You can schedule a studio tour and see where the magic happens.

Tell them Story Feast sent you.

One Regret

Two days before the event, JD and Megan invited us to come to the studio for the opening of the kiln, the kiln that held many of the pieces destined for our table. With our task list running long, we couldn't make it.

It's my one regret from the entire event. I would have loved to see those pieces emerge still warm from the fire, to witness the moment when clay becomes art.

Next time.

Visit Maine Prairie Studio

Maine Prairie Studio is located in Kimball, Minnesota.

They offer:

• Pottery classes for all levels

• Summer intensives

• Private group sessions and parties

• Apprenticeships, internships, and artist residencies

• Studio visits by appointment

Learn more and plan your visit →

My newsletter

Every Wednesday in my Substack newsletter, What’s Good Here, I share a new, well-tested recipe alongside guides, how-tos, interviews with inspiring people, and stories about what it means to live a good life. Every other Friday I also share five original recipes plus a step-by-step guide to host a Fantasy Feast inspired by your favorite movies, books and television shows.

Subscribe to What's Good Here →

Interested in partnering with us for a future gathering? See partnership opportunities →

Interested in joining a future gathering? See upcoming events →

Tour Spotlight: The Saint John's Pottery

Treasures from The St. John’s Pottery

A behind-the-scenes tour at our inaugural Story Feast gathering

Every Story Feast gathering includes more than a meal. We invite guests to explore the places where they dine, to understand what makes them extraordinary. At St. John's Abbey, that meant offering three optional tours before the cocktail hour. Every single one filled to capacity.

This is what we love about Story Feast guests: you come curious.

A Potter, a Proposal, and Three Hundred Years of Clay

In the late 1970s, a young man named Richard Bresnahan returned to his alma mater with an unusual proposal.

He had just spent nearly four years in Karatsu, Japan, apprenticing with Nakazato Takashi, a 13th-generation master potter and designated National Living Treasure. He'd arrived not knowing a word of Japanese. He left as a certified master potter, carrying with him centuries of tradition and a vision for what pottery could become.

His proposal to the president of Saint John's University: let me start a pottery studio, and let me bring in enough clay from a nearby site to keep it going for three hundred years.

Because it's Saint John's, the president said yes.

Forty-Five Years and Counting

The Saint John's Pottery opened in 1979 in an abandoned root cellar beneath Saint Joseph Hall. Today, more than forty-five years later, Richard Bresnahan is still its director and artist-in-residence and the pottery has become one of the most respected ceramic studios in the country.

Everything about the studio embodies Benedictine values: sustainability, community, hospitality, the dignity of labor. The clay is mined locally. Glazes are made from ashes, flax, soybean straw, navy beans, sunflower hulls, wood. Water and packing materials are recycled. The massive Johanna Kiln, built in 1994 and named after Bresnahan's mentor Sister Johanna Becker, is the largest wood-fired kiln of its kind in North America, 87 feet long, capable of holding 12,000 pieces in a single firing that takes ten days and sixty volunteers working around the clock.

It's a place where craft is practiced the old way, and where time moves differently.

The Only Paid Apprenticeship of Its Kind

Since 1981, more than fifty apprentices have trained at The Saint John's Pottery. What makes this program unique: every apprentice receives a stipend, room, and board. Since 2016, the benefits package has included healthcare.

It's the only pottery apprenticeship of its kind in the country that pays its apprentices and provides benefits.

The results speak for themselves: every former apprentice is still involved in the creative process, working with clay or other mediums, teaching or running their own studios.

One of those apprentices was JD Jorgensen, who later founded Maine Prairie Studio with his wife Megan. JD brought his infant son along to his shifts in the pottery studio, that baby is now a young man in his twenties who joined us at the dinner alongside his father. Together, JD and Megan crafted every piece of pottery for our Story Feast gathering. (More on their extraordinary work in a future post.)

Tea at Three

Every afternoon at 3 p.m., something beautiful happens at The Saint John's Pottery.

Work pauses. Tea is prepared. And everyone, the master potter, the apprentices, any visitors who happen to be present, gathers around the irori, a traditional Japanese-style hearth at the entrance to the studio. A cast iron kettle hangs from the ceiling, heated by a wood fire below. Tea is poured into handmade cups. Conversation unfolds.

In the words of Saint Benedict: "All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ."

This is pottery not as production, but as practice. Not as commodity, but as community.

There are seemingly endless shelves of pottery throughout the vast studio

What Guests Experienced

On the evening of our gathering, guests toured the pottery studio, learning about clay processing, glaze development, and the cycles of the Johanna Kiln. They saw where JD Jorgensen had trained, and they understood, perhaps for the first time, how the ceramics on their dinner table had come to be.

They felt what it means to step into a place where time, craft, and intention merge.

Learn more about The St. John’s Pottery →

Looking Ahead: 2026–2027 Season

For our upcoming season, Story Feast tours will be even more expansive. You'll have the option to spend a few days, or just one, or an hour, or not at all (sometimes you just want to feast!) immersing yourself in a place. Visiting locations that define the food culture of the region. Meeting the makers. Understanding the sense of place and identity that makes each location extraordinary.

Because a great meal isn't just about what's on the plate. It's about where you are, who made it, and what that place means.

My newsletter

Every Wednesday in my Substack newsletter, What’s Good Here, I share a new, well-tested recipe alongside guides, how-tos, interviews with inspiring people, and stories about what it means to live a good life. Every other Friday I also share five original recipes plus a step-by-step guide to host a Fantasy Feast inspired by your favorite movies, books and television shows.

Subscribe to What's Good Here →

Interested in partnering with us for a future gathering? See partnership opportunities →

Interested in joining a future gathering? See upcoming events →