Easter egg hunts, wagon rides at Halloween and even birthday parties in the fields aren’t the only traditions on the Coy and Kacey Stowell operation. Branding season is also a time-honored tradition.
With a few ropes, good horses, and a talented crew, the Stowell family are able to prepare their cattle for the summer ranges, but afterwards the crew is ready for a hardy meal. For more than a decade, the Stowell family have asked Kendall Benson, a close family friend, to cook a delicious Dutch oven meal for all the hard working cowboys and cowgirls.
The menu changes from year to year featuring everything from sweet cobblers to spicy jalapeno poppers, but one staple has returned year after year: Kendall’s Taters and Onions. “Everything Kendall cooks is good, you can't go wrong with anything he makes,“ Coy says.
“Our most popular dish is simple ‘Taters and Onions’. No matter what meal we have cooked over the years, Taters and Onions are always there," Kendall says.
Dutch Oven Taters and Onions Recipe
Ingredients:
- 10 Potatoes
- 2 Onions
- 1 Package of Bacon, Sliced
- Salt & Pepper to Taste
Directions:
- In a 14” well-seasoned cast iron Dutch oven, cut bacon into smaller pieces and cover the bottom of the oven with a thin layer.
- Clean, peel, and slice the taters and then repeat with the onions.
- Load the Dutch oven with sliced taters and onions, mixing well until full.
- Salt and pepper well then cover the top with remaining sliced bacon.
- Place the lid on your Dutch oven and cook on medium heat with warm coals on the top and the bottom.
- Lift the lid occasionally to check cooking temperature and adjust accordingly. It will smell amazing and you will have lots of friends every time you lift the lid.
- Stir from the bottom part way through the cooking process once the bacon is browned. Then serve hot with the rest of your meal.
Serves about 20 people. Tastes good with ketchup and better with ranch!
Stowell Cowboy Traditions
After six generations, the Coy and Kacey Stowell family has acquired and created a handful of traditions and made plenty of memories while working together on their Parowan, Utah ranch.
Holiday Traditions with a Ranching Twist
Sometimes, ranch work can interfere with holiday activities and that is certainly true for the Stowells, especially when it comes to Easter. “We're always lambing the whole month of April,” Kacey says.
Rather than let the holiday pass them by, the family has adopted a tradition that brings the festivities to the farm by having an Easter egg hunt down at the lambing sheds. Kacey says, “it’s fun because we’ll still be finding eggs in the hay in August or November.”
Another Holiday tradition on the Stowell ranch comes around six months later. Jaid, Kodie, and Bracken Stowell all recall fond memories of Halloween trick-or-treating from the family’s wagon.
“On Halloween we would take the draft mares out that we use to feed in the winter and we would take them around town,” Jaid says. Bracken remembers this as one of his favorite family traditions, dressing up as Captain America and riding on the horses with his shield and helmet.
Fond Farm Memories
Life on the ranch means there’s always a job to be done, but the Stowell family, kids, and even Coy’s mother, Marilee Stowell, all hold fond memories of the little ways they have made the work fun.
“I remember even as a child I loved going everywhere with my dad on the farm and riding the tractor while we ate silage with the cows,” Marilee says. “We didn't take vacations so we made our own fun.”
Marilee recalls pulling a tablecloth on a bale of hay and having birthday parties in the fields as well as learning to drive in the third grade while her dad and brothers loaded the hay. She says that little things they did would make the work fun for everyone.
Jaid, Kodie, and Bracken also say they’ve had their own experiences like this on the farm.
“I remember every morning before preschool I would go and help my dad feed the cows and then after we would always go over to the TA and get a strawberry milk,” Kodie says. This is one of her favorite memories growing up on the farm.
Lessons Learned
With all these memories come plenty of lessons learned. Jaid, Kodie, and Bracken all agree being raised on the family operation has taught them hard work, resilience, and how to be good leaders.
“We have a lot of other responsibilities and priorities that most kids our age don't have and being able to have those responsibilities has made us more applied and better leaders too,” Kodie says.
Growing up on the ranch comes with many opportunities to get involved and help out. The work isn’t always easy, but farm and ranch kids learn a special skill from sticking it out when things get hard.
“It teaches you to be resilient,” Jaid says. “I may not be the best example, but working on the ranch sure has taught me to be resilient and that I can figure it out when things get hard.”
Coy and Kacey are grateful they get to pass on these farming and ranching traditions to their kids. Kacey says that the farm is a lot of work, but it makes for a good lifestyle that teaches kids responsibility and what it means to care for the land and livestock. Coy agrees and says he hopes that the kids can continue on with the farm and ranch if that is what they want.
“There's nothing I would want more than to see this go on to another generation.” Coy says. “If that’s what they want, it’s everything to me to see them carry on that legacy.”
Written by Mikyla Bagley and originally published in the IFA Cooperator magazine (vol. 91, no. 3) Fall 2025.