Shots ring out across a glassy lake and clay pigeons shatter, echoing from the range to the house. As some guests, clad in galoshes and jeans, aim shotguns over old prairie lands, others look on, nibbling at cheeses, pâté de campagne, and pickle chips. All the while, Megan Clinton arranges the table, bedecking it in floral place settings.
“Envision this having a prairie and having a catered dinner down here,” says Brian Clinton, who inherited the property from his father, Jerry Clinton of Grey Eagle Distributors. The Clintons are exploring ways to make that dream a reality, returning the Eagle Estate to the role it once played as a corporate retreat.
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The fields are already beginning to sprout wildflowers, and if the Clintons have their way, eventually the prairie will be covered in Missouri native plants. “We want to restore the land to what it might have been when the bison roamed,” says Megan.
On the way back from the range, guests hop aboard a tractor for a drive to the house. They marvel at the 200-acre estate, where woods edge along hills and a white fence lines the fields. A table—illuminated with strings of antique-style lights—awaits guests under the covered porch of the pool house. Mac’s Local Buys has delivered a meal of roasted pork with Carolina-style barbecue sauce, cornbread drizzled in edamame honey, colorful salads, and bacon-wrapped asparagus. Chef Chris McKenzie designed the menu to be “country style” and “approachable.”
For now, the land is a gathering place where Brian’s culinary instincts and Megan’s green thumb and decorating talents mesh. “We’re trying to merge these two worlds of ours,” says Megan as she joins her guests, now sipping cocktails by the lake.
Hear gardening advice from Megan Clinton on the House of Lou podcast.
