Some people come away from the Minnesota State Fair with fresh ideas about canning, cooking or butter sculpting, but Tom and Mary Lakner might be the only people who've ever left the fairgrounds thinking, "Let's start an emu farm."

Just before getting married 14 years ago, the pair saw the ostrich-type birds at the fair, and chatted with a farmer there about the varied uses of emus. Not only is emu meat healthy -- leaner than turkey and 97 percent fat-free -- but the birds are also a source of anti-inflammatory, deeply moisturizing oil.

Less than a year later, the Lakners were caring for a breeding pair at their little ranch in Forest Lake. They named the place Hassu Lintu (www.hassulintu.com), which means "crazy bird" in Finnish. The term stuck after the couple discovered that younger birds would do a kooky kind of dance if they whistled. When the birds get older, the female uses her hollow chest cavity to produce an amazing drumming sound that must make a good accompaniment to all that teenage-emu dancing.

As they walk through the spacious outdoor pens, Tom and Mary coo to the birds, from the tiny, frantic 3-week-old that has just been put outside for the first time, to the incredibly curious 3-month-olds that love to bite gently at Mary's rings. They tug at her like kids wanting attention, and she's happy to oblige. "They're like cats, in many ways," she says, with obvious affection. "They either really warm up to you, or they're a bit standoffish."

The main "crop" for the Lakners is emu oil, which is obtained when the birds are processed (the rancher term for "sent to the butcher"). The meat, too, provides a small income for the ranch. The Lakners use Deutschland Meats in Lindstrom, Minn., which specializes in nontraditional animals like bison, deer and small game. The birds are sent there at about 15 months old -- breeding birds, which can live for nearly 30 years, don't make the journey -- and the number of birds per year varies widely. One year, the ranchers sent nearly 40 to be processed, but in leaner years, it might be only two or three. The Lakners generally aim for about 20.

Although emus are birds, their meat is nothing like poultry. Instead, it's closer to beef or bison in taste and texture. The ground meat is $6.50 per pound, and the steaks are $14 per pound, but that's almost a bargain, considering how they're raised. Tom and Mary have developed vegetable pellet feed that mimics what they'd eat in the wild, and they're careful to avoid all antibiotics and hormones.

Considering that the birds can whip past you at 40 miles an hour, they can certainly qualify as free-range, too. The ranchers still laugh about the day an emu got out and, over the course of a few days, was reported in three different counties. Tom shakes his head, rolls his eyes and confirms that the ranch is well named. "Definitely, they live up to being crazy sometimes," he says. "But they're also a lot of fun."

The churn

Mike Phillips, chef at the Craftsman, is leaving the restaurant this month to develop a new company in partnership with restaurateur Kieran Folliard's Cara Pubs group (including Kieran's and the Local). The new company, called Green Ox Food, will develop a line of local, sustainable meats and supply Cara Pubs with bacon, sausage and ham.