This morning I left a little early since I knew I had a long drive ahead of me. I also had a copilot, Deb Churchill, Property Manager for the City Market. My first stop is a three hour drive from the Market in Newark, Mo. We will be meeting Edmond Soo who will give us a tour of Heartland Creamery. Heartland Creamery is located in the middle of a corn field and operated by the Heartland Community which is a ministry designed to help troubled adults and children to get a fresh start in life.
Our tour started with seeing where the milk is packaged. We were able to sample goats milk and their wonderful chocolate milk. Edmond then drove us to the cheese house where we met Kathy. The cheese house is where the cheeses are sent to dry, add the flavors to the goat cheese and get packaged for sale in local grocery stores and markets. When we arrived Kathy had a great assortment of flavored goat cheeses and artisan cheeses. I think the most unique was the black walnut goat cheese.
Next stop was the building where the cheese is actually made. Heartland meets all state regulations in their cheese facility which was very evident as we walked from room to room. I won't post the picture of Deb Churchill and myself in our stylish blue hairnets.
Edmond then drove us 12 miles to see where the 3000 goats are housed, milked and where the goat cheese is made. Fascinating! I loved being able to see the baby goats, some were just born that day. Goats that were not being milked were grazing in the fields.
Next stop, the milking barn for the cows. This was probably my favorite part of the tour, except for the cheese tasting. Heartland milks their dairy cows 24/7. They have a very cool carousel milk machine which milks 360 cows and hour. The cows are housed in barns and moved out to the pasture to graze when their milk has dried up. Heartland grows all their own feed and has a section on their farm strictly for storing and preparing the feed.
We were able to meet many of the employees who are responsible for making the cheese, milking the cows and goats, maintain the land and feeding the livestock. It was obvious that they take great pride in what they do.
We ended our visit by having lunch at the Heartland restaurant and visiting the Heartland Ford Museum.
Back in the truck we headed south on highway 139 to Hale, Mo to visit Joe Bryson. Joe was not home but his son Peewee was able to show us around. They didn't have very much ready to pick at this time other than asparagus. Joe had just planted his starts in the fields earlier in the week so was grateful for the rain. Peewee said they were a little late in getting the tomatoes in so won't have any for a while. Last year Joe had planted blueberry bushes but didn't get them fertilized on time so won't have anything to pick this year.
For those of you who are morel mushroom fans, Joe will have some available this weekend and ready to sell once they have been inspected. You will find Joe and his family at the Market every Saturday in pavilion 1 stalls 36-38 and Sunday pavilion 2 stalls 90 and 91.
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