I recently returned from a trip to England where I got to taste many amazing cheeses, and each one was incredibly fresh. These cheeses I ate in England inspired me to help you find local, fresh cheese in Missouri.

Featured last fall in Feast magazine, Baetje Farms – located near Ste. Genevieve, Missouri –  produces several flavors of goat cheese. The cheeses have a light and fluffy taste, without the heavy gamey flavor that sometimes comes with a goat cheese. My favorite is the Coeur de la Crème because it is shaped into a heart, reflecting its name.

Moving across the state to the Kansas City side, Green Dirt Farm makes their artisan cheeses from sheep’s milk. The “Wooly Rind” is a Camembert-style cheese and is similar to a mild brie. A big step up from that is the “Bossa” cheese – thick, creamy, and full of flavor. The “Dirt Lover” is a triple crème, practically a buttery spread.

You can shop online for another Kansas City cheese from Yummy’s Choice, who has created a variety of feta cheese spreads marinated in extra virgin olive oil. Flavors include regular, mint, and spicy, as well as a Sun Dried Tomato Lebaneh, which is a combination of feta, cream cheese, with several spices and herbs.

In the middle of the state is Goatsbeard Farm, located in Harrisburg, which is about 20 miles northwest of Columbia. Goatsbeard offers a selection of Fresh Rounds, Fresh Tubs, Soft-Ripened Cheese, Feta, and Raw Milk Cheese. More information can be found on their website at http://www.goatsbeardfarm.com, and their artisan goat cheeses can be found in wine stores such as The Wine and Cheese Place and The Wine Merchant.

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To learn more about the cheeses in this post:

You can find Baetje Farms online at http://baetjefarms.com or at the Maplewood Farmer’s Market in the Schlafly Bottleworks parking lot on Wednesdays from 4-7pm.

You can find Green Dirt Farm online at http://www.greendirtfarm.com or in the cheese section at Whole Foods Market.

Yummy’s Choice is online at http://shop.yummyschoice.com or you can purchase their spreads at the closest Whole Foods Market.

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Michelle Marcus is a web developer, music lover, and food aficionado. To read more from Michelle, visit her blog: http://michelleamarcus.blogspot.com/.

Because she’s awesome like that, my Mom made sure that I had a hand-made card in the mail my first week living in Colorado Springs. This wasn’t technically my very first piece of mail, but it was among the first pieces, and it made me smile.

My mom is a talented and semi-professional card maker and a very popular paper crafting blogger. Here’s a post she wrote about the card photographed above.

She regularly sends me links to magazines her cards have been published in, and she occasionally teaches classes in Small Town, Missouri. Be sure to visit her blog and leave her a comment if you like her designs. You can find her at Cherish Each Precious Day, and if you enjoy paper crafting or card making, check her blog regularly for freebies and giveaways.

Thanks for the awesome card, MommaGFunk!

Just as I finished backing the fully-packed, 14-foot moving truck into my parents’ rural Missouri driveway on Sunday afternoon, I received an email on the iPhone in my lap from Becky McCray, the subject line of which read, “Your speaker proposal is approved”.

Practically bouncing out of the moving truck in my excitement, I shared my good news with my boyfriend. He was just getting out of my car, which he had driven from the cabin I was moving out of to my parents’ house, where I’d be spending my final days of Missouri residency before moving to Colorado this Sunday.

Good things were happening in my world. Sad goodbyes in Small Town Missouri were leading to exciting new beginnings in Colorado Springs, personally and professionally. After 2.5 years living in a one room cabin in the woods and working for a nonprofit in a very rural part of Missouri, I had been offered a great new position working in a strategic marketing agency in a medium-sized city. And after a series of questionable attempts at the dating game, I’d finally found a man who treated me like my friends and family had always told me I deserved to be treated.

My boyfriend’s eyes lit up and a smile grew across his face as my excitement about my email from Becky became contagious. Just as we were venturing into new beginnings in my career and our relationship, I got good news about a national speaking engagement. Life was good.

The speaker proposal I received confirmation about was for the #140Conf Small Town, an “ideas conference” focused on immediate media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and its affect on business, education, agriculture, media, celebrity, music, politics, public safety, and our culture. The conference will be held in Hutchinson, Kansas on September 20th, 2011.

I was thrilled that my proposal was accepted, and now I’m becoming increasingly excited to compare notes and ideas with other bloggers and social media mavens at the conference who reside and/or work in smaller towns. The conference drew more than 200 attendees last year, and this year they received speaker proposals from people in 18 U.S. states and Alberta, Canada.

The statistic that really got my attention was that in the first 30 minutes of the 2010 conference, 7GB of data was generated on the conference’s wifi network. 7GB in 30 minutes by 214 attendees. That’s a lot of buzz. And this year I’m going to be part of it. On September 20th, 2011, I’ll have my second national-level speaking engagement at #140Conf Small Town (my first was for Concerns of Police Survivors in July of 2011).

Thanks to Becky and to Jeff Pulver for allowing me to share  my story about how I used social media not only to remain connected personally, but to promote the  nonprofit where I was employed, YMCA Trout Lodge & Camp Lakewood, when I moved from a brownstone in Brooklyn, New York to a cabin in the woods of rural Missouri in 2009. Also, thanks to my new employer, The CSK Group, for supporting me in speaking at the #140Conf Small Town.

Are you speaking at or attending #140Conf Small Town? Let’s connect!

Sunrise at YMCA of the Ozarks, photo by MilliGFunk

Grace in Small Things

Little things that rock about early springtime in Small Town Missouri:

1. Fresh air coming in through open car, office or home windows.

2. Spring rains pounding down on the metal roof of my cabin in the woods.

3. Yellow daffodils dotting the sides of country highways.

4. The fluffy blossoms of Bradford pear trees.

5. Longer, sunnier days.

]]> http://smalltowngirlsguide.com/2011/grace-in-small-things-gist-442011/feed/ 0 http://smalltowngirlsguide.com/2011/3310/ http://smalltowngirlsguide.com/2011/3310/#comments Sat, 02 Apr 2011 00:51:53 +0000 MilliGFunk http://smalltowngirlsguide.com/?p=3310

I think it’s fair to say that the average person would assume life in Brooklyn to be far more thrilling and way more dangerous than life in a Missouri town of just over 2,500 people.  On the average day in said tiny Missouri town, the average person’s assumption might be accurate.

Today, however, was no average day.

***

Today was the first day of the month. Today was also April Fool’s Day. And today, I attempted to go to the local Wal-Mart Supercenter mid-day instead of going to Wal-Mart at my usual 10:00 p.m (or later).

My first near-miss was the tall, skinny gentleman with the little boy, walking European-like on the wrong side of the aisle. As I approached, they were walking in the center of the aisle, but as I got closer to them, they suddenly veered directly in front of me.

I’ve heard stories of deer doing this when they see headlights. Once the deer has already crossed the rural highway, it sees headlights over its shoulder, freaks out, does a 180, and leaps directly into the trajectory of the giant hunk of metal hurling itself down the highway.

Evolution eliminates the dumbest animals. If only shopping carts did the same.

My second near-miss were the two pre-teen girls who did exactly the same thing! They darted in front of my cart, ducked into the aisle to my immediate right, and slid around me as the resumed their original path.

It occurred to me that these girls were either not very smart or not aiming for efficiency.

I  paid for my things and exited the store. I used the pedestrian cross-walk to move from the building to the row where my car was parked. I noticed that a car coming down the row was beginning to move faster.

The closer I got to the intersection, the more the older lady in the red Chrysler accelerated. The woman drove out of her lane and through a parking spot, accelerating as we approached me. She whizzed past me, an arm’s length or less away, as she ran the stop sign and drove into the cross walk.

She had nearly run me over.

Annoyed, I huffed and puffed to my car, anxious to get safely to the comforts of Rosie and our cozy little cabin. I pulled out of my parking spot and headed down the row just in time for a 20-something boy to come remarkably close to ripping off the front of my car as he cut across my lane to make a left-hand turn into my row.

***

I think it’s fair to say that the average person would assume life in Brooklyn to be far more thrilling and way more dangerous than life in a Missouri town of just over 2,500 people.  On the average day in said tiny Missouri town, the average person’s assumption might be accurate.

Today, however, was no average day.

RFT Web Awards, image credit the Riverfront Times

I haven’t owned a television since 1999, and I’m pretty content that way. Occasionally, however, something will be televised that I really do want to see. Last night’s State of the Union Address was one of those things. As a result, I paid my parents an overnight visit, borrowing their t.v. and enjoying breakfast with them this morning before heading to work.

Breakfast is what I really want to write about – not television. As I wrote about in the Insider573 January/February issue, my dad was raised on a cattle farm, and my cousins, my brother and I spent a lot of time on the farm as kids. I grew up eating fresh beef for dinner several nights a week, and enjoying big farm-style breakfasts on the weekends.

Now that my mom stays at home again, she’s gone back to fixing farm-style breakfasts several days each week. Last night we had rib eyes for dinner, and I woke up this morning to fried eggs, fried potatoes, fresh apple slices, sausage, gravy and leftover steak.

After breakfast, I laced up my hiking boots and put on a fleece. Well-fed this morning, I’ll go about my small town day in my small town way in small town Missouri. Today is a Milli kind of day.

Tonight, however, the Funk will come out, because tonight is the RFT’s Web Awards event. A Small Town Girl’s Guide is a finalist in the Web Awards under the “Best Personal Blog” category, and I’ve been invited to the RFT’s private Web Awards party tonight to celebrate.

This my life – a constant blend between country and city; small town and down town, farm-style breakfasts and private parties; Milli and Funk. And you know what? It’s a pretty great life.

I jumped at the opportunity to write for Insider again (I’ve written for the last two issues), and I was thrilled at the opportunity to have such great print publicity for my blog.

Tom and I decided to do the photo shoot on my grandparents farm in Fredericktown, Missouri. The shoot was done on a cool, rainy December morning. The sky was gray, the day was dreary, and the turn-of-the-century family barn looked exceptionally haggard and real.

The farm hasn’t been a working farm for a decade or more, but it was certainly a working farm when my cousins and I were growing up. Now the barn is falling down, the farmhouse looks much more humble than it did through my childhood eyes, and trees are growing where cows used to graze fields.

Things change, but our memories remain. The memories that my cousins, my brother, my dad, my mom, my aunts, my uncles and I each have on the farm are a common bond for us. The land, the barn and the house are tangible evidence of our family’s history, of our grandpa’s work ethic, and of our own childhoods.

I hope you’ll take a minute to visit the Insider573 website. Flip to pages 44 & 45 of their January/February 2011 issue online, enjoy Tom’s beautiful photography, and let me know what you think of my family’s story – a story I was humbled to have the opportunity to write.

Today’s the day that I admit to you that I do have a small list of must-dos and must-sees, must-eats and must-drinks while I’m calling Missouri my home. One of the things on my Missouri Bucket List is to ride the entire length of the 225-mile Katy Trail.

A few weeks ago I traveled through several small Missouri towns, including Marthasville, Dutzow and Wright City. En route, I passed a trailhead for the Katy Trail that I thought was worth a closer look.

Katy Trail State Park

Rosie (my dog) and I pulled into the Katy Trail State Park parking area and got out to explore the trail head. An old train caboose converted into an ice cream shop had been parked permanently beside the bike route. The ice cream shop was called the KT Caboose, and unfortunately it was closed for the seasons during my early-January visit.

I knew that there were towns along the Katy Trail that were home to bed & breakfasts and wineries, but no one told me there was ice cream along the path. As if I weren’t already sold on the idea of biking the Katy Trail, I certainly was now.

The KT Trail Caboose

For more information about the Katy Trail and the many small Missouri towns, shops, wineries and B&Bs along it’s 225 miles of trails, visit the Katy Trail website.

Have you ridden any portion of the Katy Trail? What part have you ridden? Would you ever consider doing something like a multi-day bicycle trip? I’m curious to hear your thoughts!

I wanted to go somewhere that, if I’d had a travel companion that day, would have said, “Are you SURE about this??”

And I would have said, “Definitely, you’ll see. Come on!”

The Dutzow Deli was just that kind of place. It was the only business visible at the edge of the village of Dutzow, and at first glance, the deli looking remarkably like a doublewide trailer.

Inside the deli, I found concrete floors, simple tables and a bar. I wasn’t at all surprised when the sandwich I ordered for lunch was awesome.

I can’t remember now what I ordered, but it involved meat and thousand island dressing, and it was very messy. It was like a Reuben, but not quite. And did I mention that it was really good?

The Dutzow Deli Sandwich

I could have driven on to Washington, Missouri to eat at a more established restaurant. I could have picked up a coffee at Starbucks or Bread Co., and I could have run through the McDonald’s drive-through for a chicken sandwich. When I’m out exploring small town Missouri though, those big name restaurants and chains kind of defeat the purpose.

What’s the last surprisingly good small town business you’ve used?