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/.

Wines, photo by MilliGFunk

Angela Ortmann of @StLWineGirl was kind enough to take me as her guest to a St. Louis Cellars Wine Club event in February, and I had a great time.

photo by MilliGFunk

St. Louis Cellars only carries wines that are $20 or less per bottle, and they have some really fun labels in stock. Some of my favorites were a line of wines that had rock & roll labels (Pink Floyd, etc.). As I looked at the rock & roll labels, I couldn’t help but think of the friends those bottles would make good gifts for.

The label in the next picture made me think of the beef I had a year or so ago with Metro Mix St. Louis for listing a prime rib buffet as an “event” in St. Louis. If my dad were a wine drinker, this bottle would be for him:

Beef, photo by MilliGFunk

I think my brother – with his penchant for monster movies and old school science fiction – would really appreciate the Big Red Monster label:

Big Red Monster, photo by MilliGFunk

The St. Louis Cellars folks are super nice, and are a great resource if you need help choosing a wine to pair with a specific meal or to give as a gift. The Cellars carries a variety of cheeses, wine accessories, and foods as well, so the next time you’re in Maplewood, I really do suggest stopping in. St. Louis Cellars takes some of the snobbery out of wines, and for that, this small town girl offers her accolades.

St. Louis Cellars is located at 2640 Big Bend Boulevard in Maplewood, Missouri. Hours of operation are Monday-Thursday 10:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 10:30 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. Visit St. Louis Cellars online. Follow St. Louis Cellars on twitter.

St. Louis Wine Girl Angela Ortmann offers fantastic courses and tastings that make wine approachable for everyone. I highly recommend trying one of her tastings, offered at various venues in and around St. Louis. Visit Angela online. Follow Angela on twitter.

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Note:  All photos were taken with my Blackberry Storm, rather than my usual Fuji Finepix DSLR, and some clarity is lacking as a result.

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More posts on Maplewood, Missouri:

Maplewood Arts Walk

Maplewood Arts Walk I: Joining a Dance Troup

Maplewood, Missouri

St. Louis Area WiFi Hotspots

Foundation Grounds Coffee

St. Louis and Social Media

NYC Food Lover Lost in SEMO

I’ve become so accustomed to seeing the same faces over and over again at work and in my tiny little town that I found myself buzzing from the energy of seeing so many different people come and go from the coffee shop today. I stopped into Sarah Carmody Photography to pick up an art print I won at the Maplewood Arts Walk a few months ago, where I had a good conversation about photography and music. My trip to the gallery was followed by a St. Louis Wine Club wine tasting at St. Louis Wine Cellars with Angela Ortmann of StL Wine Girl.

So much civilization in one day! I feel like the kid in The Nutcracker who falls asleep to exaggerated dreams of the big holiday party  hosted by her family that night…I’m sitting here in my eerily quiet house in the middle of the snowy woods of rural Missouri. My mind is slow, yawns bring sleepy tears to my eyes, and the day spent in “the city” seems no more real than dancing toy soldiers or life-sized rat kings.

The coffee shop is lovely, with refreshingly happy and down to earth staff (no snobbish yuppy baristas here). There is a quirky turquoise mural of a tree with white flowers blossoming on the wall, and mismatched (but coordinated) upholstery covers high-backed chairs.

The pear and brie sandwich I had for lunch was lovely (fair warning though – it was onion heavy, though the onions were raw and easily removable). The iced mocha wasn’t bad either. Foundation Grounds gets brownie points for using biodegradable plastic cups, made from corn.

In the cold case, I found Kambucha, organic juices, Honest Tea, and Stonyfield Farm yogurt – a fairly forward-thinking collection of foods and drinks for this part of the country.

To top off my visit to Foundation Grounds, I overheard someone speaking Mandarin Chinese, and turned to find a husband and wife speaking Chinese to one another. The husband, a St. Louis-born acupuncturist and his wife had just moved back to St. Louis three days ago from years in Seattle and Asia.

His Chinese was far more fluent than my own (embarrassingly rusty) Chinese is, but it was so uplifting to meet another person who has moved back “home” to this part of the country after seeing the world in hopes of contributing something to the communities we grew up in.

Today’s coffee shop encounter is a reminder that when things happen (like servers crashing), there’s often something better in store. It’s been a rough last week for me, but with my hope and optimism restored, I’m looking forward to what the rest of this week holds.