A Small Town Girl's Guide » Ste. Genevieve

Missouri Cheeses – A Follow Friday Guest Post

MilliGFunk — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:52:35 +0000

Guest Post Contributed by Michelle Marcus

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/.

Crown Valley’s Home Brewer’s Contest

MilliGFunk — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 01:44:56 +0000

Somewhere amidst the beautiful, rolling hillsides of rural Missouri in between Ste. Genevieve and Farmington is a tiny community called Kaufman. Kaufman used to have a school house, but that school house is now a brewery. That brewery held a home brewer’s contest on Saturday afternoon from noon to 4:00 p.m.

Twenty-five home brewers from all over Missouri and Illinois competed in the contest. From Jackson to Crystal City; St. Charles to Perryville, small and larger towns from around the state were represented. And let me tell you, there are some men and women in Missouri who know how to pull great flavors out of this fermented libation.

photo taken with my iPhone4

I tend to veer towards richer, fuller-bodied beers. Jonathan Baker’s (Crystal City, Missouri) “Baker Fireside Ale”, for instance was a malty, buttery porter that made me take note, literally, on my tasting sheet. Donny Biggerstaff, a brewer from Fenton, Missouri offered a Belgian style ale that he calls the “Chocoran”. After my first sip of this one, a shocked “whoooaa” slipped from my lips. If you’ve ever thought of Missourians as simpletons, Donny’s “Chocoran” would change your mind. There was nothing simplistic about his ale.

From Wentzille, Missouri, Adam Kueller, Mark Matusiak and Jacob Daugherty introduced me to my first chocolate wheat beer. Though it wasn’t on their official contest tasting list, this one really impressed me. I’d never tasted a chocolate beer that wasn’t a stout or a porter. Their King’s Gross Stout was also notable for it’s absolute lack of aftertaste – something stout beers very rarely accomplish.

Naturally, I had to try Steve Albers’ Belgian ale called “Not Your Average Blonde”. My partner in crime and I were both taken aback by the power of this beer. My notes from the tasting read, “…a kick in the face.” I think those were my friend’s words, not mine, but it was an apt description nonetheless.

photo taken with my iPhone4

Travis Bickings from Oran, Missouri had a wonderful Chocolate Hazelnut Porter (7.2% alcohol content).

Although IPAs are traditionally fairly hoppy, Jacob Ellis and Justin Phelps brewed an “Imperial IPA” that went down easily. Their Belgian Salson ale was almost porter-like and a little bit sweet. It’s 1.9% alcohol content would certainly keep you warm on a cold winter night.

My three favorite brewer on Saturday were Rick Ernst, Travis Daugherty and Greg Camp.

photo taken with my iphone4

Rick Ernst is from Valley Park, Missouri, and he had three beers in the contest; the Noble Doble (Belgian ale), the Vanilla Gorilla Expresso Porter and the Raztastic Porter. All three of these were amazing. The Raztastic had a fascinating flavor; its raspberries kept it sweet and fresh, and although it was undoubtedly dark, it wasn’t heavy like most porters tend to be.

photo taken with my iPhone4

Travis Daugherty of Bonne Terre, Missouri offered a Pine Ridge Porter, a Tripel Ten Belgian strong ale and a Red Dot IPA. The Tripel Ten was so named because Travis brewed the beer on 10/10/2010. The Pine Ridge Porter had a smokey, oak-filled flavor that cried out for a fireplace and a bear skin rug.

photo taken with my iPhone4

Finally, I have to give credit to the truly complex beers brewed by Greg Camp of Desloge, Missouri. While none of his beers was my personal favorite beer of the day, all four of his beers were wonderfully balanced and full. The beers he entered into the contest were the Double Rainbow IP, the Chat Pile Porter, Damn the Torpedoes (Belgian ale) and the 11% alcohol Thunder & Lightning (Belgian ale).

The Home Brewer’s Contest was a blast. I loved seeing what brewers were creating in towns across Missouri and Illinois, and I was entirely impressed by these last three brewers. I look forward to coming back to Crown Valley for the spring Home Brewer’s Contest.

To learn more about their events or for more information about Crown Valley Brewery, visit their website.

Big Field Cafe – Ste. Genevieve Missouri

MilliGFunk — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 01:52:51 +0000

Saturday afternoon in Southeast Missouri was beautiful. The sun shone, the temperatures were lovely, and more importantly, my day off allowed me to spend some much needed time with the one and only MommaGFunk (i.e. small town girl’s mom).

One of the perks of being a Funk is that the Funk family is made up of smart, kind, interesting people. PappaGFunk is an engineer, MommaGFunk is a published paper crafter, and BrotherGFunk is not only a successful engineer, he has an outstanding sense of humor.

One of the perks of the move from Brooklyn to Missouri is spending more time with the above-mentioned family. Saturday afternoon brought the opportunity for MommaGFunk and I to travel to Ste. Genevieve Missouri for the DejaVu Spirit Reunion; a combination cemetery tour and historical reenactment.

Before checking out the Spirit Reunion, we stopped into Big Field Cafe, a sunlit corner cafe in the heart of downtown. We were so surprised to find that Big Field Cafe serves Cajun food including gumbo, po-boys and shrimp salad. Having lived in Louisiana for a few of my younger years, I appreciate a good chicken sausage gumbo.

Both my mom and I were impressed with the service and the food. The folks working in the Cafe were smiling, laughing, friendly, and working hard. The food seemed to be prepared fresh – even the cheese was hand grated onto our salads – and both her chicken salad sandwich and my gumbo were good enough to crave already less than a week later.

Ste. Genevieve is a neat town with plenty of neat cultural events. This weekend is the Rural Heritage Fest, so if you’ve not yet explored this historical Missouri town, I encourage you to visit.

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Lower East Side Knitted Bicycle

MilliGFunk — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:17:57 +0000

When it comes to public art and bicycles, New York City and small town Missouri seem to have a shared interest.

Somewhere on the Lower East Side of Manhattan sits – for lack of a better description – a bicycle in a sweater. I wonder if someone knitted the bike at home and then brought it outside to display it on the street, or if its sweater was knitted separately and attached to the already-locked-to-the-sign bike? Either way, this bike is full out hipster-fresh ugly.

photo by David Factor

My friend Factor emailed me this photo last week after my post about the beautiful, classic Schwinn I found for sale in small town Ste. Genevieve, Missouri and the public art bicycles I blogged about last February, also found in Ste. Genevieve.

So my question for you is if you had to have one of these bikes living on your block, which would you prefer; the Ste. Genevieve bikes or the Lower East Side sweater bike?

Ste. Genevieve Bike

MilliGFunk — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:30:43 +0000

Bicycle, photo by MilliGFunk Photography

This classic Schwinn was for sale, helmet included, for around $125 in downtown Ste. Genevieve, Missouri during the town’s annual Jour de Fete celebration.

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Crown Valley Farmers Market

MilliGFunk — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:00:54 +0000

Deep in the heart of nowhereville, Missouri (otherwise known as Coffman), lies an area that it’s owners refer to as “Crown Country”. As I was exploring Crown Country on Saturday afternoon, I discovered that Crown Valley Winery has its own farmers market as well.

Most of the produce sold at the market is grown by farmer who runs the market, though she’s expressed interest throughout our conversation in having other local growers sell their products in the Crown Valley Farmers Market.

The market is mostly indoors, and sells produce, baked goods, peanuts, jams, butters and jellies. Some of the more interesting jams and butters included pumpkin butter and jalapeno jelly. I use the market as an opportunity to experiment with taking and processing raw image digital photos. Here are some of the shots I captured.

Photo Rights: MilliGFunk Photography

photo rights: MilliGFunk Photography

Photo Rights: MilliGFunk Photography

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Crown Valley Winery is located at 23589 State Route WW in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. The Crown Valley Farmers Market is roughly a mile down highway WW past the winery, and is open Monday through Saturday from 9 am-3 pm. In the fall when their corn maze and hayrides are being offered, the market is open seven days each week.

Ste Genevieve Chocolate Walk Pt. IV: Tour de Missouri Art Bikes

MilliGFunk — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 07:51:55 +0000

Who would imagine that athletics would inspire art in rural Missouri? But in two separate cases that I’ve witnessed personally, the Tour de Missouri bicycle race did exactly that.

I blogged about a street mural that was painted in Farmington, Missouri the evening before the Tour de Missouri Stage 3 Kickoff in September, 2009.

On Saturday, I discovered another public art display inspired by Tour de Missouri, this one in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri.

As I crouched down on the sidewalk to photograph these brightly painted bicycles chained to a street-tree-bed, the proprietress of shop called Lulu’s walked up to explain the bikes to me. She painted the bikes for Tour de Missouri, and once the race ended was asked by local officials to remove the bikes.

Although the bikes are resting on the sidewalk, the sidewalk is not city property, but is part of the property owned to by the proprietress. So despite the wishes of officials, this colorful public art display remains as a reminder of the internationally recognized Tour de Missouri bicycle race.

Chalk one up for the creative community of this small Missouri town – sometimes small town Missouri life surprises me in very good ways.

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For other posts related to Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri:

Public Art in Ste. Genevieve

The Brooklyn Bridge

Tour de Missouri

O’Dear!

Pickle Springs State Natural Area

Hawn State Park

Baetje Farms

Contemplating Corn

Ste. Genevieve Chocolate Walk Pt. I: Hats

Ste. Genevieve Chocolate Walk Pt. II: The Walk

Ste. Genevieve Chocolate Walk Pt. III: Trust

MilliGFunk — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 02:27:58 +0000

Hello From Big MO, photo by milligfunk

Saturday’s Chocolate Walk in historic Ste. Genevieve, Missouri was a friendly reminder that small town folks are…well…friendly. My mom and I made friends in nearly every shop, and as the day progressed, we came across one shop who’s trusting owner left a sign in the window saying “I went next door to stay warm. Come on in and look around!”

This next shop’s owner must have had a vested interest in the Mineral Area Athletic Association basketball tournament, because he left his chocolate sitting on the street with his own variation on the other shop owner’s friendly note:

Help Yourself, photo by milligfunk

I think it’s worth noting that the same window that holds the “The Cranberry Merchant” sign here is the window that used to hold a black and white photo of the Brooklyn Bridge. I blogged about that storefront window this fall.

In yet another window – this time of a gallery – was an 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper with friendly, block-printed, Sharpee marker letters saying, “They listed me by accident. I’m not here. Sorry!!!”

Ste. Gen. is the vision of small town life with it’s quaint shops, historic buildings, and incredibly trusting and friendly people. If you find yourself tooling down the the Mississippi Riverfront, I highly recommend a stop in this fantastic little town.

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For other posts related to Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri:

Public Art in Ste. Genevieve

The Brooklyn Bridge

Tour de Missouri

O’Dear!

Pickle Springs State Natural Area

Hawn State Park

Baetje Farms

Contemplating Corn

Ste. Genevieve Chocolate Walk Pt. I: Hats

Ste. Genevieve Chocolate Walk Pt. II: The Walk

Ste. Genevieve, MO Chocolate Pt II: The Walk

MilliGFunk — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:54:40 +0000

Saturday from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., the town of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri held its second annual Chocolate Walk. The walk was designed to promote business in downtown Ste. Genevieve, and it worked! There was $5.00 ticket price, and a list of nearly twenty-five businesses all of whom promised to have something chocolate for each guest to sample.

My mom and I found the Chocolate Walk to be a perfectly wonderful excuse for a mom-daughter day out. We arrived in Ste. Gen. at around noon, skipping lunch and heading straight for the chocolate. Several businesses were already sold out of chocolate tickets when we arrived, so we were given makeshift tickets to use on our walk.

From cookie-covered Hershey’s kisses to heavenly hash to fudge, there was no shortage of chocolate for us to taste. And there were no shortage of people, either – lots of women were out on Saturday, celebrating Valentine’s Day, chocolate, and small town Missouri with their moms, sisters, and girlfriends.

Ste. Genevieve is one of those quaint little Mississippi River towns that makes me happy to be from Missouri. I’ve heard rumor that they hold an awesome spring Garden Tour, and you can bet your boxes of chocolate that I’m gonna do my best to be there for it. Maybe if I’m lucky, the amazing MommaG will join me.

MilliGFunk and MommaG

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For other posts related to Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri:

Public Art in Ste. Genevieve

The Brooklyn Bridge

Tour de Missouri

O’Dear!

Pickle Springs State Natural Area

Hawn State Park

Baetje Farms

Contemplating Corn

Ste. Genevieve Chocolate Walk Pt. I: Hats

Ste. Genevieve, Missouri Chocolate Walk Pt. I: Hats

MilliGFunk — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:59:48 +0000

While much of the under-30 population of Greater St. Louis imbibed in Soulard today for Mardi Gras, I celebrated my awesome mom by spending the day with her at the Ste. Genevieve, Missouri’s Chocolate Walk.

For the most part, the only thing Mardi Gras-esque about our day today was that Ste. Genevieve – like New Orleans – is a historic, French, Mississippi River town. The pageantry of our trip into Odile’s Linen & Lace, Etc. where we tried on antique hats, was a bit reminiscent of Mardi Gras floats, costumes, and balls.

This isn’t my first time trying on silly hats in an antiques shop. Check out my post from Caledonia, Missouri’s Old Village Mercantile last summer. Life’s hard sometimes, and once in awhile you’ve just GOT to get a little silly to survive it.

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For other posts related to silly hats:

SmallTownGirl’s Many Hats

Maplewood Arts Walk

For other posts related to Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri:

Public Art in Ste. Genevieve

The Brooklyn Bridge

Tour de Missouri

O’Dear!

Pickle Springs State Natural Area

Hawn State Park

Baetje Farms

Contemplating Corn