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| - I love everything about "the goat farm": the cheeses, the dinners, the politics, and the goats themselves. If you are a short-timer to the Midwest on a temporary academic layover in CU, a trip up to Prairie Fruits Farm (10 min north of CU) is a great way to learn to love the town before you move on to bigger and different places.
Their cheeses are excellent, and I have to believe that in 3 years of steady patronage I've tried them all. If you see them at the farmer's market in Urbana (aka Market at the Square) they will usually have a selection of 3-5 to choose from with samples. By 10:30, when I usually roll by, their pickens are a lil slimmer, but as I said, you really can't go wrong w/ any of their goat and sheep cheeses.
They host several bi-weekly "Dinners at the Farm" on Sunday evenings and weekly Saturday breakfasts (when Market at the Square is off-season). These aren't cheap,with the dinners at $75 a diner, and you BYOBing, but they are well worth it. The farm employs a gourmet chef who takes local food from their farm, Blue Moon Farm, Tommanhous(sp?) farm, Tiny Greens, and other local farmers and crafts tremendous multi-course meals. In between courses there is time to tour the farm and its many cool things to check out- I'll leave them for you to discover, but take my word you wont be disappointed.
The 'politics' of this local/organic/simple foods concept that proprietors Leslie Cooperbrand and Wes Jarrell champion jibes with my personal view of what producers and consumers of food should pursue. This is of course just my view, but even if it is not yours, it should not interfere with you enjoying the ever-loving shit out of their top-notch noms.
No trip to the farm is complete without meeting 'the girls'. Goats are just awesome. Baby goats are even better. If that is news to you, take the opportunity of a trip to the farm and see if I'm wrong. BTW just for funsies: A compatriot, who shall remain nameless, asked the vendor whether the goat pictured in a photo made the cheese. The response: "No, we make the cheese. The goats make the milk."
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