fun in the country

I had a great weekend in the North Country of New York State and
wanted to share a truly remarkable "foodie" part of the weekend.
As you may know, I am opposed to the low-fat diet and only eat
full-fat yogurt. (Fat is usually replaced by sugar and there is
evidence that this is at least partly responsible for the
nation's obesity epidemic). So when I travel to the edge of the
known world (my sister's farm in Northern NY), I take enough
"Brown Cow" maple yogurt for the duration.

Last week I ended up in Wegmans, looking for whole-milk yogurt.
I bought a brand which Mom said was made locally, by
<http://www.wakerobinfarm.org/

> Wake Robin Farm. At home while
watching me devouring this awesome stuff, which is as light as
crème Brule, my sister recommended dropping by the farm to see
their operation. "Locally made",. really means "three miles down
the road". When we got there, no one was in the little building
that serves as manufacturing and warehouse.

The sign on the door said if there were no cows in the field,
they were in the barn being milked, "poke your head in and say
hi." If you wanted to buy product, take the stuff out of the
refrigerator and put the cash in the lunch box on the table. If
you really want to talk to them, call the cell phone.

On the farm they have 12 cows which are fed hay and grain and
corn grown on the farm. Bruce milks the cows, pasteurizes the
milk and makes the yogurt. He makes small batches and gets about
600 containers a week. Anything older than three weeks gets
dumped.

That nearly made me cry.

This yogurt is flavored with maple syrup. The maple flavor is
not full-fat because there is 11% maple syrup. This stuff is so
light and so sweet and pure. Truly "artisanal". So much so, that
they are exempt from nutritional labeling regulations: each
batch is different depending on the cows, what they are eating
and their stress level. I brought home enough for Fran and
Sharon. We'll be offering it to our DinnerSmith customers on an
"as-available" basis. I will be picking up cases of Vanilla and
Maple every time I travel to the family farm.

If you want to get some of the most delicious yogurt this side
of paradise the 32 oz. container retails for $4.50 and a notice
will go out to the email list whenever it's available. Send a
note to me (info@dinnnersmith.com) and let me know how many
containers you want. I will be going a couple more times this
year.

There are also a lot of non-foodie activities in the north
country like making felt from alpaca fiber on a huge crazy
machine; feeding the livestock; relaxing on the porch with a
cold one; target practice with the empties; gardening both
vegetables and flowers; driving farm vehicles; and if you're
lucky, watching a baby alpaca being born.