So in search of the few items I had not yet acquired for my local culinary adventure, Mel and I headed off the beaten path on a lead to a source for raw milk! The lead was a success! We met this wonderful woman, who has 5 very cheerful Jersey milk cows. She gets almost 10 gallons of fresh milk a day, making her own butter, yogurt and cheese. After being educated on butter production we took off to try our hand at making our very own butter. We were tickled to death to find raw milk only 15 miles away. We left there with 3 gallons of local milk and a new farm friend. I can tell we are going to be fast friends! I mean seriously……do you get a call from your dairy source asking you how well you liked your milk after you bought it?! Seriously, this is so much fun!
Milk….check! Butter….check!
I still needed bread and cheese though. I headed to Knoxville this afternoon to their Farmers Market on Cherokee drive. I was shocked at the amount of variety they had to offer. The market provided so many kinds of seasonal fruits and vegetables, and especially the heirloom variety. There was even a company there who sold any kind of meat and cut your heart desired! Wanted organic free range chicken, duck, leg of lamb, oxtail, salad bar beef…they had it!
But, we were in search for the cheese! There were two different booths set-up for cheese. One from goats milk and the other, sheep’s milk. We tried samples…which were all very yummy and proceeded to buy Feta (from the dairy Goat producer) and Manchego, a yummy peppercorn hard cheese from Sheep. Then we visited Hillside Bakery’s booth and tasted many samples of bread! It was a hard decision between all their options but I narrowed in on buying their Rustic Round bread and a Raisin Bread loaf that both smelled, crunched and tasted unbelievable!
I think I'm set for this new local culinary adventure!
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