Weekend Adventure: Bikes, Cheese Curds, and a Fall Festival in Amish Country

Kalona is a small town about 20 miles southwest of Iowa City, and as I learned this weekend the largest Amish community this side of the Mississippi. And they happen to have a very large cheese factory there, with very fresh cheese curds, that I have been longing to go visit since we first got here. And last weekend's Kalona Fall Festival was the perfect occasion to go sample some fine homemade wares, local history, and CHEESE.

The ride down to Kalona took us down back roads with miles of corn and plenty of funky old barns, this one has a quilt square on it which is a public art program to decorate historic barns in Iowa.

 

Of course the best part of the festival was the food...this time the highlight was Apple Butter, made on the spot in this giant vat stirred by a special paddle, and served hot on big slices of white bread. Mmmmmm

 

Runner-up fair food: Apple fritters! Lumps of dough with chunks of apple in it, deep fried and rolled in cinnamon sugar!

 

The festival is held in the "Historic Village" of Kalona, which was definitely quaint and old-timey with the broom squire and the miller and the candy shoppe, but also has a fantastic Amish Heritage Museum. The local families donated artifacts dating back to the 1700s and my favorite was this treadmill-motor, a sign of the ingenuity required when operating a farm without electricity...

 

Ok so the Festival was great and all, great food, lots of info about old-timey ways in Iowa, but it was time for the main event, the real reason I biked 23 stinkin' miles down there: the Kalona Cheese Factory! Where milk from 30 local dairies gets turned into delicious cheese curds! As well as white cheddar. AND they have a 'Cheese Haus' that sells imported cheese from round the world. With free samples...Needless to say, I had a blast.


The reason everyone comes to the Kalona Cheese Factory: the freshest cheese curds this side of Wisconsin. And they so ridiculously squeaky and good when they're warm from the machinery...the factory has windows into the curdery (no they don't actually call it that) and the place smells like warm cheese. Heaven.


And, across the street and all around us, rolling, golden fields of soybeans. And lots of sky.

The Most Local-est Food of All

Today I had the honor, the privilege, the incredible fortune to attend a mushroom foraging and cooking lecture by the one and only Prairie State Mushroom Club! Not only did they know SO MUCH about the zillions of wild mushroom species growing right here in Iowa but they knew which ones were good to eat and brought a whole pile of em to the class. And then they cooked them up (mostly just fried in a ton of butter--but is there a better way?) and gave us samples! It was thrilling. And so tasty.

Here's the spread of foraged fungi, which I can now (mostly) name: Hen of the woods, Elm Oyster, Hericium, Chicken of the woods, Oyster, Chanterelle, and Lactarius.

 

That is the President of the Prarie State Mushroom Club, holding up the most incredible mass of edible mushroom I have ever seen, the Chicken of the woods, which is sulfur-yellow and does actually taste a bit like chicken...in a good way.

 

These Elm Oyster mushrooms were simply breaded in flour and fried in butter--the simplest, most tastiest way to enjoy mushrooms.

 

Most of that big ol' pile of mushrooms - 8 wild varieties in all - went into this pan with a stick of butter, and the smell was heavenly.


Then it all went into an extra-wild mushroom soup, rich and creamy but still showcasing the strange and sometimes strong flavors of each unique species. One - the lobster mushroom - is actually a parasitic fungus that lives on a poisonous species of mushroom and in the process of devouring it de-toxifies it. It was bright red and funky and a bit nutty tasting.



So the most exciting thing I learned was that while the spring-blooming Morel is the most famously find-able wild mushroom, there are tons of varieties that shoot up in the fall, and right now is prime mushroom foraging season! Thus I am setting out with the PSMC this very Saturday on a "foray"- a mushroom hunt - to gather some tasty morsels for myself. And, of course, to take advantage of the members' expertise and not consume anything that could kill me. Stay tuned for findings and foraging adventures.

Backyard News Roundup

Cat Fight!
I was about to let myself in the back door of my apartment when I noticed on the ground below me an intense feline standoff…this yard’s only big enough for one feisty feline!

That’s Luna, who lives next door, staring down the intruder

 

And the Prowler, who was clever enough to book it out of the yard

 

And then, lo and behold, across the yard I see a rotund, hungry, LARGE groundhog! Ambling across the grass to munch on the flower patch behind the Greek Orthodox church next door!
I will name him/her/it Chunky.

 

He spotted me leaning off the balcony to get a better shot and split…But now I’m more aware than ever of how many small-to-medium-size mammals are snoopin round my back door.

 

In other news, I’m still jobless. I know that’s not too hard to do these days in this craptastic economy we’re having, but I’m disgruntled by how Iowa City still can’t see how much it needs me.

Fair Flog Strikes Back: Tour de Livestock Barns

Interspersed between the bouts of insano fried food-athons, we admired and were awed by the very finest in four-legged animals that Iowa has to offer. I learned a lot about mammary systems, how to properly judge a rabbit, and way too much about animal byproducts. The livestock barns were intense, but the smells were incredibly well-managed considering the sheer quantity of creatures housed in each venue, chewing, pooping, and waiting for his/her/its turn in the ring. So here they are, in all their glory, the prize-winning and edible animals of the Iowa State Fair.

No Fair would be complete without LIFE-SIZED BUTTER SCULPTURES
This year there was a big controversy over what should be commemorated out of dairy products, with Michael Jackson loosing the vote to the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. While no King of Pop, it was still quite striking--the lunar landscape butterfied.

 

EVERY year, of course, there is a life-size homage to the dairy cow made out of the fruit of its udders: butter and cheese.

 

While all of the sanitation measures taken to make the human-livestock interactions as Giardia-free as possible were much appreciated, it kind of made the barns feel like a highway rest stop with the hand-washing stations and hand sanitizer gel everywhere.

 

BUT it came in handy when I stood in line to milk a cow, spent about five minutes with the patient owner showing me how easy it was and pulling all over the poor lady-cow's teats, and then failing to let fly even a drop. At least my $2 ticket benefited a 4-H group...


Fortunately, they were very serious about ventilation in the cattle barn.

 

One of like five aisles of Red Angus cows; they were the breed getting judged that day and really did look like walking meat lollipops.


The champion steers and cows had big ribbons and mating opportunities posted above their stalls--it was clear what a big business cow breeding is, to get the best 'yield' from the meat lollipops.


...One of the best semen package producers in the business


Then we stopped by the Rabbits and Pigeons Hut, fortunately all of the pigeons had been cleared out already (their beady eyes creep me out) and it was cage after cage of adorable, terrified bunnies. This Flemish Giant was by far the most impressive, like the Jabba the Hut of the bunny business--sadly the foto doesn't do him justice. But, he won the prize for Largest Rabbit at 20 lbs 4 oz!


Obviously I don't know much about the rabbit industry--though I know a lot more now--but this category totally baffles me. Here's the winner for: Best Opposite Sex Rabbit! And he or she sure looks like a winner...


The Sheep Barn was pretty quiet by the time we got there--and sheep are pretty boring anyway. But I would like to point out that the wedged-head-with-neck-chain contraption they use to restrain the sheep for their beautification session would probably work well on humans too...


The sheep shared their barn with their Camelid brethren, the llama! These weren't flown in from Bolivia but rather part of a thriving Iowa llama industry. This guy was my favorite, he just wouldn't stop looking at me like I was the one on display.


Yet another high point over in the Swine Barn: Prizewinner and heavyweight champion in the "Largest Boar" Division, weighing in at over 1,100 pounds,
Fatso.


And how did he get to be such a fattie? A diet of 100% Cinnamon Toast, of course.


Lots of drama over at the Goat Judging Arena, as the milk goats were trotted around with giant swollen udders knocking between their legs. I noticed that all of the lady goats who were on deck had their teats taped up so that their milk bags would be at maximum high pressure. I wonder if that ever gets real messy in the arena...

Fall is Here!

At least, in the form of color-changing leaves and nuts falling from the trees on our block!

 

Also: Further evidence of our chipmunk friend (on the back stairs), but no new chipmunk encounters to report.

Amazing Iowa Factoid of the Day

According to the 2008 Census, there are 3,002,555 people living in Iowa.

According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, there are 3,950,000 Cows and 19,800,000 Hogs & Pigs living in Iowa.

...Really makes you think about what could happen if the livestock got wise to the reality of their situation.