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.
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