Pure White Nubians and Earless La Manchas

I’ve been busting to tell you this for months! I finally made it down to Sweet Grass Dairy, exactly 250 miles away at the very edge of my foodshed in south Georgia, and yes, I brought my kids and even my husband (“We’re going to a goat farm?”). I actually went there in March, the morning after five little baby goats were born on the farm, and I toured the farm and cheesemaking facility with the owners, a generous and inspiring young couple named Jeremy and Jessica Little. I was there on assignment for Edible Atlanta, and the issue with my article, titled The Accidental Cheese-Makers, finally came out last night (see the article here!). My article is pretty much a love story about a city boy with no roots and a country girl seeking adventure who find each other, and through their unexpected journey find both, roots and adventure, in each other. Sure, there are fields of sweet grasses that make the dairy’s name a perfect choice. Sure, there are pure-white Nubians and earless La Manchas, happily nibbling at fingertips and shirttails. And sure, there are temperature and humidity-controlled rooms where alchemy turns milk to immortality. But ultimately, there is a couple in love who built a home, a family, a life. And in doing so, created something nourishing.

Robert Manning, the Edible Atlanta publisher, and Amanda Dew Manning, its editor, threw a launch party for the new issue at the Viking Store in the sleek, urban Buckhead section of Atlanta, with bountiful food stations of local pulled pork and grass-fed beef meatballs, grilled zucchini, hearth-baked bread, local wine and even vodka, and of course, the Sweet Grass Dairy cheeses. Now, I’m not much of a cocktail party kind of gal, and definitely not a night person, but mingling amongst fellow local foodies was a truly unique and enjoyable experience. And now, in the bird-song burst of morning, as I now know more of the people who are baking the bread and roasting the coffee and harvesting the crops, I feel the power of an ever-widening circle of interconnectedness.

To find out more about Sweet Grass Dairy and to order cheese, go to www.sweetgrassdairy.com.

To check out the entire Edible Communities family of publications, click here. There’s probably one for your city or a city you love. And look for the Edible Atlanta Summer 2007 edition at farmers markets, Whole Foods and other places around Atlanta. I read it cover to cover last night and it’s delicious.

One Local Summer Update:

Lunchboxes: Bouquets of herbs, blackberry/zucchini muffins

Dinner: Green beans from Blossom Hill Farms and D&A Farm, salad with the last of the romaine lettuce plus sorrel, purple string beans, blackberries and cherry tomatoes, and the ubiqitous amaranth leaves and lamb’s quarters

Pure White Nubians and Earless La Manchas