Happy April Fools’ Day! No pranks within this blog however.
On Sunday afternoon, Bob and I drove about 12 minutes due east of us to the local winery in the area, Tassel Ridge. We got there about 3:30 to find that their electricity had gone out. They apologized and said that if we did a tasting, they would have to substitute cheese and crackers for the usual warmed bread with dipping. Since we rarely are offered any food with a paid tasting, that still sounded good to us. There were a couple of tables being served, and we found a table on their patio where there was plenty of natural light and a nice view.
I will not remember this visit for the quality of the wine. Most was okay, but something I would have been disappointed with in a restaurant, but I will remember the staff’s friendliness, professionalism (they had old time credit card carbon-paper receipts ready to go since they couldn’t use their computers), and their generous portions of food and drink, as you’ll see below. They even brought us the bread and oil for free in addition to the cheese and crackers after the electricity came back on.
a gift shop, and a wood-fired pizza oven
that they serve from on Fridays.
We chose to split one tasting of their dry wines.
This was one tasting!
Today, after a breakfast at a downtown cafe that our homeowners left us a gift card for, and after walking a few blocks in the very cool temps (feels like temp in the high 20s F) to exchange a book at a Free Little Library, we headed to Frisian Farms Cheese House for some locally made, Dutch inspired cheese. Note: the cheese we were served at the winery was a Frisian Farms Gouda.
The farm is located between where we are staying and the winery. It is run by two local men, who eventually both returned to Iowa to pursue the dairy business after realizing they missed the cows their dad sold when his land was annexed by the city. They decided to make Gouda cheese as a nod to their own and the community’s Dutch heritage.
A nice young man talked us through the cheese making process and encouraged us to sample their varieties of Gouda. Not wanting to be rude, we did try a few and bought their flavored herb variety to take with us.
You can watch the cheese making in process,
buy their flavored or plain Gouda varieties,
as well as some Tassel Ridge wine
and a few locally made meat products.
where they are placed in a brine solution to add salt to the cheese and starts the formation of the rind.
an event venue between the house and Frisian Farms.
Peckish Travels 