I'm back on my bus this summer, living on a farm in rural Champaign and working at Prairie Fruits Farm and Creamery. Prairie Fruits Farm and Creamery is about 5 miles northeast of the campus of the University of Illinois, my alma mater. My bus is parked next to a goat barn surrounded by a beautiful meadow. The sunsets, away from city lights, are unobstructed by any houses or buildings and have been breathtaking. After the sun goes down and the sky darkens, the meadow comes alive with the twinkling of 1,000 fireflies. When dawn arrives, the bleating of goats gently informs me that it is time to wake up and get ready for work.
Located less than an hour and a half from Springfield, Prairie Fruits Farm and Creamery is a unique and special place. It's a working dairy farm and creamery with an on-site farm-to-table restaurant. The company milks close to 100 goats and transforms the milk into award-winning cheeses. At this year's prestigious American Cheese Society's annual competition, Prairie Fruits cheeses won three first-place medals and a third-place medal. The farm and creamery's goat herd is certified "animal welfare approved," a designation given to livestock raised outdoors in a pasture for their entire lives on independent farms using sustainable, high-welfare farming practices. AWA certification is considered the "gold standard" for livestock production.
The beautiful pastoral landscape is known as a "silvopasture." Silvopasture is an ancient agricultural practice that integrates trees and pasture into a single system for raising livestock. The herds obtain nourishment from the silvopasture's perennial grasses, legumes, wildflowers and nutritious tree leaves. Pastures with trees sequester five to 10 times as much carbon as treeless pastures, offsetting much of the methane created by the livestock. In times of extreme heat, the farm's cottonwood trees provide shade and create a cooler microclimate under which the goats get natural relief. Allowing the goats to spend time in the silvopasture has tangible benefits beyond goat comfort. The typical drop in milk production that occurs during heat waves is mitigated because the goats experience less heat stress, Stress-related hormones in goat's milk reduce the milk solids (butterfat and protein) and interfere with the process of making cheese, especially acidification and coagulation.
My history with Prairie Fruits Farm and Creamery dates back to 2007 when I accompanied my late wife (and former Illinois Times food columnist) Julianne Glatz to an interview with the farm's founders, Leslie Cooperband and Wes Jarrell. Cooperband and Jarrell were soil science professors who retired from academics in 2003 and bought a seven-acre farm in Champaign County. They transitioned the former corn and soybean row-crop farm into a silvopasture and began raising goats. Cooperband and Jarrell eventually expanded the goat dairy and farmstead creamery operation to 80 acres with more than 90 goats, producing goat and mixed milk cheeses.
In 2004, Prairie Fruits Farm and Creamery became Illinois' first facility to make farmstead cheese. Farmstead cheese is a designation given to cheeses made on the premises with milk from the farm's animals. Prairie Fruits' cheeses soon attracted the attention of the culinary community and in 2007 Prairie Fruits Farm hosted a luncheon for Carlo Petrini, the founder of the international Slow Food movement. In the U.S. to promote his newest book, Slow Food Nation: Why Our Food Should Be Good, Clean and Fair, Petrini sat down with 40 other guests for a convivial afternoon of eating, drinking and lively conversation. At the end of the event, Petrini thanked his hosts, complimented everyone who'd contributed to the feast, and declared, "If there's an afterlife, I want to come back as a goat at Prairie Fruits Farm!"
In the succeeding summers, Prairie Fruits hosted weekly farm dinners prepared by its resident chef and a rotating roster of celebrity chefs. The meals were served family-style at communal tables, and (weather permitting) outdoors in the pavilion. These dinners were wildly popular and sold out quickly. Fortunately, I snagged reservations to many of these dinners over the years. I even drove my bus to the farm for several of these events and spent the weekend camping out by the goat barn and helping in the kitchen.
This past year, Cooperband and Jarrell sold Prairie Fruits Farm and Creamery to local business owners Lauren and Jeffrey Brokish. The Brokishes own Central Illinois Bakehouse, Pekara Bakery and Bistro and Martinelli's Market. Cooperband remains active in the creamery, serving as a consultant to the cheese-making operation. The new owners continue the founders' legacy of making award-winning cheeses and pasture-based goat dairying. They've transformed the farm into an agritourism destination for food lovers and those who want to connect with nature and animals on a working farm.
The Brokishes have made extensive improvements to the farm, including a newly remodeled (and newly air-conditioned) kitchen, dining room and bar. Caprae (Latin for nanny goat), is their farm-to-table restaurant, offering a fast-casual menu of grilled flatbreads, hot and cold sandwiches, salads, cheese and charcuterie boards, and bar snacks. The Sunday brunch is one of the best I've experienced. Be sure to try the potato pavé topped with caramelized onions and caviar – it's the best potato dish you will ever taste! On Wednesdays, Caprae offers a fine dining tasting menu. These ticketed-themed dinners have been wildly popular and consistently sell out. I'll be curating the Aug. 7 Cajun tasting menu.
For those interested in interacting with the goats, Prairie Fruits Farm offers goat hikes on Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings, led by a knowledgeable staff member. The hikes cover roughly a mile and a half. Visitors can explore the farm along the pasture and pond with plenty of scenic stops for photos. The Thursday hikes conclude with a cocktail in the bar and Saturday hikes are followed by a cheese tasting. For fitness and wellness enthusiasts, Prairie Fruits Farm offers Go-lates (goat Pilates) classes on Tuesday evenings.
