By Grant Guggisberg

OLSBURG – Drive 30 minutes north of Manhattan, and you’ll find a country road just off K-16. Another mile or so on that gravel road leads to a well-kept ranch-style home where Craig and Amy Good have lived for more than 25 years.

The two own around 900 acres, but most of that is just pasture. For the business they own and operate, they don’t need nearly that much space. Like much of the farms along the Kansas countryside, the Goods spend their days raising livestock. However, at Good Farms, the focus is on swine, specifically, purebred Duroc hogs.

Operating as a producer for Heritage Foods USA, the Goods raise two breeds of purebred swine, as well as around 100 head of certified Angus beef and various crops. Their proven specialty is their Duroc swine, which Craig Good claims has more flavor and consumer appeal than other pork.

“The purebred Duroc is a really good breed for production, in terms of growing quickly and efficiently,” Craig Good said. “The Durocs have a reputation as having good meat quality as well.”

A farmer from the start

Craig Good has been working with animals for nearly 50 years. His father bought the Good farm in 1964 and he spent most of his summers working on the farm. Craig Good graduated in 1975 with a degree in Animal Science from Kansas State, and after six years of working in Junction City, moved to his childhood family farm to try and earn a living raising hogs.

“In 1981, we decided that we wanted to try coming up here on our own,” Amy Good said. “So the man that we’d been working for in Junction City helped us get a start in hogs.”

They purchased a pair of red sows that the Goods took to the lab for testing and veterinary care before bringing home a litter of baby pigs that formed the base of their farm. Initially, they sold breeding stock in pigs before making the transformation to producer and working exclusively with purebred Duroc swine.

“In the 1990s, the swine industry really started to change,” Amy Good said. “It started becoming corporatized and in to really large, large operations. We just never had the goal to be big. But at the same time, we were losing our customers, because they needed to buy from someone bigger than we were.”

Staying on top

In the early 2000s, the Goods signed on with Heritage Foods USA, a company that partners with farmers to form niche markets for specialty foods. The Duroc pig is not a rare breed, but to have meat from a purebred Duroc hog is rare. Most purebred Durocs are crossbred with other types of pig to create the hybrid breeds that make up the majority of all pork products in America. Instead, the Goods are selective with their breeding, using the hogs with the best qualities to breed and create the next generation of swine.

“I was always taught that pork quality is either acceptable or unacceptable,” Craig Good said. “But we’ve found that there are differences. Within acceptable, there is okay, and really good.”

It’s the Good’s mission to continually strive for top-level meat quality any way they can. While Craig Good admitted his farm is less advanced technologically than the larger farms, he uses technology, such as ultrasound, to enhance his product. He also gets feedback from Heritage Foods, which allows him to make choices that continue to improve the quality of the meat. They even went so far as to host their customers for a tour of the farm.

“Heritage Foods brought a group of chefs out,” Amy Good said. “Some from the San Francisco area and from New York City, they came and spent a couple days with us out on the farm. They got to know the farmer that raises some of their meat, so we’ve really enjoyed that aspect.”

While Good Farms produces a higher quality of meat than his big-name counterparts, Craig Good recognized the need for large farms.

“We’re happy to do what we do and serve our niche market,” Craig Good said. “But what we do won’t feed the world.”

Partnering with Heritage Foods USA

The Good’s partnership with Heritage Foods allows them to focus completely on creating a high-quality product. Heritage Foods does all of the marketing and distribution for them, meaning they just deliver the hogs to the processing plant in Trimble, Mo., and go home. From there, Heritage Foods markets the meat to restaurants and chefs that will pay the added premium that goes with purebred Duroc meat.

“We tried having our own private label and just marketing some meat locally,” Amy Good said. “It’s really difficult to do what we do, and then also market our own product. Plus, what you get into on a small scale, it’s so expensive to take one hog at a time and have it processed.”

Experimenting successfully

Going into business with Heritage Foods has allowed the Goods to form a niche market on a national scale for Duroc hogs, something they never could have done on their own. It also allows them to experiment a bit, something Craig Good isn’t afraid to do. He bought a large amount of dried cranberries and plums to feed his hogs to try and change the way the meat tastes. Sure enough, the meat had a distinct alternate flavor that proved popular among the chefs that normally buy from the Goods.

“They had really good positive feedback,” Craig Good said of the cranberry pork. “They could tell the difference, but it was hard to put a finger on what exactly it was. But most of them said they thought the difference was in the fat.”

The Goods enjoyed the experiment, and the pigs did too. The swine enjoyed the fruit much more than the usual oats. Craig Good said he’d consider trying something like that again, once the economy picks back up.

The Goods are also experimenting with a new breed of swine. They acquired a few Gloucestershire Old Spot hogs, an extremely rare breed of hog that is disappearing in North America. This experiment is still early in its stages, but the spotted baby pigs running around the farm create a contrast with the mostly red Duroc swine.

Staying occupied

In addition to experiments, partnering with Heritage Foods has also allowed the farm to stay small, which was always their plan. Between the nursery and the pens for the adult hogs, they typically have around 600 swine at any one time. The Goods employ just one full-time helper, and he mainly works with the cattle.

“We have two children, but they’re both away from the farm,” Amy Good said. “From time to time, we have some part-time help that comes out as well.”

In the meantime, the Goods work hard throughout the year, on more than a full-time basis. Their only breaks come in the fall, where they splurge by purchasing tickets to K-State home football games.

“There’s a lot of things I don’t do,” Craig Good said. “I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I don’t have a boat and I don’t have a summer home in the mountains.

“So, I get football tickets.”

By Catherine Metzgar

Artisan chocolates handmade at Cocoa Dolce

Beth Tully spends her days surrounded by chocolate.

Sounds like a pretty sweet career. How did Tully go from working in sales at a Fortune-500 company to a master chocolatier?

A foodie at heart, Tully stumbled upon some chocolate recipes in an issue of Bon Appétit in 1988. From there, the experiments began. Dissatisfied with her career, Tully began her chocolate endeavor in 2004. At her 50th birthday celebration, Tully had an epiphany that she needed to be doing something she was passionate about. This led her to seriously pursue chocolate.

The result was Cocoa Dolce, an artisan chocolate shop in Wichita.

After a year and a half of preparation, Cocoa Dolce opened with three

Beth Tully courtesy photo

employees. Before opening, Tully attended culinary school in Vancouver to become a Master Chocolatier. With training specifically in the chocolate arts, Tully expanded her knowledge of professional aspects of chocolate making including equipment usage, the science of chocolate, and developing a business plan.

Tully was at loss for a name. After some online searching and finding an exercise with tips on naming a business, she came across the term ”cocoa dolce” which means sweet chocolate in Italian. A name was born.

Five years later, Cocoa Dolce has grown from three employees to 39, and still offers artisan confections that are primarily ganache based. Over the years, chocolate flavors have expanded to include strawberry, maple cream, PB & J, gray salt caramel, and the signature Cocoa Dolce chocolate, cinnamon-orange, each costing $1.80 per piece.

Cocoa Dolce offers something for everyone with 50 different confections, 24 artisan bar flavors, 10 single origin bar flavors, six fruit and nut bars, six flavors of hot chocolate, and six wine-infused flavors in addition to novelty items. Once a year, Tully goes into research and development mode; current flavors are evaluated and new ones are added and subtracted based on current food, flavor, and chocolate trends.

Tully says Cocoa Dolce offers chocolates in over 25 wholesale accounts and ships products across the United States and Canada. Some of Cocoa Dolce’s customers include Dean & Deluca, Vino Volo, Cosentino’s, Reasors, Kroger, and Emerald City Market.

Numerous special events are held by Cocoa Dolce each year, including wine and chocolate tastings, beer and chocolate tastings, private parties, and even the occasional birthday party. Basic chocolate making classes are in works for this summer as well.

Tully takes great pride in the quality of each ingredient. The chocolate comes primarily from Belgium, but chocolate from around the world is also used. Butter comes from a dairy in New Jersey, honey from Zambian beekeepers, and balsamic vinegar from Italy. Only the best ingredients are selected for chocolates and Tully takes great satisfaction in sharing the origins and stories of each.

A typical production day is 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. during which 500 to 1,000 chocolates are made by hand. During the holiday season, this number can increase to 6,000 chocolates per day. Each individual chocolate is different and takes from eight hours to two days to finish.

One of Tully’s favorite Cocoa Dolce moments occurred recently when she received a thank you from President Obama. A mutual friend of Tully and former Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius brought chocolates to Sebelius, who then personally delivered them to the President. He had an official White House photo taken and wrote a personal thank you to Tully. Even the President of the United States enjoys quality chocolate.

Tully stresses the importance of passion and dreaming big, not only in the chocolate business, but in life as well. For more information on Cocoa Dolce and to get your own chocolates, visit www.cocoadolce.com or 2132 N. Rock Road, Suite 100 in Bradley Fair.

By Elizabeth Gittemeier

Photo courtesy of Stanford University

“An eating disorder is like a relationship with an abusive boyfriend.  It will lure you back with promises of better things,” said a young woman who has battled eating disorders for 7 years.

“An eating disorder always has a promise that it can cure so many things: my anxiety will go away; I will forget stress; relationships are better; I don’t even need relationships.  But every time I turn back to it, it drops me on my face.”

The young women described in this story are only three an estimated 20 percent of college students struggling with eating disorders, according to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA).  Their names have been changed, at their request, to protect them from social stigma that can come from public knowledge of their struggles.

Eating disorders are common in America today, yet they are so well hidden that most people have no idea many of them exist or how to deal with them.  Many of these disorders are manifested in girls, but they affect all people of all ages, according to the NEDA.   At some point, almost every person in this country will be either directly or indirectly affected by an eating disorder.

There are three types of eating disorders: bulimia, anorexia, and overeating.  Bulimia and anorexia are commonly used to lose weight, and they are becoming an increasing problem in young girls in America.  According to the NEDA, they are seen in an estimated 10 million females and 1 million males.  Data released by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) shows that it is important for people to understand what is going on in the minds of these young women so that they can receive help.

Kate, a tall girl with her blonde hair pulled back in a pony tail, slipped out of a meeting at the Kansas State student union early to tell her story. She grew up with two older brothers and has been playing competitive sports since she was 4.  She felt constant pressure to perform well in athletic events, but everyone believed her spunky personality could handle the stress.

As her freshman year of high school started, no one could see the toll that the constant push to be perfect was taking on her.  She was on the volleyball team, the basketball team and the softball team. She was a runner.  From any outsider’s perspective, her life was full, complete, and perfect.

One day at the end of her freshman year, when she was out running by herself, she was attacked and sexually assaulted.  This was her breaking point.  At age 15, she began eating everything in sight and going immediately to the bathroom to throw it all back up.

By the end of her freshman year, she had developed bulimia.

This disorder continued throughout high school, and the worse it got, the more she tried to cover it up.  The moment that she started covering up her eating disorder was when it began to take over and consume her.  She was constantly thinking about where she could get her next big snack and how she would hide the fact that she was just going to throw it up.

After high school, Kate went to Kansas State University hoping for a normal college experience.  She joined a sorority and quickly made friends, but she could not escape her eating disorder.  As she began to get to know the coeds in her house, she discovered that eight others in her pledge class of 40 had similar struggles.

A bond developed among these young women, and they began to learn from each other’s habits how to lose even more weight.  Kate said that this experience taught her to drink diet Coke and coffee and smoke in an effort to keep herself from eating.  Her bulimia turned to anorexia, a disorder in which she continually starved herself.

When her anorexia set in, Kate’s weight was at dangerously low levels.  Throughout the next couple years, she was hospitalized twice and sent to treatment seven times.  The first six treatments and the hospitalizations did nothing for her.

According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Eating Disorders (ANAD), treatment costs between $30,000 and $100,000 per month. Her parents paid; they also bribed her to go.  She said that she got a new car for attending her therapy sessions. After one particularly good day in treatment, she got a new laptop.

They were throwing money at her illness, but it was not accomplishing anything, she said.  Every time she would gain enough weight to go home, then she would lose it immediately.

Other young women she met in treatment taught her how to hide her problems better.

By the seventh time she went to treatment, she was finally ready.  She had hit rock bottom. She was completely broken.  She lost her job.  Her relationships were falling apart. She was exhausted, and she had nothing left.

“When you develop an eating disorder, your life stops then.  It’s like I was stuck as a 15 year old.  I didn’t know how to be a grown up,” she said.

After her seventh therapy session, she rediscovered her faith in God and found a support group that helps her through the recovery process.  Her faith helped her because she knew that there were second chances and there was something bigger than herself.  She discovered that life did not stop because of her eating disorder.

Kate is still recovering.  She is still in therapy, but she is healing one step at a time.  Sometime she still has the desire to lose weight, but she has people she can call who will help her move past her thoughts.

* * *

As Amanda sat at a table in Radina’s Coffee Shop in Manhattan, her eyes almost bore a hole through the table.  After a few moments, she looked up and began talking.  She had always struggled with body image issues, she said.  She had to be perfect and look perfect.

The summer after her junior year of high school, her family bought a membership to the gym, and she started extensive workouts everyday.  Her parents were not home that summer, so she skipped meals. By the time her senior year started, she was receiving compliments on her weight and her looks.  Not only were these comments affirming her lifestyle, but they were shoving her farther into her eating disorder.  She took a lunch to school every day, but she just picked at her food.

At this point Amanda said she knew she had a problem.  Food and calories were consuming her thoughts and taking over her life. She said the worst part was the way that eating made her feel.

She had to eat sometimes in order for her body to function, but whenever she ate, she would feel huge, like she had gained five pounds.  She would only eat granola bars or bananas, and immediately following that, she would go work out until she felt like she had burned off the calories.

One day, the school counselor called Amanda into her office.  She told her that people had been noticing unhealthy drops in weight and that some actions needed to be taken.  She called Amanda’s parents.  Amanda was sent to a nutrition coach and a counselor.

She hated therapy. Her brain was telling her she couldn’t eat.  But she was being forced to eat, and if she didn’t make the weight improvements each week, she would have to eat more.  She started chugging water before she went into her therapy sessions so that it would appear as if she had met the weight requirements.

Once she finally admitted that there was a problem, the healing process began.  It is a painful process to completely change the way you think, she said, and she had to learn to eat so her body would function.  She cried through most of her therapy sessions, and the things she learned in them eventually led her down the path to healing.

Amanda said the most influential factor in her recovery process was her friends.  Not all of them understood what she was going through, but they supported her anyway.  They couldn’t change her mind or her emotions, but they could love her through the whole process.

Amanda hated when people told her that she was beautiful and that she didn’t need this eating disorder because she could not believe it for herself.  But her friends were willing to treat her the exact same way they had before the disorder took over her life, and that was the essential element in her realization that she could recover from this and be normal again.

* * *

Lauren brushed her hair out of her face as she started to her story.

When she was in sixth grade, she was her current 5 feet 7 inches tall.  She was the first girl in her class to reach 100 pounds and the first to start wearing clothes from the junior section.  Lauren was constantly comparing herself to the girls around her, and this combined with her perfectionist personality caused her self-esteem to plummet.

About this same time, the 12 year old developed a fixation with eating disorders. She began reading books and articles about them.  She was fascinated with these girl’s perfect bodies and ability to precisely control this aspect of their lives.  Eventually this fixation turned into a challenge.

She had heard her parents talk about dieting, so she decided to try it.  Her sixth and seventh grade years were characterized extreme dieting and lying to cover it up.  She no longer had her period, and she began to live for the feeling of her stomach growling.

By the end of seventh grade, people had started making comments like, “You are too skinny; you need to eat!” and “The wind is going to blow you over!” The comments only added fuel to the flame of the disorder that was developing in her life.

She started having extreme mood swings.  She was unhappy with herself, and she thought about food constantly.  The more she denied herself, the more she thought about it.  She no longer got along with her mom, and eventually she had to go to a counselor.

In eighth grade, she started taking laxatives that she found around the house.  Lauren saw this as the perfect solution because it meant that she could eat sometimes and then her mom wouldn’t make her go to school because she thought Lauren was sick.  Eventually her parents caught on, and they made her go to school one day after she had taken laxatives.  That was the last time she ever took them.

After that she went back to diets until she read on her friend’s blog that using a toothbrush is the easiest way to make yourself throw up. So she tried that. Bulimic habits continued off and on throughout high school.  Her parents knew about it, but didn’t do anything.  She saw that as permission to continue, and she became more and more comfortable with her disorder.

When she moved to Kansas State University after high school, Lauren began to overcome the eating disorder she had struggled with for seven years. First,, there were always people around her, which made her habits harder to cover up and more difficult to keep secret.

But then more importantly, she said, her focus began to shift.  She found purpose in her life, and she had something other than herself and other than food to live for.

Through things she had learned in counseling, the process of discovering her purpose, and surrounding herself with healthy relationships, she learned to look at the root of her decisions.  She thought deeper about the reasons she was struggling and her ultimate goals, and through this process she found healing.

Lauren said she has learned that people can totally control their mindsets and make themselves believe whatever they want even if they know it isn’t true.  So now she has learned to shift her focus to other issues in life.

* * *

“Giving up an eating disorder is life giving up a best friend.  It is giving up promises that you have believed in for 10 years.”  Kate used this analogy as she explained that giving up her eating disorder was the hardest thing she has ever done.

Amanda described the difficulties that came from so many people telling her things over and over again that she could not believe for herself.

Lauren said that it is so hard to get refocused and to get the right mindset and a realistic body image back.  She had to completely change her goals in life.

Although it is a difficult process, each of these girls can attest to the fact that recovery is possible and completely worth it.

Diseases defined

Bulimia, also called bulimia nervosa, is a potentially life-threatening eating disorder in which a person may binge and purge. Eating large amounts of food is followed by trying to get rid of the extra calories in an unhealthy way such as forced vomiting or excessive exercise.

Most bulimics are preoccupied with weight and body shape.Treatment involves nutrition and psychotherapy counseling and cognitive behavioral therapy.

Anorexia nervosa causes people to obsess about their weight and the food they eat. The disorder is often not about food but about equating thinness with self-worth. It is an unhealthy way to try to cope with emotional problems.

Treatment involves nutrition and psychological counseling.

For more information

National Eating Disorders Association (www.nationaleatingdisorders.org), National Institute of Mental Health (www.nimh.nih.gov/health/), Mayo Clinic (www.mayoclinic.com) among the sources of more information.

Photos by Tommy Theis

By Rachel Semjenow

With the scent of cinnamon rolls and fresh baked cookies floating through the air, Christina Devaney, a sophomore at Kansas State University, waited at The Bakery for a few old high school friends to gather so they could reconnect.

“I no longer live in the dorms, so now it is a special treat to come back to The Bakery,” Devaney said. “I can’t stay away for too long.”

Near four residence halls, The Bakery is located inside the Derby Dining Center on the K-State campus, but is open to the public. It offers traditional bakery treats such as fudge brownies, Rice Krispie treats and fresh baked bread.

The target customers are residence hall students, but in the few years it has been open, The Bakery has gained popularity throughout the campus and the city of Manhattan.

Just walking through the Derby Dining Center, The Bakery can be easy miss. Two double doors are propped open during operating hours, showing off a large display case filled with goodies. Behind the case is a small workspace where employees prepare orders. Patrons often spread out to benches or tables for two spread throughout the Derby’s lobby to enjoy their purchases.

The Bakery is more than a place to grab a bite to eat. To many students it has become a place associated with special memories.
The first time Meredith Muller came to The Bakery, she was not yet a K-State student.

“It was a senior day and my mom and I were wandering around by ourselves,” Muller said. “We were walking by The Bakery and had to stop and share a cinnamon roll with extra frosting. It topped off the end of a great day.”

Devaney frequented The Bakery almost weekly her freshmen year. At K-State, The Bakery is unrivaled in its variety of fresh treats. The campus holds many coffee shops that also offer sweets, but The Bakery boasts a homemade flavor unique to the other on-campus options.

“Once we celebrated my friend Kelsey’s birthday,” Devaney said. “A big group met by The Bakery and we all got different treats. Then we sat in a big circle on the benches nearby and shared in some fun and laughter for the next hour.”

Most individual items at the bakery are under $2, but special orders like personalized birthday cakes or variety gift bag are available as well. The birthday cakes cost $12 to $22 depending on the size, while the gift bags, which contain different assortments of gourmet cookies, fresh fruit and fudge brownies, average $6.50.

The Bakery’s hours of operation occur when the dining center is closed in order to draw students looking for a snack. The doors open at 9 a.m. and close at 11 p.m., but they also close during the rush of student meal times around noon and from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

“In the last five years that I’ve been here, the hours have gotten more convenient,” senior Chelsi Thissen said.

Many students use the late night hours of The Bakery as a motivation to study.

“I like that The Bakery is open late because I love getting a Rice Krispie treat as a break before I return to studying,” freshman Tina Tadros said.

K-State Housing and Dining decided to open The Bakery to provide residence hall students with another food option during non-meal times. Residence hall students are not able to bake or cook as readily as their off-campus peers, but making fresh baked goods accessible quickly became popular.

Since then, students began to utilize The Bakery as a meeting spot.
“I use The Bakery to hang out with people,” Thissen said. “It’s great because it is a common place to meet up and it doesn’t even feel like you’re in the dorms.”

Other students use The Bakery as a place to start new friendships.
“I took my new international buddy, Masa, on his first trip to The Bakery earlier this year,” freshman Kelly Zachariasen said. “We hung out and got to know each other better.”

The Bakery serves many purposes to students of the K-State residence halls. Memories of splitting a peanut butter Rice Krispies with a friend or indulging in a butter pecan cinnamon roll after bombing a test has become, for many students, part of the K-State experience.

By Lindsay Creviston

Drive-in restaurants may arguably be one of the most enjoyable pastimes of the late 1940s and ‘50s.  In 1948, with World War II behind them, rock and roll increasing in popularity, and Truman winning what some call the biggest upset in presidential history, Orville and Elsie Bobo opened Bobo’s Drive-in at the intersection of Huntoon and Lincoln in Topeka.

It's curb service and real onion rings at 10th and MacVicar in Topeka

In 1953 their son, Bob Bobo, opened a second location at the corner of 10^th and MacVicar.  This is one of the few original drive-ins still in operation in Kansas.

Unlike Sonic there are no distorted speakers to contend with; only cheerful carhops greeting guests with curb side service.  Two carhops serve 12 drive-in stalls and, during peak hours, also provide service to customers in the parking lot.

Customers are welcomed into the quaint dining area by counter-service, black and white checkered floors, large white hanging globe lights, and bright pink booths.  Spinning bar stools add to the nostalgic atmosphere.

Bobo’s has had its fair share of mishaps over the years.  Customers were forced to live without their double cheeseburgers and onion rings while the drive-in was restored to its original condition after a fire destroyed the kitchen in 2002.  This was not the last time that a renovation would be forced on this local treasure.

According to current owners, Richard and Tricia Marsh, one of the regulars accidently drove through the front door when he mistakenly thought his car was in reverse.  He is still given a hard time about his bad driving.

After two restorations the owners attribute their success to preserving the Bobo’s traditions and fighting the temptations to keep up with the latest trends.  They listen to their loyal customers and stay true to the authenticity with simple food and old-fashioned customer service.

The original recipes from Bob Bobo’s aunt and mother continue to be used for their famous double cheeseburgers, Spanish burgers, onion rings, and homemade apple pies.  Yes, homemade apple pie at a drive-in.  The cheeseburger patties are made from a special blend of ground steak and pressed thin to create a crust.

Tangy and sweet, the secret Spanish sauce is what keeps the Spanish burger in high demand.  “They taste sort of like a Sloppy Joe but not all ground up,” Guy Fieri of the Food Network said.

The drive-in uses 75 pounds of onions a day.  Breaded with flour and then with cracker meal, the onion rings are crispy, not greasy.    The apple pies made fresh daily can be purchased by the slice or as a whole pie and are served with either ice cream or satin freeze.  More than 50 pies are baked each day.

It’s not only the customers that enjoy Bobo’s but also its employees.  Some have been working at the joint for more than 25 years.

Verda Hamm began working at Bobo’s right out of high school and is now 81 years old.  Back then hamburgers cost 35 cents and a whole pie cost $2.

Betty Ramsey, originally from England, has been with the drive-in since 1975 and Joe Vida has been making the apple pie for over 25 years.  Another employee met her husband while working as a carhop and in 2009 they reserved Bobo’s to celebrate their 50^th wedding anniversary.

Bobo’s has continued to be successful in spite of all of the franchised burger joints in town due to its loyal customers.

“I can remember coming to Bobo’s with my folks since the late 1950s.  When I was in my early 20s I had all of my wisdom teeth pulled and the first solid food I craved was a Bobo’s cheeseburger.  I had to eat it with a fork, but it was the best!” Nancy Morrison Cree of Lecompton wrote in the guest book.

“The only thing wrong with Bobo’s is that there isn’t one on every corner,” another customer said.

This classic drive-in will continue to endear its customers with the simple pleasures of food fresh off the grill and memories of a time when life seemed less stressful and complicated.

Dairyman Tim Iwig portrait by Tommy Theis

By Beth Troutt

Tim Iwig’s alarm goes off at 3:30 every morning. Hours before the sun rises, his feet hit the floor and he is off to the pasture to herd around 100 cattle up to the dairy farm. The aroma of straw and aged manure is under foot and in the air. Cows must be milked twice a day, every day. A typical cow produces about 100 glasses a milk a day. That totals around 500 gallons of milk each day for Iwig.

The dairy farm is a multi-generation family business located in Tecumseh. Iwig’s great-grandparents began the farm in 1910. His generation of milk production started in the ‘70s. “As a teenager, I milked my own 4-H cows.” Customers would come to his house to pick up the milk and leave money in the pan on the family refrigerator. “When I was a kid, I was never short on money,” the farmer remembers.

Driving down the dirt road, the retail store is the first thing visitors see. The store has an old-fashion look and feel. This is where customers can purchase milk, fresh pies, and homemade cookies.

Cows are the foundation of any milk production.

In the winter months, they are housed in large stalls and kept on concrete, creating a cleaner environment. These stalls allow the cows to eat, drink, or sleep whenever they please.  During warmer weather, cows are allowed to graze in meadows and rest under trees.

“Comfortable cows are happy, high producing cows,” Iwig says he believes. Mature milk-producing cows eat 50 pounds of food and drink 50 gallons of water every day. Without healthy cows, dairy farmers wouldn’t have a job.

Cows are creatures of habit and thrive off routine. Milking takes place at the same time every day. During milking time, the girls stand in silence, patiently waiting their turn.

The herd began with all Holstein cows. In the past few years, the herd has been crossbred with Jersey cows and Scandinavian Red Sires. This broadens the genetic base and increases longevity.

Iwig pasteurizes, bottles, and distributes its own milk. Their production only uses glass containers when bottling. When people return their bottles, the dairy farm is able to wash and reuse them. This kind of recycling is good for the environment and saves customers money.

The 1,200-pound bottle washer was set in place by a crane before the roof was on the building. Overpowering and drowning out all other sounds when operating, “it takes two people to operate and can clean up to 100 bottles per hour,” Iwig says.

Another reason why glass bottles are used is taste. According to Tim Iwig, “overtime, milk in plastic bottles takes on the taste of plastic. Chemicals in plastic diffuse into milk and change the taste.” Also, glass stays colder and allows the milk to stay fresh for a longer period of time. Customers must pay a $2 deposit for the first bottle. Most find the taste is well worth the small expense.

Tim Iwig also says milk from large plants may sit for days before being processed. This is not true at Iwig. On average, it takes only one day from when cows are milked to distribute the product to stores.

For Iwig, dairy farming is a passion and a way of giving back to his ancestors. In recent years, there has been a shift to larger dairy farm operations. These farms tend to focus on efficiency and getting the most from each cow. As farmers expand their herds, the pressure on small producers continues to increase. Iwig’s focus is quality.

Supporting local farms, like Iwig Dairy, keep people connected to the community. Local milk simply tastes better. At Iwig, you are able to shake the hand of the farmer whose milk you drink.

By Jeanette Pryor

Old Downtown Overland Park, two quaint, store-lined streets, is becoming Kansas City’s Slow Food District, its Culinary Center and specialty shops are delectable evidence that the local branch of Slow Food International is convincing people to center their lives around the joy of home cooked meals; meals made from the resources of local farms and artisans, and shared with people who believe the table should be the heart of family and community.

Slow Food International – How the Threat of a Hamburger is Changing the World

Long before the executive chef of Kansas City’s most famous Italian restaurant brought the Slow Food Movement to the American Mid-West, the organization was an act of rebellion against the invasion of Rome by… hamburgers!  In 1986, a horrified Italian awoke to the iconoclastic news that the Golden Arches were going to become part of the Eternal City’s skyline.

Fearing the eventual effects of this viral infection of the heart of the gastronomic universe, knowing what would happen if Italian cuisine was replaced by the embodiment of modern food, an amalgamation of chemicals designed for profit, convenience, and expediency, Carlo Petrini founded Agriocola with several friends. His original intention was to unite and organize the efforts of those who held that human beings should preserve and promote the production of real food, food cultivated with care and in natural ways.  This respect for food is motivated by the place it should hold in civilizations, the central unifying locus of the deepest human bonds, family and community.

By the time the group renamed their reformation “Slow Food International,” it had honed its purpose, “Slow Food works to defend biodiversity in our food supply, spread taste education and connect producers of excellent foods with co-producers through events and initiatives.“

The 100,000 members of Slow Food International are organized into “convivia” from the Latin for “to live with.”  The “convivial” are local branches that strive to unite members of communities who share the core values espoused by Petrini and endeavor to communicate this way of life to others.  Celebrating and availing themselves of the local produce and artisanal food is the main focus of the local groups.

“I Wanted to Teach People to Make the Table the Center of Their Own Families”

In 1948, Jasper Mirabile Sr. and his wife, Josephine, opened a little restaurant on the outskirts of Kansas City.  While they were working at the family business, their youngest son, Jasper Jr., was at home with his Nona, his grandmother, begging to learn the secrets of her cooking.  Today, in 2010, the family restaurant, Jaspers, is high on Zagat’s list of America’s Top Ten Italian restaurants in the US, and Jasper Jr. is the executive chef.

“My father’s legacy, his dream and ours, is to have our customer’s feel like they are eating at our family table.  In our family, the meals bring us together and our lives literally center around the love of good food.  We talk recipes and where the best olive oil comes from and how the asparagus is this season.  I wanted to communicate this love of food and the importance of family meals to the people who eat in Jaspers,” Jasper Jr. explained when he learned of the Slow Food Movement, he recognized his own dreams echoed in Petrini’s mission.

“I started the Kansas City Slow Food chapter because it was a way to extend the philosophy of the restaurant to the whole community.  We have so many local farms and artisans, I thought that starting a local group would bring people together who could promote local products in our own communities, helping those who have a true passion for healthy, real food,” he said.

Judging from the extensive and varied membership list, Jasper’s outreach has been an enormous success.  The Slow Food table gathers these and dozens of other members, food enthusiasts who get together to enjoy cooking and sharing their creations.

• Quality Meat Goats from Double O Ranch
• Fervere Bread Company
• Edible Schoolyard
• Kansas Wines
• Good Shepherd Farms
• Louisburg Cider Mill
• Shatto Milk Company
• Travels With Taste
• Johnny’s Selected Seeds

The members are deeply committed to employing natural or ecological techniques in the raising of animals or growing crops, whenever possible.

Law Books Or Cook Books?

While Jasper was using Slow Food to bring the Mirabile family’s love of “the shared table,” to the community, a young attorney was dreaming of trading her law books for her cook books, the courtroom for her kitchen.  Laura Laiben O’Rourke had grown up with a passion for cooking.  A brilliant student, she ended up in the less creative law library, the top of her classes, but feeling like something was missing.  Ten years ago, Laura took a giant leap and founded the Culinary Center of Kansas City.

“The center is a unique venue in the Midwest where “‘culinarians”’ of all skill levels can gather together to celebrate the culinary arts in a variety of ways.  Warm service, attention to detail and the commitment to go the extra step in everything we do are the hallmarks of our business philosophy,” she explained.

The center, located in downtown Overland Park, offers thematic cooking classes by local chefs.  Julia & Me, for example, offers the public the opportunity to learn and practice the basics of French cooking, in much the same way that the now-famous Julie Powell of movie fame, cooked her way from ignorance of the culinary arts to accomplished resident of the kitchen!  Under the Tuscan Sun is a two and a half hour class that introduces students to the joy of signature Italian cooking.

Expanding beyond its original “test kitchen,” the center now houses the Kitchenology shop that offers kitchen tools, aprons, fabulous cook-books and pots and pans designed to withstand a nuclear blast.  The center also boasts two spacious dining rooms in which the famous “Staff Lunches” are held.  Every Tuesday, the resident chefs of the center serve lunch for a modest fee.  The only rule is European seating; you have to sit by someone you don’t know!

Laiben O’Rourke’s dream was not to start a professional cooking school, but a place where anyone who wanted to learn to cook could come and “brush” up on basic skills.  The center now offers advanced classes and, in addition to the stand-alone evening thematic classes, offers class series.

It should be no surprise that Jasper Mirabile, the “human hub” of the food scene in Kansas City, should find his way to the center.  He brings his “Family Table” message, along with his mother, to the Center to teach classes every month.  Laura and her staff at the Center, are an important conduit for the Slow Food message, the enthusiasm for cooking healthy meals, for discovering new and varied ethnic foods.

“There Goes the Neighborhood!”

High on Jasper’s list of Slow Food resources are the fresh array of local Farmer’s Markets.  Addicts of the Culinary Center classes and open lunches can cross the street and fill their baskets with the fresh produce offered at Overland Park’s by local farmers, bakers, bee hive keepers and other local artisans.  While not all the vendors represent member businesses attached officially to Slow Food, they are the very reason the organization exists.  It is to these stalls and families who hauled their crops and the best their gardens had to offer that Jasper, Laura, and Slow Food are trying to direct Kansans.

In last month’s newsletter, Laiben-O’Rourke commented on the food mecca sprouting  in the once empty shops downtown Overland Park?  Penzeys Spices and the Tasteful Olive offer fresh spices and fresh, natural olive oils and vinegars.  Three new restaurants, all family owned have opened.  None are chain franchises, and   the menus offer fresh, local choices for customers.

Kansas City’s Slow Food No Longer Moving At Snail’s Pace

“The most important thing in this world is family,” Jasper summed up the work of the convivium.  “We have folks come to eat here, at the restaurant, who moved here and are far from family because of work.  Sometimes, a spouse has passed and there is no one left for them.  We try to have them feel at home when they come here, and having this spirit of sharing good food with people who care about them, that picks them up.  Some people in Slow Food focus on the ecological aspects of food, and we feel this is very important.  But, I want people to create family bonds, bonds that extend to the farmers and bakers, and people here in Kansas City, without going elsewhere.  This is the best way to bring people together, around the passion of food we have here, near our own city.  We bring folks to the table and that is the magic of food.”

People who share this passion for food will find kindred spirits in the “food district” in Overland Park.

Bringing big appetites and the week’s grocery list to local Slow Food artisans and stores is a great way to sustain Kansas and live by Petrini’s motto, “Encourage food that is healthy, fair, and delicious.”

Jeanette Pryor took the distance Food Writing course in Spring 2010. The mother of four lives near Kansas City and is a senior social sciences major.

By Ely Behrhorst

Philly cheese steak, Maine lobster and the original Buffalo wings, just to name a few.

Dining on dogs at Nathans

“Far from Oz” compiles food stories of my spring break road trip turned travel blog of a New England eats tour in March of 2010 for the Kansas Food Journal. For one week my girlfriend and I traveled from the Mid-Atlantic north to New England and back to Kansas, tasting America where America began.

From New York City to the Green Mountains of Vermont, I certainly wasn’t in Kansas any more.

Follow my journey as I venture off the yellow brick road.

Link to Ely Behrhorst’s Blog:

http://sojournerfood.wordpress.com/

By Dustin Nelson

Like a caterpillar going through metamorphosis, food can grow, shrink, change colors and become an eye-catching, desired item.  To understand the magic behind the scientific principles of foods, I went on an investigation around the Department of Food Science, Department of Human Nutrition, and a kitchen store to uncover reasons why and how food changes.

To give the evidence of how the culinary transformation process works, I created the blog mixingmolecules. The name alone gives context clues about what is contained inside. It features a handful of questions about how food works when it is prepared and cooked and then answers are shared by knowledgeable people.

From a student working on his doctorate in Human Nutrition to a homemaker with more than three decades of cooking in her repertoire that runs a kitchen store, the information given by these credible sources solves some mysteries of food.

After a scientific explanation of how food works there are selected recipes following each posting that highlights some of the principles discussed.  These recipes have been tested to ensure that they are truly delicious for the sake of those that with to venture into the scientific side of food. Go ahead and see how food and science can be fun and tasty, respectively!

Link to Dustin Nelson’s Blog:

http://mixingmolecules.wordpress.com/