It was an unusually cold late winter day when I took my Alternative Spring Break group to visit Prairie Fruits Farm in Urbana, Il. Prairie Fruits Farm is well-known among local food enthusiasts for its high quality goat cheese, which is sold in the Champaign-Urbana area at the Farmer's Market, Strawberry Fields, and the Common Ground Co-op. The cheeses they make range from tangy chevre to creamy camembert-like blooming rind aged cheeses.
    I chose to take my ASB group, which is going to live at a farm in Luck, WI for a week, to Prairie Fruits to help them learn about the local food system. In my mind, Champaign-Urbana has it's own particular taste. I imagine the essence of it in the French-style goat cheeses, fresh-picked blackberries, and the quirky autumn squashes that are produced in the area. When I first tried the Prairie Fruits rind cheeses, at a picnic at Caveny Farm, I felt lucky to live in an area where local food is also delicious food.

The tour also provided us with the chance to observe a working farm. While we were there, the milk processing facilities were being readied, a goat was giving birth to twins, and newborns waited impatiently to be fed. In one of the barns we saw the milking goats, each of them with their own name. Leslie Cooperband, farmer and owner, told us that each has a distinct personality and some crave more human attention than others. The farm keeps two breeds, Nubian and La Mancha, as well as an assortment of hybrids. Nubians have floppy velvety ears, but La Mancha are distinct for having either tiny elf ears or no ears at all. Strange looks aside, they are well-known for quality milk and good dispositions.

In the next barn, dozens of tiny baby goats, commonly known as kids, huddled under heat lamps to keep away the March frost.

With a new milking apparatus. the farm is able to milk more animals than ever this year. They are also looking forward to selling honey, a little fruit, and a few vegetables. They hope to showcase their farm's bounty at summer dinners on the farm, which will be prepared by guest chefs from Champaign-Urbana and Chicago.