"A Super Little Country Store"

 Heather Hill Farms "In The News"

 In their Annual Food issue, 417 Magazine, featured an extensive article about cheese and local purveyors of fine cheeses, including HEATHER HILL FARMS.

(click on above photo to see larger image)

FROM 417 MAGAZINE;

......Naturally, the ideal do-it-yourself cheese experience takes place when you're entertaining guests at home. As you might imagine, there are a number of interesting local stores where you can get out-of-the-ordinary cheese—and there's a lot of advice out there on how best to serve it.

In Ozark, former All Roads Lead to Branson magazine publisher Bob Alder owns a gourmet store called Heather Hill Farms, located near Lambert's cafe At Heather Hills, he and his wife Heather sell more than 90 varieties of cheese. Almost all of these are from the Osceola brand, supplied from the Osceola cheese store, which has been operating on Highway 13 between Springfield and Kansas City for about 60 years.

 

Heather Hill Farms offers free samples of almost every cheese in the store. The cheese counter is lined with little Tupperware containers full of cubed cheese and toothpick- dispensers, free for the using. (Potential shop pers, take note: Double-toothpicking is strictly verboten.) The store also offers a relatively small selection of wines, all of which hail from this country, and at press time, Bob was adding a wine-tasting center. "There's not many places where you can walk in and have the wine and cheese be this approachable," says Bob.

And, indeed, it is approachable. On an early summer afternoon, I stopped by the store to interview Bob and to sample the cheeses. (Yes, I sampled all 90; it was a day for skipping lunch.) Bob says the No. 1 bestseller is the green onion cheese (it tastes exactly like French onion chip dip). Other bestsellers are the 5-year cheddar (nippy and good), the dill havarti (tastes like it should, a fine cheese) and the various garlic cheeses (like garlic transfigured into creaminess). I enjoyed most of the cheeses I sampled, particu larly the more traditional ones such as gouda, edam or one-year cheddar; I shied away from the cheese-and-meat mix varieties: cheese 'n' salami and cheese 'n' ham. Shouldn't they be paired together rather than processed together?

If you're lucky enough to talk to Bob Alder while you're in the shop, he'll provide you with a wealth of knowledge about pairing cheeses with Missouri and American wines. After my visit to the store, I decided Heather Hill Farms and Osceola cheeses (along with its wide selection of salsas, jams, pickled vegetables and more) are perfect for casual gatherings. Drop by if you're planning a family reunion or a summer barbecue.

 

 

 

 


Why not follow the suggestion of 417 MAGAZINE
in their "52 Great Dates" article (July 2004) and stop by

HEATHER HILL FARMS

Be sure to check out the "Select Wines"
Cheeses and Gourmet foods,
for your next romantic date.


The Article "SHOP SMART {One Of A Kind Finds}"
in the October 2005 Issue of 417 Magazine
features the above Heather Hill Farms wines;

"Old Fart" $8.99, "House Wine" $12.99, "Big Ass Cab" $16.99,
"You Bet Shiraz" $10.99, "Fat Bastard" $8.99

 

Grand opening of Heather Hill Farms in Ozark Missouri

 

 

Established in 1944, Osceola Cheese, Company originated in downtown Osceola in what is now City Hall, and was then called Riverview Cheese. In 1946 there was a new building built on the north side of the river to help facilitate the growth of the cheese plant. It continued to grow and at one time was using over a thousand dairy farms to help supply the company with milk. At that time there were 15 trucks on the roads 24 hours a day collecting the milk from the dairy farmers.

In the mid sixties there was talk of Truman Lake, and many other changes were occurring in the area too, the cheese company started making plans to move up on the hill.

In 1968 when Truman Lake started to develop they moved the cheese company up to the present location and changed the name of the company to Osceola Cheese and became a retail outlet.

"A super little country store"

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