DAY TRIP by Vicki Wood, newsroom@lakesunonline.com
Backroading, Pioneer Style Visit an Amish settlement and a look back at America’s best loved stories
W
e begin with Seymour, Missouri, thanks to a tip from a beloved in-law who lives in southeastern Webster County raving about the food served at The Little Farm Store. With no prearrangement, we arrived there to find her standing at the coffee bar, what a great surprise! The Little Farm Store was holding a frozen custard festival, hosting craft, produce, and jam and syrup vendors under big tents. The store sells locally produced goods, most items made with all natural ingredients, or organically grown and raised. For the town of Seymour, handcrafted arts are showcased by the business, and today’s festival was being managed by the former executive director of the Seymour Area Arts Council. Regular events centering around vintage and prairie lifestyle are held on the grounds, with a focus on farm to fork cuisine. It’s an important industry in rural Webster County and not unusual to see folks wearing floor length skirts and wide brimmed farming hats. My in-law informed me it is “prairie-style,” a lifestyle choice, not religion. It means those choose to live as close to the land as possible, and grow their own food, or source as locally as possible, preferably from their neighbors. Missouri’s largest Old Order Amish settlement at Seymour could be an influencing factor. The Little Farm Store is stocked with their own fresh dairy which is located 10 miles down Highway 60. At today’s festival, Lulu Bell was the star, a brown jersey cow who is one of many that produce local raw milk for the store and the creation of their own frozen custard brand, Lulu’s Frozen Custard. After petting Lulu Bell, who was greeting visitors outside the store, a sample of her creamy custard was in order, and one can literally taste the sweet, tang of field clover in the frozen treat, lending a honey like note. The Little Farm Store has a full menu available at the coffee bar, with counter service. Locally raised, pasture fed beef is served in a variety of hamburger choices. The crepes are life changing, and only available on Saturdays. A return trip has already been planned to eat more crepes. Today, we were served a savory crepe, with locally raised pork sausage, eggs, and dairy, and it really makes a difference in quality! The Little Farm Store’s mission is to source as much from their own farm and neighbors as possible. Pleasant Valley Farm was the beginning of their clean food venture, and is now partnered with 15 neighboring farms. Their special events honor the land and serve guests tasting dinners from their combined efforts. Ten miles from Seymour, Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company can be found down some rambling country roads near Mansfield. Baker Creek’s Pioneer Village is currently closed due to COVID, but their online business and seed banks remain open, with one employee reporting business is booming. Not venturing past the front gate, the reproduction Pioneer Village is home to exotic birds and perfectly manicured flower and vegetable beds lining up with the surrounding creek nestling the Ozark hills. Jere and Emilee Gettle purchased the original 1800s Rippee family homestead, one of the oldest reported homesteads in the region, and began building the Pioneer Village in 2007. It includes the seed store, vegan restaurant, speaker barn, an old-time mercantile, herbal apothecary, a natural bakery and blacksmith shop, two music barns, a Western jail, a native rock oven, a windmill, seed warehouses, and many breeds of historic poultry and livestock. As the online seed business is humming along, we hope to find the Pioneer Village open upon our next visit for one of their many free events. Some of America’s best loved stories were written at a small farm in Mansfield, located only a few minutes from Baker Creek. The farm was a step up for Laura Ingalls Wilder and her husband Almonzo from their log cabin homestead in Minnesota. Still standing beautiful on top of a hill, the stark white farmhouse is open to the public for tours where Ingalls VACATION NEWS
September 18-October 1, 2020
