Our visit to the heartland and Cedar Summit Farm

On Tuesday, my son (Harrison) and I packed up the car and headed down to Cedar Summit Farm. It was only about a 45 minute drive from the Twin Cities metro area. I chose the more scenic route and couldn't help but reminisce about when I was a young girl and spending my summers in mid-Michigan at our cabin. I remember driving through the country side and looking at all of the all of the cows, sheep, pigs, horses and vegetable farms and of course, the dirt roads. This trip was different. There were the same farm houses as I remembered in mid-Michigan, but there were no animals! There were a couple of vegetable farms and lots and lots of corn fields. Still stunned, having seen no animals in the heartland we arrived at the Cedar Summit Farm and yes, finally saw some cows. This farm is a grass fed dairy and the cows were grazing very joyfully in the grass. We sat and watched them from the road (since there were no tours that day) and observed. They were congregated together in groups, but something struck me so odd when watching them. All of their tails were waving and wagging, similar the way my dogs tails wag/wave when they are happy to see me. Could this be a sign of happy cows?

We stopped at the Creamery and had some wonderful homemade ice cream. It really was delicious! I also picked up some meat, eggs and honey (all from local sustainable farms). I decided to take a different way home, in hopes to seeing more animals and taking in the picturesque heartland. We did see 2 more dairy farms on our way home. One farm had a very large shed, but I didn't see a cow in sight. I don't know if they were inside this shed or out roaming the farm. The other dairy farm, appearing to be larger, did have cows outside. These cows weren't grazing on the green pastures, but rather were confined to a dirt pen no larger than the lower level of my house. There had to be at least 40 cows in the pen and they too were in a group; the VERY noticeable difference --they weren't waving/wagging their tails.

I have spent such little time in the country since my summers in mid-Michigan and it was a different experience. The farms and the country side appears to be the same, but the farms have significantly changed.

My family has been thoroughly enjoying the sustainable food products that we picked up at the Cedar Summit Farm. The milk is really, really fresh and the eggs, chicken and beef all taste really good. Harrison and I will be visiting the farm again tomorrow to replenish our stock!