Mother's Day: Visiting Baby Goats and Cheese of the Month Club
Mother's Day is this Sunday. And if your mother is anything like mine, the day involves massive amounts of cheese (for breakfast, lunch, and day snacks), visiting a creamery, playing with baby dairy goats, and (mom, stop reading) possibly a Cheese of the Month Club present. Are you sensing a theme here?
Yup, to celebrate the woman who raised me, we're going full cheese force. But this isn't like gifting a host a bottle of wine you've been meaning to buy for yourself and hoping your friend opens it at the party. Nope, this was all her idea.
For the past two years on Mother's Day, my mother has requested we go to Redwood Hill Creamery's Spring Farm Tours. Or, rather, last year, my father walked into the wine shop where I work part-time, and informed me that they were going on a fabulous Sunday adventure! They were going to visit baby goats at one of their favorite creameries! I asked, Dad do you mean that you're going this Sunday, on Mother's Day? He replied, How about that! I guess so. Then after I asked if it was okay if I joined, since it was Mother's Day and all, he said that he'd get back to me. As I found out from one or two follow-up phone calls, and as demonstrated by the photos on this page, they decided to let me join!
This year they're letting me join again! Better yet, they're letting Oma Olga come along too. Olga's my grandmother- not my blood grandmother, but pretty much my official grandmother due to copious amounts of grandmotherly love she dishes out and the fact that my own one has passed away. She's pretty much perfect. She's ninety-six, super sharp, thanks the mug of beer she drinks everyday for her longevity, and has become more comfortable with loudly remarking upon the fineness of Brad Pitt's appearance in theaters as she ages.
This is also our Mother's Day gift to her. That and some homemade cookies (stop reading here, Olga) because she likes to have a cookie with coffee for her first breakfast every morning. She grew up on a farm and visiting the babies brings up some lovely memories for her.
If your mom is the sort who loves cheese and baby goats or sheep too, I urge you to check out what farms are open near you for visitation. If not for mother's day, then soon after. It's baby goat and sheep season!
And if she's the sort that likes cheese of the month clubs, maybe she'd like to kick it off with May's "It's Not You, It's Brie" Cheese Club, which ships anywhere in the United States. One of my three cheese picks this month is a triple-creme like the beauty above. Kunik, from Nettle Meadow- goat's milk and cow's milk cream to celebrate the season. For moms into dairy: the club includes three cheeses, a custom recipe for one of the cheeses in the club (see a sample here), my write-ups, and a monthly club newsletter with more writing and photos galore. If you sign your mother up for twelve months, I'll throw in a signed copy of my book to say thank you.
Whether you go full-cheese force, visit goats, or have a brunch, whatever you decide to do, Happy Mother's Day to all of you out there! I hope that you enjoy the day, whether you spend it with your own mom, someone else that means a lot to you, or just you, you're lovely too!
