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PrintThe Hills are Alive
The flavor of southeast Missouri makes the region sing
Abby Callard
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Note to self—when invited to tour the farms and wineries in the charming, old-world countryside of the Mississippi River Hills, it’s okay to leave the GPS at home, despite the landscape’s curvy country roads. These are roads that lead to the freshest produce and the nicest people. The kind of people that will give you written directions supplemented with a hand-drawn map to your next destination—despite the fact that you’ve already assured them your car is equipped with the latest in GPS technology, plus MapQuest directions printed from the internet.
Caring is the essence of Mississippi River Hills, one of the regions of Missouri’s Regional Cuisines Project. From Ste. Genevieve to Cape Girardeau, the thoughtful nature of the people here carries over into their dedication to growing the best food possible and sharing it with their communities. These farmers and vintners are the main event in my culinary adventure of the region with Ann Dougherty, owner of Learn Great Foods, a small agri-tourism company based out of Illinois.
Mississippi River Hills has flourished as the flagship region of the Regional Cuisines Project, an initiative to establish labels of origin for Missouri food and wine (similar to wine from Bordeaux in France, for example), with a larger vision to promote sustainable agriculture and tourism in each region. The cooperation from farmers, vintners, entrepreneurs, and community members has been the region’s key to success. “It’s very holistic in terms of bringing the whole community together,” says Elizabeth Barham, leader of the project, which is based in the Institute for Continental Climate Viticulture and Enology at the University of Missouri. The community’s hard work has paid off—Mississippi River Hills is the first region to establish its own nonprofit organization to promote tourism and awareness of its local cuisine, although the other regions are organizing and aspire to the same level.
In about thirty-two hours, Ann Dougherty will take our small group for a whirlwind tour of more than fifteen farms, wineries, bed-and-breakfasts, and other agri-culinary destinations in Mississippi River Hills. Ann calls it a “practice tour,” or a method of scouting potential itineraries and destinations for Learn Great Foods. A woman on a mission, Ann explains that a real tour wouldn’t include as many stops. For a typical tour, Learn Great Foods takes its guests to a few different destinations throughout a region, and at the end of the day, the guests gather with a local chef to prepare a farm-fresh meal using ingredients collected on the tour. Tours can also take place over a weekend, with guests staying at local bed-and-breakfasts.
Our tour begins at Windrush Farm at Farmington and continues with wine and beer tastings at nearby Twin Oaks Winery and Charleville Vineyards, all before noon. Our empty stomachs and tipsy heads are craving a solid meal, so we caravan into Ste. Genevieve to the Rosemary & Thyme Cooking School. Proprietor Yvonne Lemire prepares a splendid lunch full of local bounty. On the menu are local herb-roasted pecans, a salad with Yvonne’s signature local Norton Vinaigrette paired with the tallest quiche I’ve ever seen, made with organic eggs from Frieg Farms and fresh goat cheese from Baetje Farms, both located in the Ste. Genevieve area. It is a delicious start to a short, yet thorough, culinary quest through the region.
