Check out the video, and if you’re planning a trip to Maine, make sure to swing by the farm and say hi to Suzy – she’s sure to fix you up something good to eat!

gwen schantz, maine, north creek farm, local food, small farms

Recently I visited Baltimore, MD, where I was hosted by my good friend and fellow natural foods enthusiast, Emily. The two of us headed out to the Waverly Farmers’ Market, a small but richly stocked market in the eastern part of the city. Every Saturday morning, vendors gather here to sell locally produced foods like honey and preserves, and farm-fresh vegetables that grow year-round in the warm Mid-Atlantic climate.

The market also has a large meat and dairy stand where Emily and I picked up some milk and cream cheese to take home for breakfast. The milk and cheese were both so fabulously delicious and fresh that I found myself compelled to visit the farm that produced them, so a few days later on my way out of town I took a bit of a detour out to the Maryland countryside and hunted down the source of my dairy delight.

Rural Maryland is a truly beautiful place, with rolling hills and old farm fields that sprawl for miles in every direction. But as I drove it soon became clear that the Maryland landscape is changing. Farmland that was once covered with grazers and crops is now suffering from a severe and sprawling disease: the housing development.

Happily, the Eat Well Guide led me to one of Maryland’s bucolic strongholds and last remaining dairies: South Mountain Creamery. Founded in 1981 by Randy Sowers and his wife, this relatively young establishment is a bastion of centuries-old family farming traditions. The farm covers about 165 acres, including pastureland and corn fields (they grow their own feed corn for the cows), as well as an additional 50 acres that the Sowers family civil war has protected under a civil war easement. With the exception of the trucks and tractors, this farm doesn’t look much different than it did a century and a half ago when gray and blue-clad soldiers marched and fought across its fields.

And the cows seem to like it that way. South Mountain’s 200 Holsteins are naturally-raised (without hormones or antibiotics), and they spend the summer out on pasture. The rich and creamy milk that they produce is processed in a small facility on-site, which allows the Sowers family to control the quality of their products at every stage – from milking the cows, to making the butter, cheese, milk and ice cream, to delivering it to their customers and selling it at the farmers market. Visitors can also pick up South Mountain dairy goods at the farm’s on-site store, which is run by one of the Sowers daughters and offers a variety of other foods locally-produced foods, including bread, locally-roasted coffee from Zeke’s, and McCutcheon’s preserves. At the store you can also find fresh chicken, pork, lamb and beef from other small farms in the region – a good sign that Maryland’s farming traditions are alive and well.

After visiting the cows and chatting with farmer Randy for a bit, I picked up some smoked cheddar, a jug of milk, a loaf of bread and some Zeke’s fair trade coffee for the road. Needless to say, the next day’s breakfast was one to remember.

There is only one natural foods store in Knoxville, Tennessee, and if it weren’t for my good friend the Eat Well Guide, I probably would never have found it. And that would have been a real shame, because it means I never would have gotten to eat at the Organic Roots Cafe.

Owned and operated by Yawah Awalowo, Knoxville’s queen of healthy eating, the Cafe is a natural foods oasis in the Tennessee’s fast food desert. And a tasty oasis, at that. I had the “kitchen sink” sandwich, which turned out to be perhaps the heartiest and most enjoyable vegan dish I ever ate. Like its name would suggest, the sandwich was filled with a little bit of everything in Ms. Awalowo’s kitchen (minus the sink), and with a side of organic blue corn chips and iced tea, lunch was complete. And completely delicious.

Although I probably would have rather taken a nap after the sandwich, I moved on and left Knoxville a few short hours after entering the city (I had to get to Memphis before sundown). But before hopping back in the car, I picked up a few things for the road at Nature’s Pantry (The Cafe is actually located inside this natural foods store). The place is chock full of organic foods, which was a nice switch from the traditional grocery store where you have to dig a bit to find the organic stuff. I picked up some peanut butter, chips, juice and chocolate (I’m a total Green & Blacks addict), hopped in the car, and smiled all the way to Memphis, having accomplished that day’s mission to find good food.