Meals on wheels - Ocheesee Creamery

LOCAL NEWS » TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT » THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013
By Travis Pillow
Florida Capital Bureau
ost of the milk available in stores comes
from a special kind
of cow bred to
squeeze out the most milk. It’s
sold in plastic jugs and paper
cartons. It’s heated to more than
160 degrees to kill germs.
Then there’s the stuff that
comes from a different kind of
cow, a kind with more “personality.” It comes in glass containers with a layer of cream on top.
It’s pasteurized more gently.
The second kind is produced
in small batches by small dairies, like Ocheesee Creamery,
that dot the North Florida countryside.
M
Despite its higher fat content, the milk is marketed to a
niche of health-conscious milk
drinkers — people who demand
an all-natural product with
nothing added — no preservatives, no nutrients that don’t
come straight from the cows.
It’s sold in glass bottles to
preserve the flavor. It’s not
homogenized, so it’s laced with
ribbons of cream. To its acolytes, it’s tastier and more nutritious. Most importantly for
some, including Mary Lou Wesselhoeft, who has run the dairy
with her family since 1989, it’s
all-natural — a commitment
that has placed the dairy in a
quandary.
Wesselhoeft’s dairy is different from the larger farming
operations that produce the vast
majority of the milk on the
shelves of most Florida supermarkets. It uses a different
kind of cow.
Nearly nine out of ten dairy
cows in the United States are
Holsteins — a breed that specializes in producing large volumes of milk. The Wesselhoeft’s
use Jersey Cows, which produce smaller amounts of richer,
fattier milk. They are lowermaintenance and better adapted
to the North Florida heat. They
are also friendlier and more
curious. They gather around to
greet visitors to the family
farm in Grand Ridge, near the
Jackson County line.
See DAIRY » 5B
ONLINE
Mary Lou Wesselhoeft has run the Ocheesee Creamery
with her family since 1989. TRAVIS PILLOW/DEMOCRAT
See a video report from the Ocheesee Creamery online at Tallahassee.com/Dairy
LEFT: Ocheesee Creamery uses glass bottles to help preserve the flavor of the milk. ABOVE: Jersey cows roam the pasture at Ocheesee
Creamery. PHOTOS BY TRAVIS PILLOW/DEMOCRAT
Meals
on wheels
Food blogger Mike Bonfanti tests
out local food trucks. » Page 2B
Capital Cuisine Restaurant Week
Week is a chance to
sample eateries
By Elizabeth M. Mack
Democrat staff writer
@emack1 on Twitter
UNDER
THE OAKS
Wedding bliss,
summer fun
and more!
» Page 6B
Putting aside the fact that he’s a
restaurateur, Bill Bertoncin, owner
of A La Provence, loves sampling
culture — and that includes tasting
the food.
It’s one of the reasons he’s excited
about the second annual Capital
Cuisine Restaurant Week. This is the
second annual event for Tallahassee
featuring 36 restaurants from casual
to fine dining establishments —
which is up from the 22 restaurants
that participated last year.
The event starts today and will
continue through May 28. Participating restaurants will offer specially
selected menus during lunch and
dinner featuring two- to three-
course meals priced at $15 or $30.
The local restaurant week is put
on through a partnership between
the Leon County Division of Tourism
Development, Visit Tallahassee and
the Florida Restaurant and Lodging
Association.
“We think this is going to bring
people in town to stay in our hotels
and eat at our local restaurants,”
said Lee Daniel, Visit Tallahassee
executive director. “But it’s not just
for people from out of town, it’s
something that our local residents
can enjoy, as well — gets them out to
some of the great restaurants we
have here they haven’t tried yet.”
Agreeing, Bertoncin said the
week is a great opportunity to expose the community to the culture of
See CUISINE » 5B
TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT » THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013 »
Su | do | ku
Ray’s Steel City Saloon, 515 John
Knox Road, is offering classic comfort diner food all week starting at
5:30 p.m. today through Sunday. For
more information call 850-386-2984.
Eatery offers burgers to
benefit veterans
Now through May 25, in honor of
National Burger Month, Beef ‘O’
Brady’s is offering six new Angus
burgers inspired by different U.S.
cities, the sale of which will benefit
veterans through the Wounded
Warrior Project.
Beef ‘O’ Brady’s will make a
minimum donation of $50,000 to the
Wounded Warrior Project, and
customers purchasing one of these
“Burgers Across America” will be
given the opportunity to also donate to the nonprofit organization
Continued » 1B
“They’re a cow with
more personality,” she
said.
Ocheesee Creamery
uses a different form of
pasteurization to ensure
its milk is safe to drink.
The most common form
of pasteurization heats
milk to 161 degrees for at
least 15 seconds. Ocheesee Creamery prefers to
heat the milk to about 147
degrees for longer periods — an old-fashioned
method favored by some
small, family farms that
Wesselhoeft says helps
preserve some of the
flavor of the milk.
Cuisine
Continued » 1B
the city — which includes its restaurants —
but also restaurants they
wouldn’t normally go to.
“It just opens people’s
minds up to the different
cuisine that Tallahassee
has to offer,” he said,
explaining that they’ll be
offering a three-course
meal for $30 — which is a
steal at his French Mediterranean fine dining
restaurant.
“You can’t really eat at
my restaurant for $30,”
he added. “So this a great
opportunity to try something new. And not only
at my place, but the other
restaurants around town
that are participating.”
This year a music
component was added to
the lineup with a series
of live music events
planned at locations in
Midtown, downtown and
northeast Tallahassee,
May 17-19 and 26, Daniel
said. Performing acts
include Nashville natives
and nationally known
songwriters, Bridgette
Tatum, Tyler Reeve and
Danny Myrick, as well as
regional and local bands
such as the Flip Flop
Boys, Sarah Mac Band,
ACME Rhythm and
Blues and the Andy Velo
Band.
Valhalla
Continued » 2B
without losing even one
slice of beef. The reassembled sandwich was
very good. The roast beef
was cooked well done
and the horseradish
sauce gave it a nice bite.
It was simple and well
executed.
The poutine was up
next. I cracked open the
lid to reveal a mound of
crinkle cut French fries
slathered in brown beef
gravy and topped with
slowly melting cheese
curds. I grabbed my fork
and dug into the dish.
The French fries were a
bit undercooked, but the
roast beef gravy was
well seasoned and was
the perfect thickness.
The cheese curds were
soft and slightly salty. It
was good, but could have
been something special if
the fries had stayed in
the hot grease for a few
more minutes.
The Valhalla Grill is
worth a visit and can be
tracked down on days
when they are not at the
Food Truck Court by
checking out their Facebook page or Twitter
@ValhallaGrill. They can
also be contacted by
Now through July 4, Budweiser,
in cooperation with local distributors such as Tri-Eagle Sales, will
donate a portion of all Budweiser
sales to benefit the Folds of Honor
Foundation, which provides postsecondary educational scholarships
for families of U.S. military personnel killed or disabled while serving
their country.
Budweiser is offering a limitededition red, white and blue package
available in 12 oz. bottles and a
variety of can sizes. Budweiser is
offering a new bowtie-shaped can,
available in 8-pack. Tri-Eagle Sales
is the locally owned and operated
distributor of Anheuser-Busch and
other specialty brands operating
out of two warehouses in Midway/
The Ocheesee Creamery whole milk that’s still
in stock at stores like New
Leaf Market contains
cream, which congeals at
the top of the glass jugs.
The cream stores vitamin
A, which according to
federal regulations, must
be present in milk sold for
human consumption.
When dairies skim out
the fat to make butter and
cream, they also remove
the vitamin A, which
needs to be added back to
the milk to comply with
the federal rules. In October, the Florida Department of Agriculture and
Consumer Services issued a stop-use order,
which forces the dairy to
stop selling skim milk
unless it starts adding the
Share your summertime
favorites
Spring is in full swing with summer drawing nearer. TLH Topics
reporter Elizabeth Mack is working
on a story about summer foods, and
we want to know what you crave
during the season. To share your
stories and recipes, email
emack@tallahassee.com or call
599-2312.
Send your Taste news and notes to TLH Local
editor Soni Greer at segreer@tallahassee.com.
Deadline is Tuesday at 3 p.m.
nutrient.
To Wesselhoeft, adding
synthetic nutrients is a
non-starter. But the alternative — to stop selling
skim milk — has dealt a
blow to her business.
Discarding the skim milk
it otherwise would have
sold is costing the dairy
thousands of dollars a
month.
Because of its size,
Ocheesee Creamery does
not have to place nutritional labels on its glass
jugs. Wesselhoeft says
she wants to receive an
accommodation under the
vitamin A requirement to
continue selling the skim
milk the dairy had been
bottling for three years.
“They didn’t add vitamin A back in the 1800s,”
she said. “It’s not a health
issue.”
John Miller, the chief
of the department’s dairy
bureau, said state and
federal law don’t give the
department flexibility to
waive requirements for
the nutritional content of
milk.
“We treat all dairies
the same,” he said.
Faced with the choice
of taking the losses or
selling a product with
added ingredients or
modifying its promise of
an all-natural product, the
dairy has so far opted to
stick to its original formula.
“We’re trying to produce an all-natural product,” she said. “That’s the
big thing.”
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Difficulty Level
Enter a numeral from 1
through 9 in each cell of
the grid. Each row,
column and region must
contain only one instance of each numeral.
Yesterday’s
solution
Note: Puzzles increase
in difficulty from Monday through Sunday.
Today’s birthdays
Jazz drummer Billy Cobham is 69. Actor Pierce
Brosnan is 60. Actress
Debra Winger is 58.
Actress Mare Winningham is 54. Bassist Krist
Novoselic (Nirvana) is
48. Singer Janet Jackson is 47. Actor Brian F.
O’Byrne (“Million Dollar
Baby”) is 46. Singer
Ralph Tresvant is 45.
Actor David Boreanaz is
44. Political correspondent Tucker Carlson is
44. Actress Tracey Gold
is 44. Country singer
Rick Trevino is 42.
Actress
Tori Spelling is 40.
Actress
Boreanaz
Melanie
Lynskey (“Two and a
Half Men”) is 36. Actress
Megan Fox is 27. Actor
Marc John Jefferies
(“The Tracy Morgan
Show”) is 23.
2013 CAPITAL CUISINE RESTAURANT WEEK PARTICIPANTS
» LeRoc Bistro, 415 N. Monroe St., 224-6755
» Marco’s Pizza, 209 N. Magnolia Drive, 5773200
» Miccosukee Root Cellar, 1311 Miccosukee
Road, 597-7419
» Midtown Pass, 1019 North Monroe St., 5979614
» Milano Pizzeria, 1940 N. Monroe St., 270-9100
» Mom and Dad’s Italian Restaurant, 4175
Apalachee Pkwy, 877-4518
» Morelia’s Restaurant and Grill, 1355 Market
St., 907-9173
» Paisley Cafe, 1123 Thomasville Road, 385-7268
» Po’ Boys Creole Cafe, 224 E College Ave., 1944
W Pensacola St., 1425 Village Square Blvd.
» Shula’s 347 Grill, 415 N. Monroe St., 224-6005
» The Front Porch, 1215 Thomasville Road,
222-0934
» The Melting Pot of Tallahassee, 2727 N. Monroe St., 386-7440
» The Mockingbird, 1225 N. Monroe St., 2224956
» The Whip Waterfront Pub ’n’ Grub, 3129
Cooks Landing Road, 875-2605
» Trail Break Cafe, 3945 Museum Drive, 5748243
» Up In Smoke BBQ, 402 E Tennessee St., 5977964
» Village Pizza & Pasta, 1400 Village Square
Blvd., #33, 893-9001
» Wxyz lounge at Aloft Tallahassee Downtown,
200 N. Monroe St., 513-0313
» 101 Restaurant, 215 W. College Ave., 391-1309
» A La Provence, 1415 Timberlane Road, 3296870
» Andrew’s Capital Grill and Bar, 228 S. Adams
St., 222-3444
» Andrews 228, 228 S. Adams St., 222-3444
» Backwoods Bistro, 401 E Tennessee St., 3206345
» Chicken Salad Chick, 1410 Market St., D3,
894-2502
» Cypress Restaurant, 320 East Tennessee St.,
513-1100
» Fanny’s Garden Cafe, 1600 Miccosukee Road,
942-0087
» Far East Cuisine, 3425 Thomasville Road, #17,
907-9400
» Georgio’s Fine Food & Spirits, 2971 Apalachee
Pkwy, 877-3211
» Grazie’s Pizza & Pasta, 3196 Merchants Row
Blvd.,727-5951
» Harry’s Seafood Bar and Grille, 301 S Bronough St., 222-3976
» Hurricane Grill and Wings, 6800 Thomasville
Road, 597-9129
» Jacob’s on the Plaza, 101 S. Adams St., 2245000
» Juicy Blue Tapas Bar and Bistro, 316 W. Tennessee St., 422-0071
» Kitcho Japanese Restaurant, 1415 Timberlane
Rd #121, 893-7686
» Kool Beanz Cafe, 921 Thomasville Road,
224-2466
“It’s a win-win for the
consumer and the restaurants,” said Andy Reiss,
owner of Andrew’s Capital Grill and Bar and
Andrew’s 228. “I like
everything that Visit
Tallahassee and the
FRLA come together and
do, because when they
get together and do
things, it makes it fun for
people to get together
and go out.”
telephone at 850-5082007. The Valhalla Grill
accepts cash and credit
cards.
Mike Bonfanti is a resident of
Monticello and writes Sweet Tea
and Bourbon, a blog dedicated to
restaurant reviews in and around
North Florida and South Georgia.
“We’ve got a fun week
of eating out at a great
price and taking in some
great music,” he added.
“I hope people come out
and take advantage.”
Today in history
Today is Thursday,
May 16, the 136th day of
2013.There are 229 days
left in the year.
On this date in:
1770: Marie Antoinette,
age 14, marries the future king of France, Louis
XVI, who is 15.
1866: U.S. Congress authorizes the minting of
the nickel.
1920: Joan of Arc is canonized in Rome.
1929: The first Academy
Awards are presented
during a banquet at the
Hollywood Roosevelt
Hotel.
1941: The Icelandic parliament ends its treaty
with Denmark and proclaims independence.
1961: Maj. Gen. Park
Chung-hee stages a military coup in South Korea
and rules until his intelligence chief assassinates
him in 1979.
1962: U.S. Marines begin
arriving in Thailand to
help counter the communist threat from neighboring Laos.
1966: China’s Cultural
Revolution begins when
the Communist party’s
Politburo approves an
edict from Chairman
Mao Zedong. An elite
corps of young zealous
students, the Red
Guards, is formed to
attack traditional values
and bourgeois thinking.
1969: Soviet spacecraft
reaches the vicinity of
the planet Venus and
drops a capsule that
sends back information
on planet’s atmosphere.
1975: Japanese climber
Junko Tabei becomes the
first woman to reach the
summit of Mount Everest.
1989: Hundreds of thousands arrive in Beijing to
support college students
fasting for freedom in
Tiananmen Square.
1994: Scotland Yard for
the first time approves a
plan to allow some London police officers to
openly carry firearms.
1995: Japanese police
arrest doomsday cult
leader Shoko Asahara in
connection with the
nerve-gas attack that
killed 12 on Tokyo’s subways two months earlier.
2002: Pakistani police
unearth the remains of
Daniel Pearl, a reporter
for the Wall Street Journal, who was kidnapped
in January and whose
execution was recorded
on a videotape.
2007: Estonia’s first and
only synagogue opens,
six decades after previous houses of worship
were destroyed in World
War II.
Public Meetings
Fiscal Year 2014 - Fiscal Year 2018
Transportation Improvement Program (TIP)
NOTICE TO PATIENTS OF
JOSEPH CHIARO, MD
Effective May 15, 2013 Dr. Chiaro will be
leaving Tallahassee Primary Care Associates/
Tallahassee Pediatrics. All patient records
will remain with Tallahassee Pediatrics and
the care of patients continued by the other
physicians at that location. Patients are
advised to call Tallahassee Pediatrics at
(850) 681-3887 with any questions or
concerns. Thank you.
TD-0000232701
The Capital Region Transportation Planning Agency (CRTPA) is hosting two public
meetings to present the Draft Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 – FY 2018 Transportation Improvement
Program (TIP). The TIP contains transportation projects (including roadway, transit, bicycle,
pedestrian and aviation) located within Gadsden, Jefferson, Leon and Wakulla counties
that have received state and federal funding. The document is available for review on
the CRTPA’s website at www.crtpa.org.
The meetings will provide citizens an opportunity to learn about the transportation
projects in the capital region that have received funding in the next five years as well
as provide comments. Furthermore, the meeting will also provide an opportunity
to learn about the regional transportation planning process and how citizens can
become involved.
The public meeting/open house events are scheduled for:
WAKULLA COUNTY
Wednesday, May 22, 2013; 6 - 7:30 pm
Wakulla County Commission Chambers
29 Arran Road, Crawfordville, FL
LEON COUNTY
Thursday, May 23, 2013; 5 - 6:30 pm
Tallahassee City Hall, Commission Chambers
300 S. Adams Street, Tallahassee, FL
Comments regarding the TIP may be provided at the meetings. Additionally, comments
may be mailed to: CRTPA, 300 S. Adams Street A-19, Tallahassee, FL 32301 and emailed
to greg.burke@talgov.com. Comments can also be provided electronically on the CRTPA’s
website. All comments should be received by Friday, June 14, 2013.
T H E C O T TA G E S AT L A K E E L L A
1 6 11 N O R T H M O N R O E
Lunch
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Dairy
Beer sales to benefit
military families
Tallahassee.
Last year Tri-Eagle Sales sponsored a $5,000 Folds of Honor
scholarship which was awarded
locally to Keanna Green from Tallahassee. Her father is Army LTC
Kenneth Green (Ret.). Keanna is a
senior at Florida A&M University
majoring in Health Care Management.
2013 Conceptis Puzzles, Dist. by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
This week at Ray’s, comfort
food on the menu
whose mission is to honor and empower wounded members of the
United States Armed Forces.
2013 Conceptis Puzzles, Dist. by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
TLH Taste briefs
5B
By Dave Green
Hardy Sandwiches Pressed on
Ciabatta Bread • Daily Soups and
Quiches • Delicious Fresh Salads
Fran’s Tempting Desserts and
Pet Friendly Lakeside Dining
SEE OUR MENU
SE
RV
EXCLUS
IVE
ING
LY
NOW SERVING BEER & WINE
Tuesday Through
Saturday 11:00 - 3:00 pm
facebook.com/mickeyslakesidecafe
phone 222-9709
This notice and meeting satisfies StarMetro’s Program-of-Projects requirements of the
Section 5307 Urbanized Area Formula Program Grant as administered by the Federal
Transit Administration.
This meeting will be held in conformance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. If you
have a disability requiring special accommodations, please contact the Capital Region
Transportation Planning Agency at (850) 891-6800 at least three (3) working days prior
to the meeting, or contact the Florida Relay TDD
Service at 711. Si necesita asistencia en espanol,
por favor pongase en contacto con nosotros. For
further information regarding this meeting, please
contact Greg Burke at 891-6802.
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