Dial 1-84-GOTBACON

My neighbor Terri said her cousins told her about a cool grocery store near Washington, MO, with all local grocery, produce, and meats, and we went to check it out, driving about 25 minutes to Old Highway 100, before you actually get to Washington, and after a while we saw on the roadside a kind of tumbledown farm stand. Was this it? "This can't be it," said Terri. "My cousins said it had a deli and cafe," and GPS pointed us half a mile farther and we found it: the Farm to You Market at 5025 Old Highway 100.

The place is an old factory refashioned into a grocery store, with aisles and freezers and checkout lanes and all. Terri and I rolled our carts once-around-the-store to check it all out, and talked with the owner. The farm we'd first seen, with the tumbledown stand, was his. This store was way different! Two young women staffed the deli; it was impossible not to order the "Peppered Pig" sandwich (peppered pork salami, jalapeno cheese) and the fruit salad as a side, and oh the delight when it arrived on marbled rye bread, my favorite. Terri had the turkey sandwich. There was indeed a cafe. I'd also grabbed a one-serving-sized bottle of local peach wine.

So I bought sausage, two reasonably-priced Porterhouse steaks from grass-fed beef, honey, horseradish mustard, an acorn squash, some peaches, and Terri bought among other things some fresh butter churned at the store (and later shared it). The most awesome items I saw were the many goat cheeses and huge bags of shelled pecans. I even sampled the homemade bologna. I asked the farmer/owner (he has a beard)  if he would one day please stock fresh-milled wheat flour, because the St. Louis area has none; the nearest mill I could locate is in Louisville, KY. He said the buyer would look into it.

In the meantime this will be my source of organic beef and pork, and will have another Peppered Pig sandwich for sure. They will also cook you breakfast. Check it out.