OSK facilitating a “Make Your Own Mini Pizza” Birthday Party at our Welcoma Club location.  Please do not hesitate to contact us if you wish to rent the Welcoma Club for your next event!

Spirit At Play    www.spiritatplay.org

Missoula Community School  www.missoulacommunityschool.org

Missoula International School  www.mismt.org

Garden City Montessori www.gardencitymontessori.com

If your school is listed above and you would like to enroll in the program, please do not hesitate to contact us or your school office.

If your school is NOT listed above and you are interested in bringing this program to your school, please do not hesitate to contact both us AND your school office.

Now the tour was not planned and Kevin was nice enough to take a break from his cheese making and show us around the creamery before we picked up our cheese and milk.  The storefront of the creamery is small, but when he opened the doors to the back where the magic goes down, we were fascinated with the science of cheese making.

Kevin attended three years of nursing school before he decided to approach Lifeline looking for a job.  He says that “Cheese making is a lost art” and has been the lead cheese maker now for three years at Lifeline, sincerely enjoying his work.  When you first enter the back, there is a room with a huge vat that holds over 900 pounds of milk which is where Kevin works his wonders and creates all the delicious organic cheese Lifeline is known for.  Yes, all those cheese curds you have come to know and love, Kevin is the man…

Kevin the Cheesemaker with 40 lbs of Onion and Chive

All the dairy we use in our meals come from Lifeline Farms down in Victor.  Not only is it good food, but it’s good people too!

Thanks Lifeline

Today I had the luxury of traveling 60 miles north of Missoula and visit the organic egg farm of John and Crystal Walkup of Mission Mountain Organic Eggs outside Ronan.  Besides meeting two wonderful people in John and Crystal and their daughter Autumn, I was fortunate enough to take a tour of the farm and learn about the process of raising organically fed chicken.  They showed me the different types of feed that the chickens eat and the feeding machines that help feed them, which the Walkups bought used from other farms in the community.

All the hens have the freedom to roam wherever, whenever they like.  They naturally come into their heated shelters to roost at night and have enough space to live without being overcrowded.  When I entered the shelter, I was surprised to see that the chickens did not run at the sight of my presence.  They felt completely secure and safe with visitors.  I think it speaks wonders on the manner in which the Walkups respectfully raise their birds.

After visiting the shelter, they also showed me the machine that “candle” the eggs.  It illuminates the newly hatched eggs to look for cracks, blemishes, or irregularities on eggs that they cannot sell.  These eggs are perfectly fine to eat, though, and the Walkups chose to donate these eggs to lower income families in the area.  Big props for that!!!

After the eggs are “candled”, they go through another machine that thoroughly washes the eggs and then distinguishes the grade/weight.  Mission Mountain produces medium, large, and x-large eggs.

It was a true pleasure meeting the Walkups and we are very excited to ONLY use Mission Mountain Organic Eggs in our recipes.

Thank you John, Crystal, & Autumn