Did You Know There’s a Cheese Farm Just 30 Minutes from Rochester?
I LOVE cheese, so now that I know there's a cheese farm just 30 minutes from Rochester, Minnesota, I may be in trouble. Did you know that there's a cheese farm nearby? The place is called Prairie Hollow Farm in Elgin, Minnesota and they produce cheese from their cows' milk right on the farm. Hence, being a cheese farm!
Prairie Hollow Farm doesn't just do cheese though, they also grow and sell vegetables, fruits, they have chickens and they sell the eggs, they sell beef and pork, and bread and flour. It's quite the production they have going on over there in Elgin. Oh, and it's an organic farm too which I'm a big fan of.
So back to the cheese, Prairie Hollow Farm is "one of Minnesota’s few farmstead cheese plants", meaning they milk their own cows and use the milk from their cows to then "make cheese on the farm in an inspected processing plant." Everything is done right on the farm, the cows have a grass/hay diet and are raised on a farm with no chemical fertilizers or pesticides.
Fun fact, based on what the cows eat the cheese is different. So depending on the time of year, you'll get different cheese. In the summer the cheese will be creamy and buttery yellow, in fall the cheddar will be more crisp and tangy, in the winter the cheese is drier and firmer, and in the spring it's sweet and smooth. All because of what the cows eat at different times of the year!
Typically they offer tours of Prairie Hollow Farm but they aren't doing tours right now because of COVID. Hopefully that'll be back soon!
Now you've heard about a cheese farm, but did you know there's also a PIZZA farm near Rochester? It's pretty sweet, keep scrolling for pictures.