By CHARLES FERRUZZA
The last time I wrote about Tony Glamcevski, the former manager of Le Fou Frog restaurant, he was working as a farm hand at Green Dirt Farm, the grass-fed lamb farm in Weston. It was hard to imagine the lean, sloe-eyed, fashionably-dressed Glamcevski milking sheep and tending to them out on a grassy pasture. But on Sunday, I drove out to Green Dirt Farm for an open house celebrating the completion of the farm’s creamery, which is now making cheese from sheep’s milk. There, at the entrance to the facility, was Glamcevski, as brown as a berry and physically fit. He’s still hoping to open his own organic restaurant next year, but in the meantime, he’s enjoying his new career as a shepherd.
Green Dirt Farm, owned by Jacquie Smith and Sarah Hoffman, boasts 200 ewes, four rams and an ever-changing number of lambs. Those baby sheep don’t get the chance to get too old on a lamb farm, after all. As if to make that point, a giant was grill set up in front of the milking barn where succulent lamb meat was cooking. I tasted the meat and it was lean, moist and delicious. I tried not to think of a fluffy, sweet baby lamb.
Green Dirt Farm doesn’t sell its lamb wholesale, so you won’t find it in area stores or restaurants. Currently, the owners sell fresh, frozen lamb at the Saturday outdoor markets in Brookside and Parkville.
I tasted several samples of the milky soft sheep’s cheese (including a terrific version flavored with lovage) on crostini. There were various other foods on the buffet table, and I snagged a couple of pieces of ginger-flavored artisinal chocolate made by Kate Robertus for her company, Midnight Confections. But I was too damn hot to eat much, and my two city-slicker friends were griping about the heat, the bugs and the entertainment (local poet Tim Pettet performing his work accompanied by two musicians). So we drove off, not too dirty but definitely sweaty.
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As long as you are driving out and about, why not head south on 69 to the Pittsburg, KS area? The Italian immigrants that settled in that area to work in the lead mines left some fabulous bakeries and delis. You can still get the bread in that area even if the bakeries are not open to the public. The bakeries in Frontenac and Arma used to have the big open ovens with the paddles they used to take the bread out with. One of my favorite childhood memories.
Worth the trip even if just for the history and the great grocery/deli in Frontenac named Pallucca & Sons. And you can always stop and Chicken Annies or Chicken Marys on the way back !
I am one of the many who made the hegira to green dirt farm . it was a very X FILES kind of day Tony notwithstanding. he's so cute! he could tend my flock any day of the week. we drove and drove and then we got to this dirt road paved with boulders that was miles too long. by the time i arrived at the farm i felt like i had been in a conestoga wagon with mulder and scully and we were all lost in a john ford film. hot,sticky and delirious i hyperventilated myself over to the refreshment table but i was so weak that as i reached for a leg of lamb and a libation i fell headlong into the sheepdip ,which i mistook for a swimming pool. i still smell like mothballs. it was all sort of lovely and poetic but for this old crocodile a little bucolic ambience goes a very lonnggg way. the next time i get a yen for lambies and goat cheeze you will find me first in line at cosentinos deli in brookside.
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