A woman at Whole Foods Market on 119th Street in Overland Park asks Leroy and Barbara Shatto about the boiler at their dairy that burst into flames.
"I worry about you and your cows," she says.
The fire, extinguished without injury to man or beast, was reported in a Shatto Milk Company newsletter. The monthly "moosletter" debuted in 2005, two years after the Shattos began bottling and selling the milk they collect from cows on their farm in Osborn, Missouri.
On this Saturday afternoon, Whole Foods has invited local producers to show off their goods. The Shattos have set up a table in the rear of the store, next to the dairy case. Barbara pours samples from glass bottles kept on ice and extends warm greetings to shoppers who pause at the table.
"We're Shatto Milk Company, a local family farm," she says.
A mother helps the young boy perched in her cart swig chocolate milk from a small paper cup. She says the child has known only her milk and the Shattos'. "We came today just because we knew you were here," she says. Touched, Barbara gives the boy a small stuffed animal. It's a cow, of course.
Before starting Shatto Milk Company, the couple sold their raw milk to an agricultural cooperative. But they had trouble getting a price that covered their costs. At one point, the farm was losing 45 cents on every 100 pounds of milk it sold. "That wasn't working," Leroy says.
Shatto Milk Company began five years ago out of desperation. Today, the Shattos give tours five days a week, sell milk soap online and visit upscale grocery stores to meet city folk who worry about their cows. Shatto milk has emerged as a local brand in a league with Boulevard beer and Roasterie coffee.
The product has considerable appeal. It comes from cows that haven't been treated with artificial growth hormones. The animals live on a dairy 45 miles outside the city, a significant factor for those who try to mind their carbon footprints.
And the bottles, in addition to being reusable, are cool as hell.
In 2006, Ally Letsky ordered 200 Shatto pints to give as gifts (with cookies) to guests for her wedding reception at the Rockhill Tennis Club. "Wedding favors are kind of generic and boring," she says. Letsky thought the Shatto pints "were just gorgeous," and they evoked her roots in tiny Harrisburg, Missouri.
Alas, Letsky's marriage to Benjamin Altschul was not made to last. But both bride and groom remember the Shattos fondly.
When Letsky sent Altschul an e-mail to ask him if it was OK to talk about the wedding in print, he replied: "I don't know how you feel about them, but I think that they are probably the best company I've ever done business with."
Gray clouds smother northwest Missouri. It's midmorning on a Thursday in August. A dozen adults and children are standing in the country store at Shatto Farms, surrounded by Puffer Balls and $40 hoodies. A woman behind the cash register is speaking on the phone with a Sedalia resident who wants to know when Shatto milk will be available in her area.
Paper hats are distributed in preparation for a tour of the bottling room. Our guide, Leroy Shatto, enters the room wearing jeans, a white polo shirt and a white baseball cap. Cowboy boots accentuate his height (he's 6 feet 4); Prada eyewear indicates a familiarity with urban style.
Shatto can count on two hands the number of tours that he's missed since 2003, the year he started bottling his milk and inviting people to watch. "We have all these people from Kansas City coming up who want to see what a cow looks like," he tells today's guests, who have come from near (Gladstone) and far (Illinois).
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These presents are known as favors and they usually come in beautiful packages. These packages are known as wedding favor holders.
Soap wedding favors
http://favorholders.com/
These presents are known as favors and they usually come in beautiful packages. These packages are known as wedding favor holders. Soap wedding favors http://favorholders.com/
I disagree with you about the chocolate ice cream. It's some of the best I've ever tasted and the Vanilla is too good for words. Awesome product from an awesome company. Leroy & Co. keep up the great work and we'll see ya on the farm soon.
I disagree with you about the chocolate ice cream. It's some of the best I've ever tasted and the Vanilla is too good for words. Awesome product from an awesome company. Leroy & Co. keep up the great work and we'll see ya on the farm soon.
I bought Shatto's chocolate ice cream this week. Don't waste you money! It needs a lot more chocolate and a bit more sugar. I called their office today to make my comments and the woman who answered the phone could not have cared less. What a shame from such a great company.
I bought Shatto's chocolate ice cream this week. Don't waste you money! It needs a lot more chocolate and a bit more sugar. I called their office today to make my comments and the woman who answered the phone could not have cared less. What a shame from such a great company.
Agribusiness has turned the farmland into a corn-and-soybean-ghetto. Cattle fed composted chicken manure, theraputic use of antibiotics, Big-Time_Operators plowing up land unsuitable for growing crops so they can get LDP.
It is good to see the good folks in agriculture get their due rewards for being stewards of the land and our dining tables.
Agribusiness has turned the farmland into a corn-and-soybean-ghetto. Cattle fed composted chicken manure, theraputic use of antibiotics, Big-Time_Operators plowing up land unsuitable for growing crops so they can get LDP. It is good to see the good folks in agriculture get their due rewards for being stewards of the land and our dining tables.
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