Sock Monkey

The other day my sister-in-law posted a picture on her blog.  I made a comment on her post taking credit for taking the picture while we were in Gatlinburg. Jeni replied to my comment and said,

and a wonderful picture it is. Then again...what else can you get with such an awesome couple.  


I couldn't resist the temptation.  My apologies to all of you Photoshop experts out there.

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The Things You See On The Way To Work

Moving to a new place is always an adventure, and it's fun to get a acquainted with a new location.  Every place has it's quirks and oddities.  North Alabama is no exception.  Every morning on my way to work, I drive by these two businesses:

Humble Heart Farms

This morning we went out to the Madison City Farmers Market to check it out.  We arrived later than we would have liked and most of the merchandise was already gone, but Anna and I had a nice chance to visit with the good folks from Humble Heart Farms.  These folks milk 100 goats and sell some wonderful goat cheese.  They took the time to let us sample a number of varieties, and gave us a couple of samples to take home with us. 

The kids are in bed and Anna and I are sitting here on the couch trying the cheese.  We've decided that the honey cheese has more of a "goat" taste to it than the Rio Grande and Texas Hickory.  However, the Honey does go very well with fruit.  We've tried it on strawberries and with apples.  The Rio Grande is quite spicy, but very flavorful.  The seasoning is quite strong and overpowers the native flavor of the goat cheese.  In my opinion, you can't taste the cheese itself, just the seasoning, but it's still quite good.  The Texas Hickory to me, is a good balance.  It's a little spicy, but the seasoning is more subtle and the flavor of the plain goat cheese shines through.  All of the cheeses were good and we enjoyed the opportunity to try them out.

In addition to selling cheese, Humble Heart Farms also sells fresh lamb and goat (chevron).  Looking at their website, they also offer tours of their farm.  I think I'm going to have to take a day off of work so we can take the girls on a field trip to take a tour of their farm and learn more about making goat cheese.  Should be fun.  I'm looking forward to it.