On Saturday, May 27, 2006, the BROAD RIPPLE FARMERS MARKET opens in its NEW location BEHIND BROAD RIPPLE HIGH SCHOOL. From 8am till noon you will find a variety of fresh, local food products and this year, wine from Mallow Run. Guinness and Harp are excited because the market welcomes leashed pets and they can't wait to get their paws on the goodies from Three Dog Bakery.

Capriole cheese will be available again this year and that reminded me of a wonderful visit I made to Judy Schad's southern Indiana farm to shoot a segment for my PBS show, "The Good Life". So this issue and next I will share the story of. . . .

If I were a goat I'd want to live at Capriole Farms. Tucked away in the lush knobby hills of Southern Indiana it takes precise directions and a rugged vehicle to maneuver the curvy, pocked country roads that lead to the steep gravel driveway into the farmstead.

As our red Jeep rumbles to a stop at the end of the drive, a fat fluffy Corgi bounds up to the car. I step out and the jovial and obviously well fed animal rolls onto its back exposing its belly in a sincere and irresistible welcome. A fitting gesture in this rather Oz like setting. For amongst this humble landscape of tall, green grass, flowers, trees, and weather-beaten gray barns comes some of the most coveted cheese in the nation. Hence our visit to talk with the woman whose cheeses are showcase staples in gourmet shops in California and New York and are featured menu items at Chicago's trendiest and most talked about restaurants-and cheese that sells out every weekend at the Bloomington Farmers Market despite the fact that the soft, tangy hand-wrapped balls and logs carry a double digit per pound price tag.

"Oh that's just Gwenny, she thinks she owns this place," says the tall, elegant woman walking out of the small, white, stone building nearby. Comfortably dressed in gray sweatpants, a well-worn taupe colored oxford cloth shirt and pearls she says, "Hi I'm Judy." We shake hands and Judy asks how long it will be till we're ready to do the interview. "I've got a woman coming soon to inquire about a job in the milking barn and I can't find my cheese. I'm supposed to be in Italy at the Slow Food Meeting next week and I shipped my cheese to Boston Logan Airport on Monday, and now we don't know where it is. Oh well, " sighs Schad. I get the feeling that any other day this situation wouldn't be acceptable to this savvy businesswoman. But today is September 13th , 2001 and two days ago the entire world learned a new lesson in patience and priority.

Judy asks if she has time to put on some lipstick and arrange her already beautifully coiffed shoulder length straight, silver gray hair, as she walks toward the nearby house where she and her husband live. She returns a few minutes later chatting nervously about recent interviews by People Magazine ("they took pictures of me sitting on bales of hay") and a best selling food author who interviewed her for a book on the history of cheese making in the US and about the Food Network. "That "good eats" guy wanted to come down here and follow me around for three days. I told him I just didn't have time for that," says Schad.

I assure her our interview will be short and she can get back to business while we roam the farm on our own. Four minutes later I make good on my word but during that time I learn that Judy was teaching and working on her Ph.D. in Renaissance Literature when she had a cheese epiphany. "In 1983 I had some of Laura Chenels goat cheese and it changed everything. Up till then I thought Jarlsberg was the hottest thing around," laughs Schad. That unique lemony, acidic, fresh flavor profile got Schad to experiment in her own kitchen making cheese from the abundance of milk from the then 120 goats on the farm. She made it for herself then sold it at a local farmers market. Soon demand increased so she started production at the Huber Winery just a few miles from the Capriole Farm. Eventually she purchased that equipment and brought it back to the farm. Today 300 goats keep a year round milk line, which results in local, national and international distribution of several varieties of Capriole Farms goat cheese. "Goats have much more personality than cows, " says Schad as she continues to talk about the hands on, personal style of the farm. A self proclaimed "control freak" she manages this world class operation with the help of a half dozen people one of whom is her daughter Kate, who oversees the actual production of the cheese. Capriole doesn't advertise. "Our product is our best form of advertising," says Schad. It works. Charlie Trotters Restaurant in Chicago and Murray's Cheese Shop in New York love her Indiana style.

"Would you like to see where we make the cheese?" asks Schad as she leads us into the small stone building nearby. She tells us we need to shoot here first because once we head to the barns the dirt, and goats and smell won't be allowed in the highly sanitized cheese making area. In fact, rubber boots line the walls of the short hallway from office to cheese making area. Reminders again that this nationally acclaimed product starts simply.

(End part one.)

Our Daily Red is one of several wines offered by the Nevada City Winery in California. Winemaker Tony Norskog prides himself on his ability to make wines that are legally certified and labeled with two of the most worrisome words in the wine market: organic and sulfite free.

To be labeled "organic", the government requires certification from the winery that 95 percent of its product contains organic ingredients and that no sulfites were added to the wine before fermentation. And that after fermentation the wine registers less than 10 parts per million of naturally occurring sulfites in the wine.

"Sulfite Free" on the label means that the wine meets the criteria above for organic and that after fermentation, tests show no detectable sulfites at the parts per million level in the wine.

This info may be hard to swallow but Our Daily Red is not. Have a glass and visit www.ams.usda.gov/nop for more on organics.

The name says it all. "Our Daily Red" is a juicy, dry blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Carignane that is easy to drink and works with just about any food. Aromas and flavors of blackberries, pepper, black raspberries and soft vanilla make it a great glass for grilled burgers, hearty pastas, pizza, and cheeses both rich and flavorful like sharp cheddar or Maytag blue yet the wine is not SO big that it would overwhelm a tangy goat cheese like those from Capriole.