Roasted Zucchini and Cheddar Soup

Just after we checked in we popped into town for something to eat and quite literally had just about the best (if not THE best) burgers...ever! If you are ever in the adorable town of Geneva you have to pop over to Eddie O'Brien's for a burger. Our bell-hop told us they were the best and boy was he right!! I have been wishing I could have another one for weeks!  The quaint town of Geneva hosts Hobart & William Smith Colleges - the town is just so pretty, clean, and well laid out.  I can't picture a cuter town to go to college in...right on the lake. I am storing this memory for when
the time comes to look at colleges for my kiddos (something that I can not even imagine...sniff, sniff!)

 

Funny, while out on the town Saturday night, we ran into one of the chefs from Eddie O'Brien's. I was like "your burgers are in-credible!!"  He was like "yeah, we use a special blend" and THAT was all I could get out of him about that, lol!

 

A part of the weekend included a trip to Cornell University’s Stocking Hall which houses its College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Program. I was fascinated to learn about New York’s dairy industry. I had no clue that New York produces most of this country's Greek yogurt or that its 5,400 dairy farms produce over 1.6 billion gallons of milk...1.6 billion! Which equates to over $2.5 billion in sales to the state’s economy.

 

Did you know, that in NY every time a dairy farm adds 40-50 cows to its facility, one new farm job is created? For every new job created on a dairy farm, an additional 1.4 jobs are created in the local economy which then equates to 6.6 new jobs being created upstream, making it one of the highest multipliers in the state.

 

While at Cornell, we took an interesting tour of their dairy production facilities at Stocking Hall (which houses its nationally-ranked food science program which is in the midst of a 105 million dollar renovation), tasted fresh ice cream, greek yogurt, and cheese, and learned about the fascinating partnerships forged by Cornell with everyone from farmers to big corporations, to people with ideas for a product to Wegmans.  Cornell is at the cutting edge of research and implementation. They support food businesses through collaborative research and development projects designed to improve the quality, safety, nutritional value, and shelf life of food products. They even lend a hand to the wine industry by helping local wineries convert to organic production.  To me, one of the coolest things about Cornells' set up was the fact the production areas all backed up to an exterior wall of the school that had glass walls - that way anyone strolling around campus can easily see what is going on.  Cornells believes people should know how their food is produced - I love that!!  Cornell sources all of its milk locally and even produced its own brand of cheese (which was delicious!!)

 

"According to Dr. Dale Bauman from Cornell University, milk production per cow is up 467% since 1944. He cites research that shows dairy farmers are producing as much milk today as they did in 1944 from just 21 percent of the cows, using only 23 percent as much feed, 35 percent as much water, and making only 24 percent as much animal waste.

This efficiency on the part of dairy farmers is why the carbon footprint for each pound of milk is only 37 percent of what it was in 1944.  When we stop and think about it, what dairy farmers have accomplished is truly outstanding. They have been able to do this by taking excellent care of their cows and using new research that has become available over the years. Such technology as
artificial insemination that has made outstanding herd sires available for the average farmer has played a huge role".

 

Throughout our day, we met farmers, toured a dairy farm, and even got to hang out with some cows who were treated so well, I may or may not have been a little bit jealous!  The dairy barn was spacious, clean, and comfortable.  The cows went to and fro, grabbing a drink, visiting one another, and moseying around at will. They even had back scratchers throughout their space, that way they can get a good scratching any time the need struck (wonder if they make them for humans??).

 

Both farmers we met that day say the more comfortable the cow, the more milk they produce.  Skip Hardie from Hardie Farms is a 2nd generation Dairy Farmer and he prides himself on cow comfort.  His 1400 cows sleep on water beds! I really enjoyed hearing both him and his wife speak about their life on their dairy farm.

 

Dairy is in my and my family's life in some form every single day.  I am grateful to those hard-working farmers who make our enjoyment of their varying products available, affordable and delicious!

 

The week after the tour, I received a thank you box full of cheese from Cabot Cheese which was so nice and delicious - my household adores cheese!  We love to just pop it in our mouths when the mood strikes (cheese is a staple in my kid's and husband's packed lunches) and I also like to cook with it.  I decided to use some of the cheddar I received to tinker with a soup I make and add some cheddar to it.  The result was fantastic - my husband was crazy for it (and so was I)!  I hope you enjoy it!

 

Disclosure:  As stated above, the trip to Geneva On The Lake was paid for by The Dairy Council.  I was not paid to write this post, the thoughts and opinions throughout this post are my own based on my experience.