Going local — on the road to find out

[the following guest post is by Tina Rosenzweig, General Manager of LaunchPad Coworking]

I originally met Marc Kuehl at the Austin Farmers’ Market at the Triangle, which happens every Wednesday afternoon here in Austin. Julie bought his cheese first and gave me a taste and it was amazing. We talked with him a little bit about LaunchPad Coworking, particularly the café, and I gave him my card.

He called me several weeks later — he’d seen the blog post we ran about the market — and he said everyone at the market was thrilled about it, that they really care about people who care about this kind of food. And he said he’d like to make it feasible for LaunchPad Coworking to be able to serve it without killing the price point, which really is a challenge,

Marc makes his cheese at a farm in Waco so, with a trip to Dallas planned, I figured I’d stop by on the way up and see the operation. I called to tell him I’d be dropping in and he said I should plan on staying at least four hours, which surprised me. I had no idea there was four hours worth of stuff to see up there. I thought I was going to a small farm where they make cheese.

But when I got there — the place is called Homestead Heritage — I realized it’s a huge community of people who make all sorts of things. Some live onsite and some don’t. They farm with horses and they grow all their own food, they do beautiful woodworking and iron works, they have a gristmill run by a watermill they use to grind oats which they make into flour and pancake and cookie and muffin mixes. And they have a restaurant that serves the food they grow.

He showed me around the entire place. We went into the woodworking shop and there were children making violins.

There were people slaughtering chickens, one by one, in a very humanitarian way.

A few ex-kibbutzniks from Israel live there, and I think they were partly drawn to the place due to similarities to kibbutz life. They’re living off the fat of the land out there, a simpler lifestyle because they feel the world is too crazy and there is a better way to teach children how to be whole people and to sustain themselves, each other and their chosen way of life. It was very peaceful.

Marc wound up there after living through some rough times on the East coast and needing big change in his life. He had some cousins who were involved with the farm. They invited him down. He visited and he fell in love with it. One cousin pointed out that a lot of milk was being wasted because they have excess milk. She said she knew how to make cheese but not how to market it. Marc had experience with marketing and so his new adventure began.

One of the coolest things about the place is that they’re very open. The public is invited for a massive Thanksgiving that goes on for three days. They have a “Center for Essential Education” which offers all sorts of classes; woodworking, blacksmithing, and of course cheesemaking and many others. They are religion-based, but they’re very transparent and they don’t proselytize.

They also have a beautiful general store — they made everything there themselves.

Another thing they’re known for is rescuing old barns, bringing them to the property and restoring them. And the restaurant is incredible — I had the most wonderful salad with everything home grown from the garden and the most exquisite ice cream made from truly farm-fresh milk.

I’m really looking forward to using the cheese — they brand it at Brazos Valley Cheese — in the café.

And making the connection with Marc is inspiring me to think bigger about coworking. While he will deliver to us, not all small vendors can, so I’m hoping to get some coop buying going with other restaurants downtown to make it feasible for small vendors to add delivery. Just reaching out to owners and managers of other establishments is forging an informal coworking in itself. I really like the idea of cooperative marketing and purchasing.

So thanks, Marc, for the inspiration and, of course, for the fantastic cheese.