January 27, 2021 / 8:59am / Alyssa Buckley Our local goat cheese masters Prairie Fruits Farm & Creamery has two award-winning cheeses. Announced last Friday night, the Good Food Foundation hosted the 2021 Good Food Awards which judges more than 2,000 entries of food. This national competition celebrates the best of the artisan food community celebrating those who use ingredients and practices that embrace sustainability and fair practices. Champaign s own Prairie Fruits Farm & Creamery had two of the 17 winning cheeses. What cheeses won awards? Fleur de la Prairie and Pelota Roja. The Fleur de la Prairie is a bloomy rind cheese adorned with dried herbs and edible flowers from PFF s herb garden, and the Pelota Roja is a raw-milk semi-hard cheese with a guajillo chile-olive oil rub on the rind created in collaboration with Chef Rick Bayless.
EVANSTON, Ill. (WLS) With a lot of restaurant business drying up over the past year, farmers and other food producers have been looking for new ways to expand their business. A handful of businesses have cropped up as a result, serving as middlemen, giving these small food producers new avenues to sell directly to the public.
The pandemic has upended all sorts of traditional careers in the food business. Previous business models have gone out the window. But for a local documentary filmmaker, it presented an opportunity, to serve as a link connecting the public directly with the farms and artisan food producers who need to find new customers.