Rotary 13 members and invited guests gathered on the bottom floor of the Crowne Plaza Hotel at 1301 Wyandotte Street with select individuals participating remotely via Zoom and Facebook Live. President Jared Campbell brought the assembly to order at 12:17pm. The group stood for the Pledge of Allegiance, and Pete Sotta’s invocation spoke of generosity, giving Tuesday, volunteering, and in Winston Churchill’s words, making a life.
Tom Woolwine led the group in the birthday song to cheer the December Rotarians who celebrate their natal day this month. Mandy Sheldon announced one guest in the group: Melissa Wong, a guest of Eric Burger. Club anniversaries this week included: David McCaughey (26 years); Kent Verden (15 years); Paul William (16 years); Henrik Andersen (34 years); Rick Beyer (36 years); Dan Hughes (8 years); Joey O’Loughlin (8 years); and Dallas Ziegenhorn (8 years).
President Jared thanked the greeters for today’s meeting (the December birthday members). Past President Tony Andresen then came forward to speak of openings in the Salvation Army bell ringing calendar this weekend at Oak Park Mall and Sam’s Club.
President Jared called for the Perfect Attendance Raffle. 27 members were eligible based on their November meeting attendance. Barbara Dolci claimed the prize after the wheel spun. Pete Sotta then updated the club on the successful holiday toy drive to benefit the Westside CAN center. He announced the start of the holiday coat drive, which focuses on outerwear for day laborers. President Jared reminded all that signups for the holiday party on December 11th must be completed today.
Happy bucks this meeting gave attendees the chance to trumpet their good news. Members rose to express thanks for a restaurant check pick-up, the Kansas City Business Journal advertisement about Rotary, a completed textbook chapter revision, a child surviving a car accident, new additions to the camp’s Monday men, 8 hours with grandkids, and Harvesters donations made via the bowling league.
At 12:30pm, Jan Armstrong introduced guest speaker Sarah Hoffman. As the founder and operator of Green Dirt Farm near Weston, MO her eateries are known throughout the region and her cheeses throughout the United States. She grew up on farms and therefore was always conservation-minded. After completing her medical degree and practicing medicine at the University of Washington, Sarah began to wonder about how she might re-engage with farming. She set her eyes on Missouri and laid the groundwork for Green Dirt Farm in 2002. By 2008, the firm began commercial cheesemaking and has since garnered over 90 awards from the artisan cheese community for quality output.
Sarah Hoffman explained that Green Dirt Farm is a grass-based sheep dairy, which is out of the ordinary. Most cheese production in the United States uses cow’s milk; there are only 50 or so sheep dairy farms in the country. Furthermore, grass-based herd management, rather than confinement feeding, is irregular within the dairy industry. The choices of sheep and grass were meant to ensure product quality through building topsoil via managed grazing. But their environmental commitment extends further: the farm draws most of its electricity from a wind turbine and solar arrays.
The chronology of Green Dirt Farm includes these milestones:
2008—800 lbs. of cheese produced
2009—hosting events and ‘farm dinners’ on the property; 3,000 lbs. of cheese produced
2010—12,000 lbs. of cheese produced
2016—café in Weston opened for business
2024—restaurant in Kansas City opened for business
2025—42,000 lbs. of cheese produced
Questions for Sarah Hoffman were numerous and varied in topic. Rotarians asked about the break-even point for cheese production (it keeps moving, but near 90,000 lbs.); use of wool (shearing costs are not covered by wool sales to co-ops, so other industrial buyers are sought); number of sheep on farm (150 producing ewes); aging of cheeses (Prairie Tomme needs 4 months, while others require between 2 and 6 weeks); allergies to milk (proteins of sheep and cow milk are distinct, although sheep milk is naturally homogenized); nursing lambs (by bottle and then by machine; mothers can catch ailments otherwise); and herd management (the farm has 6 guardian dogs and 6 border collies for wrangling). Sarah Hoffman explained that the farm’s location on the bluffs above the Missouri river puts it in a wildlife highway. Coyotes are a problem and the farm has lost an ewe to a mountain lion. She noted that the milking schedule is twice daily, and that the approximately 50% of lambs who can’t produce milk become meat products. Green Dirt Farm consists of about 150 acres, of which some 70 are in pasture. Sheep generally like cold weather. Finally, she emphasized that the restaurant downtown is also a production and aging facility that has allowed for cheese output to quadruple.
President Jared thanked our speaker and reminded the assembly to sign up for the holiday party. Upcoming Club 13 activities include:
- 11 December, Rotary Holiday Party, 5:30pm at Crowne Plaza Hotel. $25, registration required.
- 18 December, Tom & Jerry Luncheon
- NO MEETINGS on 25 December or 1 January
- 8 January, District Governor Jodi Sundaram
In lieu of a quotation, President Jared shared an act of kindness that encourages people to plant a new tree in their yard or in their city.
At 1:02pm, the 4-Way Test closed the session.
Please join the Rotary Book Discussion Group for the discussion of the book Theo of Golden by Allen Levi. The book is available at Rainy Day Books and all Rotarians and guests are welcome.
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