Up on the Farm

Down on phony farms, up for the real thing.

Disturbing news in the New York Times: a middle-class family raising chickens in Manhattan.

Disturbing news in the Wall Street Journal: developing suburban housing tracts as pseudo-farms.

Whatever happened to real farms?

Well, close to home, one of Washington's foremost producers of goat cheese, Quillisascut Farms is offering farm-stays to beginning chefs. What a great way for to start out: seeing the food grow, getting close to the animals.

Owners Rick and Lorna Lea Mysterly explain it all on their website.

This is "Cheese Weekend" in Seattle, by the way, starting tonight with cheese dinners, then the third annual Cheese Festival itself at the Pike Place Market Saturday and Sunday.