Day trip along Highway 7: Garden City

By Don Bradley

No firm data yet, but it’s looking like the shortest distance between (A) petting an alpaca, and (B) drinking Vidal blanc at the winery of an Armenian immigrant, might just be south of Kansas City near Garden City, MO.

You can do both in 20 minutes, tops.

All you have to do is head south on Interstate 49, then just past Harrisonville take the Missouri 7 exit toward Clinton. Turn off at a little red building and follow the signs to “YaYa’s Alpaca Farm”.

The man there calls himself YaYa and his wife Mrs. YaYa. Good people. Anyway, the 74 alpacas and the one llama who live there seem to love them and they’ll love you, too, or at least act like it if you feed them.

Not far away, up another dirt road is the Red Fox Winery & Vinyards. Sixty acres of grapes on sloped hills. Nick Jaberian, born in Armenia and a third-generation grape-grower, runs the place with his son, Kayvon.

Alpacas and a winery would make for a good day trip, but there’s a lot more on this stretch along Missouri 7 that lake traffic just blows past.

A good place to start the day would be back at that little red building, Cultivate Coffee & Health Bar, with some goat cheese and strawberry jam on toast.

Close by is Stillmeadow, a farm-to-table venue, B&B and event space that brings in top chefs for cooking classes.

Down the road in Creighton is the Rockin A’ Distillery, which offers tastings and tours. Corn whiskey from Missouri corn. The place was started about 10 years ago by a burned-out Chicago stock trader.

And if you find yourself in Urich–every day trip has to have a history lesson of some kind–ask somebody why the town, according to Wikipedia, is named for a general in the Siege of Strasbourg in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.

Something to ponder over that glass of wine.

Cultivate Coffee & Health Bar

No goat cheese for you? Well, how about a “super green” smoothie made with fresh spinach, mango, peaches and avocado.

Acai bowl with chai seeds and coconut shavings?

Perhaps a homemade breakfast burrito.

All that and more at this coffee shop in what used to be known as “the old orchard building.” Now with fresh red paint, it sits surrounded by fruit trees and row crops.

“My grandpa planted the trees around here,” said owner Arden Jenkins who started the business last year with her husband, Bryce.

Actually, that grandfather, Bill Cook, did a whole lot of things around here. In 1978, he founded Neco Seeds, which still operates across the highway.

Over the years, the family operated a strawberry patch and produce market. They sold pies and breads. His daughter, Jeanne, and her husband operate Stillmeadow just down the road.

Cultivate gets its beans from a roaster in Kansas City. All the syrups are homemade. The “spring menu” includes something called the Honey Bee –that’s raw honey, house-made vanilla syrup and sea salt.

Arden grew up around here and helped with the family business before going off to college.

“It just felt right to come back,” she said on a recent morning. “This place, where all my cousins grew up, just feels like home.”

Learn more at visitstillmeadow.com/cultivate

YaYa’s Alpaca Farm

For a good chunk of his adult life, Karl Blandin sold insurance.

Then his wife died.

“I didn’t want to go to work, I didn’t want to do nothing,” Karl told a tour group last week.

Then over time, two things happened. He remarried and bought seven alpacas for the price of four.

Together, those gave him a reason to get up in the morning.

One day, he pitched the idea to his new wife, Kathy, to get more alpacas and open up the farm to the public and use an old outbuilding as a visitors’ center.

“Well,” she told him, “you’re going to have to fix that bathroom.”

Last year, more than 16,000 visitors toured YaYa’s Alpaca Farm, including a lot of school field trips. Another 4,000 attended the annual Christmas event.

That old building, with a remodeled bathroom, is now where Karl tells his YaYa story to visitors. It’s also the gift shop. Shelves are lined with gloves, socks and other things made from alpaca yarn and fiber.

Kathy makes rugs on an old loom.

Just before Christmas 2022, she heard Karl hit the floor.

Cardiac arrest.

Kathy, who came from the paramedic world, immediately called 911 and started CPR.

She probably saved his life.

A day last week, while Karl gave a tour, she sat on a porch and summarized life at YaYa’s. There’s always something, she said.

The covid epidemic hurt business. Then the drought. Bobcats and coyotes always lurk nearby.

But on this farm, morning air filled with children’s laughter, the lights at Christmas, the good feel of alpaca yarn, she doesn’t miss emergency medicine.

She and Karl know each of the 74 alpacas by name _ Stan, Eddie, Mr. Edison, Frances and all the others. They come to them like children.

“Finding love in a chaotic world,” Mrs. YaYa said. “That’s what this place is.”

Learn more at yayasalpacafarm.com

Stillmeadow

The opening line on the introduction page says Stillmeadow is “a place where peace, purpose and belonging converge.”

A less abstract version would say Stillmeadow is a place for farm-to-table feasts, cooking and craft classes, live music, a wedding venue and a bed & breakfast.

The place was opened in 2017 by Jeanne and Chad Middaugh after Jeanne left her job at Neco Seed, her father’s farm business across the highway. Chad does agriculture research on the property.

Each month, Stillmeadow puts on a farm-to-table dinner using products from neighboring businesses, such as Hertzog Meats out of Butler Mo., Campo Lindo Farms (chicken) in Lathrop and Aubrey Vinyards in Overland Park.

A lot of the produce comes from Where the Red Fern Grows Natural Farms in Independence.

Jeanne recently added Thursday pizza night.

The place has “The Listening Room” for live music.

Workshops include everything from pie-making to pottery, flower arranging to rolling sushi.

Jeanne likes being in the midst of family. A favorite at Stillmeadow is “Granny Fay’s pies.”

Her daughter has the coffee shop. Her son operates a gym nearby.

“They grew up in all of this, went off to school, and now they’re back,” she said. “I didn’t plan it that way but if their passion fits– great.”

Learn more at visitstillmeadow.com.

Red Fox Winery & Vinyards

You know you’re close when the corn and bean fields turn to grape vines.

They look different on the slopes.

They look like a place to stop.

Nick Jaberian and his son, Kayvon, started growing grapes and berries 20 years ago, selling the produce to wineries.

One day, Kayvon asked his dad, “Why don’t we make our own wine?”

Made sense. Nick’s grandfather grew grapes and made wine in Armenia. His father after that. That makes him third-generation. He ought to know something.

And that’s how Red Fox Winery & Vinyards, just outside of Urich, Mo., came to be.

“This was a cow pasture and over there, that’s a 120-year-old horse barn,” said Kayvon, who studied enology at Fresno State.

He said the slope of the land of Henry County, right dirt, hot days and cool nights make ideal conditions for grape growing.

Varieties include Chambourcin, Traminette, Norton, St. Vincent and Vidal Blanc.

The tasting room and restaurant are open noon-9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Learn more at redfoxwinery.com