A number of years ago, a friend of mine in Indianapolis was telling me about the Fair Oaks Farm that was located north of Lafayette, IN just off Interstate 65 on the way to Chicago. "It's quite the operation," he was telling me. "They have tours and things to see. And they've got a pretty good restaurant there, too." I've always kept that place in the back of my mind over the past few years, but another friend of mine told me that he had stopped and had lunch there on a trip from Chicago to Louisville not long ago. Driving between Indianapolis and Chicago last fall, I ended up stopping at Fair Oaks Farms to have lunch at The Farmhouse Restaurant.
Mike McCloskey was born in Pennsylvania, but after his father died, he and his five siblings moved to Puerto Rico where their mother was from. One of his uncles was a veterinarian and young Mike would go out with him on his all-day rounds. When his mother married a Mexican businessman, she took her family to Mexico to live. It was in Mexico that Mike McCloskey decided to become a veterinarian, eventually taking veterinary classes at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. After veterinary school, McCloskey went to the University of California-Davis for a two year post-doctorate program in dairy production medicine.
It was in California that McCloskey met his future wife, Sue, a New Jersey native who was studying art in college. The two were married and eventually moved to a farm in California where they bought 300 head of dairy cattle. Working as a veterinarian consultant with other dairy farmers in the area, McCloskey came up with a new concept of immediately chilling the milk from cattle reducing the amount of bacteria levels. It was a labor intensive process, but McCloskey was able to find workers similar to the ones he knew working as a student veterinarian in Mexico who bought into his process.
In 1989, the McCloskey's moved to New Mexico and started a new dairy where he came up with a system of using reverse osmosis and membrane filtering techniques to remove lactose from milk. With the lactose they removed from the milk, they fed it to the cattle as a grain substitute. McCloskey was so sure of his method that he approached the cooperative that was buying his milk and suggested that they adopt his methods of filtration. However, the cooperative didn't want anything to do with it basically telling McCloskey his methods were not needed.
Pictured right - Mike and Sue McCloskey. Photo courtesy Coca-Cola.
McCloskey then set about contacting other dairy farmers and retailers in the area with the cleaner milk concept as his calling card. Soon he had a number of people signed up in a cooperative that he named Select Milk Producers. The cooperative's efforts turned out to be a success with end users who bought the filtered milk products. Today, Select Milk Producers sells about $2 billion dollars of products annually. They also co-own a cheese company - Southwest Cheese in Clovis, NM - and have partnered with the Coca-Cola company to produce and distribute fairlife, a reformulated milk product with higher calcium and protein than regular milk. (Sue McCloskey came up with the idea of fairlife sitting at her kitchen table one day.)
In 1999, the McCloskey's acquired some farm land in northwest Indiana along Interstate 65 about halfway between Lafayette and Gary. Along with some other families they knew, they moved to Indiana to run the Fair Oaks dairy facility with the plan of making it an agri-tourist destination where people could learn about a full-fledged eco-friendly dairy farm. Today, Fair Oaks Farms has over 15,000 head of dairy cattle, but they also raise pigs and have gotten into raising chickens, as well. The entire farm is sustainable and eco-efficient, powered by waste from cows and pigs reducing the need for electricity and natural gas. Over 300,000 people annually visit Fair Oaks farms with well over half of the visitors taking the tour of the farm operation.
Fair Oaks Farms literally has their own exit ramp off of Interstate 65 (see map). It's pretty tough to miss seeing the place along the west side of the Interstate.
There are a series of large buildings that arch around a large parking lot. In addition to the Farmhouse Restaurant, there's a working cheese shop, a gift shop, an education center, a chocolatier, and a dining hall for people on tours to take a break. Working barns are just beyond the main buildings up front.
I had to use the restroom when I got into the Farmhouse and I found a sort of whimsical room that had posters of old comic books, recreations of old album covers and a circular collage of model cars. It's one of those place where - if no one else is in there - is nice to linger and look at what they had for kitsch on the walls of the restroom.
The main dining area is a large room with a large fireplace as the center piece along the long wall. A series of tables and booths were interspersed throughout the dining room. High ceilings with wooden beams across the room were the most prominent aspect of the room.
I was seated at a table in the center of the large dining room and I was soon greeted by my server who introduced herself as CiCi. They had a full bar at the far end of the dining room, but I ended up just getting water to drink.
The menu at The Farmhouse is varied with a combination of comfort food and interesting entrees. It featured a number of appetizers, soups and salads, sandwiches and burgers, and entrees such as an espresso encrusted pork chop, bourbon glazed salmon, bacon wrapped meatloaf, pecan encrusted walleye, and classic fried chicken. They also had pizza on the menu at The Farmhouse.
I briefly considered the ground ribeye steak burger they had on the menu, as well as the reuben sandwich. But I ended up going with a staple of Indiana cuisine, the pork tenderloin sandwich. It was a thick cut boneless pork chop breaded and deep fried. The pork came directly from the Fair Oaks pig operation. It came with grilled onions (I should have asked for raw onions), and a housemade pickle slice. A side of crispy fries and a side of housemade cole slaw came with the sandwich.
The sandwich was a deep golden color indicating that they probably left it in the fryer a little too long. It was crunchy on the outside and it had a bit of a taste from the cooking oil. But the pork, itself, was tender and the overcooked breading didn't detract much from the taste of the pork.
The fries were also very good with a nice crispy outer shell and a warm and flaky potato taste inside. The cole slaw had a bit of sweetness to it, but overall it was pretty bland in taste compared to other sweet cole slaws I've had. But I didn't concentrate much on the fries or the cole slaw as the thick pork tenderloin sandwich made me pretty full pretty quickly.
It's easy to see why The Farmhouse is a big draw in conjunction with Fair Oaks Farms. It's a big open space with a menu that can pretty much satisfy anyone who walks in the door. But, quite frankly, I've had much better pork tenderloins at other places around Indiana and Iowa. The tenderloin was a bit overcooked and the breading had a bit of the taste of the frying oil. It was still good - the pork was tender and flavorful - but it didn't really taste as good as some others I've had. Still, I'm sure that The Farmhouse is a nice stop for anyone traveling between Indianapolis and Chicago who is looking for a quick stop off the Interstate for a bite to eat.