Perhaps it goes without saying that agriculture is big in Logan, home of the Aggies of Utah State University. The entire Cache Valley is filled with farms and ranches, making it a mecca for foodies. We present a selection of some of our favorite Cache Valley food businesses that make gourmet products in a host of specialties, from honey to berries, from chocolate to cheese.

Rockhill Creamery

563 S. State St., Richmond

(435) 774-2878

Though Rockhill Creamery opened in 2005, it reuses buildings on a historic Richmond farmstead dating back to 1893 – and its cheesemaking techniques certainly owe more to the 19th century than the 21st.

The process starts with raw, unpasteurized milk from Jersey cows raised in Cache Valley. Instead of being put in an automatic vat, Rockhill cheesemakers stir the milk by hand. The cheese is then formed into wheels and soaked in brine to create a rind, which protects the cheese when it is put into a special cheese cave to age anywhere from 60 days to two years. Being left unwrapped, exposed to open air in the cave causes mold to grow on the rind, imparting complex flavors. Using raw milk also adds to the flavor profile.

One of Rockhill’s most distinctive cheeses is its Wasatch Mountain Reserve, a take on gruyere that’s aged at least one year. “The aging process has a huge effect,” Rockhill owner Parker Measom said. “The longer it ages, it picks up a creaminess, nuttiness and an almost pineapple-like sweetness.”

Rockhill Creamery isn’t open for walk-in visitors, but people can call ahead to arrange a tour, which includes the chance to peer into the cheese cave. Rockhill cheeses can be found across Utah, including Lee’s Marketplace and most Harmons.

 

Mt. Naomi Farms

1285 E. 4500 North, Hyde Park

(435) 232-4525

A truly ripe berry is a rare and delicate thing. When berries are picked at the absolute peak of ripeness, they explode into a juicy gush of sweetness the moment you pop them in your mouth. However, they also explode if you try packing them into a crate and loading them onto a truck.

“The fruit is in the grocery store is usually not ripe, because you just can’t transport it,” said Brenda Meikle, owner of Mt. Naomi Farms in Hyde Park. “Even if we try driving our berries 5 miles down the road to the farmers market, they’re smashed by the time they get there.”

That’s why Mt. Naomi Farms is a U-Pick operation. Starting in early August, the farm opens Monday-Thursday, 7:30 a.m.-noon, to allow people to pick their own baskets full of perfectly ripe raspberries, blackberries, grapes and apples. Picking season typically runs at least six weeks and sometimes as late as October.

Thankfully, the picked berries in baskets tend to make it home intact. As transcendent as the taste of ripe berries can be, people are just as drawn to the act of picking them. While harvesting the berries, the farm can become a sacred space where life’s problems float away, if only for the moment.

 

Cox Honeyland

1780 S. Highway 89, Logan

(435) 752-3234

Since 1929, generations of the Cox family have worked out an arrangement with the honeybees of Cache Valley – the humans take care of the bees, and the bees take care of the humans by providing honey. Lots of it. Each year, Cox Honey’s millions of tiny workers produce more than 20,000 gallons of the sweet, golden treat.

Darren Cox runs the beekeeping side, while his three sisters run the Cox Honeyland gift shop, the best place to buy Cox Honey. The shop sells honey in 2-ounce jars, 5-pound jugs, 60-pound buckets and all manner of sizes in between. People can also bring in their own jars and containers to get filled up from Cox Honeyland’s 500-gallon tank. The hives’ beeswax doesn’t go to waste, finding its way into lip balms, lotions and candles; the beehive-shaped beeswax candle is a popular Beehive State souvenir.

In addition to the many flavored honeys, Cox Honeyland offers three varieties of Utah honeys. The standard table honey is Clover Alfalfa Honey, which has a light flavor and color. More flavorful – and the most popular – is Cache Valley Honey, which starts out as nectar from local
flowers. Mountain Snowberry Honey might be the most unique, with its floral component coming from Logan Canyon wildflowers growing above 7,000 feet.

 

Caffe Ibis

52 Federal Ave., Logan

(435) 753-4777

Caffe Ibis founders Randy Wirth and Sally Sears started the business as a tiny health food store. Then Wirth started roasting his own coffee and brewing it for shoppers to drink in the store. The coffee part of the business took off; today, Caffe Ibis’ beans are in stores statewide.

Many people like to get their beans where it all started at Caffe Ibis Cafe and Gallery (“caffe” with two f’s is Italian for “coffee”). Part of the fun is picking the brains of the knowledgeable staff, like Tom Wilson, the cafe’s longtime manager, who is happy to teach customers about all things coffee – “how it goes from being a seed in the ground to being served at our cafe.”

The main roastery in Logan roasts a staggering amount and variety of coffee. Some blends use a semitruck of raw beans each month; however, the rotating Best of Season blends are small-batch, using perhaps only two burlap bags’ worth of beans.

Many Caffe Ibis blends are “triple-certified.” This unusual distinction means they are certified organic, certified to come from fair trade sources and certified to be grown according to Smithsonian Bird Friendly standards, which means the coffee is 100-percent shade-grown to leave trees standing for bird habitat.

 

Bluebird Candy Co.

75 W. Center St., Logan

(435) 753-3670

The chocolates sold at Bluebird Candy Co.’s downtown Logan combination factory/retail shop are entirely made by hand – or rather, made by multiple hands, as owner Justin Hamilton clarifies.

“By the time it’s sold, it has been touched by the love of at least five different hands,” Hamilton said.

The candies’ journey begins in the hands of Teresa Varner, who runs the kitchen that creates the centers: caramel, toffee, nougat, etc. The candy centers then travel to the rolling room, where hands form them into perfect shapes. Next comes the dipping room, where the centers are hand-dipped into molten chocolate. Then more hands pack the chocolates in boxes, followed by the final hands at the retail counter.

At the dipping stage, the dippers use swirls of chocolate to create a signature on top of the candy to identify what kind of center it has.

“Chocolate done by hand has an artistic element,” Hamilton said. “It’s the beauty of seeing the signature marking on top.”

Bluebird Candy Co. started out in 1914 as part of the nearby Bluebird Restaurant, where the candies were originally served. In the 1980s, the two businesses split apart under separate owners. However, when Hamilton purchased the restaurant in early 2020, the candies were available there for the first time in decades. The restaurant is now closed for remodeling but will reopen this year; the candy shop remains open.

 

Central Milling Co.

122 E. Center St., Logan

(435) 752-6625

Not just the oldest business in Cache Valley, Central Milling Co. is the oldest continuously operating business in all of Utah. Founded in 1867, the company was already nearly century old when farmer George Perry approached Central Milling with an idea that would change its course.

Perry had read about the burgeoning push for chemical-free foods – what we now call organic food, though that term didn’t yet exist. He started growing organic wheat and persuaded Central Milling to designate a brand for his natural flour. By the 1980s, the flour had been picked up by Whole Foods and other up-and-comers in the organic food movement.

Central Milling works with both farmers and bakers to create new varieties of flour for every purpose. The lineup of organic flours now includes dozens of varieties, while the Red Rose brand offers the same quality without organic certification.

Perhaps the most specialized Central Milling product is Tony Gemignani’s California Artisan Type 00 Pizza Flour. Designed in collaboration with Gemignani   – a 13-time World Pizza Cup champion   – the flour is a blend of hard wheat varieties. The chef put the flour to the test in his restaurants for six months before giving it his seal of approval.

 

Lower Family Foods

700 S. Highway 91, Richmond

(435) 258-3755

The intoxicating aroma of hickory smoke often greets people driving Highway 91 through Richmond in the evening. That’s because at around 5 p.m., the 15 smokehouses of Lower Family Foods start up, cooking a vast array of beef, pork and poultry products.

Many Utahns are familiar with Lower’s meats even if they don’t recognize the name. The company’s Double L Ranch Meats brand sells its Deli Craft, Carver’s Craft and Smoke Craft lines in Macey’s, Ridley’s Family Markets and other Associated Food Stores locations.

Lower Family Foods began in 1929 as a local butcher operation. The business switched to precooked meats in the early ’90s, starting with basics like roast beef and pastrami before expanding the lineup to nearly 200 products. Lee Lower, great-grandson of the company founder, dreams up new products with colleagues Mike Mortensen and Shayne Bair.

“Lee’s kind of our mad scientist for coming up with new stuff,” Bair said. One new creation developed in the last few months is the Burnt End Link, a sausage that incorporates pieces of barbecue brisket. The links are part of the hickory-smoked barbecue Smoke Craft line, which has taken off in recent years. Customers can purchase many Lower Family Foods products at a discount at the company’s outlet store at its Richmond plant.