NOSE TO TAIL CUISINE
The Columbia-based farm-to-table restaurant Barred Owl Butcher & Table started with a love of charcuterie. Before opening the restaurant in 2016, Benjamin Parks, Barred Owl’s co-owner, head chef, and chief maintenance engineer, along with co-owners Joshua Smith and Brandy Hughes, noticed a void in the Columbia dining scene for a certain kind of cuisine, especially using the whole animal in their recipes. “We all three had an interest in charcuterie and cured meats and doing the nose to tail kind of thing. It was time to take the plunge on our own,” Benjamin says.
The restaurant’s menu is based on seasonal produce and what cuts of meat are available, and they source their ingredients locally as much as possible. From meat to eggs to vegetables to cheese, the restaurant prides itself on supporting local farmers and vendors. Ben says some of their cuisine is loosely inspired by Italian and Spanish cuisines, since both emphasize “seasonality and freshness.” Though there are many restaurants that use local ingredients, Ben says that Barred Owl Butcher & Table is “one of the only places that not only sources all of our meats locally but tries to use whole animals as well.”
BarredOwlButcher.com • 47 East Broadway, Columbia
CRYSTALS AND CLARY SAGE
Annie Harmon’s love for aromatherapy came from working with plants her whole life. After she and her husband, Wayne, opened Starr Pines Christmas Tree Farm in 1986, she acquired certifications in aromatherapy, massage therapy, and herbal studies.
In 1995, Annie and Wayne opened a wellness clinic, Celestial Body, in downtown Boonville. Thirty years later, the shop has expanded its inventory to carry a wide range of essential oils, herbs, tie-dyed garments, crystals, and other rocks.
The couple grows their own organic therapeutic aromatic plants. They use these plants to create the aromatherapy products that they sell at the shop, including yarrow mullein, melissa, peppermint, clary sage, and Saint-John’s- wort. “We do special blends for people,” Annie says. “They’re made with love and in small batches with a lot of thought put into things.”
CelestialBody.com • 221 Main Street, Boonville
THE BLEATING HEART OF HOMEMADE SOAP
For Barb Bailey, a painter, children’s book illustrator, and soap maker based in Cape Girardeau, using homegrown ingredients in her products is a necessity. She crafts small batches of soap made from her own goats’ milk, using techniques that have been passed down through the family.
“Both my grandmas made soap,” she says. “My mom and her brothers had to grate it up for dishes and laundry.” What started as making soap for herself turned into a part-time gig. Today, Barb adds her own creative twists to the family practice, offering unscented shaving bars, honey soap, and fragrant soaps.
Her process is hands-on from start to finish: First she freezes her goat milk. Then, she melts oils like coconut and lard before adding in the frozen goat milk. The last step is adding lye and stirring the mixture until it thickens (what soapmakers call “trace.”) She pours the soap into molds using things from her house, like Pringles cans, then cures each batch for four weeks before wrapping them for sale. Barb’s products are sold at farmers’ markets, wholesale locations, and The Painted Wren Gallery, where she is also a comanager.
Making soap is a labor of love that requires planning, time management, and patience, Barb explains. The soap has to sit in the molds for 24 to 48 hours before fully hardening.
“I try to make at least one batch a week,” she says. “I make soap year-round.”
Barb says that her product is unique because of the benefits of goat milk and its lack of harmful chemicals. The goat milk in the soap makes it gentle on the skin and full of nourishing fats and vitamins.
Find current inventory at Patchwork Acres Goat Milk Soap on Facebook.
• 620 Whitelaw Avenue, Cape Girardeau
COMING IN HOT WITH COFFEE
Evan and Elizabeth Clements own the Bearded Bee Coffee Company in Lamar, where they roast their own coffee beans and sell the coffee from the Bearded Bee Coffee Company truck that is parked in town. From the start of their business in 2020, they’ve focused on high-quality ingredients and ethical sourcing.
“We cut out the middleman,” Evan says of their Direct Trade coffee beans sourced from Honduras and Central America, “and roast them right here on-site.” Working with small coffee bean farms is essential for their business, as it ensures bringing customers the highest quality coffee while making sure the hardworking farmers are paid fairly. Their most unique partnership is with a ministry-run coffee bean farm in rural Honduras. “The pastor in the village is also the farm manager,” Evan explains. “He’s planting churches and loving on locals while they work.”
BeardedBeeCoffeeCompany.com • 54 C Southeast First Lane, Lamar
HI, HI, AMERICAN PIE
Torrey Woodcock was a franchisee of Jimmy John’s stores for 14 years before he ventured into the pie business. After realizing there was a pie company-sized hole in Missouri, Torrey decided to fill it, using his mother’s pie crust recipe as his guide. Torrey opened American Pie Co. in Sullivan in one of his former Jimmy John’s locations in 2020. The business started small, three people running the show, and sold only apple and cherry pies online, shipping them to customers.
When Torrey began selling his pies in Missouri grocery stores, the public’s interest in his business piqued. “The grocery stores really helped get our name out,” says Brittany Pogue, general manager of American Pie Co. “And then we kind of became more of a walk-in situation, where people could come in and grab pies.”
The company soon became a full-fledged pie shop and cafe. It expanded the pie menu to include sweet pies, chicken pot pies, and quiches, which they ship all over the Midwest.
AmPieCo.com • 1017 North Olive Street, Sullivan
This article was published in the September 2025 issue of Missouri Life.
