Welcome to Hard Work U!

I recently posted some photos from our vacation trip to Branson, Missouri with Jason's family. One thing I have heard of several times, and kept seeing signs for on the drive there, was this College of the Ozarks and their student-run, farm-to-table restaurant with home-made ice-cream. It is commonly known as "Hard Work University," and Jason and I decided to go check it out on this trip.

Potential future student?

While we were there, we learned that students at College of the Ozarks work on the property part-time throughout the school year in exchange for
part of their tuition. The college is very hands-on, it seems, as it has an operating dairy, pig farm and meat processing facility, greenhouses and gardens, museum, fruit and jelly kitchen, hotel and conference center, and high-end, farm-to-table restaurant just to name a few of it's operations. While the students do work in all of these areas in exchange for part of their tuition, these hands-on operations are also included as part of their course work in degrees related to these specific areas.

You can ask Little Pumpkin for more details, as she read the pamphlet, or you can check out their website at www.cofo.edu. It is quite an interesting, and extensive, operation that appears to have thrived over the years, and continues to thrive.

The first stop on our self-guided tour of the campus was the greenhouses. I believe that there were at least 5 greenhouses, and they were advertising their upcoming herb and plant sale. There were students and instructors working in this area as we walked around, and if we had wanted to, we could have stopped and spoken with them, asking questions about what they were doing and such.

The greenhouse that we went through had a lot of what I believe were tropical types of flowers growing. I'm pretty sure that these tall fern things with dangling roots(?) were orchids.

I could very easily be wrong, though, as I am not good with flowers.

There were tons of beautiful flowers.

And plants I had never seen before. Like this thing. We have no idea what this was, but it was growing green things!

This was an orchid for sure. Orchids are Jason's favorite flower. (I never had a favorite flower, so I've adopted his.)

There were also some massive plants that they were growing!

After checking out a few greenhouses, we wandered over to an area related to cows.

One of their feeding and equipment storage areas, I think.

We couldn't find the entire milking herd, but we saw their milking parlour on our walk. (Jason was questioning the wisdom of my walking around and poking my nose into the random buildings...)

Parts of the farm area looked like a regular old farm with old buildings, old equipment, and just stuff stashed away "just in case you need it."

The next stop on our self-guided tour was the Stained Glass and Candle Shop. This was the area where students make stained glass items to sell, and you could watch them at work.

They also sold other hand-made items that students produced, such as soap.

Another stop on our tour was the Edwards Mill. In this building was where they sold hand-made rugs, kitchen linens, and other items that students make on looms in the upstairs of the building. The downstairs of the building was kind of a museum of the old mill. I couldn't quite figure out if they still operated and used the mill to grind grain, or not. It was not operating when we went through.

The outside of the mill was very pretty with the old stonework and such, and we tried to take some nice photos there.

My orange, jail-bird pants.

After seeing this picture, I don't think I should listen to Brittany anymore- she is the one that convinced me to buy those pants a few years ago!

There was a nice little pond area outside the mill with some ducks.

And a swan.

We did visit a few other places on the property, such as the Fruit and Jelly Kitchen where the students make jelly and fruitcakes to sell. (As in thousands of fruitcakes!) I was able to sample their fruitcake and I have to say, it was the best fruitcake I have ever eaten! But, I'm not sure I'm sold on the fruitcake idea just yet. We also stopped at the School of the Ozarks Museum, but didn't have time to go through it that day. And we stopped at their conference/events center/restaurant/hotel area (known as The Keeter Center) to get some of their home-made ice-cream.

I don't feel as though we took enough time to properly see the college campus and, if we ever return to Branson, it is on my list of things to go see again. It was very interesting to explore, and Jason was extremely intrigued by their processes, and the business aspects, of students working in exchange for tuition. Jason and I did return later that evening for a dinner reservation at The Keeter Center, the colleges' farm-to-table, student-run restaurant. I will have to do a short blog post on that dining experience next.