Openings & Closings

Is this the best cheese around KC? It just won a national award — again

Weston’s Green Dirt Farm just won yet another honor for its creamy, sheep’s milk cheese.

The farm’s Dirt Lover cheese (a pure sheep’s milk, bloomy rind cheese with a vegetable ash coating) is a 2025 Community Choice Good Food Award winner. It won the same award in 2019.

Cheesemakers of Green Dirt Farm, which just won another award for its popular Dirt Lover cheese, move handfuls of curds at Greek Dirt on Oak in Kansas City. The Weston, Missouri-based farm has its own cheesemaking facility in downtown KC, where a team of cheesemakers process sheep’s milk into various types of cheese.
Cheesemakers of Green Dirt Farm, which just won another award for its popular Dirt Lover cheese, move handfuls of curds at Greek Dirt on Oak in Kansas City. The Weston, Missouri-based farm has its own cheesemaking facility in downtown KC, where a team of cheesemakers process sheep’s milk into various types of cheese. Dominick Williams dowilliams@kcstar.com

Dirt Lover was also a first place winner at the American Cheese Society in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Not to mention, the Weston farm at 1099 Welt St. was recently named a top small business destination by voters in an Advance Funds Network survey.

The creamery and cafe is about 40 minutes north of Kansas City, serving cheese, lamb meat, sandwiches, ice cream and more.

Green Dirt is owned by farmer and self-proclaimed “big cheese” Sarah Hoffmann, who’s been running the operation since 2002.

Sarah Hoffmann is the owner of Green Dirt Farm and Green Dirt on Oak, a restaurant that sells award-winning cheese from her Weston dairy farm.
Sarah Hoffmann is the owner of Green Dirt Farm and Green Dirt on Oak, a restaurant that sells award-winning cheese from her Weston dairy farm. Reed Hoffmann Special to the Star

Hoffmann opened a Kansas City Crossroads restaurant last year, hoping to bring her cheeses and other recipes a little closer to Kansas City fans. Green Dirt on Oak, 1601 Oak St., is a more upscale version of the Weston cafe. It offers sit-down service and rooftop views, selling cheese croquetes, lamb tartare, and more.

Green Dirt on Oak opened in 2024.
Green Dirt on Oak opened in 2024. Reed Hoffmann Special to the Star

Green Dirt on Oak also has a grab-and-go market, selling its cheeses and other farm favorites.

The Good Food Awards aims to celebrate engaged, yet “often overlooked,” players in the culinary sphere, according to its website. The foundation champions growers, ranchers, markets and merchants, recognizing taste, quality and sustainability.

Each year since 2010, the Good Food Awards crowns three crafters per category from each region of the U.S.

Two other winners hailed from Missouri: Askinoise Chocolate in Springfield for its 62% Dark Milk Chocolate + Fleur de Sel Sea Salt bar, and Honeymoon Chocolates in St. Louis for its Chocolate Covered Raw Honeycomb bar.

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Jenna Thompson
The Kansas City Star
Jenna Thompson covers retail news for The Kansas City Star. A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, she previously reported for the Lincoln Journal Star and graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she studied journalism and English.
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