Yesterday was an exciting day for us FIG students. Because it was the official move-in day for all other residence halls, the streets got a little crazy. Lucky for us, our leaders had planned a couple tours for us to see some of the ag school.
Our first stop took us to the meats lab where students learn the process of taking a live animal and butchering it, all the way to curing and processing the meat and then selling the final product in an on-site store. We were warned that the kill lab would smell, but most of us just smiled and reminisced that it just smelled like home. With that, I knew I was in good company.
I couldn't help but notice that even though the kill-lab did smell like livestock, the rest of our tour smelled like bleach. I was reminded of when we butcher our chickens, bleach is our best friend of the day. Sanitation is very important in these sorts of labs, and the students take their job seriously. One even graciously handed us all hair nets as we walked into the processing part of the lab and told us to smile about it because we'd have to wear them a lot if we worked there.
After eyeing the store with all the fresh meat and plotting with my hallmates to someday have a true home cooked meal, we left and headed for Buck's Ice Cream. If you love ice cream (and honestly, who doesn't?) then head to Buck's. The university's signature ice cream, Tiger Stripes, is made here along with others such as cookies and cream and butter pecan.
As we walked through the store area, I noticed that though the dining area was small, it was also full. It wasn't just college students sitting at the tables either, there were people who looked like they had come from the community. I thought it was nice to see that community members could come in and support the workings of the students and also get a nice treat.
We went back to the lab section, and it seemed like a small-scale factory. The process of ice cream making was explained to us. There are two different ice cream machines, one is a smaller manually operated machine while the other is a larger commercialized machine. When the ice cream mix enters the machine and then comes out, it looks somewhat like soft serve. At this point, the ice cream is in the containers but only half frozen so they enter the freezer at -40 degrees F to harden.
Meat and ice cream: two of my favorite foods. I enjoyed touring the plants and meeting students who were passionate about what they doing. It was also a great reminder that Mizzou has endless opportunities, and that anyone can find something they will love doing here.
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