House Episodes Marcia Mason

Troutdale Farm finds its niche selling rainbow trout to upscale restaurants ...

Correction appended

In 2002, Merritt and Dennis Van Landuyt bought a fish farm because they thought it would be a “nice retirement hobby.” Last week, Merritt laughed as she recalled this. The Van Landuyts aren’t exactly retiring types. She is 58, and he is 68; both are in great health, and neither is “lying in a hammock watching the lake go by.”

Fish farming is hard work, and these modern fish farmers didn’t come to it with backgrounds in fisheries.

Merritt, who is from Louisville, Ky., trained as a ballerina and danced for three city companies. Dennis holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry and was raised on a dairy farm north of Versailles; he also has farmed corn and soybeans in the past. When the two married 26 years ago, she moved to Missouri, and they ran a business out of their home in Versailles, manufacturing ultraviolet curable resins. Then they bought a trout farm.

For the past six years, they have raised and processed their rainbow trout at Troutdale Farm in Gravois Mills, south of Versailles. The farm is fed by the constant flow of a cool underground Ozark spring, which keeps the water temperature at a fairly steady 56 degrees, just right for raising trout.

There aren’t many trout farms that also process fish for markets in the state; most raise fish for stocking fishponds and streams. At Troutdale, Merritt and four employees — three full-time and one part-time — fillet more than 1,000 fish each week for Mid-Missouri restaurants and markets. They like working with the chefs who want to work with fresh, local products. For now, the business plan is to stay fairly small. “We try not to add more customers than we are raising fish,” Merritt said.

Among their constant customers is Mike Odette, co-owner and executive chef at Sycamore in Columbia. He orders three to five dozen fish each week from Troutdale. “It’s the freshest fish you can get,” he said. “When I give presentations to local growers who want to market their products, I always use Troutdale Farm as an example of how to do it the right way. The product is consistently good, and the people are accommodating and professional.

Kenny South Park | Articles Education

“When it’s 100 in New York, it is 72 in Los Angeles. When it’s 20 in New York, it’s 72 in Los Angeles. However, there are six million interesting people in New York – and 72 in Los Angeles.”

Neil Simon – On why he prefers New York over Los Angeles.

“With a play, I have only two people to please – myself and the director. With this movie it was a room filled with stuffy executives in suits with ties so tight they cut off circulation to their brains, a first-time director intimidated by his actors, and two movie stars who kept telling me which lines they would and wouldn’t say.”

Neil Simon – Regarding the tumultuous shooting of 1991′s The Marrying Man.

This past July 4th marked the 80th birthday of one of our most renowned playwrights and screenwriters, Neil Simon. “Doc,” as he is known to his friends and co-workers, has amassed an impressive resume of television, stage and film credits spanning 50 years. He is a Pulitzer Prize winner, two-time Tony Award winner (not counting 15 additional nominations) and a multiple Emmy and Academy Award nominee.

Simon began his career in the 1950′s in television working on such shows as Cavalcade of Stars, The Garry Moore Show and, most notably, Your Show of Shows with Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca in which Simon wrote with fellow writing luminaries Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Woody Allen and Larry Gelbart.

Simon’s comedies have originated on Broadway and been revived in different incarnations more times then a theatergoer can count thanks to his humorous set-ups and witty dialogue that stand the test of time. The Odd Couple, for instance, has played many times on Broadway not only in its original form but with women in the leads and with African-Americans in the leads as well. Simon’s work transcends sex and race.

One of his greatest honors came in 1983 when a theater on Broadway changed its name to the Neil Simon Theater.

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