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Welcome to "In Wisconsin." I'm Patty Loew.
This week...
- Oh my god, is that good.
- A recipe for success as entrepreneurs bottle
their dreams in a professional kitchen.
Plus a young Tibetan exile finds a home
at the Deer Park Buddhist center.
- It's a very community feeling.
- Then, who let the cows out?
- Not many people cross cattle our way, that's for sure.
- We've got the story of these island cows
and this homemade barge for bovines.
Plus, a fond farewell for a long-time friend
next on "In Wisconsin.
- Major funding for "In Wisconsin" is provided by"
the people of Alliant Energy who bring safe,
reliable and environmentally friendly
energy to keep homes, neighborhoods and life
in Wisconsin running smoothly.
Alliant Energy, offering energy-saving ideas on the web.
And Animal Dentistry and Oral Surgery Specialists
of Milwaukee, Oshkosh and Minneapolis.
A veterinary team working with pet owners and family veterinarians
providing care for oral disease and dental problems
of small companion animals.
- This week we dedicate our show to
"In Wisconsin's" Liz Koerner and we feature her reports
as Liz heads into retirement.
Many of you already know anything dealing with food
is big right now.
Wisconsin entrepreneurs sure hope so,
as they try to bottle their dreams and take them to market.
As Liz Koerner discovers,
food-based business incubators are a growing trend.
- There we are.
- Most days Bill Ignowski sells suits
at JC Penney in Green Bay.
- A wise choice.
- A couple hours north in Sister Bay,
Joanne Penny balances the books at
Good Samaritan Society Scandia Village Retirement Center.
At first glance, it might seem like
they have nothing in common, but look again.
They share a passion for producing the best recipe
they've ever tasted and bottling it.
- And, oh my god, is that good.
- Ignowski created Papa Bill's Pasta Sauce
from an old recipe from southern Italy.
He and his wife Karla also make Hot Diggity Dog Sauce.
- There's a saying in Italy, southern Italy, that the tomato
is ready when it falls off the vine in your hand,
so ingredients are very, very important.
- You can see the flecks of chili pepper and garlic in there.
- Penny brought home a love of Southeast Asian flavors
after living in Thailand in the 1970s.
Now on her days off, she is cooking up dipping sauces
like Cherry Ginger and Spicy Sweet and Sour,
with help from her husband, Jim, and daughter Jasmine.
- There's four flavors: sweet, sour, salt
and then that little chili pepper flavor, that zing.
Everybody who tried it just would call me up
after they tasted it and said,
"It's so good, we ate the whole thing."
- Many people dream of turning their favorite recipe
into the fountain of cash,
but as Ignowski and Penny found out,
getting your business off the ground can be costly.
The state requires them to use a commercially
licensed kitchen to ensure food safety.
Something that would be cost prohibitive on your own.
- Entering into the food business
would be a half million-dollar gamble.
That would freeze out 99% of the people
that want to get into this.
- The Farm Market Kitchen in Algoma
rents their kitchen for $12 an hour.
A kitchen that comes packed with specialized equipment.
- This is a cooking vat.
And what it does is allows us to cook
35 gallons of sauce at one time.
- The Farm Market Kitchen offers another important ingredient
to those just starting out:
expert advice on running a food-based business.
Mary Pat Carlson is the director.
- Really, the kitchen is just a tool,
and the support services that you provide to those
that are using it is really the key.
- The support services start with creating a business plan
and continue with advice on things like label requirements,
trademarks and UPC codes.
Each stage of growth comes with a whole host of challenges.
One of them is finding stores to sell your product.
Cooks Corner in Green Bay offers Ignowski's sauces
because local products sell.
- People do come in, especially tourists,
looking for things made in Wisconsin.
And it's a big deal for us.
- In addition to outlets in Door County,
Sentry Hilldale in Madison offers Penny's sauces.
But unless friends or family members deliver them for free,
she'll have to pay a distributor.
- They take 30%.
Then I kept thinking, well, would that even
cover my overhead and everything like that?
So, I have to really think about that.
- Many other questions come up as businesses grow
that require help from the community.
- We have really strong linkages
to the educational institutions in the area.
We have good partnerships with the financial institutions.
And, we build those things in.
- Penny and Ignowski have been able to grow their businesses
due to the support of the Farm Market Kitchen.
But bottom line, their success is a product of
working long hours for a modest initial return.
- I use every bit of my time.
And when I'm not doing that, I'm usually exhausted, sleeping.
- Do you want money out of this?
It's not going the happen right away.
You have to look at it as an adventure.
Is that enough sauce? Okay, there you go.
- Since the Farm Market Kitchen opened ten years ago,
they've had 100 new businesses use their services.
Currently 50 are signed up.
Take a look at this map.
It shows where eight food-based business incubators
are now located in Wisconsin.
We've learned there are two more in development.
What's old is new again,
at least when it comes to Wisconsin's barns.
Drive down any rural road in our state and you'll see
weathered barns that have withstood the test of time.
Back in 2003, Liz Koerner first met Rick Bott.
Today, he's semi-retired, but continues to be a strong
advocate for recycling barn wood
and giving new lives to these monuments
of our immigrant past near Baraboo.
- I've always had a passion for these old barns, since I was a kid.
I have a great deal of respect for the people who originally built these barns.
These barns stand, really, as a monument
to our ancestors who settled this land.
Unfortunately, many buildings are disappearing.
In a lot of cases, they're simply burned for fire practice,
or they're allowed to deteriorate to the point
where they just basically settle into the landscape.
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What we try to do is reuse this resource.
And we can do anything from salvaging the barn siding
that can be reused as paneling, but we can also remill it.
We can re-saw it; we can make it into flooring, trim.
We build furniture out of it.
The old wood has a beauty and quality and a patina
that is unsurpassed by any other material that you can get.
This was milled from barn siding off a barn
in northern Illinois that rumor has it
Al Capone stabled horses in for a while.
The holes here are from buckshot.
Somebody must have took out a pigeon,
or something, up against those walls.
We'll pay a nominal fee for salvage rights to the building,
but primarily what we're doing is we're
taking down a structure that is becoming a danger to our client.
(chainsaw roaring)
Possibly it's to the point where it's a liability,
because of insurance, and because of the tax bills.
It's not a case of going out and taking a crowbar
to a building and hauling it away in your pickup truck.
What you have to do is be able to utilize as much
of the structure as possible, not just the most premium parts.
- Gently guys!
- This one was split already. - All right.
The point is to not produce kindling.
I got started doing this back in the '70s
when I was working my way through college.
We would take a few barns down and sell materials from them.
And gradually, we developed techniques for using
more and more of the buildings. It was a learning process.
The closest we've come to ever really screwing up.
There were a couple times the building tipped
a little faster than we thought it was going to.
We just barely got out of harm's way.
This is not something that you want amateurs doing,
because the learning curve can be quite short
if you don't get it right.
(Circular saw whining)
We come in and we'll strip the siding off very carefully
using specialized tools to pry it off,
so we don't damage it.
So, we make a series of pre-cuts in the structure
in very key places.
Then, we chain the building up and tip it over.
It goes over just like pulling over a large tree.
It makes a big crunch, and everybody gets a kick out of it.
And if we do it right, made all our precuts properly,
we damage very little material.
Wisconsin as state was blessed 150 years ago
with some of the finest standing timber in the world,
particularly some of the old-growth white pine.
These were massive trees that grew in the northern part of the state.
Often, they would grow six or eight feet apart
and they'd be six feet in diameter.
People would speak about them
like they were standing in a cathedral.
These trees took centuries to grow, often 500 years.
Because they grew so slowly, the quality of the wood
was far superior than lumber you can possibly get today.
You'll never see lumber like that again.
It's just not going to occur anywhere,
except in very remote regions.
The house is built almost completely out of recycled materials.
They came out of old barns, old warehouses.
All of it saved from landfills.
When you work with this kind of wood,
it just puts everything else out there to shame.
This is a good example of post and beam work.
This is a little more finished than a lot of buildings we do.
We used large power planers and surface the timber.
We take a little bit of the old rough surface off
and then you can finish the beams with either
oil or polyurethane or good quality shellac.
There's no stain on any lumber in the building.
It's all original patina and you can see
the deep, rich tones you get from it.
Most of what you're looking at here would be in a landfill.
This is recycling on a grand scale.
I couldn't achieve this look or finish
if I was using new lumber.
The only way you can really do this and do this effectively
is to use the old-growth lumber
from the old barns and the old warehouses.
Here, it's gonna have another 100 years' worth of life.
Whenever we take down one of these old buildings
and see it come down, we always have a little bit of regret,
because they're such magnificent structures.
Wisconsin wouldn't be Wisconsin if we didn't have
these old barns on the landscape. It's such an icon of the state.
If the building has to come down, it's far, far wiser
to at least use as much of it as we can and recycle it
and give parts of the old barn new life.
- These days Rick Bott uses Amish crews to take down
most of the barns for his projects.
He just finished turning a barn into a guest house near Sauk City.
They call it the cattle crossing and it's like
nothing you'll see anywhere else in Wisconsin.
The Rowe family's unique spring event
is knee deep in tradition.
So this week "In Wisconsin" reporter Liz Koerner
takes you to their private island in the Fox River
bordering Marquette and Green Lake Counties.
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- Even the youngest members of the Rowe family
get all duded up on this special day each spring.
- Some of my earliest memories are coming up here
when I was like three, four, five years old.
(cows mooing)
- The very large extended Rowe family headed by Dave and Cindy
come together this time of year
for an unusual family gathering.
And family is what it's all about.
- It seems to get bigger and bigger every year.
- They call it the cattle crossing, and it's like
nothing you'll see anywhere else in Wisconsin.
- Not many people cross cattle our way, that's for sure.
- The Rowe family, brothers and sisters,
aunts and uncles, all lend a hand...
- Dennis, why don't you jump on with Luke, okay?
- ...to ferry beef cattle across a narrow stretch of water
to a grassy island they own.
The island straddles the Marquette and Green Lake county line.
The family rents this rich summer pastureland to a
beef rancher which trucks about 100 of his animals
from the Stevens Point area, an hour and a half away.
Sonny, the cattle owner, says the long drive has become necessary.
- Where we come from, pastureland is hard to come by.
I mean, there's not a lot of it available.
There is a lot of land around, but most of it doesn't have fences.
In order to fence it would be extremely expensive for a lot of these grounds,
so good cropland, nowadays, is used for crop land.
Nobody's going to use that for pasture.
- They send the calves over on the barge first,
then their mothers are eager to follow.
They used to just let the cattle swim across to the island,
but the last time they did that, they had a problem.
The cattle figured they could get off the island
the same way they got on.
- They ended up, actually, at a neighbor's farm
eating his corn out of his crib.
(cows mooing)
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- The barge itself is an invention dreamed up
and handcrafted by the Rowe family.
- It's got 54 55-gallon drums under it.
I think we have it figured out that it
actually can hold 45,000 pounds.
- It's the job of the athletic younger cousins
on top of the barge to haul on the overhead cable.
On this day, they can carry only seven cows at a time
because the wind and the current
make the barge hard to maneuver.
- Basically, we got to keep the barge straight.
We're getting pushed by the current, and on a day like today
it was very windy while we were up there too,
and it's always trying to push the barge downstream.
We gotta keep it so it keeps less tension on that
and keeps it straight between the corrals.
- While it may look like it, the guys on top
aren't actually pulling the barge across the water
all on their own, but they used to.
- When we first started this, we used to manually pull
that barge all across the river
and a friend who lives in the area said,
"Hey, how about if I just push you guys across with a boat?"
Lightbulb goes on. Oh yeah, that sounds pretty good.
- Even with a motorboat, it's hard work for the guys on top.
Greg Rowe explains why he keeps coming back.
- It's a great weekend. It's really good for the family.
The island is a thing that keeps our family really close.
Every weekend, every summer we're up here.
And then cattle move weekend, it's just our fun, special,
really weird activity that we do together.
- There are 17 cousins in the Rowe family.
Some travel up to five hours to help out with the cattle crossing.
Some even go to extremes.
- They said my name. I walked across the stage.
I kept walking until I got to my car and got to the island as fast as I could.
- Why? - Because it's my family. I love this.
- After many, many trips to the island,
all the mothers are reunited with their calves.
Then they open the gate of the holding corral
and the cattle head for high pasture.
It's been another successful Rowe family cattle crossing.
- Yeah. It's great. It's great. We love doing it every year.
And coming up to your island, I mean,
it's a really special place for our entire family.
We love coming up here.
- The Rowe family will be wading in the waters
of the Fox River again later this spring
to usher the cattle to the island.
Our final report this week is about courage and determination.
For Tibetans, the only way to escape Chinese oppression
was to flee their homeland, and for some,
travel halfway around the world to find peace.
In 2008, Liz Koerner introduced you to a young exile
who's getting a degree in the medical profession
with the hopes of one day of helping the poor in Tibet.
Those dreams are coming true, with the help
of the Deer Park Buddhist Temple in the Town of Dunn.
- Tibetans gather here on special days
to pray and to celebrate.
(group singing)
The Deer Park Buddhist Center welcomes Tibetan exiles
who want to keep their religion and culture alive.
Tenzin Pelkyi has come to Deer Park to be with other
Tibetans on this holiday.
It's the 6th of July,
the birthday of their spiritual leader,
his holiness the Dalai Lama.
(group singing)
- This is like the same as the monasteries, the temples in India.
I think it's a great replica of the life that we used to have.
It's a very community feeling.
- Like many refugees, Pelkyi has felt the pain
of being separated from loved ones.
She was born in a remote Tibetan refugee settlement
in the mountains of northern India.
- It felt very small. You knew everybody.
If there was like one new person in the town,
it was like everybody would know.
(group singing)
- She remembers how good it felt to live in a place
where she was surrounded by other Tibetans.
- In Dharamshala, it's a center for Tibetan government in exile.
We have all the offices there.
The place is very nationalistic.
Everybody is so proud. Yeah, I'm Tibetan.
- Many Tibetans in the refugee settlement
saw America as a land of opportunity.
When the United States opened its borders
to a limited number of refugees in 1992,
Tibetan families in India were faced with a tough choice.
- So when that news came to India,
there was a question like who will go?
So everybody thought, "All right, we'll pick one name
"from each family and there would be no hard feelings."
My mom was one of those 1,000 people who got selected.
- Pelkyi's mother left behind a husband
and four young children.
- My mom left for the US when I was seven,
and at that time our youngest was around 2 or 3 years old.
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- Through time, Pelkyi developed
a deep devotion to her father,
a man who escaped from Tibet to India
after fighting in the Revolutionary Army.
- He talked about Tibet a lot and that kind of
kept Tibet alive in our family.
He always wanted to go back, but he never got to,
so I always think,
it was also one of my dreams to go back with him.
- In the year 2000, Pelkyi's father made the
heartbreaking sacrifice to send his children
to join their mother in America.
He chose to stay behind. Pelkyi was 16 years old.
- My dad, he wanted all of us to be here,
because he knew we would have a better future
than we would have in India.
- Pelkyi and her siblings moved in
with their mother in Madison.
Once here, she focused getting an education.
After completing her senior year of high school in Madison,
she began working during the summer
at an assisted living facility.
She's also studying for a degree in nursing
at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
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Her father passed away a few years ago,
but she hasn't given up entirely on their shared dream.
- I hope that someday I'll be able to work with Tibetans,
and especially Tibetans who are in Tibet,
who are in dire need of good healthcare
and good education.
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- Until then, Pelkyi gives time to the Tibetan community
here at home as a volunteer at the new Deer Park Temple.
Her dedication to helping others
stems from her upbringing in India,
where the Buddhist religion permeates everyday life.
- You have to always think about the community.
In thinking, it's always about the larger whole,
rather than thinking of your individual.
- She says helping at Deer Park helps her
feel connected to her culture and her past.
- It gives me my sense of belonging.
- Since we featured Tenzin's story in 2008,
she's completed her nursing degree
and is working at Madison Central Wisconsin Center
with severely disabled residents.
She plans to get a master's degree
in public health nursing.
She also got married in the fall of 2009 to a Tibetan man.
Tenzin is still waiting for an opportunity
to return to her homeland.
Now, here's a look at some of the new reports
we're working on for this season's final edition
of "In Wisconsin."
- It's a salute to Wisconsin's greatest generation.
This is "In Wisconsin" reporter Frederica Freyberg.
Come along on the Badger Honor Flight.
- I was wondering a little while ago if I was
the only guy who had tears in my eyes there.
- It's an emotional day in Washington, DC, as they
see the memorials built as tribute to their service.
- Trash pickup in the city of Barron starts out
just like any other in the state of Wisconsin.
I'm "In Wisconsin" reporter Adam Schrager.
Where it goes here in Barron County
is unlike any other place in the state of Wisconsin.
- There are better ways to handle trash,
and there are better ways to make electricity.
With a waste energy facility you take care of both issues.
- Plus, in our Quest environmental reporting project,
a young spoken word artist weighs in.
- * As the temperature rises, we reach boiling points *
* Attitudes of those around us rise quicker than mercury *
- Extreme heat has caused more deaths in Wisconsin,
since 1982, than all other natural disasters combined.
- * As the temperature rises, so do attitudes, *
* death rates, bills and ice cream stocks *
- Join us for the last "In Wisconsin" of the season,
and those new reports next Thursday at 7:30,
right here on Wisconsin Public Television.
You can keep tabs on what we're working on this summer
by stopping by our interactive blog
called the Producer's Journal.
We'll provide updates on the reports we're working on,
and what is happening behind the scenes on "In Wisconsin."
Check out the Producer's Journal at wpt.org.
Then click on "In Wisconsin," and take a look
at some of our other reports while you're there.
Finally this week, goodbyes to two of our
Wisconsin Public Television colleagues.
They've informed and entertained all of us
for the better part of the past three decades.
Liz Koerner, whose stories we featured this week
started out as a student production assistant,
and over the course of three decades worked her way up
as the director, producer and reporter.
She's directing tonight's program.
Liz did many jobs, and she did them well.
Also retiring, videographer Chuck France
who lugged his camera gear around the world
and across Wisconsin.
They both contributed countless hours
of dedication and hard work.
We'll miss their friendship and their expertise.
We leave you with video shot by Chuck France
along the Arkansaw Creek in Pepin County.
Have a great week "In Wisconsin."
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- Major funding for "In Wisconsin" is provided by:
The people of Alliant Energy, who bring safe, reliable
and environmentally friendly energy to keep homes,
neighborhoods and life in Wisconsin running smoothly.
Alliant Energy, offering energy-saving ideas on the web.
And Animal Dentistry and Oral Surgery Specialists
of Milwaukee, Oshkosh and Minneapolis.
A veterinary team working with pet owners and family veterinarians
providing care for oral disease and dental problems
of small companion animals.