(folksy music)
- June is Dairy Month and I'm down here
at the historic Hoard's Dairyman Farm
to find out a little bit more about the Guernsey cows.
Once I'm finished up here, it's off to some udder dairies.
I'm gonna start with a goat dairy
to learn about goats' cheese and then it's up to Spooner
to learn about a sheeps' dairy.
I'm gonna be gathering ingredients
to make a beautiful cheesecake
for the Alice in Dairyland Luncheon.
Gather with us Around the Farm Table .
I'm your host, Inga Witscher.
- [Group] Gather with us Around the Farm Table .
- [Inga] A few years ago, I moved up to Wisconsin.
I started an organic dairy farm at St. Isidore's Mead.
That's when I discovered
the abundance of Midwestern local food
and small-scale farmers, growing everything
from green zebra tomatoes to pasture pork.
I'm taking a break from the cows,
hitting the road and seeing if I can't satisfy
my epicurious appetite.
That's great.
This is amazing.
- Around the Farm Table is funded in part by
Wisconsin Farmers Union,
Heartland Credit Union,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.
(folksy music)
- This is the dairy farm
behind the iconic magazine Hoard's Dairyman .
It's a place
where the editors can keep their boots on the ground
and continue learning about cows and agriculture
and it's also the only magazine that I have ever known of
that has an active dairy farm.
Let's go find Corey
and find out a little bit more about the farm.
(folksy music)
Hey there, Corey. - Hi Inga.
- Hey, Maggie, will you take her for me?
Here you go, thank you.
What are you up to right now?
- So we use the wand these days to do our health checks
and it's Monday so this would be one of the events
we're getting ready for with our veterinarian.
And the wand is able to read
the radio frequency identification transponders
that are on these cows
and essentially we don't have to use a clipboard anymore
to hand in our data.
And we can know if the cow is feeling well
based on her activity or if she needs to get checked
by the veterinarian and it's just wonderful technology.
- What a great tool to have.
Ya know, one of the things I really enjoy
about reading Hoard's Dairyman Magazine ,
which I've been reading since I was a little kid,
is catching up on the technologies
that's happening in dairy farms.
Tell me a little bit about how the magazine got started.
- Ya know, it's a fascinating story,
and really, it's been a voyage since 1885
on really improving life for dairy farmers
and we have readers from 90 countries around the world now.
Hoard came to Wisconsin from New York State
and he started a small newspaper,
and eventually, he was one of the people
that started the Wisconsin Dairymen's Association.
Wisconsin started out as a wheat state
and eventually transformed into "America's Dairyland"
and Hoard was a big, big part of that.
He helped secure the first refrigerated rail car
to ship Wisconsin cheese to New York.
We became a cheese exporter.
In 1885, he started Hoard's Dairyman and three years later,
kind of, all this cow idea was taking off
and he ran for governor of Wisconsin
and he ran as the cow candidate and he got elected.
(laughing)
- [Inga] Nice.
- He loved dairy and he wanted other people to experience it
and while he was governor
they started the College of Agriculture
at University of Wisconsin- Madison,
they started the first dairy school,
and they recruited a guy named Stephen Babcock,
which became-- if you've ever been to UW- Madison,
you know Babcock Hall and Babcock Ice Cream,
but he helped make milk pricing streamlined
so everybody was on a fair plane.
- Tell me a little bit about the farm.
- The Hoard's Dairyman Farm
is actually on the National Register of Historic Places.
We are the only known magazine
that actually has a farm and we have dairy cows here
and about 900 acres of crop land that we farm around here.
And we've had Guernseys at this farm since 1899.
But the real uniqueness about this farm is
it's where some of the very classic research on alfalfa,
which is a legume,
which means it fixates nitrogen to fertilize itself,
took place here and it's one of the crops
that transformed and helped make America's Dairyland.
- So tell me about the Guernsey breed.
These are Guernseys.
It's nice to see a big group like this all together
because really you don't see 'em that often anymore.
- Guernseys actually were about 1/3 of the dairy herd
back at the turn of the last century here in early 1900s
and they're wonderful for making butter.
- Because of the high butterfat?
- The high butterfat, they produce more butterfat
than any other breeds.
And back in that era, a lot of people were churning,
making their own dairy products, after they milked their cows
and butter was a great dairy product
because you could store it pretty easily
without refrigeration.
The milk market's changed a little bit to favor fluid milk,
but that's all changing now.
The Guernseys are very high in A2.
A2 is a type of protein,
it's very digestible for people's stomachs
and there's some people
that are bottling that kind of milk now.
So that's been a new product that's come out.
- Well, I'm celebrating June Dairy Month
by visiting some other types of dairies in Wisconsin
including a goat dairy and a sheep dairy
and I'm making up a wonderful little cheesecake
for Alice in Dairyland.
So, it was really nice to be with you today,
but I gotta get my clothes changed and head out.
- Thanks Inga, I really appreciate
you coming to Hoard's Dairyman Farm.
- Have a good day.
(folksy music)
(crunching and shuffling)
Wisconsin's known as the dairy state
and when we think of dairy we think of cows' milk
but Wisconsin's the leading producer of goats' milk
in the whole United States.
There's over 165 farms here
and Bifrost Farm is just one of them.
Let's go say hi to Meg
and find out what a farmstead creamery is.
- [Meg] Hi Inga.
- Good to see you. It's nice to be here.
I've been kind of following your progress on social media
and it's nice to be in the actual creamery.
- Yes, it's nice to have it finally.
- So tell me a little bit
about your farmstead operation here.
- Explain to us what a farmstead is.
- Farmstead means that all the cheese that I make
comes from the goats that I milk on my farm
- Okay.
- Not from anywhere else.
- Alright.
- So there's not too many farmstead operations.
- And you're sort of a micro dairy, just like myself.
- Very micro.
- How many goats are you milking?
- Starting out with four
and adding a couple more this summer
and I hope to be up to 16 next year.
- Speaking from experience,
it's nice to gradually add animals on
and not be overwhelmed in the beginning.
- That's about as big as I wanna be.
- Especially 'cause you're doing everything yourself.
You're doing the milking and you're making cheese too?
- Yes, I'm it.
One woman show here.
- That's good.
How did you get involved in this?
- I wanted the goats first because I've always loved goats
and as soon as we moved out here and had the land
we got a couple of goats which also comes with milk.
- Sure.
- And I love to cook and kind of a foodie,
so I learned how to make cheese in the kitchen
and decided this is my next adventure, I wanna do this.
- What varieties of cheese do you make?
- Right now I'm just doing fresh cheese
just like Chevre, ricotta, feta.
- That's great.
- And a little bit of yogurt cheese and I also make Cajeta,
which is a goat caramel sauce.
- That sounds amazing.
- Yeah.
- That sounds really good.
I have to tell you,
it's so nice to see creameries like this
springing up throughout Wisconsin
and you're not that far away from my house,
which makes me really excited
'cause I love goats' milk cheese
and having it available to us, it's just amazing.
Was it difficult to start the process of cheese making?
- Yeah, you know Wisconsin being the only state
that requires a cheese maker's license.
- Sure.
- So that took about three years
mostly because it was hard to find
a place for the internship.
- Oh right, 'cause you have to do so many hours.
- 240.
- Did you learn a lot doing the internship.
- I'm really glad that I did, yeah.
- My father, he's a licensed cheese maker
and he was kinda like, "Oh, I gotta go through the classes,
and all this stuff." Then afterwards, he said,
"I'm so glad I did because I learned so much."
- I was the same way. I'm like, "Are you kidding?
I have to pick the one state that..."
(laughing)
But I feel like I learned a lot more
than I would have, otherwise, so it was good,
it was worth it.
- So tell me about your goats.
- Well I raise Mini-Nubians which you don't find too much
in a commercial dairy because they're smaller.
But I'm the one wrangling them so I wanted a goat
that I could handle, plus they give almost as much milk
as a full-size goat, but they have the higher butterfat
from the Nigerian Dwarf side.
- And I hear that goats have,
is it one of the highest butterfat milks?
- Yeah, not quite as high as sheep, but it's higher than cow.
- I always thought Jersey cows were like the highest ever.
- Well, I know that I get quite a bit of cheese
out of a gallon of milk.
- That's nice, and how many gallons do they produce?
- I get probably a gallon a day from each of 'em.
- That's not bad.
- Yeah.
- I was thinking about transitioning my dairy
from a cow dairy to sheep or a goats just because
I only have 30 acres available to me
and I know that you can have more animals on less acres
with these smaller,
- Right.
- The goats or the sheep but I don't know.
When I see my little Jerseys out there with their eyelashes,
then I can't do it.
- Yeah, the Jerseys are cute.
- But I'd love to find out more about goats.
Can I go take a look at 'em? - Yeah, we got babies.
- Oh, perfect. - Okay.
(folksy music)
- Whoa.
Meg, I think I wanna get goats now.
I like how friendly they are.
- Oh, they're-- I love 'em.
- I don't love it when they chew on me, but...
(laughing)
- [Meg] Well you know, they're not just--
I wouldn't call 'em pets, but they're my partners.
- [Inga] Yeah.
- And so I respect them, ya know.
- I kinda love it. - They're part of the--
- I feel so loved right now.
- They're my employees. (laughing)
- Tell me, you do a different kind of--
I try to get my cows pregnant every year,
a couple months after they calf.
What's your system here?
- [Meg] I like to alternate years.
So I'm breeding half my herd one year and the other half
I'm doing extended lactation,
which means that I'm gonna keep milking them through
and not dry 'em off like people normally do.
- [Inga] Oh, no kidding.
Do they drop in milk production?
- [Meg] It drops in the winter
and then once the weather starts gettin' warm again
it picks back up.
- [Inga] What made you wanna do it that way?
- [Meg] A couple of reasons.
It's hard to find homes for a bunch of goats.
- [Inga] I'll take some home with me today, that's fine. (both laughing)
- [Meg] So I don't have so many babies to find homes for
and it's also easier on the does.
- Yeah. Oh, for sure.
- Because they're not kidding every year.
- [Inga] Yeah, you're not kidding right?
Just kidding, how can you not make a joke?
Well, Meg, thanks for taking the time today
to teach us about what a farmstead creamery is
and introducing us to these wonderful goats.
Now that we've learned about goats' milk in Wisconsin
let's head it up and learn about sheeps' milk.
(folksy music)
(bleating)
Hey, Phil, how are you doin' today?
- I'm doing good, Inga. How are you?
Really well, nice to see ya.
Hey, I've been trying to get up
to the Spooner Research Center here for years and years,
but I finally got up here today.
Tell me a little bit about what's happening here?
- The station started in 1909 with a donation of land
from the city of Spooner to the University
to help train the locals in farming methods
and back then it was subsistence farming.
Everybody grew their own food
and had large vegetable patches and some animals to raise
and so it was for the University
to get information
out to local farmers.
And there's Ag research stations across the state,
but we're pretty much the furthest north one
that does production Ag work and that by, I mean crops
and our animals that we have is we have sheep.
And it's a little different sheep farm
because we milk sheep and it's a neat place to work
with a lot of different research projects going on.
- Now, we're kind of having a celebration at my farm
later on for celebrating Dairy Month
and all the different dairy in Wisconsin.
Is there a lot of sheep dairies here in Wisconsin?
- There's about 20 sheep dairies in Wisconsin.
We gain a few each year and we lose a few sometimes
and it is gaining popularity throughout the United States
and North American and we're members
of the North American Sheep Dairy Association
and last year Wisconsin hosted the Symposium.
- Oh, so did you guys have everyone up here?
- We hosted the Symposium in Madison.
And we toured one of the farms
out of the Westby area, as well as a cheese plant.
- Oh, nice. - On the way.
- Now, I've noticed there's some different colors
on your sheep.
Is that part of the research or just--
- Yes, we're doing a research trial right now
where we're milking either twice a day or once a day.
Little bit early, we're seasonal milkers
where we lamb in January, February, and March
and then we milk through September.
And normally, once their production level's low enough,
we drop to once a day milking.
Well, we're seeing if we could drop to once a day milking
a couple months early
and we didn't wanna run 'em all through the parlor
so we sort 'em going through the parlor.
Research has a lot of extra work at times
and this is part of the extra work that we have,
but we color coded the sheep so we can say
the greens go in one pen and the blues go in another
and the red and orange go in the milking line at night.
And then they're all put back together
and they're all milked in the morning.
- What other kind of research
are you trying to find out about sheep?
- We've done a lot of milk production
as far as what their feed is, protein level,
different forages level, grain level for their energy,
and if they need added protein.
And we've done a lot of research on lamb raising,
the fat content in their milk replacer
and different feeding strategies
as we're growing the replacement ewe lambs
and last year did a grazing parasite trial, so.
- What a great resource for folks in Wisconsin
and probably throughout the United States
to be able to tap into find out about sheep
and how to do it and how to make their farms better.
- Yes, we get calls from all over the United States
and the Wisconsin producers.
I had one Wisconsin producer call today
and we just talked about
a number of different production-related things.
And then I've got calls from people
all across the United States.
- That's fantastic. Well, hey,
I got a few extra minutes. Can I help you guys milk?
- Sure. - I'd love to see your parlor.
- Sure, the more the merrier and it's a good experience
to milk sheep.
(folksy music)
(bleating)
(mechanical whirring)
- Well I'm gonna help the ladies finish up with milking
and then why don't you meet me back in the kitchen
where we're gonna cook up some desserts
for Alice In Dairyland.
(folksy music)
I'm honored to be able to bake up a cheesecake
for Alice In Dairyland.
Alice is the ambassador for Wisconsin agriculture.
Each Alice takes a full year to travel the state
and around the country to promote Wisconsin agriculture
and I'm not just talking about dairy farms.
I'm talking about the mink industry, cranberries, potatoes,
everything we have going on here in Wisconsin.
And I think as a farmer,
it's wonderful that we have this resource
of this woman who can be the voice
and tell people what we're doing and promote
all the wonderful things that we do here on our farms.
I thought a cheesecake might be the perfect thing to make
for our little afternoon tea because it's June Dairy Month.
And in this cheesecake, I wanted to celebrate
all of the dairy here in Wisconsin
by adding some goat cheese to the cheesecake.
We actually are the number one state for goats' milk,
for producing goats' milk
and I think it's a lovely, tangy addition
to this cheesecake here today.
First we're gonna start with the crust.
Now when I was a little girl, I would bake cheesecake
with my grandmother almost once a week
and she would have me put Graham crackers in a Ziploc bag
and beat it with a rolling pin until it was a fine crumb.
Luckily, I have a Cuisinart that does that for me now.
And what I did to make mine a little different
than my grandmother's is I'm gonna use a ginger snap crust.
I love that flavor of the ginger
and I think it'll go well with the goat cheese.
So add 2 cups of pulverized ginger snaps
to a bowl here.
And then, I'll do 1/4 cup of sugar,
and 6 tablespoons of melted butter.
Now you can just whisk this all together
and you don't want it soaking.
You want it just to be damp enough
that the crumb will come together.
Okay, and now we'll just pour that
right into my springform pan.
Now using your hands or a measuring cup
you just wanna spread out your crumb
and then push it about halfway up the sides of your pan.
When you're pushing that crumb in,
try to get it as even as possible
so that each piece has about the same amount of crumb.
It just makes for a nicer experience when you're eating it.
Okay, well, I'm gonna set that to the side
and we'll make the filling.
First, I'm gonna start out with the goat cheese.
And I'm excited for this.
I really like that flavor, that zinginess of the goat cheese
and I think it's nice to use in baking
instead of just more savory dishes, like I usually do.
And next is the cream cheese.
Now cheesecake has been around since ancient Greece.
It was actually served at the very first Olympics
to the athletes.
It was thought to be a health food
and give them tons and tons of energy.
So I have two 8-ounce packages of cream cheese
and then I'm gonna add some sour cream.
You could also use some creme fraiche too.
And my grandmother always mixed up her cheesecake
with her old blender, so I'm gonna do the same.
And this is gonna allow me not to overmix anything too.
Now that everything's mixed up nicely
I'm gonna add 4 eggs, one egg at a time
and I wanna just gently stir those
into my cheese mixture here.
I love having chickens this time of the year
because the yolks on the eggs
get to just be such a beautiful orange color
and that's because of the grass
that they're out there eating right now.
So just gently mix in your egg.
And after each one is incorporated,
you can go ahead and add the next.
So here's number two.
One of my favorite parts about being able to farm
is to have these ingredients here on my farm
whether it's from my garden or my chicken coop
or from the cows.
It's a way of making the things I make
a little bit more special for my guests.
It's worth all the work and the early mornings
to be able to offer my guests something special,
right from the farm.
And now that the eggs are in, I'm gonna add my sugar,
and a little bit of vanilla for flavor.
And again, just gently mixing that in.
Now that everything's incorporated
it can go right into my crust.
I think this is gonna be delicious.
When I bake cheesecakes, I always get a little bit nervous
that the top's gonna crack, but it's okay
'cause I have a wonderful homemade blueberry topping
that I can put on top to disguise it if it does.
Now you wanna cook this low and slow,
and pull it out of the oven
when it's still a little bit jiggly
so you don't overcook it.
I'm gonna pop this in the oven,
and then, why don't you meet me down at the barn
to celebrate with the Alices?
(folksy music)
So, Ann, you're the current residing Alice in Dairyland.
- That's right.
- Do you have a history? Did you grow up on a farm?
- I did not grow up on a farm.
I'm the first generation removed from the farm,
which I think is one of the unique things
about the Alice in Dairyland program,
as well as Wisconsin's agricultural industry.
You don't have to have grown up on a farm
to be involved in the industry, by any means.
We're all affected by it.
It contributes $88.3 billion dollars
to Wisconsin's economy each year.
So knowing that large impact,
I wanted to get involved somehow.
And I did show dairy cattle growing up.
That's how I got my start in agriculture was through 4-H.
And through that opportunity, I had the chance
to interact with some of the most supportive people
I've ever had the pleasure of meeting
and so being able to give back to them
by serving as Alice in Dairyland and promoting this industry
is just a wonderful opportunity.
- Well, thank you so much for being here today.
- Yeah, thanks for having me.
- Well, she's Wisconsin's sales lady with a crown.
(laughing)
- She plays a very big role in educating folks.
- I was so proud to represent Wisconsin agriculture.
- Every year, there's a different Alice
that comes from a different background.
- It's such a unique experience to be Alice.
- Mary Ellen, thank you so much for being with us today.
It's wonderful to see
all these different generations of women
who've been Alice In Dairyland.
Explain to us, what is Alice in Dairyland?
- Well, the spokesperson for the dairy industry,
dairy and agricultural industry of Wisconsin.
And at the time I was chosen, I was a sophomore in college
at the University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire,
and then moved to Madison to travel
and I did 53 cities throughout the United States that year.
- Wow, and what kind of experience did you have?
Did it help kind of build you for the future?
- Oh, it was a marvelous experience.
You did radio and television interviews,
and you called on utility companies, and
you gave food demonstrations, which was a lot of fun,
using dairy products
and then I ultimately ran a little food specialty shop
with my mom in downtown Madison
at 129 State Street,
just a block down from the capital.
- How lovely, and then,
what did you go on to do for a career?
- Well then I finished my undergrad and my graduate work,
and then I joined the Jolly Green Giant company,
and did radio and television for them,
was their spokesperson.
- And what year were you Alice?
- 1953.
- Fantastic, I wonder...
It must be interesting
to see how much agriculture has changed
from 1953 until the present day
with just all the technology we have
and everything nowadays.
- Oh, that's true, that's true.
- [Inga] Well thank you so much for coming to the party today.
- It was fun to come, thank you for having me, enjoyed it.
(folksy music)
Pour a cup a kindness, tea and desserts,
perfect for an Alice in Dairyland reunion.
(folksy music)
Chevre cheesecake, tangy and tasty.
Top it off with your favorite fruit compote.
Buttery rosemary shortbread cookies,
savory and sweet.
Strawberry rhubarb tiny cakes,
crowned with a delicious dollop of buttercream frosting.
Well, I hope you've enjoyed celebrating
June Dairy Month with me and all the different Alices.
And I hope you'll gather with us next time
- [All] Around the Farm Table .
- I'm your host, Inga Witscher.
* (band plays "Old MacDonald Had a Farm") *
(acoustic guitar)
- Around the Farm Table is funded in part by
Wisconsin Farmers Union,
Heartland Credit Union,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.