This year, I traveled internationally with the Ginseng Board of Wisconsin to promote our state’s official herb, ginseng! Photo Credit: Alice in Dairyland
Think of a special time in your life. It could be a graduation or new job, a new family member, or earning something you have put a lot of work into. Those moments stick with us for the rest of our lives, bringing back vivid memories of some of our most impactful moments. Nearly every day in my year of serving as Wisconsin’s 76th Alice in Dairyland has included special moments I won’t soon forget. Many of those moments have come along as I share stories about Wisconsin’s specialty crops. Specialty crops are, by USDA definition, “fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, and nursery crops (including floriculture).”
One of my first activities with specialty crops was the Warrens Cranberry Festival. After taking the wrong entrance, I was chauffeured through a crowd of people, mostly wearing red, all there to celebrate our state fruit! Since 1973, people have gathered for the festival with attendance numbers now reaching more than 145,000 each year. I spent my day making cranberries jubilee with festival royalty, wading in a cranberry marsh, eating delicious cranberry-filled foods, and learning so much about the history, and the future, of the industry.
A little later in the fall I went on a tour with Alsum Farms and Produce to see how potatoes and pumpkins are harvested, stored, and distributed. I’ve never seen anything quite like the potato storage bins that Alsum uses. When at full capacity, they can store 11 million pounds! Wisconsin’s potato farmers have fine-tuned their storage methods to align with our climate, allowing potatoes to be stored throughout the year while maintaining quality. Their harvest teams also put in a ton of work during the season, making sure we have pumpkins and squash ready to cook or decorate with all autumn long.
I had a very special opportunity to travel internationally to the Wisconsin Ginseng Love Festival in Taiwan, mainland China, and Hong Kong. Wisconsin ginseng is recognized for its bold and bitter flavor across the globe, and the many ways we learned about uses for Wisconsin ginseng were incredible.
Door County hosted the 77th Alice in Dairyland Finals, so I joined members of the committee and the media at Krueger Tree Farm for their first Christmas tree cutting of the season, a longstanding Alice tradition. Christmas trees play an important part in Wisconsin’s agriculture industry, as our state is home to more than 500 Christmas tree farms, which harvest 700,000 Christmas trees during the holiday season.
The new year brought two media campaigns highlighting two of our top specialty crops: ginseng and potatoes. I shared delicious recipes to help celebrate the Chinese New Year with ginseng, like Kimchi Pork Belly and the Cherry Morning Smoothie, and highlighted the root’s impact on our state. Ginseng growers in Wisconsin produce 98 percent of all cultivated ginseng grown in the United States!
Wisconsin ranks third in the nation for the production of potatoes and is first on this side of the Mississippi. I celebrated Wisconsin potatoes and the Super Bowl with Cheesy Chili Stuffed Baby Red Potato Bites. I also stopped by schools with the Wisconsin Potato Growers Auxiliary for Wisconsin Potatoes in the Classroom visits. Through this program, we talked about the history of potatoes worldwide, Wisconsin potatoes, and more about how we grow potatoes. This spring, I was able to do more Potatoes in the Classroom visits, as well as Kids Dig visits, where elementary students and I completed activities with Russet potatoes and monitored progress on potatoes planted earlier this year!
When the temperatures reach above freezing during the days and dip back down below at night, the maple sap starts to flow and Wisconsin is abuzz with sugar makers in the woods. Each 40 gallons or so of sap boiled down will yield about one gallon of delicious maple syrup. While attending syrup festivals around the state, I learned so much about the industry, its history, and its impact on Wisconsin. A few even had me serve as a judge in their contests, but it was hard to decide since all of the syrup was so yummy!
The Alice in Dairyland Finals had a few fun highlights of specialty crops! We toured Sully’s Produce, who produces flowers, fruits, and vegetables to sell on-site and at farmers markets all over Door County. Country Ovens produces hundreds of items featuring cherries under their brand Cherry De-Lite. We learned more about how they make their tried-and-true products, and test out new ones. Lautenbach’s Orchard Winery and Cider Company gave us a tour of their orchards and vineyards, explaining their long family history with the business. Candidates were also tasked with preparing an interactive display and a three-minute prepared speech featuring a specialty crop that they shared with attendees on Friday and Saturday night of the Finals. I think everyone in attendance learned a lot about Wisconsin’s specialty crops.
Throughout the year, I have been visiting fourth grade classrooms around the state to take them through our Expedition Agriculture program, a highlight of Wisconsin’s specialty crops and other important commodities. This interactive presentation introduces students to terms and concepts, and then has them at the edge of their seats as they guess the mystery agricultural products as hints are given. Students enjoy hearing more about the Alice in Dairyland program and getting all their questions answered during my visits, too.
I recently visited Silver Spring Foods to learn about Wisconsin horseradish! Photo Credit: Alice in Dairyland
Horseradish, sweet corn, tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic, apples, berries – the list of specialty crops produced in Wisconsin truly seems endless! I have genuinely enjoyed getting to learn about so many of them, and know that learning and exploring these crops won’t end when my time as Alice in Dairyland is complete. Thank you all for a remarkably special year!
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