A Taste of Wisconsin, Jefferson County Style

Each year, Wisconsin Farm Technology Days offers attendees new opportunities to experience Wisconsin agriculture. The show brings together diverse agriculture businesses from throughout the state, and even beyond, to showcase a variety of agriculture industries. The location for the event changes each year, allowing different regions of Wisconsin to be highlighted. This year’s host is Jefferson County and the Walter family.

Throughout the week, the Rural Event Center stage provides educational entertainment. I stopped by two presentations today, both focused on popular Wisconsin food products! The first was led by Wisconsin’s Honey Queen, Sydnie Paulsrud. Sydnie hails from Eau Claire, and spends her time promoting the beekeeping industry in Wisconsin. Our state is home to 53,000 colonies of bees that produce local honey for each of our communities to enjoy. In her presentation, Sydnie demonstrated how to make the following honey berry smoothie. The trick to make it taste so good? Choose Wisconsin honey!

Honey Berry Smoothie

1 ½ C. milk

1 ½ C. sliced strawberries or other berries

1 C. vanilla yogurt

¼ C. Honey

5 ice cubes

Combine all ingredients, except ice cubes, in a blender. Blend until thick and creamy. Add ice cubes, one at time, and blend until smooth.

Next up, Chef Shaun Edwards from Jones Dairy Farm shared a delicious recipe for chocolate, candy-covered bacon. Jones Dairy Farm is local to the show this year, located in Fort Atkinson. Their company is a premium meat product manufacturer, most known for pork products, especially sausage. As consumer preferences are changing, they have added chicken and turkey sausage to their product lines. Just as all of Wisconsin agriculture is global, so is Jones Dairy Farm. They currently ship product to 26 countries around the world, proudly representing our Wisconsin meat industry.

Today was also the debut of the show’s first-ever extended hours through 7 p.m. With the extra hours, Jefferson County hosted a ‘Taste of Jefferson County BLOCK PARTY’! The event featured samples of local food entrepreneurs, breweries, wineries. This meant more Wisconsin product sampling!

I first visited with Rushing Waters Fisheries, LLC to sample their smoked trout. My review? Delicious! Did you know more trout are raised in Wisconsin than any other food fish? I also sampled cheese from Hoard’s Dairyman Farm Creamery and Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese. Thanks to dedicated cheesemakers at each of these businesses, Wisconsin continues to remain America’s Dairyland, and our stomachs continue to be filled with high-quality Wisconsin cheese.