“On the Road with Alice” in October

It was another great month celebrating Wisconsin agriculture! My October was full of dairy celebrations, countless fall visits to farms of all kinds, and educational presentations to students. This month, I enjoyed new experiences such as cranberry and ginseng harvests as well as an entire event to celebrate mashed potatoes!

I started the month with an event that’s near and dear to me – World Dairy Expo (WDE)! As the premier meeting place of the global dairy industry, my time at WDE included greeting international visitors, joining Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin in their booth, connecting with trade booth attendees, educating students, and visiting the international cattle shows. I even had the opportunity to walk a time-honored “Alice” tradition by gracing the colored shavings during the Supreme Champion Ceremony to deliver the coveted results of the Supreme Champion cows. This event is like my version of the Super Bowl, and I can’t imagine starting October any other way!

The dairy excitement continued with my last Sundae on the Farm of the season. I headed to Sheboygan Falls for the 6th annual Sundae on the Farm at Diamond Vu Agricultural Education Center. Their mission is to “provide academic and field-based agricultural opportunities through hands-on learning that fosters mental health, vocational, and life skills instruction.” I enjoyed visiting with local agricultural businesses and attendees to share the share the message of Wisconsin dairy and agriculture!

My Wisconsin Agritourism Celebration wrapped up in October with some wonderful visits to Alice media partners. During my travels celebrating agritourism in Wisconsin, I visited destinations across the state such as corn mazes, pumpkin patches, cheese stores, farmers markets, and more! There’s always an abundance of options to enjoy the 13 million acres of agricultural land or the products that come from it in Wisconsin. Look for your next ag-venture on the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection agritourism homepage.

Cranberries are especially important in Wisconsin as our state fruit, and I couldn’t wait to experience a Wisconsin cranberry harvest myself! The team at the Wisconsin Cranberry Innovation Center helped me “wade” into cranberry harvest season (quite literally) and shared about cranberry research. With 35 acres of land that encompasses several beds, the plots where cranberries grow, I had lots of area to explore. Crandall Cranberry joined me and helped me don my classiest outfit yet – waders! This was a wonderful way to learn the ins and outs of how our state fruit is harvested.  

Spring Grove Dairy in Brodhead welcomed me for the 2025 Brodhead FFA and Parkview FFA Food For America event. Food For America programs, generally conducted through FFA chapters at schools, seek to bring young students to the farm (or vice versa) and increase awareness of agriculture. Over 400 students from southern Wisconsin and even northern Illinois came to hear from agricultural experts, interact with live animals, and engage with agriculture in a hands-on manner! I also joined the Wausau East Food For America program hosted by the Breitenfeldt family, which marked my fourth official visit to Marathon County. The Breitenfeldts own and manage a herd of 120 crossbred dairy cattle and have hosted this event for the past eight years. I’m looking forward to my future visits to Marathon County and continuing to celebrate their $2.8 billion agricultural community.

This month, the Auburndale FFA hosted their School Forest Pumpkin Glow. This fun community event raises funds and collects donations for local Toys-4-Tots programs. Throughout the night, I had the chance to spend quality time with members of the FFA officer team and learned that all of the pumpkins they had on display were carved by Auburndale students the day before the event! It was an eye-catching way to display Wisconsin pumpkins and get in on a spook-tacular specialty crop showcase.

Speaking of specialty crops, youth education continued with visits to 4th and 5th grade classrooms to share the diversity of Wisconsin agriculture and our specialty crops! Over the course of two weeks, I brought “Expedition Agriculture” to over 500 students in partnership with Wisconsin Agriculture in the Classroom. “Expedition Agriculture” connects young students with Wisconsin’s history, geography, and economy through the lens of one of the state’s largest and most important industries - agriculture! It was incredibly rewarding to see students’ eyes light up as they learned about Wisconsin’s $116.3 billion agriculture industry. Thank you to the schools, teachers, and students at Fall River, Lodi, Wrightstown, Park Falls, and Prentice for welcoming me in to help add to your studies of Wisconsin!

I enjoyed meeting with local Badgerland Girl Scout troops in the Monroe area for the second installation of our program “Adventures in the Milk Whey.” Our lesson focused on the history of the dairy industry and how dairy farmers care for their land and cows every day. We started by visiting Wegmueller farm, owned by Dan and Ashley Wegmueller. Attendees went on a tour of the farm, seeing everything from the different breeds of cows and baby calves to interacting with the pigs, chickens, and horses. We then stopped by the National Historic Cheesemaking Center (NHCC) to learn more about Wisconsin’s rich cheesemaking history. Located in one of the most active cheesemaking regions in the state, the NHCC tells the story of Wisconsin’s dairy farmers and cheesemakers. The Girl Scouts walked through the antique cheesemaking equipment to get a glimpse into the past of our dairy roots!

Shifting gears, I was very fortunate to join the wonderful students at Madison College in the Baking and Decorative Arts program to show how we can use Wisconsin products in baked goods. I shared more about dairy products used in baking, as well as some of our specialty crops that can be added as enhancements. Using carrots, cherries, cranberries, ginseng powder, potato chips, and whey powder, we took a small “taste tour” of Wisconsin specialty crops and products by adding these ingredients to a chocolate chip recipe and then tasting each batch. I loved sharing how Wisconsin agriculture can play a tasty role in the bakery too!

I had one particularly engaging Saturday, starting at the Platteville Regional Chamber of Commerce’s annual Day on the Farm at the UW-Platteville Pioneer Farm. I shared the diversity of specialty crops in Wisconsin and taught visitors how to make their own butter while visiting with friends like the Wisconsin Honey Queen. I then traveled to celebrate National Mashed Potato Day at the Food + Farm Exploration Center in Plover for this inaugural event! There were many activities highlighting our potato industry including a mashed potato sculpting contest, sack races, a mashed potato bar, and Spuddy-Buddy making with red potatoes. The Food + Farm Exploration Center is home to the world’s largest function potato masher so it’s fitting to celebrate all things mashed potato here! Mark your calendars for next year’s National Mashed Potato Day on October 18th as the Food + Farm Exploration Center is hoping to make this a yearly event.

One of my big highlights this month was getting an in-depth tour of ginseng harvest and welcoming Dr. Achi from Oregon. Dr. Achi visited to learn about Wisconsin ginseng as part of her influencer platform. We started at one of Heil Harvest Ginseng’s gardens and saw how ginseng is harvested by taking specialized equipment and removing the foliage from the top of the mound. Then we watched the roots being dug from the ground and harvested by hand. From there, roots were taken to the processing facility for washing, sorting, cooling, and drying, which we saw at Baumann Ginseng! After being washed with water, the roots were spread onto large racks to be cooled for about two weeks, from which the roots will be dried for another two weeks in the same chambers, sorted for blemishes again, and then prepared for boxing and processing! Baumann Ginseng supplies a large amount of Marathon County's ginseng crop and has created many custom systems to accommodate their large ginseng volume. From unique software found nowhere else to specialized equipment, Baumann is a great example of innovation and technology within agriculture.

As we look forward to the end of the year, my excitement as the 78th Alice in Dairyland will continue with numerous opportunities. In November, I’m looking forward to traveling to China with the Ginseng Board of Wisconsin and starting to “Savor the Season” with the Something Special from Wisconsin Holiday Campaign! These both showcase Wisconsin agriculture either close to home or abroad in international markets. Before we know it, the search for the next Alice in Dairyland will begin when applications for the 79th Alice in Dairyland are released in January. I am excited to meet the new applicants while savoring this incredible experience of serving as “Alice.”