Close to Home - Washington County

It's June Dairy Month. One of the events that we encouraged participants in our "Birds & Bovines" vintage trailer rally last weekend (June 7-9) to take advantage of was Washington County's Breakfast on the Farm near Allenton. The farm was only about 11 miles from Ledge Park, overlooking the Horicon Marsh, where our rally was held. The breakfast was an opportunity to show Rick's son, daughter-in-law, and grandsons, who had joined us for the weekend,  something of my past. (I grew up on a dairy farm in northern Wisconsin.)

Sunset Farms has hosted the June Dairy Breakfast in the past.
To host, a farm needs LOTS of parking.

Kari, Rick's daughter-in-law, remarked that there were enough people at the
Dairy Breakfast for a mini county fair!

And speaking of county fairs, Washington County's Fairest
of the Fair was at the Breakfast promoting the upcoming
Washington County Fair that is scheduled for the end of July.

I'm not sure now many thousands of pancakes were served, but the cooks know how to keep a hungry crowd fed.

It takes a strong and steady hand to keep flipping
so many pancakes. (photo courtesy of Jon Vrzal)

Of course we had to look at the cows. These were of special interest to Rick's grandson, Kellen.

Breakfast on the Farm wouldn't be complete without a few vintage tractors on display.

A variety of groups throughout Washington County, including the Richfield Historical Society, had exhibits in one of the farm's buildings.

Nothing says America's Dairyland like a cow to relieve one's stress!

Breakfast on the Farm is one of those events that occur in just about every county in Wisconsin during the month of June. Check the schedule of breakfasts for the rest of the month and maybe you'll find one close to you. Many communities also host June Dairy breakfasts but not necessarily on the farm. In my hometown of Sheldon, a dairy breakfast was part of the community fair that was the same weekend as our rally.

This past Saturday Rick and I checked out the Farmer's Market in downtown West Bend, the county seat of Washington County. The downtown merchants are particular about the vendors filling Main Street so the market is only open from 7:30 - 11:00 a.m. However, as we later learned from Ron who was selling, among other things, garlic plants, there's another market in West Allis on Saturday afternoons that many of the West Bend vendors move to. We picked up snap peas, spinach, smoked salmon, several packages of brats, and tomato and pepper plants at the market.

Flowering plants were abundant at the West Bend Farmers' Market.

We met a couple from LaClare Farms in Pipe, WI (on the east side of Lake Winnebago). They were selling varieties of goat cheese made with the milk produced by the 450 goats on the farm. We plan to visit the retail shop and farm when we are on vacation in that part of Wisconsin in early July.

While the West Bend market isn't nearly the size of Madison's Dane County Farmers' Market on the Capitol Square, it does have a lot of variety - and Madison prices!

The Wisconsin Soup Company is located in Wauwatosa.

This piece of "living art" was offered by Upland Springs
Floral from Adell WI.

Oftentimes we don't have to wander far from home to find something interesting to do on the weekend. We'll miss the best activities right in our own backyards if we don't look for them.