LIFE

To be able to put on a dairy breakfast this year, Pepin County is having one that's drive-up and virtual

Hannah Kirby
Wisconsin State Farmer
Attendees have conversation over breakfast at the Pepin County Dairy Breakfast held at Four C Dairy in 2018.

Two years ago, the Pepin County Dairy Breakfast drew a record number of attendees — more than 2,000.

"We have had incredible attendance and success," said Marissa Koller, Pepin County Dairy Promotion's secretary. "We think that this is a great community event for everyone to get together and see people, and also get people on farms."

The breakfasts are usually made up of farm tours, wagon rides, milk-drinking and ice cream-eating contests, and a kids area. 

When the promotion's 32nd annual breakfast on a farm was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the promotion committee started brainstorming ways to still be able have it. 

"Dairy breakfast events, like we normally see in June, are an opportunity for people to see what's happening on dairy farms as far as how dairy farmers are caring for the land and how they're caring for their animals," said Beth Schaefer of Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin.

Sheila Harsdorf, Weston Patnode, Warren Petryk, Hannah Sjostrom, Bob Boshold, and Corey Bauer participated in a milk-drinking contest at the Pepin County Dairy Breakfast in 2018.

The promotion came up with the idea to do a drive-up dairy breakfast, in which breakfast contents would be placed in bags and handed out. 

"There's such super creative, out-of-the-box ways people are still working to celebrate National Dairy Month and our Wisconsin farmers," Schaefer said. 

The bags — designed for a family of four — will contain a package of sausages, pancake mix, real maple syrup packets from Pepin County, a pound of cheese, a pound of butter, yogurt, pudding, a gallon of milk, and Milkman chocolate milk powder packets. 

"We hope the family takes the bag home and has a meal as a family, and will be able to enjoy family time," Koller said. 

Each bag will have a flyer with information on how to go on a virtual tour of Weiss Family Farms — where the breakfast was supposed to be this year and will be held in 2021 — a video from Eau Galle Cheese in Durand, and additional dairy resources. 

"We still want to be able to get dairy products in the hands of consumers, give them some educational material, and then ultimately, show our community that we care about the farmers," Koller said. 

Pepin County Dairy Promotion member Celsey Weiss conducted a train for kids at an annual dairy breakfast.

Kids will be given bags with activity books and other dairy-themed items. 

"The activity books are very educational for kids to learn about dairy," said Randy Koller, Pepin County Dairy Promotion's chair. 

Bags can be picked up, free of charge, from 7:30 to 10 a.m., or until supplies last, on June 20 at Eau Galle Cheese, N6765 WI-25, Durand, and Komro Sales & Services Inc., W4666 WI-85, Durand. 

"It shows the heart of our dairy promotion volunteers, how much they want to share and support our Wisconsin dairy farmers at this time," Schaefer said. 

Contact Hannah Kirby at hannah.kirby@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HannahHopeKirby.