This week I had the pleasure of meeting an awesome guy, Erik Bendl, aka. WorldGuy. On Tuesday, while driving to work, I passed a man, walking along the roadside with a giant, 6′ inflatable globe, and a dog. While my interest was peaked, I was running late for work. I called my wife, told her to be on the look out for the guy, but then he slipped my mind. On Wednesday I was planning on taking the day off, but due to a screw up I needed to run into work for a little while. While driving to work (I have a 45 minute commute) I passed the guy again. It was fate stepping in, and I knew that I had to stop and talk to this guy and find out what the deal was.

So I pulled over, on the side of the road, and introduced myself. I found out his name was Erik Bendl and that he was walking across Wisconsin, with this giant globe, to spread awareness of diabetes. I converstation eventually turned to how he supports himself in these endeavors (this is his 4th or 5th walk) and he said that he relies on donations and the kindness of strangers. I offered any help that I could, while he was in the area, and a place to stay if he needed it. While I was sincere in my offer I really didn’t expect to hear from him again.

Later, on Wednesday afternoon I received a call, from Erik, wondering if my offer was still valid. I was thrilled that he called and said that yes, the offer was definitely still available. I gave him directions to our house and about 30 minutes later he arrived. The first order of business was to get the poor guy something cool to drink as I imagine walking along the roadside in 85° weather was pretty dehydrating business. Next I drove him back to his “support” van, aka. home away from from. We met back up at my house and after getting things in order I whipped up a quick burger for him and a bowl of water and dog food for his companion, Nice, his dog.

We talked for a considerable length of time about his adventures walking to raise awareness for diabetes and his inspiration behind his activism-he has lost a family member to diabetes, have other that are diabetic and he himself was pre-diabetic at one point. Even after a full day of walking, in the harsh sun, Erik still radiated a passion for his cause. By about 9pm, after a long day of walking Erik was ready to crash so we rigged up an extension cord to his van to run his fan and other equipment and I said my good-byes as I would be up and off to before he got up, although my wife made sure to send him off with a full breakfast and coffee to help jumpstart his day.

When I mentioned this to my friends I got a mixed reaction. There were those that thought it was great, what I did, but others that wondered at my sanity-”why would you open your house up to a stranger? Weren’t you concerned?” No, I wasn’t concerned. TV and media has conditioned us to be scared of strangers, to be wary of those that seem outside of the norm. And while I think a healthy dose of concern is smart, we can’t fall into the trap of allowing ourselves to be suspect of every stranger we meet.

I applaud Erik for his committment to his chosen cause and applaud, even more, all the people he has met along the way who, contrary to popular thought, have gone out of their way to support him and make sure that he can continue his journeys.

As someone who is pre-diabetic I support Erik’s cause wholeheartedly. And while I offer up plenty of “unhealthy” dishes (because they taste so good and I can’t help myself) I also try to, on occasion, offer up recipes that are a bit more healthy, not just for the sake of my readers, but for myself and my family.

If you are interested in following Erik’s exploits, you can find his blog at www.worldguy.org. I have also added a link in my blogroll on the right of the screen. Please check it out, donate if you can, either to him or to the American Diabetes Association and if you ever happen to be driving down the road and see a man, and a dog, rolling a 6′ inflatable globe, please stop and, at least say ‘hi.’

Good luck Erik!!! I wish you safe journeys and hope that you make a difference in many lives. I know my family will not soon forget you!

It was Week 3 of our CSA deliveries and if I’m not mistaken our boxes are starting to feel a bit heavier…not a lot but a bit. I expect over the next few weeks they will increase in weight as early season greens transition into various other vegetables. Not that I’m complaining about what we get now. I am a firm believer in quality over quanity and everything we have received so far has been excellent. I’ve been especially thrilled with the Hakurei turnips, but I’ll get back to those in a minute.

This week our box was filled with more strawberries, baby greens, spinach, radishes (although this is probably the end of them for the summer), and turnips. Making their first appearance in our box was garlic scapes (the green shoots of the garlic), sugar snap peas, kohlrabi (a favorite here in our house).

Now back to the Hakurei turnips. I’ve become quite enamored with them. While they still have a slight “bite” to them I find them to be more subtle then their autumn counterparts. Also unlike their autumn counterparts, these little beauties don’t require peeling before using. Their skin is much thinner than turnips from fall harvests and much less fiberous. Just wash them and give them a good scrub to remove any dirt and then use them in whatever dish you are making (although if making mashed turnips you might still want to peel them) or just slice them thinly, sprinkle with a bit of salt and eat raw.

I don’t often cook radishes, although I do on occasion. I came up with the idea of making a gratin out of the turnips and since their flavor profile was somewhat similar to the radishes we had received I decided that I would add a layer of radishes to the gratin. While it might be a bit heavy for a hot summer day, this gratin, nonetheless, goes really well as an accompaniment to grilled steak.

Turnip Gratin with Radishes
serves 4

1-1 1/2 bunches Hakurei turnips, washed well
1 bunch radishes, washed well
2 Tbs. butter
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated (I used one of my favorites, Sarvecchio, by Sartori foods out of Plymouth WI)
salt
pepper
nutmeg
1 cup cream

Preheat an oven to 350°F. In a medium sized, oven proof saute pan melt the butter. Remove from heat. Thinly slice the turnips and radishes approximately 1/8-1/4″ thick. Place a single layer of turnips on the bottom of the saute pan. Cover with the radishes. Sprinkle with a bit of salt, peper and just a hint of nutmeg. Top with 1/4 cup of the parmesan.

Add another layer of turnips, followed by more salt, pepper, nutmeg and another 1/4 cup of parmesan. Top with the remaining turnips, more salt, pepper and nutmeg. Pour in the cream and press down on the vegetables to make sure the are just barely covered by the cream. Add a bit more cream or milk, if necessary. Cover and bake for 15 minutes. Remove cover and bake for 15 minutes more. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of parmesan and bake for an additional 25-30 minutes or until the cheese is nicely browned the the liquid as thickened. Remove from oven and allow to sit for 10-15 minutes. This will allow the gratin to set before serving.

We received our second CSA delivery today, and just like a kid on Christmas, I couldn’t wait to open up our box, even though I already knew what would be in it (they deliver the weekly newsletter on Wednesday telling us what is in the box). This week we received more bok choy, more green garlic, another bag of baby greens, more pea shoots, a bunch of radishes and another pint of strawberries. In addition to these repeats (all of which I am very grateful for as it gives me a chance to play with these items even more!!) we received a bunch of Hakurei turnips, an early ripening Japanese variety of turnip. I’m really looking forward to “playing” with those as I have never had this variety before, although, from what I have read about them, most of them may get eaten simply washes and sprinkled with a little salt and pepper!

Since I still hadn’t used up the bok choy (a chinese variety of cabbage) and all of the green garlic from last week, and having received more of each, I knew that tonight’s dinner would have to feature both of them. I figured a simple stir-fry would be perfect. Not necessarily the most creative way to use up bok choy, but the meal hit the spot, and was done-start to finish-in just under 15 minutes, not counting the time it took to cook the brown rice that went with it.

Green Garlic

Chicken with Bok Choy
serves 2

1/2 Tbs. soy sauce
2 Tsp. hoisin sauce
2 Tsp. rice wine vinegar
1 Tbs. water
1tsp. corn starch
3 bulbs green garlic (white buld and an inch or 2 of the green stem), thinly sliced
1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced
3-4 bunches baby bok choy
1 pound chicken breast, boneless & skinless, thinly sliced
4 Tbs. sesame oil
1-3 pinches red pepper flakes (optional)
1/2 cup cashews, roasted

Combine the first 5 ingredients and mix well. Set aside. Heat a wok over high heat. Add 2 Tsp. of the sesame oil and once it starts to smoke add the chicken. Quickly stir-fry the chicken until done. Remove from wok. Wipe the wok out and add the remaining sesame oil. When it starts to smoke add the green garlic and ginger. Toss once or twice and add the bok choy-do not let the garlic burn or it will become bitter. Stir-fry the vegetables for about 2 minutes then add about 1 oz (2 Tbs.) of water to quickly steam the bok choy. Add the chicken, and red pepper flakes if using. Then add the reserved sauce you made up earlier. Toss to coat. Add the cashews and serve immediately. This dish is best when the bok choy still has a bit of crispness to it. Let it sit too long and the bok choy will go completely limp. Not the end of the world, but I like it better when there is still a bit of crunch to it. Serve with white or brown rice.

We were very excited today as today marked the first delivery, of the season, from our new CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm. My wife and I had belonged to a CSA for a number of years, but stopped just before our daughter was born. After a 5 year hiatus we were more than ready to sign up for another season of fresh, locally grown produce. While we had been happy with the farm from which we had gotten our food from, for years, we were ready to try a new farm. After much research, on the internet, I narrowed our choices down to 3 or 4 and let my wife have the final say. We decided to try out Good Earth Farm, in Oakfield, WI, about 20 minutes from our home in Fond du Lac. You can check out there website here.

For those of you who are not familiar with what a CSA farm is, basically you purchase a “share” that entitles you to a set number of deliveries, of the farm’s product throughout the year. While there are all kinds of CSA’s, from fruit and vegetable shares, to egg shares, to honey shares, to meat and/or poultry shares, the most popular are the fruit and vegetable shares. While the price of a share varies from farm to farm and region to region, a good average price for a share in Wisconsin is $500-$600 a season. While this may sound like a lot of money once you start breaking it down then it ends up being a really good deal. Most shares will consist of approximately 20 deliveries (give or take depending on the weather) and often those deliveries will weigh in at between 10-20 pounds, again depending on the year and the season (spring and early summer boxes can be on the light side while late summer boxes can be overflowing with produce. Of course, all of this depends on the weather and Mother Nature. That’s why many of these farms plant tens to hundreds of varieties of vegetables so if one fails hopefully others flourish. It becomes a win-win situation for both farmer and consumer as the consumer gets lots of great (oftentimes organically raised) produce and the farmer gets some security knowing that they have been paid for their hardwork, even if Mother Nature doesn’t want to cooperate.

Now back to our CSA share. As typically of early season boxes ours was on the light side, but that didn’t matter because what was in it was excellent! We received a bunch of green garlic (can be used as garlic or in place of scallions), a nice large bunch of radishes, a large bag of spring greens for salad, some wonderfully sweet pea shoots, a pound of rhubarb (not that we needed any of that!), a pint of beautiful, local strawberries, and some wonderful bok choy.

In addition to our regular share, we purchased a bread share, which means that each week, with our box of vegetables, will be a loaf of bread baked, in the European tradition, by a local baker. This week the bread was a hearty, nutty 9-grain loaf. Overall, lots of great stuff to cook with and play with. Tonight though, I wanted to keep it simple and let the produce speak for itself. So I simply tossed the spring greens with the pea shoots and dressed this salad in a light vinaigrette of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, minced green garlic, salt and pepper. To accompany the salad I sliced up a few radishes and served the salad with 9 grain bread which I first brushed with a mixture of butter and minced green garlic and gently grilled until toasty and crisp. It was the perfect meal to celebrate the beginning of our weekly deliveries.

I look forward to sharing what we receive each week, and the recipes that our little box of goodies inspires me to make. Stay tuned!

The other day my wife took our daughter to see one of my wife’s clients, who she had become good friends with. Her friend has a small farm and my wife took Genevieve to ride the horses. Genevieve (aka Gigi) is 4 1/2 years old and just recently told us that she wants her own horse. This has created no end of amusment for my wife because ever since Gigi was born I have been writing letters to Santa that Gigi has “dictated” to me. Most of them revolve around the idea that she wants a horse by the time she is five, so needless to say when she exclaimed that she wanted a horse my wife considered it cosmic justice.

So Gigi got to ride a horse, learn a little about horsemanship and help brush her. As an added bonus, Kate sent Wanda home with 2 dozen eggs, from the hens she owns. They varied in size from a standard large egg to ones about the quarter of that size and in colors from off white to various shades of brown and even to a pale green (yes that picture above is color corrected-it’s not your monitor). I was thrilled and set about coming up with an idea to really showcase the eggs. While simply poaching them or hard boiling them might showcase the eggs in all their simple glory I wanted to do something a little more adventurous and seasonal. Our rhubarb is growing quickly and I knew I wanted to incorporate that into something so I decided to make custards and top them with a rhubarb compote. I was also keen to use up some of the tarragon I grow and thought about infusing the custard with tarragon. While not often used in desserts, tarragon’s anisy, licorice flavor lends itself well to many dessert presentations. The only concern is not to overpower the other flavors with tarragon, which can quickly take over if used with too heavy a hand. The flavor combination, at first, might sound a little strange, but trust me it works well, with the tarragon adding a nice subtle flavor to the custard and complementing the simple rhubarb compote.

Herb Pot de Creme
makes 6 servings

3 cups half and half
9 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1 pinch salt
1/ tsp. vanilla extract
3-5 sprigs fresh tarragon (feel free to try other herbs also such as thyme, mint, lemon balm, even rosemary)

Pre heat the oven to 350°F. Bring the half and half to a simmer. Add 3 sprigs of tarragon and allow to steep for 10 minutes, off of the heat. Taste the mixture. The herb flavor should be just a little stronger than you want it to be in the final product as this will be diluted with other ingredients. If it isn’t strong enough add a few more sprigs, return to a simmer, remove from heat and steep a few minutes longer. Remember, it’s easier to add more flavor than take it away so don’t go over board in the beginning. As the herbs are steeping combine the egg yolks, sugar, salt and vanilla, stirring until most of the sugar is dissolved. Add 1/2 a cup of the hot half and half to the egg mixture and stir to combine. Add another 1/2 cup and stir. Now that the eggs are tempered you can add the remaining half and half. Stir until well combined then strain. Skim off any foam on top of the mixture and pour 3/4 cup into 6 ramekins. Place ramekins into a large baking dish and add hot water to come about 1/2 way up the ramekins. Cover with foil, adding 4 or 5 small vent holes and carefully place in the oven. Bake for 25 minutes and check for doneness. The custards are done when the center still slightly jiggles like jello. If not done yet, replace cover and bake 5-7 minutes longer and check again. Continue doing this until custards are done. Don’t overcook or your custards will “souffle” and instead of a silky, smooth texture it will more closely resemble scrambled eggs. Still tasty but not quite as appetizing. These will take anywhere from 25-50 minutes depending on the size and depth of your ramekins. When done carefully remove from the oven then remove from the water bath. Cool on a rack until room temperature then chill. Serve topped with a couple tablespoons of Rhubarb Compote (recipe below).

Rhubarb Compote
makes about 1 /2 cups

3 cups rhubarb, diced
2/3 cups sugar
1/4 cup water

Add all ingredients to a nonreactive saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook, at a hard boil, for about 10 minutes, stirring often. Test for doneness on a chilled plate. Allow a small spoonful to chill on the cold plate. It is done if it holds together like a softly set jam with just a bit of liquid separating out. Once done chill for 2 hours to allow time for the compote to set up.

I apologize for my lack of posting recently. Work and life have once again gotten in the way. Hopefully, I will be back this weekend with some more recipes and posts but in the meantime, I want to remind my readers of a few things.

First off, Saturday is the the Milwaukee “Cookies for Kid’s Cancer” bake sale. It is being held at Best Place at the Historic Pabst Brewery, in Milwaukee and runs from 1-4pm. My good friends, over at Burp! Where Food Happens have worked hard to gather together a bunch of local and Wisconsin food bloggers to pitch in for this event. Unfortunately, I have to work so I won’t be attending, but I am sending a long a few dozen of my Chocolate Crinkles with Raspberry Jam, and possibly a few other goodies. If you find yourself in the area please stop by, support and great cause, and walk away with some great tasting munchies!!

Other event is for all you barbecue buffs out there. Steven Raichlen will be joining the forums, over at Chef Talk, from May 26th-29th. This is a “not-to-be-missed” event for anyone serious about barbecuing and grilling as Steven has spent years researching and teaching about the art of grilling and barbecuing. He has also written numerous cookbooks on the subject, including one of my all time favorites, “The Barbecue! Bible.” I urge all my readers to click on over to Chef Talk, register for the forums (it’s FREE!) and be part of this great opportunity to learn a little more about backyard cooking. I hope to see you on the forums!!!

A few weeks ago, my friends over at Burp! Where Food Happens invited me to be part of a Cookies for Kid’s Cancer bake sale. Having lost 2 family members to cancer in the past year, I know how devastating cancer can be, even more so when it afflicts those so young. I immediately said that I would love to be a part of it. While I have to work on the day of the event, I am contributing to the sale in hopes of helping raise money for this great cause. I’m also hoping to have my wife sew up one of the vintage style aprons she makes so that they can auction that off also. So, if you find yourself in the Milwaukee area on the afternoon of Saturday, May 21st, stop by the Pabst Brewery, pick up a few dozen cookies and help support a great cause!

Read below for more information, which comes directly from the Burp! blog.

Cookies for Kids’ Cancer is a not-for-profit organization committed to raising funds to support research for new and improved therapies for pediatric cancers.
#MKEfoodies will be holding a bake sale and silent auction to raise money for Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. The sale will feature items made by local food bloggers, bakers, and celebrity chefs, with silent auction baskets featuring items donated by local area businesses.

Together we can raise the funds and awareness necessary to change the face of pediatric cancer research and to provide more families and children with the hope they deserve. Cookies for Kids’ Cancer is committed to raising the funds to support research for new and improved therapies for pediatric cancer. Make the future of pediatric cancers something more than a scary statistic.

This past Spring a good friend of mine purchased 4 piglets for his kids to enter into the county fair. Soon after I got a call from him to see if I would be interested in half of a hog. With visions of home cured bacon, homemade sausages and succulent barbecued ribs, I jumped at the chance. He also invited me over to see my potential holiday ham. Of course, I couldn’t resist. When I finally had a chance to drive over to his family’s place the pigs had grown from the 25 pound piglets shown above to full grown hogs weighing in at over 230 pounds. This in just a matter of a few months.

Now I know many people would have a problem meeting their potential dinner, but I have grown up around farmers for a good portion of my life and it does not bother me. Some might think I am cruel, but I don’t see it as such. Most people don’t like to think of their food in terms of living beings and prefer to remain ignorant of where that steak or that pulled pork sandwich came from. Instead, it’s much easier to think of that meat in terms of always being an inanimate object. While this type of mindset might ease people’s conscience, I totally disagree with this “head in the sand” approach to blind consumption. If the only way you can eat meat is by convincing yourself your ribeye was never a living, breathing thing then maybe you should become a vegetarian. It just seems hypocritical, to me, for someone to continue to eat meat, but not think about its origins as a living being. I know this sounds harsh, but I think if more people would think about where their meat came from the better off both us, and the animals we eat, would be.

Our refusal to contemplate the origins of our food, meat specifically, has lead to large, industrial farming practices. These practices are not good for the environment, not healthy for the animals, are often considered inhumane, and ultimately I don’t believe can really be healthy for us. These practices often include packing animals so tighly together that they have very little space to move about. Because they are so tightly packed they are often pumped full of medications and antibiotics to stop rampant disease that can spread quickly through herds housed so closely together. They are also pumped full of growth hormones to help them achieve market weights in a shorter amount of time. Not only are these practices inhumane, one has to wonder about how much of these chemicals are passed along to humans in the end.

On the other hand, I have seen, first hand, how my pig was raised. I know the person who raised him. I have seen the large pen in which the pig lives, with only 3 others, and know he has plenty of room to roam about and lounge in his mud pit. I also know that this animal has been fed on a diet of all organic grains and the only drugs that have been administered was a shot of penicillin give once because of an eye infection.

I can feel good about knowing I have purchased meat which has been humanely raised and in return I know that the product I will be receiving will be more flavorful than anything raised using factory farm methods. I have also contributed to a person who farmers in a more sustainable, environmentally sound way.

I see it as a win-win situation, by getting to know my food. I win because I am guaranteed a wonderful, flavorful product, the animal wins because it is raised in a more humane manner and we all win as such small scale, sustainable farming practices are less detrimental to the environment.

I hope to have my half hog by the end of September, just in time for some cooler weather. Stay tuned for my experiments with pork!

On Sunday the family headed a few miles south to Kelley’s Country Creamery, a new ice cream place in the area. We were originally drawn to it because they sell hard pack ice cream, a novelty in this part of Wisconsin where frozen custard reigns supreme. This was our second trip even though the place hasn’t been open for a month yet, and I see many more trips there before the season is over. While we were drawn by the promise of hard pack ice cream, we have been hooked by the excellent quality, and the farm to table approach they take. You see, the Kelley’s also own the farm that produces the milk they use in their ice cream. It is my understanding that they send their milk to a local dairy producer who pasteurizes it and turns it into an ice cream base that the Kelley’s then flavor and churn. Supposedly, they have 61 flavors that they produce, on a rotating basis. While I haven’t seen, or tasted all of them, I have been impressed with the quality of the ice creams I have tried and inspired by their creativity. Of course they offer up the standards of chocolate, vanilla (which looks and tastes like homemade), and strawberry, but they also offer up more interesting flavors such as Purple Cow (grape), Root Beer, Orange-Chocolate Chip, White Chocolate-Raspberry, and Moo Luau (banana split ice cream-banana with swirls of chocolate, strawberry and pineapple). They are located just south of Fond du Lac, WI on County Rd. B (exit off of Hwy. 41 and drive east a few miles). Their website is here. Check it out, and if you find yourself in the area, definitely stop by for a scoop or two.

In the meantime, you can use this Hot Fudge Sauce to make your own Sundaes. This recipe has a great, old fashion flavor and is the perfect foil to a dish of vanilla ice cream. On try of this simple recipe and you’ll never buy store bought again!

Hot Fudge Sauce

1 Tbsp. cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup corn syrup
1 Tbsp. butter
3oz. unsweetened chocolate
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine cocoa powder, sugar and 3/4 cup of cream in a sauce pot and stir to combine. Add corn syrup, butter and chocolate. Slowly bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Once at a boil stop stirring and cook until mixture reaches 236°F. Remove from heat, allow to cool for 5 minutes then add remaining cream and vanilla extract. Store, covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks. To serve, gently heat over a double boiler or in a microwave at half power.

I have been blogging for just over a year now and I realized that I have not done a great job in promoting Wisconsin products, which is unfortunate as Wisconsin produces a lot of great food. Of course everyone thinks of cheese when they think of Wisconsin, and rightfully so. We produce much of the cheese found in grocery stores across the US. Most of this cheese is of the relatively bland, supermarket, let’s appeal to everyone, variety, but Wisconsin also produces lots of world class cheese, produced in small batches by farmers and cheesemakers whose whole philosophy revolves around the adage of quality of quanity. In fact, one of my favorite blue cheeses in the world is produced here in Wisconsin, in an Amish community where the cows, that make the milk for the cheese, are hand milked, twice daily.

Wisconsin also takes its pork seriously. We are a state that loves bacon, ham and sausages. A number of years ago, long before I moved to Wisconsin, I was introduced to Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Bacon and it was love at first taste. This was way back when bacon was still “taboo,” and those of us uttering the phrase, “Everything is better with bacon” were looked upon as nutcases, to say the least, or as heretics. The pro-pork movement hadn’t yet made its backlash against the “remove all fats from your diet” mentality of 1990′s.

Having been raised on supermarket bacon, I was blown away by the depth of flavor the Nueske’s bacon possessed and I was quickly won over. Since then Nueske’s has been the bacon by which I have judged all others. That was until a few months ago.

My wife, in her job as an area manager for a cleaning company, picked up a few accounts in Wautoma, WI. She was then told by a colleague that she needed to check out Stoneridge Meat and Country Market. On that first trip my wife picked up a number of items but it was the bacon that took me by storm. Thickly sliced, this smoky, salty, slightly sweet bacon has quickly replaced Nueske’s as my bacon of choice.

Since she only gets out to Wautoma every few weeks, she makes sure she takes along a cooler and we stock up on their bacon. There are three varieties that we buy, the Pit Smoked bacon, the Hickory Smoked bacon and the Pepper Bacon. They might have a few more styles but these are the ones we usually get.

The bacon comes sliced nice and thick, between 1/8-1/4″ thick, and has a wonderful smokiness that supermarket bacon just never quite achieves. While salty, like any good bacon, Stoneridge bacons have a nice sweetness that compliments that saltiness, making it very easy to overindulge. This also presents the only downside to this bacon. Due to its thickness and slight sweetness, this bacon is easy to burn, if not closely watched. But cook it over medium heat and watch closely and you will be rewarded with a little bit of hog heaven brought to you by the folks in Wisconsin!!

If interested you can also find them online at Stoneridge Country and Meat Market. They do have online ordering, though I don’t believe bacon is on there. It would be worth a call though to see if they will ship some to you. Or if you know someone headed up this way, make sure they stop and pick some up!