Wisconsin Foodie

– Luke Zahm: This week on Wisconsin Foodie .

- So my name is Martice Scales.

My wife, Amy Scales, and I, we farm this two acres at the Fondy Farm Incubator Program.

This is Scales Farm.

So a day in the life for me, coming to the farm, is usually waking up, stressing about, "Okay, what has to be done today?

Has anything died, and did we get any rain?"

What I'm trying to be, today, and for the rest of my life, is the father, the uncle, the community member, the positive Black role model that I needed when I was a youth.

We do the Deer District Market, which is right outside of the Fiserv Forum, and that's a new market, and it's awesome for us.

- What a place to be able to sell what you do.

– Amy: Yes.

- Scales Family Farm Inferno Dill.

- Good luck.

- Good luck?

All right.

- Yes.

- Here goes.

– Venus Williams: Anytime money is spent here at this market, you are buying into a dream.

So whether that is about a snack mix, or if you're getting a bowl over here from Tatay's Truck, or those giant turkey legs over there, those smoked turkey legs, you are buying into someone's dreams.

- I'm in heaven, honestly, this is that good.

Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters.

- The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie , and remind you that in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.

[crowd cheers] Just look for our badge.

It's on everything we make.

- At Organic Valley, our cows make milk with just a few simple ingredients: sun, soil, rain, and grass.

And grass, and grass.

- Yee-haw!

- Organic Valley Grassmilk, organic milk from 100% grass-fed cows.

- Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made.

- Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone.

Come for the adventure, stay for the memories.

Go wild in Wisconsin.

To build your adventure, visit dnr.wi.gov.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site, high-quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore: Know your farmer, love your butcher.

- Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin is the largest local hunger relief organization in the state.

With your help, we ensure your neighbors in need don't have to worry where their next meal may come from.

Learn more at feedingamericawi.org.

- Additional support from the following underwriters.

[gentle music] Also with the support of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

[upbeat music] We are a collection of the finest farmers, food producers, and chefs on the planet.

We are a merging of cultures and ideas, shaped by this land.

[sizzling] We are a gathering of the waters, and together, we shape a new identity to carry us into the future.

[glasses clink] We are storytellers.

We are Wisconsin Foodie .

– Martice: Come on, boys, go ahead, go ahead, babe.

I'll get Max.

Thank you.

All right, Max, let's get in.

Um num num num num!

[Max laughs] All right, we are headed to the farm.

It's gonna be another full day of working, getting eaten up by mosquitoes.

And fun.

[laughs] This is like my almost every day routine.

Get up, give my wife kisses, and then see how much my body will sweat for the day.

We are arriving; it's technically the Mequon Nature Preserve, but this is the Fondy Farm Incubator Program.

So there's 40 acres here and about 24 families.

So, no, we don't have hydraulics, we are driving on gravel, but this is the farm.

So we are plot two and three.

So my name is Martice Scales.

My wife, Amy Scales, and I, we farm this two acres at the Fondy Farm Incubator Program.

This is Scales Farm.

When the group gets here, I started to weed the peppers here.

– Amy: Okay.

– Martice: We're a high-density, all natural farm.

Our intention is to grow as much as we can in this small space, but grow at above-organic standard.

So a day in the life for me, coming to the farm, is usually waking up earlier than I want to, stressing about, "Okay, what has to be done today?

"Has anything died?

[laughs] And did we get any rain?"

Going to the farm, doing the crop walk, you usually, first thing, and looking at how things are going, and then just getting to it.

You know, I usually have a plan, like I want to get something planted, I wanna get something weeded, I need to get this tilled.

I usually have a list that's way too long and too big for me to ever accomplish in that day.

Careful, Maxie.

I have some onions.

Then I have some squash behind me.

Some peas that are done.

I have cabbage, I finished my garlic and my onions.

Then I have peppers, beets, some greens, a few cucumbers.

Waltham squash is actually starting to fruit finally.

So this is butternut, we have butternut coming up.

When I was really young, I wanted to be a musician.

I found a teacher that taught me piano.

I thought I was gonna go to college and be pianist.

Then I got into a terrible crowd, got into drinking and drugs, right outta high school.

Ended up going to prison.

Coming out of prison, doing work to keep people out of prison, and then getting into farming.

I think all of those experiences prepared me for doing this work, but I want more people of color to see people of color farming out in the country.

And I want to bust that door open and break down some of the fears around that, and also have my people and people that look like me to get a renewed and healthy relationship with growing food.

Because there's hundreds of years of generational trauma that we, as a country, hasn't even begun to reckon with.

But we want to actually empower people to do the work now.

The country will follow.

[laughs] What I'm trying to be today, right, and for the rest of my life, is the father, the uncle, the community member, the positive Black role model that I needed when I was a youth.

Ready, get set, go!

[grunting] I'm gonna win, I'm gonna win!

So my mission is really to give as many of the Black and Brown youth, specifically, but not exclusively, but specifically, 'cause the access is so rare, give them that access to me, as a human, to this space.

And giving them the opportunity to possibly cultivate seeds that they haven't had the opportunity to do that in the city.

What to say about my wife, Amy?

For one, she's just a beautiful spirit.

Amy is a very special individual.

She encouraged me, when I came into the room and said, "Hey, I'm gonna be a farmer."

And she said, "Oh, you don't have no farming experience.

Okay, you should probably learn how to do that first."

But that's her response to most of the things, when I say, "Okay, I feel I'm called."

She like, "Oh, here we go again, we on another roller coaster."

Amy does pretty much everything on the other side of the business.

I do the manual labor here, but we also have an apothecary, you know, it's just at scalefamilyfarm.com.

We can, we make all kinds of natural products as well.

And Amy's the creative mind behind that, and also the one doing all the research.

Amy runs most of all of that kind of stuff.

When the season's done, then I'll be doing much more.

But Amy, all those other things, Amy really runs all of those other things, you know?

Being face-to-face with the customers is important.

That's how you build the community.

And we like discussing with the customers on Sundays, you know, talk about what they got last week, our CSA shareholders, the ones that pick up at the market, we can talk about what may be coming up as well.

We do the Deer District Market, which is right outside the Fiserv Forum.

Bucks did they thing this year, so, you know, bring some more pride to Milwaukee.

And that's a new market, and it's awesome for us.

We usually just bring our canned items, and some of our apothecary stuff there.

If it was a good produce year, you know, we would've been bringing produce, but it is not a good produce year.

- We are at the Deer District downtown, right outside the Fiserv Forum.

And this is our last market here.

It's been really nice to be at a new market and in a place where, after the Bucks won, such a good place to be.

And it's just really nice to be amongst people who share the same values and are... You know, iron sharpens iron.

So I feel like the vendors that we're here with are very much about promoting and helping other small businesses.

There's enough room in Milwaukee for all the entrepreneurs that wanna succeed.

And so I feel like this is a really nice market, because there's so many people here that are helping one another to succeed and grow in their own small businesses.

So we have some really awesome vendors, so Venus from Alice's Garden is the one that actually told us to apply for this market.

And she's been a huge mentor for us.

We're in her Herbal Apprenticeship Program.

And there's a lot of food vendors here, and a lot of them are representing different cultures in their food.

And it's really nice to be able to try.

I often spend more money than we make here, [laughs] just with all the food that there is to try, and different products that there are to have here, so... [uplifting music] - I think it's safe to say that I am no stranger to farmers markets.

In my gig, we go around all over the state, and find some of the best producers and farmers and products that you can actually imagine.

And it's an awesome experience.

And we've had the opportunity and the fortunate experience to see how the Scales family grows the food.

But I think one of the things that are so amazing about urban markets, are the fact that you still have that connection with your farmer.

You get to see how the food is produced, and then you get to see the people who are in that geographical area respond to that food.

So we're gonna head on over to a night market tonight, and we are gonna watch how this all unfolds.

To better understand that, in some parts of the state, local isn't defined by simply looking out your window.

You gotta go out and look for it.

Amy, what's up?

- Hi.

- Hey, it's good to see you.

- You too.

- Thank you so much.

- Yeah.

- What a place to be able to sell what you do.

- Yes, yeah, this has been a really nice market for us, and a really nice time to meet some new customers that are not normally in our customer base.

- How important is it, for you, as a farming family, to like be able to connect with the people who buy and eat your food?

- It's super important; this is our livelihood now.

I've left my full-time job this summer, and my husband is down to part-time.

And so this is our livelihood, and it's really important for us to talk to our customers about where the food is coming from, and you know, share the realities of farming, and what this season has been like for us has been terrible this year.

And I don't think people necessarily realize how much it takes to go into everything that we do here.

- But that's so important.

I think that that's like one of the things that I feel like around the state... - Yeah.

- ...people take for granted.

You can look out your window and see food being produced, or brought to a market.

- Yeah, growing up in the suburbs, I was so far removed.

Like, yeah, we had a little garden, but I was so far removed from any, like, food insecurity.

And so being in Milwaukee, like we're intentional about the community we serve.

Even though our farm's in Mequon, it's still close to Milwaukee.

And it's so important for us to talk about food insecurity, to talk about food deserts.

I've never been in a place where I might not have something to eat, but my husband has.

And so our mission and our farm's mission, as we continue to expand and grow, is to make sure that we're teaching people how to grow food.

- Amy, you gotta tell me, 'cause I can't leave here without trying one of these Inferno dill pickles.

What is this?

- So this is our hottest one.

We just had spicy when we started out, and then our customers kept coming back, they're like, "Hotter, hotter, hotter."

So I created the inferno, which I have never tried.

- What?

[Amy laughs] - Because I'm a wimp when it comes to spice, but Martice taste tests every batch, so yeah.

So this is our spiciest one.

It has five different hot peppers in it.

And then red chili flake, so it's very hot.

- Scales Family Farm Inferno Dill.

[Amy laughs] - Good luck.

- Good luck?

All right.

- Yes.

- Here goes.

I like the crisp.

- Good, good.

- I like the flavor of the vegetable itself.

It's delicious.

- Thank you.

The spice kicking in yet?

- I'm feeling it build.

[Amy laughs] It's actually getting me in the back of the throat first, right?

- It's kinda like, you're like, "Oh, it's not so spicy," and then you're like, "Oh, wait."

- I'm gonna get dropped.

[Amy laughs] I love this, sister, thank you so much.

- Good, good, I'm glad.

- Amy, it's so good to meet you.

- You too, thank you for stopping by.

- Thank you so much for being here.

- I am Venus Williams.

I am the executive director of Alice's Garden Urban Farm.

And I am in the Deer District for the Deer District Market, one of my favorite places to be this summer.

- I know that you've been instrumental in bringing the market to the Deer District, and helping the purveyors and the food producers be here.

Why is that so important to you?

- Instrumental, invited.

- Invited, I like that, I like that.

- When the invitation came to be able to showcase so many local Milwaukee businesses, people who I love and adore, people who have passion for their product, we always talk about being creative and collaborative makers.

But to be able to say, "We are inviting you to this space, this championship space."

– Luke: Right?

– Venus: "This space where you can enhance the energy."

Anytime money is spent here at this market, you are buying into a dream.

You are buying into someone's passion and someone's vision.

So whether that is about a snack mix, or a hot sauce, or those giant turkey legs over there, those smoked turkey legs, or a delicious potato salad.

Or if you're getting a bowl over here from Tatay's truck, every time you spend money at the Deer District Market, you are buying into and supporting and building up someone's dreams.

- I'm so shocked by this.

- Man, this smells great.

- Best barbecue in Milwaukee.

- Best barbecue in Milwaukee?

That's a tall order.

- Best barbecue in Milwaukee.

- This is it?

If you were me, and you were ordering from the best barbecue in Milwaukee, what is it that you would order today?

- It all depends.

You want beef?

You want pork?

You want turkey?

You want chicken?

- I'm feeling turkey.

- Turkey?

- Yeah.

- Then I got you, turkey leg it is.

- Tell me a little bit about this barbecue, Junior.

- We are mainly a Texas-based barbecue.

- Okay, what does that mean?

– Junior: We took on the Texas flavor.

– Luke: Okay.

- Now, most people in Milwaukee use charcoal.

- Sure.

- We use strictly wood.

- Okay.

- So we use maple and apple.

- Nice.

- We combine them both to get the flavors of both wood into the meat.

- How long is this on the smoker for?

Ooh, that's tender.

- We smoke that for almost 16 hours.

- Oh, my gosh.

I could eat this, literally, every day.

Smoked turkey legs, look at this thing.

Mm.

It's smoky, it's moist, it's rich.

That sauce has got a really nice balance of sweet and spice.

I'm in heaven, honestly, this is that good.

[relaxing music] Well, well, well, what do we have here?

- We have honey from the hood.

- Honey from the hood?

Tell me about how that works.

- We keep our hives in people's backyard, and we bottle it according to the neighborhoods that the hives are in.

Here, this is historic Concordia, this is from like 30th and State Street.

I'm not in any other markets, because I have such a variety, it wouldn't really work.

- Yeah.

- And because this is the heart of Milwaukee, it's ideally, for what I have to offer.

- Sure, sure.

But this is incredible, the amount of variation.

- It is totally cool.

- What is it that makes different honey for different neighborhoods?

- The nectar where the bees get.

- Okay.

- So wherever they're foraging.

- Sure.

- So Washington Heights, which is right here.

See how dark that is?

- Yeah.

Now this is near Washington Park, and there's also, you know, they have the Menomonee Valley that they can go to, with the Menomonee River.

And then you got this one over here, which is from River East, and there's two different... - That's incredible.

- And they can get from the Milwaukee River, or closer to the lakefront.

Let's try Bay View here.

- Bay View, yeah.

I did a dinner over there just recently, that was pretty fun.

- See, and that's so much darker than this one here.

- Right.

- Which you tried, which was the Concordia.

- I thought the Concordia had like more herbal notes to it.

This one's definitely more just like sweet.

Jerry, this is really important work, actually.

You know, keeping pollinators moving, alive, fed.

- I'm earning my carbon credits.

- Yes, you are, indeed.

Thank you for doing that, and doing it in the most delicious way possible.

- Pleasure.

- Thanks a lot, Jerry, have a good night.

Wow.

I don't have much room left, but this comes highly praised.

- You came to the right place for your last little bit of room.

- Okay, awesome, tell me about Empress, what is Empress, are you the Empress?

- I'm the Empress.

- Yes.

- Even though that sounds a little full of myself.

- Nah, that's okay.

- I don't know, I guess I just kind of wanna hug everybody all the time, and this is a more socially acceptable way to do that.

- So what is the hallmark of the Empress Peanut Butter Dreamboat?

- It's kind of a magic chemistry experiment.

I don't really know how it works, 'cause there's no flour in it.

And something magical happens between the peanut butter and the eggs, and it just becomes this great cookie.

There's a whole marshmallow in the middle of the cookie dough ball before I bake it, so it's real gooey.

- Oh my God, look at this thing.

Look at the pull on that.

[Hannah laughs] [laughs] Yeah?

That's a good stare?

[laughs] - Oh, my gosh.

The consistency, though, is like the thing that's just killing me.

It's like chewy, you can see the pull-apart texture, so there's almost like a gumminess that's involved in it.

It tastes like nothing baked I've ever had before.

[relaxing music] Hey!

- Hi.

- So the word on the street is that this is where to eat.

- That is facts, 100% factual.

- I'm Luke.

- Alexa, nice to meet you, Luke.

- Nice to meet you, Alexa.

So what is Meat on the Street?

- Meat on the Street, so we are a Filipino food truck.

We started in 2014; originally, it was just me and my brother who started it.

And then now we have a catering service, a brick-and-mortar about three blocks west of where we're at right now.

And we still have our food truck.

- What would you suggest ordering?

- Yeah, if it's your first time here, I'd either get the OG, the pork adobo.

It's a slow-cooked pork dish.

You can get it over rice or rice noodles.

That's like one of our staple items, most popular item.

We came up with a fun one called the Hot Chick, it's like a level 3 out of 10 spice.

It's got rice, grilled teriyaki chicken, it's got pickled red onions, sriracha, citrus aioli, and then scallions on top.

So all Filipino components, but kind of made a little bit more, I would say, Americanized.

- That sounds delicious, can I do the Hot Chick?

- You can definitely do the Hot Chick, yeah.

- Great.

- Sure.

Do you want some beef kabobs, too?

'Cause those are also a staple item.

That's the thing we've had on the truck since 2014 and on.

- Yes.

- All right.

- That'd be great.

- We can definitely do that.

All right, here you go, enjoy.

- Thank you so much.

I can't wait, this is amazing.

And it's really nice to be able to meet you.

- Nice to officially meet you too.

Thanks for stopping by the truck.

- Thanks for having me, awesome.

So this beef kabob, like, normally my experience with Filipino food, is that you have that really nice contrasting balance of sweet and vinegar and salt, that sour really plays in.

And this is surprising because it's actually sweeter than I anticipated; it's delicious.

The char on the meat really brings out some of the sugar in this, and you get that nice caramelized feeling.

It's so rich.

I got the Hot Chick, oh, my gosh, and look at this.

So I've got chicken, I've got pork.

Looks like I've got tomato, scallion, rice.

This is gonna be a bombastic bite.

[relaxing music] Oh.

It tastes like, you know, you get that like stir fry, that meat, and that rice consistency.

But it's got crunch.

And I think that's in the vegetables, like these vegetables add such a nice, subtle texture, then it kind of finishes off with the richness of that mayo, that sriracha mayo, and the heat, mm.

This is where it's at.

Oh my gosh, I need a little bit of sweetness at the end of this, and I heard this is the place.

- You have come to the right place, sir.

Let me offer you a sample of my Emmanuel's Mix.

I take corn rice cereal, pretzels, mammoth pecans.

I put an irresistible coating on it.

This is our new spicy, would you like to try it?

- I would.

I could become addicted to this.

- Yes, many have said that, sir, many have become addicted.

- Mm, you got the crunch, you've got the sweet, there's a little hint of spice in there too.

- Yeah.

- What's the secret?

- Definitely made with love, sir.

- Excellent.

- I was made in love, created in love, and I give it in love.

- You ever find that food that you just can't eat fast enough?

I'm telling you right now, run, don't walk, run to Emmanuel's Mix, LLC, and order this because this is so good.

I could live off of this.

This can be it, right here, with Emmanuel's.

I could never eat anything else again.

I feel like she broke me.

Get down here and try it for yourself.

Oh, so good.

[relaxing music] That's what it's all about - Luke: That's great, and tell me... - Crew: That wire, yeah, hide that little one, yeah.

- Oh, okay.

– Crew: The wire was bothering me.

- My underwire was showing.

– Crew: I know.

- You just let me be on camera, had the underwire showing?

[laughs] - Welcome to Cribs , Scales Family Farm edition.

Here, we have a one-story, 17,000-square-foot cabin, equipped with a beautiful grill and a sink that does not work.

We bought this for our boys to encourage them to want to spend time out here.

It was very expensive, and they don't use it.

[laughs] - The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie and remind you that in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.

[crowd cheers] Just look for our badge.

It's on everything we make.

- At Organic Valley, our cows make milk with just a few simple ingredients: sun, soil, rain, and grass.

And grass, and grass.

- Yee-haw!

- Organic Valley Grassmilk, organic milk from 100% grass-fed cows.

- Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made.

- Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone.

Come for the adventure, stay for the memories.

Go wild in Wisconsin.

To build your adventure, visit dnr.wi.gov.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site, high-quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore: Know your farmer, love your butcher.

- Additional support from the following underwriters.

[gentle music] Also with the support of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

Zing, boom, tararrel