Wisconsin Foodie

– Luke Zahm: This week Wisconsin Foodie: - Tony Schultz: My motto for this year of pizza on the farm is we're saving the family farm one pizza party at a time.

We're taking the most common food in America, and we're putting our own local spin on it with ingredients grown right on the farm.

We're having a special ticketed event featuring Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, the best band ever produced by north central Wisconsin.

– Adam Greuel: Our show coincides with an all-you-can-eat pizza night, which, you know, the theory, I think, is you consume mass quantities of pizza and then you dance it off by the end of the night.

So, it's-- Calorically, it hovers right around zero, I think.

– Luke: We're in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and we're taking part in a time-honored tradition with the Greuel family, sugar bushing.

That's delicious.

– Adam: That's gonna get you to zinging.

You're gonna be zooted in no time.

[Luke laughs] - That is so good, it's so good.

I mean, you get the little-- - All right, I'll take a little.

– Duane Greuel: There goes the profit.

– Luke: [laughs] Yeah, exactly.

Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters.

[upbeat music] - Did you know Organic Valley protects over 400,000 acres of organic farmland?

So, are we an organic food cooperative that protects land, or land conservationists who make delicious food?

Yes; yes, we are.

Organic Valley.

- Wisconsin is known for some pretty great things, like football, food, and family.

At Jones Dairy Farm, we're proud to be a Wisconsin company, one that's been family owned and operated in Fort Atkinson.

Jones: Making mealtime better since 1889.

- The Wisconsin potato and vegetable growers are proud underwriters of Wisconsin Foodie.

It takes love of the land and generations of farming know-how to nurture a quality potato crop.

Ask any potato farmer and they'll tell you, there's a lot of satisfaction in healthy-grown crops.

- 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.

- 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.

Also with the support of the Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

[upbeat music] - Luke: 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.

[brats sizzle] 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.

[gentle harmonica music] [audience cheers] [upbeat bluegrass music] - Tony: This is a third-generation family farm.

My grandpa founded this farm.

My dad bought it in 1976.

I bought it in 2006, and I have just been trying to find a creative way to sustain the beautiful institution of the family farm.

This is my darling daughter.

– Maple Schultz: No, no, no.

[Maple exclaims] - Hang on tight, girl!

She's wearing her Horseshoes sweatshirt.

My motto for this year of pizza on the farm is we're saving the family farm one pizza party at a time.

This is what we figured out up here.

We're taking the most common food in America, and we're putting our own local spin on it at Stoney Acres Farm, with ingredients grown right on the farm.

And I am so happy for the reception.

We're having a special ticketed event featuring Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, the best band ever produced by north central Wisconsin.

– Collin Mettelka: I forgot how this goes.

[fiddle playing] Okay, I got it.

– Adam: Something like that.

One, two, three, four.

[upbeat bluegrass music] Hey, my name is Adam Greuel.

We're from Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, a five-piece string band from the great state of Wisconsin.

You know, we're here today.

We've been doing a show for, like-- This might be the fifth one.

We do this show out at Stoney Acres Farm, out in the country, Athens, Wisconsin, kind of the beginning of the Northwoods of Wisconsin.

And they've got a really cool thing going where, you know, it's-- We call it the Pizza Farm, because they use all their homemade or homegrown, rather, ingredients.

And they do this pizza thing.

And then our show coincides with an all-you-can-eat pizza night, which, you know, the theory I think, is you consume mass quantities of pizza and then you dance it off by the end of the night.

So it's-- Calorically, it hovers right around zero.

– Luke: Oh, yeah.

Stoney Acres, you really can't go wrong.

This place is like a-- It's a dream, honestly.

Good food, good people, good farmers, good music.

That's some seriously good pie.

I really, really enjoy that thin, almost crackery crust on the base.

And knowing that it's wheat that's been milled here, that's used as a cover crop for the wintertime, that's the kind of ingenuity that keeps Wisconsin's agricultural part moving forward.

All these ingredients came from this farm, which kind of blows my mind.

If you think about it, that's a really, really hard thing to do.

But honestly, it's a thing that makes the entire ecosystem here better, because all these creameries, the butchers, the folks who are working hard to make sure that every single thing on this pizza pops, this is the most local, regional pizza I've ever had.

In Athens, they do it right.

[upbeat bluegrass music] Let down your hair now, honey, you don't need no money Put on your dancing shoes and turn up tonight - Tony: Luke!

– Luke: How's it going?

– Tony: Awesome.

- And what's the magic?

What's the magic ingredient here?

- It's farm to table on the farm.

- Yeah.

- What is the most important thing to the history of this state, right?

It's the family farm.

What do we have on our license plate?

That little red barn, right?

- Yep.

- That is our icon.

This is that, and we've combined it with a pizza party, right?

It's a pizza party!

– Luke: I mean, not even saying I can see that it works.

It tastes like it works.

I've been snacking on pie slices all night.

But, like, this is truly a testament to your love of community, man.

And that, I think, is so beautiful in this day and age.

Seeing people who do the hard work, who grow the food for their community, host their community, who throw cultural events that people can come in and connect over, that's the missing link.

What do people bond over, right?

We have to sit down at a meal together.

– Tony: Yes.

– Luke: You are my hero.

– Tony: Right on.

- I love what you're doing out here.

This is so beautiful.

And for anyone that hasn't had the opportunity to drive to Athens, Wisconsin, poke just outside the north side of town a little bit and see what community looks and tastes like.

This is truly an amazing, amazing place you got here, man.

[upbeat bluegrass music] - Band member: Come on, let's go!

– Luke: Stoney Acres is a dream.

To be here and to be able to eat pizza where all the ingredients are coming not only from the farm, but from the neighboring creameries and friends and neighbors.

It's truly a community effort.

And then when you see folks out here who have traveled all over the Midwest to enjoy this night, quite frankly, I'm in love with this perspective of small family farms.

There's not just one size fits all when it comes to our farmers in the Dairy State.

We are super nuanced, and people like this give me hope for the future.

Come taste what might be.

[cheers and applause] - Adam: Thank you.

Good night, friends.

Travel home safely.

We'll see you guys again real soon, I hope.

– Luke: We're in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and we're taking part in a time-honored tradition with the Greuel family: sugar bushing.

Most of us eat maple syrup on our pancakes, or maybe we pour it in our coffee.

It's one of those staples of everyday life here in the Upper Midwest.

But today, we're going behind the scenes with a really good friend of mine who's known for his musical prowess, but also his family's multi-generational maple prowess as well.

[upbeat bluegrass music] Now she comes on like a wisp of smoke - Time to go sugar bushing.

[buckets rattle] So, basically, we got a couple taps in the trees, and, you know, it's collecting in there over time.

The colder nights are obviously really good, cold nights, warm days.

And then, you've got the sap in each of these individual buckets.

As you can see, this whole, the whole forest, the whole maple forest is tapped basically.

So, we're running around with our little buckets here and going to each other bucket and dumping it in until they're full.

Oh, we got a gusher!

That's good, clean sap right there.

For me, there's the family tradition is part of it.

So, it's like, sometimes it can be hard to find things to do with your dad or your family, your parents, you know?

And this is one of those cool traditions that gets you outside, gets you B.S.'ing.

It kind of becomes, you know, almost monotonous work where the B.S.

can flow.

You can start talking about life.

Sugaring, maple syrup making, whatever you want to call it, it gets us out during sprinter, the weird in-between season.

I just start feeling better.

Just, you know, you got the cabin fever.

You kind of find yourself being cranky.

You wake up in the morning with kind of a [growls] vibe, but then you drag yourself out to the sugar bush.

You start working, you get your blood flowing.

The sun starts hitting you just like it hits the crowns of the maple trees.

And, you know, you start flowing.

Your energy starts flowing just like, you know, what you got going on with the old maples.

Very satisfying.

But you go, and you collect, and you get it over here, and this is the tank that moves.

So, you're dumping the sap that you've collected.

Getting it up here.

That's where you get your workout.

And then, you're sending it through a filter here.

Yeah, that kind of iridescence.

That's beautiful, in a way.

Back when we first started, we weren't, you know, we were just doing it for friends and stuff.

Our filter that we use, we actually just used a woman's pantyhose for it.

And, man, that worked just as good.

But we graduated to the cheesecloth.

[ATV rumbles] [groovy music] And then, that eventually goes to the sugar shack and gets pumped in to, like, basically a bulk tank, like a milk, you know, milk-looking tank, except for sap.

And then, we pump it from there into another tank that feeds the evaporator.

So, basically, when you're a sugar maker, all you're really doing is moving sap from one thing to another to another to another so you can put some syrup on a flapjack.

So, here, we've got Persephone.

[Luke chuckles] Persephone is, you know, the goddess of springtime.

You know, it's kind of one of those symbols for us.

It's made it into songs, things like that.

And for whatever reason, it produces really awesome sap.

And it's a good lesson for the singles out there.

Sometimes, the best sap is right in front of you.

[all laugh] We haven't tapped it yet this year, and it's kind of like a ceremonious thing we do, 'cause it's fun, and it's the family maple.

– Luke: Of all the maples that you tap, this one has the most emotional significance?

– Adam: Well, we come, we talk to it.

– Luke: Yeah.

– Adam: Not just during maple syrup season, but it's kind of a-- It's a place of meditation.

– Luke: Sure, what do you say?

Like, what-- - Just, damn, honey, you're beautiful, you know?

[Luke laughs] [drill buzzes] - Duane Greuel: There you go.

And you can see a little-- Look at it here.

– Luke: Oh, yeah.

– Adam: We got a gusher!

– Duane: We got a gusher.

That peg is really gushing.

And this is why I call it Persephone.

– Luke: Aww, the goddess.

– Adam: The goddess of spring.

– Duane: Wow, she is really running too.

– Adam: There it is.

And now, we done got Persephone tapped.

She's a beaut.

– Luke: She looks happy.

– Adam: She does look happy.

Knowing that the sap is running from that tap.

– Luke: Yeah.

– Adam: This one has been here, so I'd be curious to see where we're at today.

I collected this two days ago.

We're sitting at-- This is two gallons of sap.

– Luke: Some people revere the medicinal qualities of maple sap.

– Adam: It's nature's Gatorade, man, is what it is, yeah.

- That's delicious.

– Adam: That's gonna get you just zinging.

You're gonna be zooted in no time.

[Luke laughs] - You know, and that's probably not more than a couple hours old.

- That is so good, it's so good.

I mean, you get the little-- - All right, I'll take a little.

– Duane: There goes the profit.

– Luke: [laughs] Yeah, exactly.

– Adam: Some people think the syrup just shoots right out of the tree.

They don't know the whole, you know, collecting oodles and oodles of it and cooking it down.

Speaking of, I feel like nobody's manning the sugar shack.

– Duane: Oh, I-- - Let's, yeah, let's go put some eyes on that.

– Adam: Let's just bring some lawn chairs out and just sit here and drink.

Yeah, man, this is the sugar shack.

– Luke: Purely for scientific purposes, would it be possible to taste a little bit of what's going on right now?

- Dang right, you betcha we could.

Happen to have a ladle right here.

- Hey, awesome!

– Adam: Get yourself a scoop.

I'd go for that one right there.

– Luke: This one?

– Duane: Yeah, that would be it.

– Luke: The crowd favorite, consensus pick.

– Adam: Oh, my gosh.

- Oh, that's so good.

It's so good.

– Duane: 216 degrees?

- Holy moly.

- Isn't that crazy?

– Adam: Mmm.

Three guys in a sugar shack just passing around... - A ladle!

...a syrup spoon.

- That's hot.

Actually-- - That is just what the doctor ordered.

- It's very, very deep in flavor.

– Adam: It's like a sweater on the inside.

- Mmm.

It is like a sweater on the inside right here in Stevens Point.

[gentle groovy music] I just have such a reverence for the amount of work that goes into this, for the amount of preparation, even to get to this point where we're steaming it down, and we're hanging out in your sugar shack.

It's truly a labor of love.

- It's cool, isn't it?

- Yeah.

- And, yeah, I mean, it ties in a lot of things.

It ties in, you know, your love of nature, your need for getting outside during the cabin fever time of the year.

And of course, your love for, you know, sharing sweetness with your friends and those who you love, and.

– Luke: Yeah.

– Adam: It's a pretty special thing.

Brats.

Well, we're just grilling some bratwurst is all here.

- What kind of wurst we talking here?

– Adam: Well, they're from Ski's, actually, Ski's Meat Market in Point here.

- Ski's?

- Ski's.

And I think I did, like, what, the Wisconsin classic one, which I just think is, I assume it's just, like, stuffed with cheese.

– Luke: Mama Greuel boiled these for a minute.

– Adam: She did, I know it's against-- The Sheboygan people are gonna be having a conniption.

– Luke: Well, yeah, let 'em.

- Here on Casimir Road, we like a boiled brat.

- Oh.

- They look very good to me.

– Luke: I love this.

This is the quintessential Midwestern Wisconsin working thing.

Like, we got neighbors and family and friends in the sugar bush.

We got brats on the grill.

High five, baby.

– Adam: Hey!

- Man, this is great.

– Adam: Happy-- Oh, it's the spring equinox, gosh dang it.

– Luke: Yeah, look at us!

– Adam: Perfect.

– Luke: Look at us, equinox-- - Adam: Smoking out the sugar shack with bratwursts.

All right, here you go, Luke.

- Stevens Point, the maple brat.

Mmm.

Oh, yeah.

Hot.

[speaks with mouth full] So good, though.

– Adam: I can eat so many that I'll have to work four consecutive days in the sugar bush to work them off.

– Luke: Mm-hmm.

Brats outside with your friends, making maple syrup.

The only thing left is, I'm hoping that maybe you can show me around downtown Point tomorrow.

I got a restaurant I want to check out.

- Heck, yeah, I love it down there, man.

Let's go on a gallivant.

- Let's do it.

This is great.

[upbeat bluegrass music] This old town's driving me to drink I'm so gone, I'm a stranger to sleep I held on, I held on a little long I held on I held on I've held on I've held on A little long - Luke: We are at BroKogi.

And one of the things that I really found captivating about this restaurant, actually, the way that it ended up on my radar, was this restaurant made USA Today's list of 50 restaurants that you must try in America.

- Did it, seriously?

Wow.

- So when I saw this on there... - Amazing.

- ...I was blown away.

– Adam: And I've kind of missed it, to be honest, you know?

And, you know, growing up, we were a very, you know, traditional Polish, German-eating family.

You know, lots of... - So, what you're-- - ...meatloaf, potatoes, corn, you know?

- What you're saying is this is gonna be an adventure.

– Adam: Absolutely, man.

And I'm into it, I'm here for it, for sure.

- Great, awesome.

Is there anything that you're looking at now that's jumping out at you?

– Adam: Bibimbap is-- For starters, what a word.

Also, I guess the hot tip is the... Was it the soy garlic or the sweet spicy chicken wings?

– Luke: Sweet spicy.

- That's the hot tip.

– Luke: Yeah, That is.

And I see the signal for "hot" on the side, so I'm really excited.

I like spicy food.

I know it's gonna hurt your Midwestern sensibility.

– Adam: Oh, my goodness.

[Luke laughs] - You're gonna be on stage tonight just sweating.

– Adam: Gonna the spice the Polish right out of me.

- I don't think that's possible, actually.

– Adam: Can I order one of everything?

[Luke laughs] [upbeat bluegrass music] I'm so glad to be doing this today, because, you know, I've probably driven by this place a hundred times.

And many of those times, I've thought, "I gotta go there."

– Luke: Right?

– Adam: And, you know, sometimes you just need a little nudge from a buddy to make it happen.

– Luke: You're a touring musician.

What does eating for you look like when you're out on the road?

- There's been a lot of different elements that when we first started, we were ambivalent about it, you know?

And what we came to find was eating poorly was, you know, affecting our morale and our mental health.

So, then once that became a topic of discussion, you know, I for instance, became the guy who finds the good breakfast joints.

I'm a big breakfast supporter.

– Luke: Everybody needs-- - You can never trust a guy who doesn't eat breakfast.

[Luke laughs] And we would relish so much in finding some local-- - Was that a food pun?

- We would "relish"...so much in finding what was local.

And that would become partially our tie.

You know, one of the weird things about being on the road on these tours was, you're going to these places, but you're not really forming a connection with the area before you play it.

And that's where you get this whole, you know, the joke of you're playing in Detroit and you say, "Thanks, Cleveland," you know, because you don't-- It's just all the same.

But if you take interest in the unique local cultures, and, you know, like when we were off, we would try, you know-- We were out on the East Coast once, and we got all this seafood.

Had this incredible seafood boil, which, you know, for me, again, I don't eat a lot of seafood, you know?

Like, it's uncommon for me.

But then, of course, you find yourself yammering about it on stage, and the crowd howls like, "Ah, these guys do seafood, too," you know?

- "These guys do seafood!"

[both laugh] Yeah, thank you.

- That looks amazing!

I'm traditionally more of a fork guy, but I think I can-- - Luke: You can fork it up.

[laughs] Stop it.

– Arthur Ircink: No, I'd rather see that.

- Would you?

I figured you might.

Oh, my God.

– Luke: Oh, yes.

– Adam: Things are getting wild.

– Server: Rice.

And the bulgogi?

– Luke: Yes, please!

– Server: Where can I put that?

– Luke: How about right here?

Thank you.

– Adam: Oh, man.

– Luke: Thank you.

- I mean, I'm just absolutely in love with the look of everything.

I mean, it looks fantastic.

Buy me a barrel of whiskey, make it sweet as honey My old darling loves me coming down the line [upbeat bluegrass music] - That is so good.

That beef?

My God.

– Luke: It's delicious.

[upbeat bluegrass music] Stevens Point, BroKogi, this place is truly phenomenal.

No pretension, no ego, just straightforward, delicious Korean food in a town of 25,000 in the middle of the state.

- The thing that I have taken most from this is I love to see the similarities between music and food.

– Luke: Mm-hmm.

- And, you know, I love exploring that culture and the way different things interact.

And I love celebrating the kind of nuance in communities as well.

– Luke: Yeah.

- There's a lot to celebrate in our central Wisconsin communities, Wisconsin communities as a whole.

And sometimes, you gotta walk in the door that you haven't taken the time to walk through, you know?

- Just once, Once or twice, you know?

– Adam: I'll be here tomorrow.

- Yeah.

[laughs] [hands slap] - Adam: What a hoot, brother.

- What a hoot.

- A true blue humdinger.

- True blue!

[laughs] [Duane speaking indistinctly] - Luke: Yeah, and you'd like to keep it as cold as possible?

– Duane: Absolutely, you know, I've seen people as much as-- well, even my dad, take snow banks, push 'em out.

[bright music] That's hot.

Actually-- - That is just what the doctor ordered.

It's like a sweater on the inside.

[bright music] Sweet mother of-- - Maple.

- Sweet mother of maple, that's good.

[Luke laughs] Mmm.

We are gonna be-- have the craziest sugar high of all time.

– Luke: Oh, it's gonna be so great.

- How many cups in are we here?

- I don't know, but-- - You keep dipping dip after dip.

– Luke: Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters.

[upbeat music] - Did you know Organic Valley protects over 400,000 acres of organic farmland?

So, are we an organic food cooperative that protects land, or land conservationists who make delicious food?

Yes; yes, we are.

Organic Valley.

- Wisconsin is known for some pretty great things, like football, food, and family.

At Jones Dairy Farm, we're proud to be a Wisconsin company, one that's been family owned and operated in Fort Atkinson.

Jones: Making mealtime better since 1889.

- The Wisconsin potato and vegetable growers are proud underwriters of Wisconsin Foodie.

It takes love of the land and generations of farming know-how to nurture a quality potato crop.

Ask any potato farmer and they'll tell you, there's a lot of satisfaction in healthy-grown crops.

- 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.

- 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.

Also with the support of the Friends of PBS Wisconsin.