The Blog that Ate the Upper Midwest - National Dairy Month!

Another homage to The Blog that Ate Manhattan, and this one guaranteed to make her jealous! Maybe?

.

You may not realize, but June is National Dairy Month. It's important to celebrate, and how we celebrate around here is with a "Dairy Breakfast." Mmmm, breakfast. Different counties around here do different Dairy Breakfasts, but today was this one! And since it's not too far, and I have friends who live out that way, it's perfect.

You may think a dairy breakfast out in the country, no big deal, right? Wrong. I left my house a bit after 6am, and got to my friend's at 6:30, and then we drove together out to another friends, and then got to the dairy about 7:30 or so. And here's what we saw. Row after row of cars parked in a nicely mown field, a short walk from the barns. (If you needed a ride, there were small mini-truck things giving people rides, too.)

There are two lines already formed, one to eat, and one to see the robotic milker. (We made the mistake of not seeing the robotic milker early, and then the line got bigger and bigger. But, it sounds cool. Basically, the idea is that the cows go to the robot and get milked. They go when they want. The handout I got said that most of the cows on this farm now get milked three times a day, and that their milk production is up. Amazing. Dairy farmers work HARD, so something that makes things easier, yay!)

We didn't make the mistake of missing the food line. Nope. And you can tell it's going to be good, because people are coming back for seconds.

This is a waffle-production line, which is about as close to heaven as I can imagine. You stand at the line. The waffle-maker goes down the line pouring batter into each waffle-thing, closing and flipping it, and then a few moments later goes back to the beginning and starts pulling out hot, lovely, perfect waffles.

When you get your waffle, at the end of that line are: butter (melted and not), fresh whipped cream, a selection of syrups, and strawberry mess! There's also choices of fresh milk, chocolate milk, strawberry milk, and of course, coffee.

Then it's time to sit down with all the other happy people, enjoy the scenery, and have some waffles. Don't eat too many, though, because there's ice cream outside. And if there are three perfect words in the English language, they have to be "free ice cream."

While you're outside enjoying your ice cream, you can see some crafts, and some local fun. Here's a team of Shetland (?) ponies called the Little Buds pulling a cart, doing a TIGHT u-turn. (Downsizing?)

And if you're looking for a ride, you can't go wrong with this! (It has a beer cooler on the back! And arm rests on the seat!

And that's the Dairy Breakfast for today. It was very, very good. And lots of fun.

ps. Thanks to my friend C for taking pictures on her phone and sharing them with me.