Cheese Center in Plymouth, Wisconsin

Want to learn more about the history of cheese in Wisconsin? The recently opened (last October) Cheese Counter: Dairy Heritage Center In Plymouth is the place to visit.

Located in a restored 1875 building in downtown Plymouth, you can purchase umpteen varieties of cheese from local cheese factories, and at the same time learn about Wisconsin’s cheese history. At one time Plymouth was the center of Wisconsin’s cheese industry. Today, it calls itself the Cheese Capital of the World—with a signed congressional proclamation to prove it.

Here you can purchase books about Wisconsin’s dairy history—I signed copies of my books there last Wednesday and I met the assistant manager, Margie Morgan. In addition to having several of my book titles, they feature books about cheese, local history and cookbooks. The store also carries several games and books about farming and cheese for children.

Want to purchase a yellow foam cheese head or a cheese cowboy hat? This is the place. Want to try a bowl of delicious cheese and beer soup or feast on various kinds of cheese sandwiches. It’s here. How about a T-shirt inscribed with the words, “Keep Calm: We Have Cheese?” Yup, buy it here.

In 1910, Wisconsin became the leading cheese-producing state in the nation, beating out New York state. Wisconsin may have lost the title of producing the most milk to California a few years ago, it has retained the title of “Leading cheese producer in the nation.” This is year 108 and still counting.

The store, really a combination gift shop, lunch counter, and museum is open daily, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Closed Tuesdays.


THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Eat cheese. It’s good for you.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: My writing class at The Clearing in Door County is scheduled: Friday, July 27, 9-4. Call 920-854-4088 to register. A few openings remain.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

--July 27, 9-4, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County
--August 3, 1:00 p.m. Chilton Library. With Sue. Old Farm Country Cookbook.
--August 7, 5:30 p.m. Downtown Madison Historical Museum. With Sue. Old Farm County Cookbook.
--Sept 8. 10 a.m. Mt. Horeb Library, Once a Professor.
Purchase Jerry’s signed DVDs and books from the Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):

Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
Phone: 920-622-3835

DVDs: His latest Public TV show, One-Room Country School is now available. It’s based on his book, One-Room Country Schools (also available).
Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)
Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows,)
Never Curse the Rain, (based on his book with the same title)
The library has several of Jerry’s signed books for sale including Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Once a Professor, Every Farm Tells a Story, Living a County Year (reprints), One-Room Country Schools, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guidebook for those who want to write their own stories.

Contact the library for prices and special package deals.

Where Are The Bluebirds?

I’m sitting on the deck at the cabin, it’s early evening. I’m listening to the birdsong and waiting for the thunderstorm that is predicted. A catbird is in the big willow tree to the west of the cabin. Singing its heart out with songs of other birds as it’s a mimic, like its southern relative the mockingbird. Earlier I spotted a Baltimore oriole.

If I had to pick out one of the best singers of the evening it would go to a saucy little wren. It chatters away, loud and clear, and happy. I am listening for a whippoorwill that I heard a few evenings ago, but not this evening. Perhaps it knows something about the coming storm and has found some sheltered place.

Now there is complete silence. Not a breath of air, not a hint of birdsong. And then I heard a low growl—thunder in the distance. A bit of a cooling breeze washes over me, and the birds begin signing once more, no doubt wanting to complete their regular sunset chorus ahead of the storm that creeps ever closer.

Missing from the collection of birds I see and listen to this evening are bluebirds. The house pictured above is equal distance from the cabin and the garden. A pair of bluebirds has nested in that house for at least ten consecutive years. Not this year. What has happened to the bluebirds? If you have an answer email me at jerryappsauthor.gmail.com.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Birdsong in the evening—a great way to end the day.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: My writing class at The Clearing in Door County is scheduled: Friday, July 27, 9-4. Call 920-854-4088 to register. A few openings remain.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

--June 20, 1-3 p.m. Cheese Center, Plymouth. Book Signing

--July 27, 9-4, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County

--August 3, 1:00 p.m. Chilton Library. With Sue. Old Farm Country Cookbook.

--August 7, 5:30 p.m. Downtown Madison Historical Museum. With Sue. Old Farm County Cookbook.

--Sept 8. 10 a.m. Mt. Horeb Library, Once a Professor.

Purchase Jerry’s signed DVDs and books from the Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):

Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
Phone: 920-622-3835

DVDs: His latest Public TV show, One-Room Country School is now available. It’s based on his book, One-Room Country Schools (also available).
Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)
Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows,)
Never Curse the Rain, (based on his book with the same title)
The library has several of Jerry’s signed books for sale including Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Once a Professor, Every Farm Tells a Story, Living a County Year (reprints), One-Room Country Schools, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guidebook for those who want to write their own stories.

Contact the library for prices and special package deals.

It's Lupine Time

The lupines are open at Roshara. When I was a kid, I didn’t know about lupines, didn’t know If I’d ever seen one as they didn’t grow on the home farm.


When we bought Roshara in 1966, I discovered this patch of beautiful, lavender-purple flowers growing in on the south side of the property. I checked them out in my flower-identification book and learned that they were lupines and that they were in the pea family. Scientific name: Lupinus perennis L.


I was curious about their name and learned that it refers to Lupus, which refers to the Latin name for wolf. At one time it was believed that the lupines robbed the soil of its nutrients. The opposite is true. Lupines are long-lived nitrogen-fixing plants. They add to the soil’s nutrients.


Our sandy, acidic soils are ideal for this beautiful, native plant, which has a long tap root and allows it to go deep for moisture and survive during dry spells. Today, after removing brush and other shade-producing plants over the years, the patch of lupines has grown to a couple acres in size—quite a sight to see when they are all in bloom.


Beyond their beauty and soil enhancing properties, the wild lupines are host plants for the endangered Karner blue butterfly. We have Karner blues. Sometimes we may see a half-dozen or so of them flitting about the lupines—a double treat for any nature lover.


The Old Timer Says: Nature offers so much to enjoy—early June is lupine time.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: My writing class at The Clearing in Door County is scheduled: Friday, July 27, 9-4. Call 920-854-4088 to register.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

--June 20, 1-3 p.m. Cheese Center, Plymouth. Book Signing

--July 27, 9-4, Writing Workshop, The Clearing, Door County

--August 3, 1:00 p.m. Chilton Library. With Sue. Old Farm Country Cookbook.

--August 7, 5:30 Downtown Madison Historical Museum. With Sue. Old Farm County Cookbook.

--Sept 8. 10 a.m. Mt. Horeb Library, Once a Professor.

Purchase Jerry’s signed DVDs and books from the Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):

Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
Phone: 920-622-3835

DVDs: His latest Public TV show, One-Room Country School is now available. It’s based on his book, One-Room Country Schools (also available).
Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)
Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows,)
Never Curse the Rain, (based on his book with the same title)
The library has several of Jerry’s signed books for sale including Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Once a Professor, Every Farm Tells a Story, Living a County Year (reprints), One-Room Country Schools, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guidebook for those who want to write their own stories.

Contact the library for prices and special package deals.


IO

One Hundred Degrees in the Shade

It’s an old thermometer. One of those that has a red thread of mercury that climbs or descends against numbers. It’s probably 35 or 40 years old; I don’t know when I bought it. I nailed it against the side of the cabin in the shade, where I figured it would accurately tell me the temperature no matter what the season. And it has done that. I’ve read minus 20 on that old thermometer a time or two when the winters seemed colder than they are now. Never saw minus 40 though; I remembered those temperatures when I was a kid.

On Memorial Day, just a few days ago, that old thermometer reported a temperature I’ve not seen on it before. It said 100 degrees. I told my brother, Donald, who lives a quarter mile from my place what my thermometer reported.

“Can’t be right. That old thermometer is way off. I checked my thermometer and it only read 97 degrees.” He laughed when he said it. He’s got a fancy digital thermometer that displays the temperature on a little screen.

I checked my thermometer about 2:00 p.m. on Memorial Day when it hit 100. I checked that old thermometer the same time today, which is not quite a week later—62 degrees. That’s a 38-degree difference. Talk about a temperature swing. On Memorial Day I was looking for a shady place to sit. Today I’m looking for a jacket.

The Old Timer Says: Without a thermometer, some of us old timers wouldn’t have anything to talk about.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: My writing class at The Clearing in Door County is scheduled: Friday, July 27, 9-4. Call 920-854-4088 to register.
Purchase Jerry’s signed DVDs and books from the Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):

Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
Phone: 920-622-3835

DVDs: His latest Public TV show, One-Room Country School is now available. It’s based on his book, One-Room Country Schools (also available).
Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)
Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows,)
Never Curse the Rain, (based on his book with the same title)
The library has several of Jerry’s signed books for sale including Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Once a Professor, Every Farm Tells a Story, Living a County Year (reprints), One-Room Country Schools, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guidebook for those who want to write their own stories.

Contact the library for prices and special package deals.