Antique Dairy Equipment

When visitors to our home see this little contraption, they wonder what it is. No one has yet to correctly identify it. Like so many antique farm items I have collected over the years, this one is most unusual. It originated with my grandfather, William Witt, who had given it to my mother and she, in turn, gave it to me. It has a story to tell, a story much bigger than the item itself.

Most Wisconsinites know that in the early days of the state’s settlement, wheat farming was king. There were but a handful of dairy cows, which were tended to by the farm women who fed them, milked them and, in their kitchens, churned butter and made cheese.

Wheat continued as the primary agricultural pursuit in Wisconsin into the 1870s as dairying slowly took over after the failure of the wheat crop. The transition to dairying was hindered by the macho wheat farmers who believed anything having to do with cows was women’s work.

Some farmers continued to churn butter in their homes well into the early 1900s—my grandfather was one of them. Grandpa Witt used this little wooden box along with the design block to prepare butter for sale. This was before milk trucks began making the rounds picking up milk from farmers for the cheese factories.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: It’s important to know where we’ve been, as we try to figure out where we are going.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

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

--Sept 14, 7:00 p.m. The Local Store, Eau Claire.

--Sept. 21, Evening, Wisconsin Writers Association Meeting, Milwaukee. Keynote Speaker

--Sept.22. 9-2:00 p.m. All Writers Workshop, Waukesha

--September 28, 5:00 pm. Platteville Farm-Town Dinner Meeting. Speaker

--October 6, 10-2:00 pm, Dregni’s, Westby. Book Signing

--October 7, 1-4 pm, August Derleth Center, 300 Water Street, Sauk City, Guest Speaker.

--October 13, Wisconsin Book Festival, 3:00 pm. Wis Historical Society Museum on the Square.

--October 20, 6-8:00 pm. American Legion Post 306, 518 Water Street, Green Lake. Fund Raiser for Princeton Public Library. Phone 920-295-6777 for ticket information.

--October 21, 1:00 pm. Readers Realm Bookstore, Montello.




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.