Kathy Schaal Previews Racine County’s Breakfast on the Farm

How

are you going to keep them down on the farm?

Kathy Shaw is here, former farmer, farm owner.

And now you're living the good life and your son and daughter-in-law run the farm, right?

Correct.

Yeah.

Kathy Shaw is here for Racine County Breakfast on the Farm.

Now, do you put this together or the head of a committee or just on the committee?

How does that work?

There is a committee, the Racine County Breakfast on the Farm.

And they put it together.

They, um, about a month or two after we have the breakfast, they start meeting again, starting to plan for the following year.

That's like the Thanksgiving day parade in New York City on the Friday after Thanksgiving, Macy's gets together and starts planning the next one.

Yes.

That's, we got to look ahead, trying to find a place to host it, which, you know, sometimes takes a little bit of looking.

Uh, the farm has to be able to accommodate parking, uh,

Attempt to serve all these people we serve anywhere from two to three thousand breakfasts So gotta make sure they can accommodate

breakfast I breakfast is breakfast I breakfast is Okay now one year you headed at your farm

Well, yes, we had at our farm And then we're supposed to have it on our farm a second time but the weather dictated that we had to move it

over to the fairgrounds in 2024 because of a huge drain, huge downpour we had.

And there's plenty of parking there.

There's no problem with the county fairgrounds.

That's when I was there at the 2024 one.

And I will talk about the menu in just a moment, but I love that scrambled egg cooker.

It's a giant, giant round thing with all the and keeps stirring the eggs around, stirring the eggs.

Let's talk about that.

When you come now, tickets to $10 each, children five and under are free.

And eggs, sausage, milk, ice cream.

I remember that.

They got tractors, children's games, a petting zoo, live music and more.

And it runs from what, seven to 11?

Correct.

Yeah.

And it really is good.

Now, I did not grow up on a farm.

Matter of fact, I didn't grow up within 100 miles of I grew up in the Bronx.

And then Long Island and we didn't have farms on.

Actually, I take that back.

There was a farm on Long Island, but my dad was friends with a guy, Guido Foglia, and he owned a farm, but it wasn't an animal farm.

They raised, you know, corn and, you know, plants, but it was a huge farm.

It's not there anymore.

It's all housing now.

But I remember going to that, but my father used to go during the summer and he grew up in Brooklyn.

And his mom and dad used to send him for the two weeks during the summer to a farm upstate New York.

And it was a regular farm with animals and so forth.

Upstate New York is all farmland.

And we went back there when I was a little kid to see it.

The same lady was there, but it was all burned down.

And she lived in this burned down farmhouse.

Animals were all gone.

The plants, the crops all gone.

And just lived there by herself.

And my father started crying.

He felt terrible.

He said, you know, this is my childhood.

I grew up going to this farm every two weeks during the summer.

Now it's gone and he probably shouldn't have gone back.

You know, sometimes you let the memories remain.

But yeah, so that was his chance of going back on the farm.

But it's really nice.

I mean, it's a nice thing and it doesn't matter if it rains because it's indoors.

Correct.

Yes, it'll be.

It's very nice where we're having it.

The fair grounds is

We're very happy to hold it there that they're able to let us come use the building There's nice parking and it's all inside And then it has all the same things we would at a farm except you're not on the farm.

You're at the fairgrounds.

So tell me now how When did your family is it your family or your husband's family got started in farming?

Were you always in farming your entire life?

I well I grew up on a dairy farm.

Yeah,

my parents dairy farmed

and then I married a dairy farmer.

But my husband's farm, where he grew up, where our son and his family now live, that was land purchased from the government in like 18, I think it was 48, something like that.

Before the Civil War, huh?

Yes.

And then it went from father to son to father to son.

And then it came down to, well, when the...

last one of that generation came around, it went from a great aunt to a niece.

So it's still in the family, but it wasn't father to son, it was aunt to niece.

And that

niece would have been my husband's mom.

Now, when you grew up on a dairy farm as a child, you had to work.

Actually, I didn't work much outside.

I did more in the house.

My dad farmed with my uncle and there were some

cousins and they did the outside work and I got to stay in the house and cook, which I much preferred.

Yeah, I would too.

I would know how to deal with farm animals.

The first of all, they're huge.

They don't look big when you see them on TV, seem in person.

Those cows are big.

And they can really kick.

Yeah, I don't want to get kicked by a cow or a bull or any other animal and I feel like getting kicked by even goats.

I don't get kicked by them either or landed ahead by one of them.

Now this is all part of June dairy month.

Correct.

That's what this is for June dairy month and We're the dairy state

We are the dairy

cheese.

We have milk.

We have cheese curries had cheese curries yesterday and This is it.

This is what we're all part of in Wisconsin.

Well, we have 1.2 million dairy cows in Wisconsin 48% of all specialty cheeses in the US are made in Wisconsin in Wisconsin.

We have 600

different varieties of specialty cheeses

I About two years ago after the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association meeting I went down my wife and I took a drive to Monroe and then to Such with the G. I think I forget the name of We we went to where they actually make the cheeses or used to make the cheeses then she said I want you to go to this store in the way home and Every cheese known to mankind and I found a new type of cheese actually having on my phone.

I forgot the name of it

I loved it, but it's hard to find because the specialty cheese and you know, you can't get it at the supermarket But it was good.

It didn't taste like any other cheese ever had before it's a real mellow little mild type of cheese and I forget the name of the town we went to I'm off to look it up on the map at the break But yeah, it's the cheese making in Wisconsin is huge and they also said during this place we went to One of the cheese makers

It's like, it's very hard to become a master cheese maker.

I mean, it's not an easy thing to get that accreditation, but wow.

Yeah, it takes a while.

We currently are shipping our milk to Decatur Cheese Company, and they make wonderful cheese, too.

But there are so many different cheese factories, dairies in the state of Wisconsin, and they're fun to go tour and sample.

Hey, I go through two gallons of milk a week.

That's all I drink.

I don't drink anything.

I don't drink coffee.

I don't drink anything else.

So I drink milk.

And so, hey, keep it coming.

Very good.

Thank you for supporting

the dairy farmer.

Oh, yeah.

But yeah, our mission is to enhance the understanding of agriculture through education and promotion.

So we're very grateful to be here today and promote our activity, the breakfast on the farm.

And we use the money made.

to offer scholarships.

And last year and this year, we were able to offer eight scholarships to high school graduates in the area.

Well, that's great.

And make it continue on.

Correct.

Well, that's fabulous.

Now, which college would you go to for dairy farming or to learn about the business?

I

think the

main dairy colleges in Wisconsin

would be either, um, UW River Falls, Madison or Platteville, but outside, um, Iowa State, Purdue, that would be a big one, you know, are also big agriculture.

And you have to know business because it is a business.

Yes.

I mean, yes, it's nice to live on a farm.

It's relaxing, but it is a business and you got to make money doing this or you

got to be able to do the books.

You know what the saddest thing was?

I go to where I go to church on the spring street ever seen Bible church.

all around years ago were farms, surrounding the church farms.

All gone, it's all housing now.

All the farms are sold off and it's all housing.

There's only about, I think it's 15 dairy farms left in the county.

And you used to see the farms dotting the landscape.

There's only about 15 left.

There's other, you know, we have grain farms, beef farms, you know, hog farms, pumpkin farms, sod farms.

But Derry is a doob

and bling.

Well,

they kept you down on the farm, Kathy Shaw.

Kathy Shaw is here with breakfast on the farm.

They had no problem keeping you there or your family there, right?

It's a good place to live.

Yeah.

And you know, and you said your farm, the farm land, your son now and his sister in law, your daughter in law run, it's been since the 1840s that you bought the property.

Yes.

Wow.

That's a big responsibility.

Now, here's the big question.

Does he have a family that's going to take over after he moves on?

Uh, yes, we do.

All right.

Here it goes.

His, uh, their oldest son, our grandson, uh, recently graduated from Iowa state.

Oh, yeah.

And, uh, we'll be coming back this summer to help start working with his dad on the farm.

And he

keeps going.

Yes, it does.

It makes you, it does make you feel good.

It

makes us very, feel very good, very proud, very proud of what they can do.

Did you ever get the feeling that farm life enough?

I want to go to the city and see what else is out there

No, not really.

I it's it's a great way to raise a family Learned responsibility Chores if they got to be done every day and but to know what physical labor is and Our children all had the opportunity to decide to stay or to move on

But we told them all, you need to work off the farm before you come home.

Well, that's good.

And you, it was a dairy farm.

Did you have any other crops on the farm or just?

We

raise crops, but all our crops are, um, raised for feed for the, for the animals.

So

we have corn and soybeans and hay, wheat, and then everything goes back to the animals.

Let's talk about breakfast on the farm.

It's this Saturday from seven a.m.

to 11 a.m.

at the Racine County Fairgrounds, 10 bucks for adults.

Kids under five eat for free.

And we'll talk about the menu again because everybody said, who breakfast?

What are you having?

This is everything.

Egg, sausage, milk, ice cream.

You can eat tractors, children's games, petting zoos.

You know, I always had a problem with that.

And I talked about this before you came in.

You're eating sausage.

There's the, there's the pig.

A petting zoo.

I would always feel terrible about that.

You know, obviously you're on a farm.

You can't name the animals, start naming them.

You don't want to eat them.

So, but you'd never, you'd never, your cows weren't for food.

You just, dairy cows, right?

Right.

We

have

dairy cows.

We ship

all our

bullcats.

We ship.

We don't raise them.

So who puts us all together breakfast on the

farm?

The Racine County Breakfast on the Farm Committee puts it together and they plan a year out finding a farm and the food and

Everybody has their job, get the posters made, put them up, contact the radio, TV, newspapers, and get it out there, the word out there, spread it around and promote our, promote agriculture.

We're promoting agriculture in the state of Wisconsin, in the county of Racine, that it isn't just dairy, though we're celebrating June is Dairy Month, because we're Wisconsin,

but there is

so much more to agriculture.

than just the farm.

By the way, the other town I was thinking of, I mentioned Monroe, Nouglaris, and there was one more.

Not just thought about the next one, because we went to three different places and they showed us the old cheese making machines they used to have.

And that was really, it's an interesting process.

Very, I mean, it's a lot.

I mean, it's not just, you know, pour some milk and stir it and you get cheese.

There's a lot more to it than that.

They show the skimming process where you skim with cheesecloth or whatever it is.

I guess that's where it gets its name from.

So breakfast on the farm.

Now this is in, it's not the whole fairgrounds.

It's concentrated near the beginning of the fair when you first walk in.

Um, yes, they'll, um, we're down in one of the activity buildings and you'll go in there and the breakfast is served in there.

And then outside that we have the petting zoo.

And I think there's going to be some tractors from

Case, J.I.

Case is gonna have some tractors there, some equipment for kids to look at.

And we have a band, Sawdust Symphony is playing, a

local band.

You got music too, huh?

Live music we

have.

So there's fun and activities for everybody.

I'm looking at, who's, that's not, is that whose farm is that?

Do you know who's in the background?

Do you know whose farm that is?

No.

Okay, I thought maybe that was yours.

Wow, those cows are big.

Wow.

So, so your son runs it now and I saw you showed me a TV clip.

He was on Channel 6 in Milwaukee.

Correct.

Talking about breakfast on the farm and he looks good.

He handled that interview very well.

Yes, we're very proud of him.

He did, he did a very nice interview and it was very nice of Channel 6 Fox 6 to promote June is Dairy Month by interviewing different farmers throughout the Southeast Wisconsin here.

Now,

At any time did your son say, I don't want to do farming.

I want to move on to something else.

I want to do computers.

I want to do, did he ever, was this always from the day he was a little kid to president?

He knew what his, his life was going to be.

I think in high school at one point he thought about doing maybe other things because farming, especially dairy farming is a 24 seven, 365 days of the year commitment.

And once you're in it.

There's really not a good way out of it.

And he thought, I want something else.

I want something different, something more.

But when he went off to college, I think he realized that what we have, a lot of people don't have anymore.

Grandpa had to sell the farm.

The farm got divided amongst five siblings.

It's no longer there.

And I think, and he met his future wife, who was, came from a dairy farm.

really promote agriculture and I think he decided to come back home.

Well, look at that.

And we're so

blessed.

This reminds me of the godfather when Al Pacino says, every time I think I'm getting out there, pull me back in.

Well, this is great.

I'm so happy to have you in here because you're really proud of farming.

What do you have there?

Articles and everything?

Yes, this was in the Standard Press in the Burlington Standard Press this last week.

They had a very nice write up about the breakfast on the farm, the activities going on, how long we've been doing it.

We took a little break from doing it, and then it started up again in 2015.

Now for COVID, yeah.

And now we've been doing it ever since.

Look at that skillet.

The sauces skillet.

We had that specially made.

Wow.

And the egg one used to is very similar, but it's got that round thing moving around to keep the eggs getting scrambled.

Well, that's great.

What else you got there?

Anything else?

This is our pamphlet that we'll be handing out, tells a little bit about what we do, who we promote, who the scholarship recipients are.

They will be announced.

They haven't been announced yet, so can't read it online there on the backside.

They don't know.

Oh, I have secret information.

Yes.

It'll be

announced at breakfast.

That's power.

The history of breakfast on the farm.

Wow.

Look at it going back.

These farms still around the ones where it used to be.

Yes.

Good.

Good.

Good.

Good.

Good.

Well, this is great.

And they got a long list of sponsors there.

That's great.

And we're happy to have you on every year.

Well, thank you.

You want to promote June Dairy Month.

Of course, we brought it with our farm show with Pam Yankee every morning at 5 a.m.

And then again at 6 30 and 7 30.

She's coming up again.

She promotes June Dairy Month.

Yes.

But thank you so much for inviting us to be on to promote what we're doing.

And thank you for promoting agriculture in Wisconsin through June's Dairy Month.

Well, that's great.

Thank you very much.

And let me just repeat everything.

This is Racine County Breakfast on the Farm.

It's June 27th this Saturday from 7 to 11 a.m.

It gets to $10.

Children five and under are free.

And that's the egg sausage.

Milk ice cream.

I remember the I remember when I went there had the ice cream scooper.

And I said, you know, don't be cheap on that scoop.

And it was a huge scoop of ice cream.

I got out of that thing.

Tractors, children's games, betting zoo, live music.

And who's doing the live music again?

Sada

Symphony.

All right.

We're seeing County Fairgrounds right there on Durand Avenue and Union Grove.

My wife is from Union Grove.

She grew up there.

Oh, nice.

He told me once she snuck into the when she was a kid snuck in and then the story started to change, I think.

But I think she

She told me her and her brother had snuck in under the fence and later on she said, well, we didn't really.

I think that's what you said.

I could be wrong because she lived not far away from the first in County Fairgrounds.

All right.

That's this Saturday, seven to 11.

And it's at the Racine County Fairgrounds, Rainier Shank.

It's indoors.

Yes.

Yes.

We

will be in a building

and tons of parking in other fairgrounds.

They have millions of parking spaces out there.

And so come rain or shine.

Yeah.

Breakfast on the farm.

Now, I told you I have something to do that day, but since it's seven a.m., I might be able to stop by real early.

Good.

Yeah, that'll be good.

Kathy, thank you very much.

You always have a smile on your face.

Happy.

You know, I'm telling you something.

And that's good.

So you were working all your life on a farm.

Yes, I've lived all my life on the farm.

Was it tough to give it up?

It was it was hard leaving the farm.

We lived on the farm.

Well, my husband had been there all his life.

We were married and lived there for 34 years after we married.

His dad moved off and we were able to move on.

And so after our youngest graduated from high school, we moved off.

So our son and his wife could move on with their family because if you're going to, you know, live there, you want your family there too.

So you're all together.

Otherwise he got up in the morning, kids were in bed, he came home, the kids were in bed.

That's no way to be a dad.

I love having you in here.

He's such a smiley, happy person.

Like we need that in the morning of this building.

Thank you, Kathy.

Kathy Shaw, breakfast on the farm.

One more time.

It's at the Racine County Fairgrounds this Saturday.

Tickets are $10 and $10.

Where can you get a breakfast for $10 these days?

I mean, you can't.

I mean, $10 to each children, five and under, eat free.

And if you want more information, go to Racine County, that's CO, breakfast.com.

Racine.

co breakfast.com.

And you get all the details, but I just gave you all the details this Saturday, seven to 11 at the Racine County Fairgrounds.

All you need to know breakfast on the farm.

Where's next year is going to be, you know,

we don't know yet, or at least I don't know

yet.

You're not telling me another one of those secrets you can't divulge.

Yes, it is.

We got to wait.

Really?

Okay.

You're lucky.

I was going to give out those names.

I didn't, I didn't do it because I didn't want to embarrass you.

So I didn't do it.

All right.

Thank you, Kathy.

Thank you for having.