Crane Brain

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the ever-vescent chef, Ellie Lawton, culinary genius, star of Screen and Radio.

Oh my goodness.

Well, it might as well be something.

I don't know.

I want to be a chef on a boat.

That would be fun, wouldn't it?

Yeah.

I mean, if you're going to be stuck on a boat, you might as well have good food to eat.

That's what I'm saying.

She wouldn't be able to eat anything, though.

She's allergic to half that stuff.

You know what?

That's what an EpiPen's for.

I just start my day instead of coffee, EpiPen.

I have a, I have a question.

You co-host a radio show and you are a certified French culinary and a chef and you are allergic to a lot of food.

That

has got to be like... Okay, it's not a lot.

I don't know why people freak out about it.

They're like, oh, you're allergic to everything.

How do you eat?

Well, I'm clearly well fed.

I mean... I'll join the call.

I have two food allergies that I know of.

Seafood, some seafood, some, and strawberries.

What type of seafood?

Usually shellfish.

Okay.

Well, I guess

that's not so

bad.

I was trying to make a shellfish.

I also

have a seafood problem.

I see food and I eat it.

Yes.

You have a fitness problem.

That's the diet I'm on.

That's the diet I'm on.

Yes.

So everyone can relax.

I can eat a lot of food.

I am well nourished.

Well, you

cook seafood still.

Certainly do.

Yeah.

That's the thing about culinary school.

They teach you how to cook it.

Do you have to worry

about touching it?

Yeah, I have to wear gloves.

Okay.

Yeah.

Otherwise you can get whatever

the

iodine or whatever through your fingers.

In culinary school, when we did a semester on seafood, we'd have like eight hours a day in the kitchen.

And I would start feel sick by the end of the day, just because we're handling seafood all day long.

with gloves on.

Okay, now what happens to you when you get exposed to this stuff?

Why do you?

Are you like

plotting my death or something?

I'm not plotting your demise if that's what you're curious

about.

Usually like hives and I don't know, tongue itches, throat itches, closes, then I die.

So you could get like an anaphylactic react.

My wife has the same issue with scallops.

Oh,

okay.

You can eat any other kind of shellfish seafood, but scallops put it over the edge.

You've got to carry an EpiPen because you never know what it's, what, you know, especially if you're going out, if they cook scallops in with the other things.

Right, yes.

So I have a friend

like that and it's just shrimp.

Can eat everything else, just not shrimp.

And I go

to

restaurants and they'll put, like, I'll have something that's prepared near the seafood and that's fine.

I have to like actually ingest the piece of seafood.

Huh.

I mean.

There's people that.

Well, even in beef tallow or something, if it's fish is fried in there and then they have chicken

or everything else.

There's some people who can't be in the room with certain allergies.

Some peanut allergies and nut

allergies.

Well, we're we're hearing a lot of golden tones right now from other people.

And that is because we have assembled an all star cast today on Raised in the Woods.

And I want to say I am really excited about civic media and their expansion.

We are being heard.

This show is being heard in five states, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa.

Now, we're in the heart of the heartland here in Wisconsin.

And we have

got an all-star cast, of course, certified chef, Ellie Lawton.

We have an official sommelier along.

An official sommelier.

She's now allergic to any wine.

The proof is in the

glass.

Megan the salad bar Salazar is our official contributor and

Somalia for the show the raised in the woods officials.

No, I don't think many radio shows have an official Somalia.

I don't know of any.

I know of one.

Well, and you're listening

to it, folks.

And then, of course, we've got Mike, the Meat Man, Kretschmer, who's here.

He works for NICE and brings us all of the secrets about meat from everything from the wild game we talk about and the wonderful outdoors of the Midwest and how to take it to your table in accordance with

our tips from Chef Lawton, of course.

And today we've got a very special guest.

I'm excited about this because we have a fantastic array of things to talk about today, up to and including something the entire Midwest is contemplating.

And that is whether sandhill cranes should be on a species of huntable

animals in the Midwest.

And that is being contemplated in many states across the country right now.

And

there's many states that are already hunting them.

Yes, more than a dozen.

Yeah,

successfully hunting them.

And there's several provinces coming on board that will be

hunting them.

In Canada.

Oh, I can't wait to get more into this.

Oh, that sounds very

interesting.

Brad Heidel is the executive director of the Wisconsin Waterfall Association.

Dare I say, I think the Wisconsin Waterfall Association

association is probably the most active waterfall, you know, group in Wisconsin and very active in the Midwest.

And I do have to throw in the disclaimer that I get to do government affairs for them, which is a blast.

And we really dig into some things, Brad, don't we?

I mean, in this, this past session,

you know, legislatures are wrapping up throughout the Midwest, throughout the country.

We're having the spring elections are upon us.

But we had one hell of a last session with the debate, the education, the fortuitousness of the Sand Hill Crane issue.

How huge of an issue is that actually in Wisconsin and for the Midwest?

You know, certainly for Wisconsin, it's a big issue.

And like you said...

this session, we literally got to see how the sausage was made, right?

Mike knows how the sausage was made.

He made a

gesture

to Mike for

those of you who

couldn't

see it.

Yes, and sometimes making sausage is ugly, isn't it?

Absolutely, and dirty.

Yes, however, we came a long way this session and there were a lot of people involved, a lot of different organizations involved.

We can talk a little bit more.

about the shortfalls, if you will.

I don't know how you want to get into this or if you want to start talking about that right away.

But literally, we worked really hard this session.

We had a camo day at the Capitol in which a lot of folks showed up from all over the state and not just from

Wisconsin

Waterfall Association to talk to legislators firsthand.

And it was very interesting to see how

interested those legislators were to actually have people come into their offices and physically have conversations with them about the issues that were important to them.

Now we talked about two different issues at the time.

We were talking about our Knowles Nelson Stewardship Fund here in the state.

for Wisconsin Waterfall Association.

We're very excited to get in front of those people and talk to them about the possibility of having a responsible sand hill crane hunt here in the state of Wisconsin.

Yeah, and we're going to get into that.

We're going to go do our Wild of the Week before that, but we're going to get into that.

And I'm going to tell you a very personal story about that because this issue is very personal to me.

Because of my history with the sandhill crane issue and we're gonna talk about all that but first I want this is One of the greatest times of the year in the Midwest the weather is starting to break There's not much snow on the ground anymore.

The turkeys are everywhere.

They're

right outside your window They're watching them strut right now.

Yes, they are right outside the fishbowl There's no doubt about it and

And I'm seeing more waterfowl, deer, wildlife in the spring.

Be careful out there driving

because they

are running rampant across the roads.

But I'm going to start with my wild of the week, which has to be turkey scouting.

It really cannot be anything other than that because I.

I love I honest to God love turkey scouting as much as I love actually hunting turkeys finding them watching them seeing the social way they interact and if you think

Because you see three or four Tom's all hanging out together that their buddies you are sorely mistaken.

They are not friends.

So what are you seeing right now?

Because it's kind of the beginning of things.

I think we're the youth hunt happened already.

And the

mentor

hunt

and the mentor

and the mentor hunt, which Brad Heidel's going to talk about because I believe he had quite a bit of success

on

that.

Yeah.

So what are you seeing while you're scouting?

What I'm seeing right now, which you tend to see early in the breeding season for turkeys is

dozens of them all together still.

They've not really broken apart.

This is the time the dominant Tom's will establish their dominance.

They're fighting for that dominance.

And they're going to so they will start to break away.

And frankly, they're the ones who breed the hens first and the most.

And I'm not necessarily a dominant Tom hunter.

I like it.

hunting the toms

that

are less dominant.

And those are the ones that go off on their own and they're callable and they're looking for the straggler hens that are out there to breed with.

So that's that's the way I look at it.

But right now, the first season's coming up here in many states, the seasons are underway.

And it's just a great time to be in the outdoors.

Brad, you got a while to the week and you've been outside this past week at all.

Absolutely I haven't.

And

We're going to go down the duck road here, obviously.

Let's hear it.

But my wild of the week is we have got a significant migration coming through the state of Wisconsin right now.

And we've seen mallards come in.

We've seen geese come in.

But I can tell you this that right now, the diver ducks are moving through the

state of

Wisconsin.

You'll see these beautiful white Drake birds on a lot of the small ponds.

Green Bay is full of divers right now.

Does that bode well for the fall?

Absolutely.

The more you see

in the spring translates to the fall.

Absolutely.

The more ducks we have going north in the spring, their stocks are breeding and they're going to bring back their juveniles every fall.

I've seen some really beautiful full plume woodies in the

little

potholes.

Like take my eyes off the road and I'm like, whoa.

I would love to shoot one in the spring for the

wall.

We should put something together.

Yes.

Absolutely.

Waterfall trophy hunt.

Well, you do

have the executive director of the WWE

and the government

affairs

guys.

Let's

go.

We'd have to start working at the state level, but they'd have to change some federal regulations.

Yes, that would be the first.

Do you have a while to the week, Mike?

Yeah, I'm actually with work.

I'm we have the Wisconsin me producers show.

So I'm working on some fun items for work, even though it's both, you know, it's working fun for me.

Heck, yeah,

we'll see how that turns out.

And then

I'm excited to get out fishing.

The rivers

are

while

I

fish in

the

river.

And then the smallies follow up with that.

And yeah, so I'm excited for a little

bit.

I'm excited for you to take us all fishing.

Let's go.

Chef Lawton, what's your wild of the week?

Well, mine wasn't really outside.

I had to go outside to get the package.

So it was a little wild there.

My alligator boots from Texas arrived.

So my gator that I harvested, I sent the hide to Texas and got custom boots made and they just arrived and I'm so excited.

How do

they look?

They're so beautiful.

They're better than I thought they were going to be.

And now I just want to go get some more gators because, number one, I'm almost out of gator meat.

And number two, now I need a pair of those boots in every single color.

Damn, that's a tough wild of the week to beat.

I don't know.

Megan Salazar, can you beat that one?

No, I can't.

She's got cool stuff though.

I like to do some cool stuff.

You do cool stuff every week.

I did.

I went to Kansas.

I did a European Tower Hunt.

We dressed up in all our European hunting clothes.

See how cool is that?

We did a Tower Hunt and then I competed in the National Bird Dog Championship again.

That's so

cool.

Oh my gosh, that sounds amazing.

And I can speak.

from

first-hand experience that Megan has fantastic European hunting clothing because we did have the pleasure of hunting together in Scotland and Ireland and I gotta be honest I love dressing in European hunting clothing too.

It's so cool and proper and it just looks so cool.

I mean I don't know if it would fly here but I do love

just the drabs and the boots and the-

We did get some looks.

And the goofy hats, did you?

Oh yeah, people are like, what?

Cause we still have to wear blaze orange here.

So I had to find orange hats and like an orange vest and sweater and stuff.

An orange beret.

Not

a raspberry beret, a

tangerine beret.

Oh my gosh, we got so much coming up, including, I'm excited about the recipe of the week.

We love talking food on this show too.

This is Raised in the Woods.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.

Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get

started.

in the great outdoors of the great Midwest.

What an awesome show we have.

We've got co-host Ellie Lawton, the Culinarian.

We've got Megan Salazar along, Mike Kretschmer and the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association Executive Director Brad Heidel.

We talked about what amazing things are happening throughout the Midwest right now.

This show is called Wings and Things.

Wings and

Things.

That

would be a

great name for a show.

waterfowl show.

What can be this show?

And

I'm pretty excited because the

uh, the foul life, which is the number one waterfall show television show in the world, uh, which I have the pleasure of being a part of is coming to Wisconsin.

We have a relationship with travel Wisconsin and we are going to Turkey hunt this spring.

So I'm really excited about that because that, that is going to be fun.

I hope we can actually get some turkeys down.

Brad Heidel has experienced the cameras and the foul life coming.

We hunted with him on a

great successful turkey hunting in one of the zones here in Wisconsin.

But one of the things we talked about that I want to get into and dig into with you here, Brad, is the possibility for hunting sandhill cranes in Wisconsin.

And folks, I want to tell you this is a very personal issue for me.

As many of you know, who listened to the show, I was a legislator, a member of the Wisconsin House of Representatives for 14 years.

About 15 years ago, I authored a bill to allow a Sandhill crane hunt and at the time I was Metaphorically crucified for it.

It didn't get out of the gate.

It were to literally.

Yes.

Yes, I was it didn't get a hearing it didn't get it didn't go anywhere and other states were starting to allow Sandhill crane hunts and I

got what I consider to be a second chance in that issue.

I got to work for government affairs for the Wisconsin Waterfall Association, and we had a chance this last session to re-present the sandhill crane issue.

And Brad, and I want to tell you out there, right now you can't kill sandhill cranes in Wisconsin unless you get a depredation permit.

And if you do get a depredation permit,

According to the federal permit, you have to kill that crane and leave it rot in the field, which I think is important.

And every time I hear it,

it makes my

skin crawl.

They're killing over 1,400 cranes a year as part of a deprivation hunt.

Imagine

all that beautiful meat that's going to waste.

It's an absolute shame not to mention the carcasses, which people use the feathers.

Yes, absolutely.

It's just a shame.

And it's a revenue.

I mean, I would pay to go shoot one.

Even like turkeys,

right?

You start with one, and then if we go up from

there.

I think every true hunter in Wisconsin would love the opportunity, and we understand that it will cost some personal money to do that, and we

have no

problem with that.

But I'm going to tell you, at this last session, we really changed the dynamic of this issue in Wisconsin.

And Brad, thanks to you and your organization.

regular folks who want to see these animals put to use, number one, if they're killed, and number two, keep them in a healthy population check, too.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

And I'll also throw a thank you out there to the work that you did, Joel, and to the work that one of our great board members did as a volunteer, George Emmer.

You know, without you two guys, we couldn't have got as far as we did.

We also had some great support from our friends at Delta Waterfall.

Um, also Wisconsin wildlife federation, safari club, safari club.

Absolutely.

There were, there were a lot of groups behind this.

And this is the first time that it actually went through the assembly and passed.

And that's a step in the right direction.

That's huge.

I mean, for us to have, we not, we, we got through the assembly.

Uh, so it went through committees in the Senate and the assembly.

it passed both houses and got a vote on the assembly floor and passed on a voice vote with only one person registering as a no vote on it, which is incredible.

And I think for those who don't necessarily understand this issue completely, getting it to that point in one effort and one major effort, one

term is an incredible advancement.

Yeah, I was just going to ask you to talk about the timeline because it was all relatively very fast.

Yes.

Well, we worked on it so hard and we had so many people, you know, educating.

I think the biggest difference this time around was education.

Don't you think, Brad?

I really do.

And I really think it started out with the committee that we put together early on to get all the interested parties.

in one room to have a discussion about this hunt.

And that included people who were against sandhill crane hunting in Israel, right?

We had the International Crane Foundation was part of that committee who got together to actually put this bill in place and to help move it forward.

And I think a lot of that had to do with just the people who are serious hunters or tangentially involved, you know, with organizations who literally got up

You know, took a shower, got dressed, and went to the Capitol.

Megan Salazar, you were at the Capitol working on this.

Talk to me from a kind of not a you're not an outsider by any stretch, but you you work with these organizations, but you are a real and true hunter.

Yeah.

What was that experience like going to the Capitol and talking to the folks about it, whose mind you have to maybe not change, but open up.

Sure.

Great way to say it.

Opening up their mind on certain things definitely helps.

You know, and I think it helps bringing in people that they don't normally see.

They always see people that look like you, Joel.

And you, Brad, no offense to you guys.

I mean, if you go back and look at it, the majority of the people that are lobbying for this are our typical white middle-aged man, right?

So

I think bringing in more people like Ellie went to the Capitol that day.

I think that helps open up their eyes to seeing like it's not just we want to go out and kill crates.

Yeah, it's a cross-section.

There's

a

purpose.

Across section of outdoors folks who actually really support this

and to the research was presented You know there was science science and research presented.

Yeah, we're gonna

need to get into a little bit

We're definitely gonna talk about some of the science of it and and I don't

I don't think we can over talk this and that this can be a boring topic because in all reality, hunting sandhill cranes is really a microcosmic look at any species that

has a

healthy population and should be hunted.

This

is

raised in the woods.

This is raised in the woods.

everything about the great outdoors of the Midwest can be found on this show.

We also talk about food every single time.

Can't get away from that.

Very excited.

We're going to outline some of our favorite spots as the summer approaches.

And we've got, I believe, a fairly exciting recipe from Meat Man Mike Kretschmer today.

We're going to put him on the spot.

We're

going to put him on the spot.

And he's rolling his eyes.

Fair enough.

And this is a recipe you can use wild game or store purchased.

just meet from.

I'm excited about that.

We are diving in to the sandhill crane issue.

I think the hunting of sandhill cranes is kind of like the hunting of every other species that we've come to hunt.

At first, you know, there are reservations about it.

There are organizations, you know, there are people who oppose it.

And then the real difference, the tiebreaker in my mind.

for those who make the decisions on this, the legislators, is the science, is the education.

And the reality of it is, Wisconsin now has a very huntable population of sandhill cranes.

And then some.

And then

some.

And the agriculture community is suffering millions of dollars of damage.

Yeah,

fields are being destroyed.

Yes.

Before the plant even grows.

Yes.

Well, it's not just Wisconsin, though, either.

I mean, all our

Cranes are migrating south so they're going through Illinois and Iowa too affecting those states as well.

That's right and healthy and

let's be honest if you love a species and I don't know a true ethical hunter who doesn't love species of animals we care about animals we care about their populations and Any population that grows too much can face having

disease or starvation or malnutrition.

And right now we're at the precipice of needing some control or some

population reduction in Sandhill Cranes.

And Brad, who's along here, Brad Heidel, who's the executive director of the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association, we came to the legislature this time with real information about the science of why there should be a hunting season, not only the emotional argument that right now you can kill one but have to leave it to rot according to federal law, which I think is abhorrent.

But the science to which

says there should be a season on these things.

Yeah, and when you look at the science, you know, we look at the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service as the people who are in charge of our migratory birds, right?

Whether they're songbirds or whether they're game birds, U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service are the scientists who know these species the best.

So when we go to U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service and we have a conversation with them, they have a population goal set for the state of Wisconsin of 30,000 birds.

Right.

And those are breeding birds.

We have a breeding state here in the state of Wisconsin.

However, we currently have well over 60,000 birds who live in the state of Wisconsin now.

That's more than twice the population goal.

And when you start looking at those birds here in the springtime, when, when farmers are putting in their crops, whether they're potatoes, whether they're cranberry,

whether they're corn, beans, et cetera, these sand hill cranes right now are just going down rows and like a little sewing machine going pull rows just gone and picking those little sprouts out of the ground as they're growing and they'll wipe out a crop pretty darn quick.

So not only do we owe it to our farmers to help them out, but

We also went to the crane population as well, because right now those cranes literally, we've talked about it before, 1,400 of them are getting killed and not being used.

Well, let's let the hunters take those same 1,400 cranes and use them.

And also make no mistake about it.

I'm not just here to help out the farmers.

We also want to have the wonderful experience of being in the field and be among these wonderful birds.

We really do.

It's not

just... And the 1400 isn't doing any population control.

That's going to make a difference.

It isn't, it isn't.

Because we get that argument as well.

Well, what's that going to do?

Well, if there's 1400 less cranes coming back in the spring,

that's...

1400 less cranes that are going to be in the fields.

Of course.

Doing that damage.

It just doesn't seem like it makes that big of a difference when you're talking beyond double of what the population number that was set.

Fair enough.

Yeah.

Well, but you have to start somewhere.

Correct.

Yes, absolutely.

So until your point, Joel, I would rather have the 1400 birds that are sitting in the field rotting now be at least be able to be used.

I mean, how do we thank our harvest as hunters?

How do we think our harvest by making sure that animals properly cared for beyond the harvest, right?

And we're not

doing that.

We're doing a disservice to those animals sitting there and rotting and the farmers, they can't even

They can't even harvest these animals and use the mean.

They have to watch them sit out there and rot in their fields.

Yes.

Come on, how difficult, right?

No, it's a no-brainer.

Most farmers are hunters.

Can you imagine being a hunter and shooting that beautiful bird and watching it rot in your field for days?

No.

And know that you can't even use it?

I mean, come on.

In fact, I would say it.

I would be a lawbreaker if I were hunting.

If I were shooting cranes on depredation permits, I would be a lawbreaker.

I could not let it sit there.

It is not within my ethical character to kill a crane and let it rot in a field.

animals from the field to the table is incredibly important.

I was just

gonna say like any animal for that matter.

Right.

I mean, you had a squirrel on the road and you want to get out and get it because you feel terrible, right?

I

mean, we went to a coon feed not too super

long ago that actually surprised me.

Was

it

barbecued?

No, it was roasted.

It was

absolutely delicious.

It was crazy good.

And I'm gonna tell you, you know, as a person who enjoys culinary as much as I do, I

get as much joy out of eating a harvested animal as I do out of the harvesting of it, you know, the hunting of it, but the hunting experience.

is prurient.

It is, you know, primordial.

It is what we as human beings do to supply our families with food.

And I think there is an ethical responsibility that you learn when you hunt and harvest your own food versus going and picking it up in cellophane at a grocery store.

And so this all plays into it.

But this is nothing

What we're seeing here, the reluctance, is nothing new.

We hunt doves in Wisconsin.

It's an emotional situation is what we're dealing with.

And, you know, we have a lot of people in here that feel we have mystical creatures flying amongst us.

And we do have really wonderful creatures flying amongst us.

But they're also, it's time for us to have a responsible hunt as well.

Yeah.

I want to go back to...

Can you can you wrap back around and talk about where you guys ended again?

Because

yeah, because you this ended further than it ever has and You talk about there's you know people that are against it.

Of course.

There's people against hunting All species, right?

Yep, but you guys got so close this time around.

I mean you're talking about one vote

Yes, we are talking about one that's incredible.

That was the difference.

Yeah one that was a difference.

That's

impressive

So, to spotlight that for a moment, I mean, that's

huge.

I, you know, you bringing that up actually just, it puts a pit in my stomach.

Sorry about that.

I have that effect on you.

That's not the only

time.

We worked so hard on this.

I mean, I'd be lying if I didn't say I lost sleep over it.

You and I both did.

Yes.

I worked those phones for the last two weeks so hard.

Brad,

you were unbelievable.

You reached out to farmers to have them reach out to legislators.

Well, I have to say real quick, like Megan and I watched a lot of this from the sidelines.

You know, we participated where we could.

And you guys, you were working your butts off 24 seven.

I mean,

Anytime we were we were hunting throughout the last year.

I mean Megan can can say this to Joel's on his phone doing emails, you know making calls stepping out To do to 10 meetings.

I mean you guys were on it 24 7 for this so it definitely was not just a 9 to 5 hang it up kind of thing It was all the time

and guess what?

It's not over right.

Yeah, it's not over.

That's the beauty.

We took a couple body blows, but we got this farther

down the road than it's ever been before.

And I can tell you this, the Wisconsin Waterfall Association, the waterfall hunters of the state of Wisconsin are more energized now than they ever have been to see this through to the end.

Well,

being in the room at the Capitol at the last event, like you could tell the energy, like you could just feel like people are pumped about this and you're not, this is not the end.

That's a great point.

This is not the end and the momentum is just going to keep rolling.

Yeah, I mean,

The fact of the matter is, when we started, we thought this is our first real go at it, basing it on education and presenting all the groups and having a coalition.

And what happened was, we ended up getting really, I think, further than anybody thought at the beginning.

We did.

But then we could taste it.

We could literally taste it.

We got it through the assembly on a plate.

What did it taste like?

The

ribeye of the sky?

It tasted like... Speaking of ribeyes.

But we got within one vote in the Senate.

We had one vote and we just couldn't turn that Senator.

And he's a Senator who supports the outdoors and we just couldn't get him to a yes.

And so we missed our opportunity by one vote.

What?

So that's that's the bummer.

But what we're talking about is that we are on the absolute top edge of the wave right now.

I have never had so many people reach out to me about this issue.

Excited about this issue saying this issue has to happen.

It will.

It will.

Just

like the dove hunt, it took 20 years.

Yeah, the work

wasn't wasted.

Oh

gosh, no.

And this is kind of like climbing Everest, right?

People don't realize that it's very hard on Everest to get to base camp.

Base

camps halfway

up the mountain, right?

Oh,

that sounds miserable.

Unless there's a Shamwata hunt at the top.

Or a heated pool.

Or

a

Yeti.

But we got to base camp, and then we kept going, and we were almost to the summit.

And of course, we don't know what the governor would have done ultimately.

And we don't know how the legislature's going to have a makeup after the fall election.

But what I can tell you is,

We have put ourselves and and we didn't do any damage to our cause during it either, which was which is a dicey thing when you're pushing legislation.

You can make enemies as well as you can make friends.

But I think among the Democrats and the Republicans involved, there was much, much opening of minds and hearts.

Yeah, there was so much awareness, like so many people.

Yeah, it was really understanding.

No, back to Everest where Hillary step.

Yeah.

Yes, we are.

Oh my gosh.

Well, I want to talk, I want to talk about summer.

Summer's coming.

Oh, yes, I cannot wait.

I'm freezing.

I've

been freezing since last August.

My answer to anybody who ever says they're freezing, I tell them,

gain some weight then.

Just gain some weight, you'll be fine.

But you had a question about favorite restaurants.

I like that.

Yeah.

Well, Brad kind of sparked this so we can thank Brad for this.

But I was going to say we could go around and share what summer restaurant we are looking forward to dining at.

Well, I'm going to start with Brad because Brad's got a crowd favorite that is literally one of my favorites as well.

I do have a crowd favorite.

It just happened to be opening night this evening.

It's, it's an evening we typically go.

My wife and I do.

And that would be the Ishtnalis supper club here in the Wisconsin.

It's right on Lake Dalton in the dirt, not Lake Dalton, mirror Lake in Wisconsin dels.

And

it's, I still have never been there.

Same.

It's pretty cool.

It's one of the coolest.

haven't been

there.

Wow.

It's also one of one of the coolest supper club atmospheres of anywhere throughout the state.

And we

need to come back to it after the break.

Oh yeah, we're going to come

because I have questions for Brad.

I've got

good

answers.

I'm going to tell you I'm just going to tease this by saying my favorite summertime

Restaurant is also my favorite wintertime restaurant, and it is south of the border with our friends in Illinois.

But I'm

going to tell you that

it is definitely worth the trip.

And Mike Kretschmer, you said you're going to be in Beloit later.

Is it worth the trip from Beloit there?

The answer is definitely yes.

Come back with us on Raised in the Woods.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.

Listening to Raised in the Woods, the outdoor show that brings you everything from laughter to joy to sorrow.

Not sorrow that much, I guess.

Probably

not

that

much.

Sometimes I

bring a little sorrow.

My name's Joel Clayfish.

I host the show along with co-host Ellie Lawton, the Culinarian, who certainly brings humor.

And sometimes you make fun of me, too.

Well, sometimes you deserve

it.

Joel, you make it so easy.

I think we all do.

Yes, I think you all do once in a while.

That's all right.

I don't mind.

Hey,

you're an easy target, like an elephant in the sky.

That's almost like a

dead

one there.

Wow.

Could that be my dad joke?

That could be your dad joke.

That's pretty good one.

That definitely counts.

I'm not saying you're an elephant.

Well, I'll never forget that

one.

Elephants don't forget.

That's right.

Oh, we're talking about awesome places to eat as summer approaches.

And then we're going to do our recipe the week.

We've got Brad Heidel here from the Wisconsin Waterfall Association, Mike, the Meat Man, Kretschmer, Megan Salazar.

And like I said, I'm Joel Clayfish.

And I'm going south of the border for my favorite place to eat.

Summer, winter, spring or fall.

Uncle Nick's, Uncle Nick's heroes in downtown

Lockford, Illinois

is so

unbelievably good.

I just, and I think it landed as my restaurant because right now I'm just really craving Uncle Nick's.

I could go for that.

Euro sounds good.

Well,

we need to take a step back though.

Yeah.

Because Brad wasn't done talking about Ishtenawah.

That's right.

He

was talking about Ishtenawah.

And the

beautiful Wisconsin Dells.

Yes.

I need to know how do you get into that place?

Cause I've tried a couple of times and I just don't know how you do it.

You know what?

I can tell you what my wife and I do.

We go and we sit at the bar and we have some.

cocktails.

We've got Kevin, our favorite bartender there, who makes us running buffalos.

So we

need to ask for Kevin.

Ask for Kevin.

He makes a running buffalo.

It's absolutely fabulous.

Wow.

And we'll sit at the bar and we'll have appetizers.

And one of my favorites is their Escargo, and they cover it in blue cheese.

That

sounds

wonderful.

That sounds

fantastic.

That sounds great.

Yes.

I'm going.

Where are you going,

Mike?

North.

North.

To the

sommelier's area.

Okay.

Yeah, close.

Uh, Dora County.

Oh,

yeah.

Glidden right on the

water.

I've heard of it.

I'm

telling you, I mean, as you can't see us at home, but the Lake Michigan is you can eat where I'm sitting and three and a half to four feet away is Lake Michigan.

There's

like a

tree.

Yes.

You just can look out over the

whole lake.

It is beautiful.

The

food

is excellent.

And you can zip right across from our listeners in Michigan to Donnie's Glidden.

What

tone?

Ah, it's east of Sturgeon Bay.

Fish Creek.

Yeah, it's a little south.

It's not too far up in the door.

I'm going to tell you something.

I've been to Door County one time.

I lived there.

I used to see it from the house.

I lived in Egg Harbor.

Oh, that sounds fun.

Winters are very quiet.

Megan Salazar, what kind of restaurant are you talking about?

I'm going with a concept here, and that's the pizza farm.

Oh, yeah.

What is the pizza farm?

So a pizza farm is...

a farm where you can go and you get wood-fired pizzas, and all the ingredients come from the different farms surrounding the farm that you're getting the pizza at.

So wonderful.

So you have a little picnic in pizza, and sometimes they have movies and stuff.

Yeah, and they

change locations.

Like, some of them are,

like, moving