Welcome, everybody, to Midday Magazine for this July 22, 2024.
Have your host, James here.
And we are joined in studio right now by our 77th, Allison Darryl and Miss Haley Heinsel
is with us right now.
Haley, how are you?
Wonderful.
How are you doing today?
Doing good.
It's great to have you here.
Thank you very much for being in studio.
Haley, we're looking forward to getting to know you, talking about how we can sweeten
up everybody's summer.
But I have to, right away, start off with, that is an amazing purse.
That is an amazing purse, especially for Allison Darryl.
Yes, the conference certainly matches, doesn't it?
It really does.
Nicely done.
Nicely done.
Haley, thank you so much for being here.
I like to always ask people their origin story when we first get to know them.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and where you're from?
Yes, absolutely.
So my name is Haley Heinsel.
I'm serving Wisconsin as the 77th, Allison Darryl and, and I'm originally from O'Connor
Walk, Wisconsin, which is a fairly urban area in our state.
And like many consumers, I did not grow up on a farm.
I was always really curious about where my food came from.
Where did that gallon of milk come from before the grocery store?
And that curiosity is what really drives my passion for agriculture.
I joined FFA, the future farmers of America in high school.
And in 2018, I milked a cow for the very first time, setting my life on a new path towards
learning everything I could about Wisconsin agriculture.
I'm recently a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Life Sciences Communication
program.
And during college, I was involved in a lot of programs that kept me involved in agriculture
like the Babcock House Student Cooperative, the Science Communication Club, and I also served
on the Wisconsin Agriculture and Life Sciences Alumni Association Board.
And most importantly, during college, I also worked at the Wisconsin State Fair, Darryl
Lane, which is how I met Allison Darryl and for the first time two summers ago.
This was 75th Allison Darryl and Taylor Schaefer.
We got to milk cows together on the news that year, and that's really what inspired
me to want to become Allison Darryl and, and that's when I kind of switched into the
communications field to pursue becoming Allison.
It's a very, very impressive resume.
Very impressive, Hailey.
I commend you on all the work that you've done in school and what you've done since.
It does sound a little like this.
Wasn't something that you had planned on.
This is something that just kind of came out of the, well, this seems like I want to
do this.
Yes.
It kind of came out of the blue, I suppose.
Two years of prep seems like a long time, but when you talk it to some of the other top
candidates, like, Allison was kind of a figure for them their whole life.
And I'm excited to get to be that for other people.
And part of the reason I wanted to run for Alice was to inspire, you know, people from
urban audiences that they can be Alice.
They can be a big piece of agriculture.
If you've eaten today, you are part of the story of agriculture.
Well said, very well said, and they got a great Alice in there in the spot right now.
Somebody who is hungry and energetic for this position is always wonderful.
I always like to note this too, Hailey, because we have a lot of people.
I'm from a different generation.
And because of that, it always seems like older generations want to pick on younger generations
and some of that and everything.
I am encouraged every time I meet a new Alice, I feel better and better and stronger about
the future, having such great young energetic minds like yourself in these positions, helping
support our ag industry.
Thank you so much.
It's great to see.
Congratulations again on this.
Hailey's been at the job for a couple of weeks and already put in a lot of miles.
Appreciate that.
Appreciate you going around the state and doing a lot of that.
And I do want to mention Crawford County, Wisconsin, is the proud to be the site of the 78th
Alice in Wales, Ellison, Dairyland Finals in May.
Make sure to mark your calendars for that.
You want to attend that one.
That's going to be a lot of fun.
Yes.
And throughout the next year, I'm going to be visiting Crawford County about once a month.
It even made me more than a few times a month.
I'm learning all about the diversity of the agriculture industry just in Crawford.
The driftless area has so much to offer.
It's just a really unique place in our state and Crawford County specifically.
They are the number nine county in Wisconsin for swine production and 58% of the acreage
in Crawford County is used for agricultural usage.
So I'm really excited to learn more about their agriculture industry.
This is one of the things I love about interviewing people like you, Hailey, is I just learned
something too.
Something you should know about me.
I'm a bit of a city boy.
I grew up in an urban area.
Didn't know much about farming or anything until I moved out here.
And a little similar to you, I was a much older person when I milked my first, but I milked
a goat.
That was my first experience with that.
It was interesting.
You don't have as many teeth.
It was a fun experience, but one thing I will say, and I don't want to brag, but as a city
boy, even I know ice cream, I feel pretty confident about that.
And July is the national ice cream month.
As summer is heating up, we're looking for ways to kind of sweeten people's summers
a little bit.
So why is now the perfect time to make your summer a little sweeter?
No matter how you scoop it, Wisconsinites love ice cream.
In fact, we're eating about 12.1 pounds per person per year.
I'm happy to say I'm above average in the stat especially because the last two weeks
as Alice, I've spent every day consuming ice cream.
It's been wonderful.
We've been celebrating national ice cream months since 1984 when President Ronald Reagan
decided it was a great way to kick off summer with a great Wisconsin dairy treat.
You know, we've, especially in this state where we are the dairy state and we love our
dairy.
We love our ice cream, but we have different things, different types of ice cream as well.
Summer is the perfect time to indulge in local dairy foods as well.
Absolutely.
We are home to 46 dairy plants in Wisconsin producing ice cream and other frozen dairy
novelty products.
We have to remember when we're consuming great ice cream, we're also consuming great
dairy and that starts the farm.
So while we are promoting those ice cream processors and those ice cream parlors, we're
also supporting those Wisconsin dairy farmers.
We have 6,000 dairy farmers in Wisconsin and 95% of those farms are still family-owned.
It's such a cool stat and I think that's a boy a comforting stat when I hear to be honest
with you.
That's very unique.
We can make our own ice cream as well as a way to celebrate this month isn't that correct?
Yes.
Yesterday was actually National Ice Cream Day so if you head to the Alice in Dairyland Facebook
and Instagram page, you'll see a video of me celebrating by making some ice cream at home.
The recipe I'm featuring is a no-churn mascarpone ice cream.
The one I made yesterday was cookies and cream flavor so you're going to take mascarpone
cheese.
Yes, cheese.
Wait, wait, with cheese and ice cream?
Yes.
Just another day in America's Dairyland of course and for those unfamiliar mascarpone is
kind of like cream cheese but a little sweeter, more decadent.
I like to actually eat it with cookies.
It's like a good dessert to cheese and you're going to mix that with some sweetened condensed
milk, heavy whipping cream.
Yesterday I used a little vanilla and salt for flavor and then of course those crushed
Oreo cookies.
All you need is a stand mixer or a hand beater.
You whip it together for 10, 15 minutes so you get stiff peaks, put it in airtight container,
throw it in the freezer overnight and you're ready to enjoy.
Man, that sounds good.
I know this is our first interview, Haley, but would you mind taking over the rest of
the internet?
I want to go make that.
I really want it right now.
That sounds amazing.
I wouldn't have thought cheese, ice cream, wouldn't have put those two worlds together
even.
That kind of gives people a little more insight.
I think not only into this process but into the idea of, oh, I wonder what I can create.
Yes.
And if you'd like to see more recipes like this one, you can go to WisconsinCheese.com for
other recipes and the stories behind Wisconsin Dairy and also make sure to support Wisconsin
Dairy at home by looking for that proudly Wisconsin Dairy seal on all your dairy products
to ensure you're purchasing a genuine Wisconsin Dairy.
We certainly want to be able to promote not only dairy but certainly Wisconsin Dairy above
anything that we can in this state.
We love to support our local farmers.
That badge is really important to look for when you're looking at these products and it's
on so many products.
I think even products that you might not realize.
Yes, absolutely.
So I wanted to just touch on a little bit more info on ice cream because I love talking
ice cream.
It's a fun topic.
Wisconsin ice cream and frozen custard are unique in this state, uniquely fresh in this
state as well.
Yes.
Because we have all of those processing plants creating ice cream right here, farm to
the table, it's a very short distance.
There's so many plants all over the state and when you're purchasing, especially from
those, I love stopping at mom and pop ice cream parlors where they're making it themselves
right in the store and that you're getting it just about as fresh as it gets.
It's going from the farm right to the processing plant right into our bowls and it's delicious.
You mentioned before, Wisconsin has a history of producing a really outstanding ice cream
as well.
Yes.
It's a home to the very first ice cream Sunday in two rivers, Wisconsin.
It was invented in 1881.
It was only sold on Sundays, hence the name and cost just a nickel.
It is on my bucket list to try and get up there this month and see where the ice cream
Sunday was invented.
I'll meet you there.
I've wanted to go there for years since I first heard about that.
I thought that's pretty cool.
There's some other cool stats regarding ice cream and that we've talked about.
You've touched on a couple of these.
There are other any other stats that stand out to you when it comes to this.
I think it's really cool that there's a lot of things we can put in ice cream.
I get asked all the time what my favorite flavor is and honestly as Alice, it's gotten
harder and harder to pick.
After I try something new every day, it just gets better and better.
But the number one ice cream topping is chocolate syrup.
Huh.
Oh, yeah.
I guess.
Yeah.
The standard.
It's a good one.
It's a classic.
We have 7.7 million gallons of ice cream were made in 2021.
I see as a stat.
As much as I think that I understand how big this big a product is, I see something like
that.
It really stands out.
Yes.
And our sales go up even in this month.
Yes, definitely.
Especially that week leading into the 4th of July is when we have some of the highest ice
cream sales in the country.
It's very exciting.
Another fun stat I have learned is that it takes about 2 to 3 gallons of milk to make
one gallon of ice cream.
And a cow produces enough milk every day to produce about 2 to 3 gallons of ice cream.
And Wisconsin is home to 1.2 million dairy cows.
So there's plenty of ice cream to go around for the rest of July and all year long.
Because yes, it's July ice cream month, but I love to celebrate dairy every day of the
year.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Especially this time of year.
It's a great way to celebrate.
And you might not even know you're celebrating.
Just somebody's eating ice cream.
Hey, you're celebrating.
I'm like, OK, great.
Absolutely.
It really does speak to also the importance of, again, buying local and the local sales
up for our ag industry, for our farmers out there, how important that part of this is.
And it's a fun way of doing it, too.
And not for nothing, but you mentioned something that I think is really unique about the first
Sunday being invented in Wisconsin.
As a transplant, there's one thing I've learned about Wisconsinites.
Wisconsinites are proud of their history.
Yes.
It's a great way to celebrate that, along with just enjoying some great ice cream.
Absolutely.
Honoring our history and also supporting our local communities, what could be better?
Yeah.
And Wisconsin's total frozen dairy production for 2021.
That is impressive to me, too, as we're kind of wrapping up some of these stats that you
brought us.
So the 2021 products, it equals 139 scoops of ice cream per person for the year.
That just really bogged my mind because I think I eat quite a bit.
I did not realize that much.
And unlike you, I think I might be hitting the average.
I think it's a stat where it's going to be above average.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
We're speaking with Haley Heitzel, New as 77th Alice in Darryland.
And Haley, again, thanks for joining us again.
I appreciate the time.
I'm a little curious, Haley, with your background and the kind of work that you did over the
last couple of years to get to this position and get to this place.
What are you hoping to, or what are some of the things you're hoping to gain from this
experience?
Every time I step out onto a farm, every time I'm doing something new as Alice, I am learning.
I believe that I am firmly a lifelong learner and I'm excited that throughout this process,
I'm going to be able to share what I'm learning with a wider audience, you know, consumers
who maybe aren't as attached to agriculture industry or the farm.
A great way to follow along on my adventures throughout the following year is the Alice
in Darryland Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages.
You simply look up Alice in Darryland.
I'll pop right up.
I've got a little tiara on in my profile picture.
Otherwise, you can check out the Alice in Darryland website at Alice in Darryland.com.
And if you've got some fun agricultural related events you'd like Alice in Darryland to
come to, you can also head to that website.
There's a request form on there and you can email datcapalisatwisconsin.gov.
That's d-a-t-c-p-alisatwisconsin.gov and see if Alice can come attend any of your events.
But really I am looking forward to seeing every corner of the state.
We are so diverse here in our 104.8 billion dollar agriculture industry from apples and
cranberries, corn, green beans, Christmas trees, maple syrup and of course dairy products.
There is just so much to learn about and I'm really looking forward to that in the
coming year.
It's always fun to have you in and to be able to focus on some of these things too.
I know that a lot of our audience learned a lot more about ginseng through Alice in
Darryland too and some other topics like that.
So it's going to be a fun year hanging out with you and getting to be able to focus
on some of these things and looking forward to it.
Like you consider myself a lifetime learner, knowledge is life and it's so much fun to learn
new things.
I appreciate that of you and I hope we encourage the audience to put themselves in situations
to learn and experience new stuff and especially when it comes to our dairy industry because you
guys got some fun stuff coming up next.
Absolutely.
We have Wisconsin State Fair coming up very soon at its August 1st through the 11th.
I will be there all 11 days.
I'm really looking forward to it.
I am no stranger to spending 11 days at the state fair, especially with working in the
dairy lane and also I got to open show last year.
But I'm excited to kind of do a different role at the state fair.
And you know, if you see me wave me down, I will happily take a picture and chat with you.
I'm excited to see everyone and share more about not just our dairy industry but our entire
agriculture industry at the state fair.
Some great places to find me will be in the livestock barns talking to youth.
The Wisconsin products per billion, I'll be doing, I'll be on the stage at 1 p.m.
I will be making a little sweet treat together.
So come and see me for that.
And then I will also be doing a cow milking demonstration and a goat milking demonstration
during the day as well.
Oh, that is going to be fun.
And we're going to have a booth down there too.
So we'll see you down there.
That's going to be a lot of fun looking forward to it.
And when people have follow up things or they do want to add an event again, one encourage
it to go to elseandaryland.com or any of the social media outlets that Haley mentioned
there.
And be sure to follow along on them.
If you haven't done so already, it's not only a great way to keep up to date on everything
going on in our different communities and where Haley is, where she's roaming to at that
particular time because she's all over the place.
But it's also a great way for you to promote these things.
You can share them on your pages and you just never know who might see something otherwise
wouldn't.
So encourage you to do that.
And Haley, appreciate the time with you again.
If people, I wanted to go back to the recipe again real quick.
If people wanted to learn more about that blueberry no churn, mascarpone ice cream, I wanted
to get that right.
Where can they find that recipe?
Where can they find more information like that?
Yes.
So that would be at WisconsinCheese.com.
You can find more recipes like the mascarpone ice cream or to see the true stories behind
Wisconsin dairy products.
It's a great way, or excuse me, it's a great place to visit.
You can also find a map of all ice cream stores across Wisconsin.
I know I've been using that as I've been traveling to new places that I don't know.
And I love seeing different new ice cream parlors.
So it's a great place to check it out.
Yeah, I'm definitely doing that.
I'm going to have a checklist actually.
I want to hit all as many of them as I can.
I'm with you with going to unique mom and pop places too, or the people that make their
own ice cream.
There's a lot ways to not only celebrate summer, celebrate ice cream, but keep in mind
while doing so.
You are also buying local supporting local and helping our ag industry and our farmers
out there that we appreciate so very much.
And again, as always, look for that Wisconsin badge on these products so you can truly
support this state.
Absolutely.
It's really fun meeting you.
It's going to be a fun year.
We're going to have fun together.
It's going to be great.
I'm really looking forward to it.
Find out more at Alessondaryland.com, Alessondaryland.com, and be sure to follow Alessondaryland's
journey on all those social media outlets that we mentioned before.
Hey, we'll talk again real soon.
Safe travels out there.
Thank you for having me on.
We will have more Midday Magazine coming up for you on tomorrow's episode at four.
We'll have on Wisconsin Rapids Community Theater.
We'll talk a little bit about their production coming up.
And in part two at 430, we will talk with our Wisconsin Rapids Family Center.
It's all coming up this week on Midday Magazine here at 975 FM 1320 AM WFHR.
We are locally grown radio.
