Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this Monday March 10th, 2025.
Have your host James J. Mailoff here at 430 today.
We're going to be joined by our friends from this store point boss.
Talk about their sugarbush event coming up right now, though.
We have our friend on the phone, Haley Heitzel.
She is the 77th Alice in Darryland.
Haley, how you been?
It's been wonderful.
How are you doing?
Doing good.
Thanks so much for calling up and joining us on the phone lines here.
We appreciate it.
We know how busy you are.
So thanks so much for being able to make the time.
Haley and I are going to talk about big cheese in a moment before we get to that, though.
Haley, we have the 78th Alice in Darryland candidates come up recently.
And how'd that go?
Yes, they have their press briefing this past weekend.
It's been absolutely wonderful to get to know them a lot better.
They are about to go on what is called the hardest job interview around.
So it's been really wonderful getting to know them better, teaching them a little bit more about the Alice in Darryland role.
We have ladies coming from all over Wisconsin this year from all different backgrounds.
So it's been really great.
Haley, what is some of the process that these candidates are going through?
So up until now, they applied in January to the Department of Agriculture,
trading consumer protection, just like a typical job application resume cover letter.
And if everyone who applied this year, a few of them were selected to come and interview at the department.
So they went through a preliminary interview process.
And then out of that group, only six were selected to be top candidates for the 78th Alice in Darryland.
In order to be qualified for that initial interview, they had to have experience in communication,
public relations, marketing campaigns, agriculture, education, public speaking.
There was lots of skills they already needed to bring to the table.
So now we're excited to really help them refine those skills.
But when forward from here on out, they'll be going to what I lovingly call Alice in Darryland School.
Every week, they'll be tuning in online and we will be teaching them from our various program partners.
And also people at the department different ways to be ambassadors for Wisconsin agriculture.
They also have to fill out weekly assignments that vary.
Some of them are more difficult than others.
I can't give you exact details on what those assignments are,
but think things that Alice in Darryland does on a pretty regular basis.
Social media posts, blogs, videos, things like that.
And those will actually be judged by our final panelist.
And then in May, May 15th to the 17th, they will have that partially public job interview.
There will be some tours of different agricultural businesses.
They will have some experiences doing some public speaking.
They'll get to try out being on the TV and the radio.
And then on the night of the 17th in Crawford County, we will be selecting our 78th Alice in Darryland.
Wasn't that long ago you were going through this process, Haley?
I imagine there's some nostalgia as well as some insight you can give these contestants.
Absolutely.
It feels like just yesterday I was being announced as a top candidate.
It's actually a bit of sweet feeling, but it's really, really exciting to be able to see more people go through this process.
My advice that I always give to anyone who wants to proceed being Alice in Darryland is to be yourself.
Everyone wants to see your best you.
And the beauty of the Alice in Darryland program is that Alice is a new woman every single year.
I have a very unique background in agriculture coming from an urban upbringing and eventually making my way to the dairy barn.
But that's not going to be most people in agriculture.
And Alice, we want to really showcase each individual person's story in agriculture.
And so I always tell them be genuine, be authentic and bring your best self to this role.
You know, it turns out mom was right.
Just be yourself.
It's always, it's always the right way to do it.
It's always the great approach.
It's a great first step just being yourself.
And we're looking so forward to how this rolls and following along with this as we get our next 78th Alice in Darryland.
But currently we are talking to the 77th and we got Haley with us.
And Haley appreciate all of the information you just gave us in the topic today, big cheese.
As a journalist, I want to mention though, I do have some bias on this topic.
I do believe that mozzarella is the perfect cheese.
I do believe I am big mozzarella fan, Haley.
So I just want to get that out there right away as we're going to talk about cheeses here and everything like that little bias.
I'm a little biased. I love mozzarella.
But who will be the next big cheese?
Let's let's discuss this Haley with our friends.
Yes, so of course it is March right now and with March comes March madness basketball teams battling it out for championship.
But Alice in Darryland, we take a fun spin on it with Wisconsin cheese.
I took those over 600 varieties, types and styles of internationally recognized and awarded cheeses we have in Wisconsin.
And I narrowed them down to an elite eight to have them compete for the title of the next big cheese.
Unfortunately, mozzarella in its true form of mozzarella did not make my bracket this year, but you'll be happy to know Wisconsin is the number one producer of mozzarella in the US.
And that is because mozzarella is used so much on pizza.
It's actually the number one cheese we produce in Wisconsin.
People love mozzarella cheese.
But for my bracket this year, I picked out some a little more unique cheeses.
Wohaka is one of those on there and that's actually a style of mozzarella sort of.
It is like a Mexican style of mozzarella cheese kind of like a fancy string cheese.
So if you haven't tried it yet, I guess I recommend it.
If you're a mozzarella fan, you'll really like it.
But some of the other cheeses we have on that bracket are Munster, Alpine style, Havarti, Gouda and mask our poem.
And so it's nice.
It's a fun idea, Haley.
A big, big sports fan myself and I love this time of year and March madness.
So many people love filling out brackets.
Here's one more bracket for people to fill out and have some fun with.
Well, also really bringing attention.
And one of the things that we like doing, especially when it comes to our kids or kids in general is
having them learn something without them realizing their learning, you know, teaching them a lesson while they're having fun.
I think you're able to promote so many of these cheeses that people may not know otherwise and maybe even get them hungry for some of them while just filling out a bracket.
Yes, that is exactly the point.
And if you want to go fill out a bracket of your own, you can head to the Alice and Deerland pages on Facebook and Instagram.
Selection Sunday was yesterday.
So there was no voting.
It was just showcasing those cheeses.
As we go out through the rest of March, I will be educating a little bit more about each of those styles of cheeses.
We can learn a little bit about them and then you can go ahead and vote over on our Instagram.
That's like on the stories page.
So that will be throughout the rest of March.
It's really wonderful to be able to showcase all this cheese because here in America's Deerland, we really take pride in our cheese making.
We produce 25% of the world's supply of specialty cheese twice as much as any other state in the US.
We have nearly 1,200 licensed cheese makers crafting those over 600 varieties.
And we're consistently winning more awards than any other place in the world.
If Wisconsin was its own country, we would win more awards than any other country in the world for cheese.
Everyone has their favorite cheese, just like favorite sports teams.
So it's really fun to be able to take a fun spin on that March Manus bracket and do a little bit of learning along the way like you said.
It is a really great combination.
It's a really cool thing and appreciate all the effort and time that gets put into this to do this.
It's great work, Hayley.
Thank you very much to give us a small taste of Wisconsin cheese, which cheeses will be facing off today.
So the first round coming up this week is going to be monster versus Alpine style cheese.
So monster is one of the first semi soft cheeses in the US.
It traces its origins to ancient monastic health say France.
It arrived in Wisconsin in the late 1800s where the states skilled no nonsense cheese makers put their own spin on this classic.
Well traditional European monster is soft and creamy with a wash rind.
Wisconsin's version is firmer with flavors ranging from mild to sharp.
It's signature bright orange natural and not a coating make it instantly recognizable with that bright orange on the outside.
It's an earthy versatile cheese that is simply irresistible.
It's great on its own. It's great on a cheese board.
And I know a lot of people really, really love it on sandwiches.
The other one we've got is our Alpine style cheese.
Since the 11th century, the Alps have been home to Grier and other Alpine style cheeses crafted to endure the region's snow packed storm.
When immigrants from these mountainous regions settled in Wisconsin, they brought their time honored cheese making traditions with them.
Wisconsin cheese makers continue to honor these classic Alpine style cheeses using traditional copper fats and old world techniques.
But with Wisconsin's innovative spirit, we're just beginning to unlock the full potential of these nutty, rich and full-bodied cheeses.
This is one that we're going to definitely see more of on a cheese board or with various cheese bearings.
It definitely has a stronger flavor and may not be quite so versatile as a monster, but is equally as delicious.
Boy, that's a tough match-up. I would not want to have to make a choice on that one. That's a tough one to figure out.
Where are you going to go with that one, everybody? Good on over to their Facebook page and find out and play along.
Yes, absolutely. It's definitely going to be a tough match-up all the way through the round.
Last year we had cheese curds on the bracket, which that one was an easy winner all the way through.
I feel like this year, I don't even have any bets on who is going to win.
That's just it, Hayley. I was looking at this list and I'm like, I don't...
I think I actually would probably do better with the actual March Madness brackets than I would with this one.
And if you've been paying attention to college basketball, anybody out there, it's all bets are off.
I mean, who knows who's going to win this year? It's the same thing with these cheeses.
There's something fun about this, too, where some of these...
I haven't thought of them maybe in a while. I see it and I'm like, oh, that's going to do well.
That's another fun part of this.
Yeah, I definitely tried to pick cheeses. There's some, a couple familiar ones on there.
Of course, the monsters, the Havardies, things like that that people really do recognize.
But still aren't quite as recognized as something like a cheddar or a mozzarella.
So I really wanted to delve deeper into some of those more unique cheeses that might not be the first ones we grabbed before in the case.
I also really wanted to highlight these cheeses because when you do go to a grocery store in Wisconsin
and you see hundreds of different kinds of cheese in the case,
it can be really hard to figure out what kind you want to explore next.
Of course, you can always tune in on the Alice page.
I'm happy to talk about any kind of cheese on the planet.
But you can also always talk to your cheesemonger.
They are really happy to point you in the right direction.
And I'm hoping that this gives some love to some of those lesser selected cheeses.
Yeah, well said. How can we tell the dairy products we buy our from Wisconsin, Haley?
That is a really important part. It can also be sometimes a challenge.
So when we're shopping at our favorite grocery store retail location in Wisconsin,
it's usually pretty easy.
They'll have their whole section dedicated to Wisconsin cheeses.
But when you want to really make sure you're going to look for the proudly Wisconsin cheese or proudly
Wisconsin dairy badge on all your cheese and dairy products,
or you can look for the number 55 on milk packaging,
so those like liquid, fluid milk, buttermilk, things like that.
And that'll ensure that you are buying genuine Wisconsin dairy products.
Buying local is a great way to contribute to our local economy and help support
our 52.8 billion dollar dairy industry here in Wisconsin.
And if you want to learn more about those Wisconsin cheeses or the dairy industry
in our state, you can always visit Wisconsin cheese.com.
They have wonderful educational information on there.
Yeah, bookmark that page, everybody.
It will be you'll be going to it a lot. It's a great page.
Thank you for that, Haley.
We're speaking with 77th Alice in Dairyland, Haley Heinsel right now.
And March is such a big month for our local athletes, our college athletes.
There's a lot of playoffs going on on a high school and college level.
March is a big month for athletes.
How does Wisconsin dairy tie into sports?
You're right. March isn't just big for cheese.
It's also a really big deal for our Wisconsin athletes.
Chocolate milk is actually the official beverage of the WIA,
which is how we wrap those two things together.
So whether you're recovering after a game or just enjoying a nutritious treat,
chocolate milk is a powerhouse for hydration and recovery.
There's 13 essential nutrients in chocolate milk that can really
help you recover after a game and that's whether it's basketball,
something really aerobic or something anaerobic,
more like football or weightlifting.
Chocolate milk is really perfect for muscle recovery and helping build muscles.
So it's important to raise a glass to Wisconsin's hardworking athletes
and our nearly 6000 dairy farm families,
99% of which are family owned more than anywhere else in the United States.
It's pretty impressive in any chance to talk about chocolate milk.
I will take it. I love chocolate milk and maybe my favorite thing to drink.
But in part because of how the health benefits of it and I love whenever we have
it feels like it's become bit of a tradition.
We get into this time of year or the beginning of the school year and a lot of
our athletes getting to work bringing up and mentioning again how
how impactful and how helpful chocolate milk can be.
Absolutely and it is fun because it does kind of feel like one of those things
that should not be a health food, but it really is.
So it's absolutely delicious and it's so good for you to have had several
friends. I mean, I was actually not a sport player in high school.
I was very active in FFA.
So I did not have time for sports.
But I had several friends tell me as I become Alice.
Oh, yeah, my coach always had a refrigerator full of chocolate milk
that we would just grab right away after practice.
And that is really great to hear because chocolate milk is so beneficial
for everyone as a fun treat or as a recovery beverage.
You mentioned fun treat.
It just to let the audience look behind the curtain a little bit.
Haley's nice enough to give me some notes and some data to talk about
when we have these interviews.
One of the sentences I see is complete chocolate milk toast.
What is that? Haley, what do we do?
Well, so that would be if we were live on TV.
Oh, gotcha.
So that is meant for yes, for our TV audience.
We do a chocolate milk toast at the end of discussing our tea's bracket
to coach Wisconsin athletes.
So yes, that is what that note means in my talking point.
So the talking points go to radio and to TV.
I want people to like imagine in their head what you can imagine
would be a chocolate milk toast now.
I watch it like whether you're talking about actually like breaded toast
or just toasting each other like you know, you're with your glasses
or something like that.
It's just have some fun with that.
The intention was the glasses.
Yeah, I couldn't help myself, Haley.
I'm sorry.
That's a great note.
As we're getting close to wrapping up here a little bit, Haley,
one of the things I thought would be fun would kind of go over some of the notes
and some of the information that you've come across
while putting together this bracket and just in their time as Alice in Dairyland.
We've got a bunch of crazy, just a crazy insane facts about this area,
about Wisconsin in general and that she's producing it does.
And I think some stuff that may be common knowledge and other things
that you have here that I don't think I a lot of people know about.
Yes, when it comes to being America's Dairyland, I know I've heard some things
along the road about some other states that maybe want to take that title.
But when you really look at our cheese production,
Wisconsin absolutely takes the cake.
There is no doubt about it.
We're home to more than a hundred cheese making companies in Wisconsin.
We've been crafting cheese for over a hundred and eighty years,
which is one of the reasons that we're one of the most awarded
cheese locations in the world.
We've been doing it for so long.
We've been honing that craft.
We are also the only state that requires our cheese makers to make to have a license.
So they have to go to school.
They can't just go out and make cheese one day.
We don't let anyone just anyone put that probably Wisconsin cheese label on their
cheeses and that's for a reason.
Cheese making is a family business in Wisconsin with nearly 40% of all of our
dairy companies being multi generational family owned cheese companies.
Some cheese making businesses even go far back as four generations,
which is really exciting, just like our dairy farms being family owned.
Wisconsin cheese is available in 98% of the nation's grocery stores.
And that's going to be for a big part of it going back to the beginning,
that mozzarella frozen pizzas a lot of times are going to have Wisconsin
mozzarella on it because we it's a top variety of cheese we produce in Wisconsin.
And compared to other varieties, 31.4% of the cheese produced in Wisconsin
is mozzarella cheese when we send it everywhere.
If you go down to Chicago and you want Chicago deep dish,
I can bet you that they have probably Wisconsin cheese right there in their
menu. They're proud to say that that mozzarella is from Wisconsin.
In 2023, Wisconsin produced 3.51 billion pounds of cheese.
So we make quite a bet.
And not only do we produce a lot a lot of mozzarella,
we are also the top producer of Feta, Romano, Provolone, Parmesan,
specialty cheese, monster and cheddar cheese.
So there is a lot of cheese making going on in Wisconsin for sure.
It's really impressive.
I mean, any one of those stats we could have spent the whole show on.
But there's so much interesting things going on about that.
I think the history, the 180 years of producing cheese in this state is very interesting.
Especially when you go down a rabbit hole and you see some of the old equipment
and some of the ways they used to do this.
It's really interesting to me.
But I think one of the things that I always like to talk about in any
chance we get or put some time on is the idea that the cheese making is taken
so seriously and so respected in this state that there is a classes in school
and a degree that you can earn in this.
The way that this is approached in this state is not only I think fun,
but something interesting and the idea of somebody being able to make a career
in this is very cool.
Absolutely, it's very fun, but we also take it very, very seriously.
We also have, I must say this, we have the only master cheese maker program
outside of Europe.
And that means that if you see on your cheese when you're going to the grocery store,
there'll be a special little logo on there that says master cheese maker.
And that means that that cheese was made by somebody who spent ten years
honing the craft of that specific style of cheese.
They're also having to go to classes and exams and proving that they have
their own really special unique style of cheese and they have to go on to continuing
education afterwards to continue learning more about that style of cheese.
So a cheese maker that has three different masteries and you know,
let's say cheddar and provolone and mozzarella spent 30 years, three decades of
their life studying cheese just that.
And so we put a lot of effort and a lot of time into those kinds of programs
hearing Wisconsin.
So we want to make sure that not only are we putting out a lot of cheese,
we are putting out the best cheese available.
And there's a reason why Wisconsin makes the best cheese.
And Haley just gave us a walk through about all of that.
Really appreciate the time, Haley.
And certainly when I encourage everybody to fill out those brackets and keep
up to date on it every day and check those brackets and see how things are
going to see how your favorites are doing.
You can do that at the just type in your search bar and Facebook, Alison Darryland
follow along with her page and all the things that are going on there.
And Haley and people have other follow up questions would like to know more.
How can they reach you?
The best way to reach me is either through that Facebook and Instagram page
or Alice in Diriland dot com.
If you have any more questions specifically about Wisconsin cheese,
Wisconsin cheese dot com is a wonderful resource.
As Alice, I use it all the time.
There's thousands of recipes for all those cheeses we talked about today.
You can really learn anything you want to know about Wisconsin cheese from that website.
And anybody out there schools or anything that thinking about inviting
Alison Darryland, keep in mind you can do that as well.
And you can find out so much more information about the things that we've talked about today.
Go to Alice in Darryland dot com, Alison Darryland dot com.
Haley, safe travels out there.
Thanks so much for joining us.
We'll talk again real soon.
Wonderful. Thank you for having me.
We'll have more midday magazine coming up right here at 97 5 FM 13 20 AM WF HR locally grown radio.
