Shows›WRCO Morning Show›Hill and Valley Exploration Tour›Transcript

Transcript

Hill and Valley Exploration Tour

WRCO Morning Show · Tue Sep 15, 2026

Welcome to our morning show today at WRCO.

It's our day to talk about the Hill and Valley Exploration Tour that time of year again.

Board member Dorothy Harms is in to join us and Cindy Johnson, who's a member of the marketing team for Hill and Valley Tour is in the studio to join us again.

Dorothy, how many years is this now for the event?

Can you believe it?

It's been 10 years.

can't.

Wow.

And I think about how it has expanded and grown in that time.

It really has.

We, you know, kind of started out just going around Loganville and Lyme Ridge and that.

And now we're kind of like everywhere from Bear Valley to Valton to Rock Springs, you know, so it's really kind of grown.

We've gone from 13 stops to now 21 stops.

You have, it's old school.

You have a map with your brochure, you know?

We do.

So you can look at it, you know, you can't just GPS some of these places.

Can you?

Well, some of these places are the cell service is a little sketchy.

So.

We want to make sure that you can find your way around and that you just, well, and isn't it okay to get lost in the drift list

early?

Yes, absolutely, right?

Well, good morning, Cindy.

Good to have you in the studio as well.

Thank you.

I'm excited to be here first time.

That's been too long then.

So tell us a little bit about yourself and why you get involved with it.

Sure.

Well, my husband and I purchased property in Lyme Ridge about five years ago, and we wanted to put the land into

into production and we decided to do cut flowers.

And so we are one of the three flower stops on the tour this year, which is kind of exciting for the tour to have three flower opportunities.

Has it been a good year for you?

It has.

It has been a banner August, I would like to say.

We grow dahlias, which are pretty prolific this time of year.

And yeah, it's been a pretty good year.

Fall of the year, it brings out some of the most beautiful flowers too.

It doesn't it

does.

I mean, we're getting, I was just telling Dorothy before we came in here that the, with the sunlight starting to get a little less, we're starting to see a few smaller blooms, but we should have plenty for the, for the next two weekends of the tour.

Wonderful.

Dorothy, can you tell us a little bit about the history and how this all got started 10 years ago?

you know there had been a previous tour in the area and those of us who were on that original tour felt that while this was really

good for our business.

So many of us have these small businesses that we're operating from our home, from our farms out in the middle of the country.

And how do we get people to come out and see us?

And so we kind of, I know Lisa about now and I kind of put our heads together with a few others and said, you know what, we think we can do this too.

And that's what we did.

You know, we, you know,

as, as the separate businesses, we work together and co-market.

It's certainly too big of an event for any one of us to do ourselves, but when we can work together, um, it, it lifts, you know, it lifts all boats, right?

And, uh, so it's an opportunity for all of these businesses to be, uh, highlighted, um, you know, put the spotlight on them and getting people out into our beautiful countryside to, uh, learn more about them.

Do you get all the business owners together?

at some point, or you do that virtually, or how do you do that?

We do have a couple opportunities that we put the groups, the group all together.

We've kind of moved to a board model where we do have a board of five members who are all venues on the tour.

And we work alongside Christine Kenneke from the Reedsburg Chamber.

She's really been a great partner in all of this and helping us with some of the advertising.

And really kind of tried to put together

How are we going to best advertise for this?

How are we going to, what things can we do to make it new and different this year?

And so we're, we really talked about some of those things as with you today.

Yeah, wonderful.

We'll kind of go through the map, send anything you want to

add.

Yeah, I was just going to say, because I think the two things that, that I think about with this tour is yes, we are all local businesses, but we are really bonded by the mission of the tour, which is really about

showcasing what you can get and see and experience out in the rural area of our communities.

I already forgot my other little point, so we'll just have to move on.

It is a great opportunity, though, and for so many of us, we may not have known some of these businesses existed, right,

Doris?

Yeah, I think just to pick up on what Siddi said, there's the experiences.

There's more and more people want to kind of learn experience and where their food is coming from, where the makers are, and so this is that opportunity to kind of

just immerse yourselves in all of that.

Number one thing is the experience though, right?

100%.

I was looking at the map the other day and thinking about, okay, if I had a car full of kids, what would I do?

Where would I go?

And there are so many wonderful opportunities to get your kids away from a screen, grab an actual physical map, start plotting your route of the things that you want to plan and go, show them how to read

street signs for goodness sake and directional signs and then figure out how many miles is it going to take, how long is that going to take us there and then when you get to a place like an alpaca farm and you experience these animals that have just this wonderful

spirit and calmness and gentleness.

It just can make a memory of a lifetime with you and your kids.

Yeah, that's a great point.

And I don't think they're going to get bored either.

No, and you can talk about, okay, where's our next stop?

It can be little life lessons about, oh, is it 10 miles away?

Well, how long will it take us to get there if we're going 55 miles an hour?

Or where are we getting hungry?

Where do we wanna have some food?

Do we wanna go get cheese curds from Car Valley and look at the experience of making cheese curds?

I mean, it's really things that your kids are not gonna see in a classroom or definitely not

on a screen.

Why do you think that area is so prolific for local businesses and you know farms and thinking outside the box and those kind of things?

You know I think Cindy kind of references that you know we have kind of created this bond.

and where we all work together.

Oftentimes I find in our business, you know, we sell a grass fed beef from our farm, but hey, if I'm low on something, I'm out of steaks.

Well, I know a couple other farms that are on the tour I can send them to.

And I think the other part of it, it isn't just these two weekends.

It's the opportunity for ongoing business for each of these, these folks.

And so I think that's really important because it's, you know,

growing their own business throughout the year.

And what weekends will be?

it'll be coming up this weekend on a September 19th and 20th and then the following weekend, September 26th and 27th.

You know, we, we build in two weekends for this because one, you never know about the weather.

You know, that's, my husband was just telling me this morning, oh, they got some raindrops in the forecast, you know, but we want you come, put your boots on, put your raincoat on, you know, rain or shine, we're going to be doing this.

And the other

thing is that there's just so many stops that it's going to be hard for you to do it all in one day and so we want you to be able maybe take take two days one weekend or take a day one weekend a second day the second weekend.

I think that works out really well because all of us have plans.

We're busy.

Maybe we're busy on a Sunday.

So we come back the next weekend and go that

weekend.

Or I like to think of it as kind of like the Sunday drive concept, even if it's on a Saturday, you know, when back in the day when you used to get in your car and go and find a little destination, maybe it was an antique mall, which we have as one of our sponsors or an art gallery or a historical site or

a farm, working farm or a flower farm, you know, it's just get in your car for a couple of hours and really just enjoy being out in the fresh air, even if a few sprinkles might land on you.

I'm glad you mentioned that because that's what we used to do when we were kids.

We'd go on a Sunday drive and my kids would have said, well, where are we going?

What time are we going to be there?

I mean, you know, it's kind of a lost art, I think, isn't it, Cindy?

It really is.

And it's, you know, again, it's that way to

Get off a screen and get your eyes peeled onto nature and all its beauty and I mean the driftless the three-county area.

I mean whenever we have Family who's not been from around here or or people that visit they are just blown away by the hills and the valleys

What the leaves have not changed yet, but they're starting to there's

little pops of color

you

know along the way and

When we did this the first couple years, this was originally in the month of October.

Again, trying to capture that color, but we also a lot of times captured a lot of cold and rainy weather.

So we just felt that moving to the end of September, more often than not, we've been pretty blessed with beautiful weather.

What times will you be looking at on those Saturdays and

Sundays?

Most of the businesses have set a time from 10 in the morning till four in the afternoon.

But be sure to check either our map or to go online and check the hours of business because a few of them, for example, the branding iron, you know, they'll be serving food into the evening.

There's several other businesses that will, you know, have a little bit different operating hours.

So be sure to check that out before you head out.

You're all about supporting local farmers, aren't you,

Dorothy?

I am,

isn't that what my shirt said?

You

bet.

You bet.

You know, one of the things I wanted to mention, you know, what Cindy said about, you know, getting out and exploring nature, one of the aspects of this is that geocaching.

So.

to those in the audience that aren't really familiar with that, it's an opportunity to kind of use coordinates.

It is using your phone, but in a way with a GPS and doing kind of a scavenger hunt and finding the different treasures along the way.

And so that's another activity that is family friendly.

you know, get the kids out and kind of figure, you know, figure out how they can find these little treasures.

So that's one of the opportunities

on the tour.

Cindy?

And just to follow up on that, in addition to the geocaching, which has been on the tour for how many years, Dorothy?

It's been a while.

It's probably five, six years.

Yeah.

So because of the 10th anniversary, we did a couple of different things that we thought would be a nice little extra for the young ones that are coming on the tour.

And we've had

custom coloring books that we produced with beautiful little coloring caricatures that.

explain, I shouldn't say explain, but sort of illustrate each stop on the tour.

So little ones, I think we have how many, about 600 of them or so.

And so they'll get a free coloring book as long as supplies last and a little coloring crayon packet.

And then this year we also, for the 10th anniversary, put together little badges, little sticker badges that say, I'm an official Hill and Valley explorer.

So we're happy to have

those out there as a little extra something to celebrate our 10th anniversary.

Oh, nice.

Will the color books be at each stop or where do they pick those

up?

I don't know if they're going to be at every stop.

So make sure you figure out the ones that you want to get to.

So for sure, the ones that are more kid-friendly, for example, the corn maze, there's a couple other young family farms.

Spirit

Valley, I think, is for sure going to have those.

We're going to take a break and come back because I think it would be appropriate just to go around the map and talk about every one of these businesses that will be on the stop.

Sounds good.

Let's do that after the break.

Hill and Valley Exploration Tour, the next two weekends Dorothy and Cindy will be back with us for more in a moment.

Welcome back to our morning show on a Tuesday morning Hill and Valley Exploration tour our subject Dorothy Harms and Cindy Johnson in the studio with us and as promised we're going to take you around the map.

I understand there is a digital version though Dorothy.

There is.

This year we have partnered with the Wisconsin Agritourism Association.

They are doing a pilot project with several

different routes in which they are doing a digital passport.

And so for those of you that just, you know, want to do it all on your phone, it's a great opportunity just to download that and to, you know, check in as you go to each stop.

The place that you would go to is wiagtourism.com slash passports to find and download your passport.

We kind of want to let folks know that whether you use the paper map or if you check in online, make sure that you get checked in either by a punch on your paper map or else on the digital one because your name is going to be put in for chances for door prizes for during the tour.

Okay, yeah.

so you want to get your card punched right that yeah get it done well let's go we've got a several of them to stop let's start with tour stop number one you're over in the reedsburg area

right gloria grace flower farm kim akins is the uh proprietor there she is just

but got boundless energy and just a beautiful location with really interesting landscaping and different kinds of flowers and plants that she grows there and that she has for sale as well.

She likes to think of it as a little experience to be strolling through her little environment, which is just very curated, I would say.

It's a really fun, relaxing,

and just joyful place.

Just get

some good fall decorations.

Absolutely.

And then there's the Mead King, which is in Rock Springs.

And if you've never had mead before, it is just a very unique

kind of wine that you make with honey and they have also craft cocktails and lots of wonderful salty snacks to pair with that mead and the mead comes in many different flavors and varieties from sweeter to drier and it's just really fun.

I love going there and having a tasting so that I can see what kind of

flavor profile that I prefer.

I'm sure they'll have some specials going on that day as well to those days.

Could be.

Okay.

All right.

Well, the next on the tour is Wilkinson Farm Meat and Produce.

And so going over on Highway PF, Jackie and Greg Wilkinson and their family, you know, I don't know how they get it all done, but they're going to have, you know,

beef, pork, lamb, chicken.

They're going to have all kinds of produce.

I know she told me that they, she's just got oodles of cucumbers.

They'll be having a petting zoo.

Definitely this will be one of your family friendly stops.

And I do know that they're going to be having several bonus businesses in as well.

The Busy Bee Bakehouse will be there with her sourdough bread.

One of the things I wanted to mention is a few of these stops will have what we call bonus businesses.

And so these are businesses that may not be big enough to support having their own stop, but they want to be a part of the tour as well.

So you just never know.

You're not going to meet maybe just stopping for meat and vegetables, but there might be some other goodies there as well.

Then, just further down on PF, kind of heading toward Leland is a new stop this year, the Sunnyside Dream Farm.

Megan Hague is another one of the flower farmers that are on this tour.

She has just beautiful delias as well, and she just said she's just going to be a place where people can come and do pick your own, and she'll have bouquets also for sale.

Wonderful.

You know some of these have the geocaching signal by them and some don't.

What does that mean?

So you know the geocaches have been in place for several years and so I know a few of our newer farms may not have gotten them in place and so it just kind of gives you a clue as to where you will find them.

Okay.

Number five on our tour.

Yeah, Mary's Organic Farm.

I mean just these two have been part of the tour pretty much

almost the whole time.

And I think Mary is really known for her organic eggs, but that's just not all that they have.

I mean, they have the grass-fed, belted Galloway beef, they have a farm store, and they have walking trails on their property.

So it's also a place to get honey and elderberry tea.

I want to get an insulated bag to take home all of the things that you buy, you know, if you buy some meat.

Oh, for

sure.

You know, it says right on our brochure to pack your cooler.

for sure.

Next, we've got another new business, the Cozy Cove Enterprises, and they're on Trail Lane.

So this is an Amish business that has joined our tour this year.

So please note, they'll only be open on Saturdays.

They won't be available on Sunday.

But I think if you are looking for

especially food items.

This is the place you want to go.

They have herbs, they have supplements, they have coffee and health foods.

And so I stopped there last month and it just was kind of blown away with all their offerings.

So yeah, I think they're kind of way back in there on Trail Lane, but follow your map and you'll get there.

It may not get lost, but this next event, number seven, I think the whole thing is to try and get lost.

is, that is the whole point.

Country Roots Corn Maze and Market, hosted by Reed and Heather Broughton and their family, will have a corn maze and she's got, you know, kind of clues in there.

I think this year it's finding all the flamingos in the corn maze, as well as a pumpkin patch.

And then there are homegrown mums to purchase for your fall decor.

And I believe they will have a number of artists available as well at their business.

Next up, we have a winery number

eight.

Yes, Vicki and Dean Baumgarten, they've been on their founding members of the tour and their Narrows Creek winery is just a fun spot to go in, especially

rain or shine because they have a beautiful tasting room that can accommodate a lot of people and their outdoor area is landscaped gorgeously as well.

But the treat is really the Wisconsin fruit wines that they produce and they, again, it's great to do a tasting and find out what you really like out of that.

They've got, I think, the most bonus businesses, I think of anyone, they've got a pottery, two pottery artists,

a woman who does cork creations, these really interesting things made from wine corks, very unique.

Oh, the grilled cheese.

Oh, for

sure.

People will stand in line, a long line for their grilled cheese to stay on.

So be sure you check

that out.

It's for the, it's a,

It's

a fundraiser for one of the local church groups and but of course they're using Car Valley cheese,

right?

Right.

Yes,

it's all about supporting each other throughout this.

That sounds really good.

Who doesn't like a good grilled cheese,

right?

And right down the road is the next one country junk.

I mean, it's literally like on your way to or from Narrows Creek winery and The name I think is always so fun, but it really is they're known for their salsas and their spaghetti sauces and then the

vintage sort of eclectic, antique, up thrifted, I guess you would say, finds that you can see on the property.

Really, really fun place.

Number nine now, Country Junk.

All right, double digits now, 10.

10 already, yeah.

So, you know, we want to welcome folks to Valley Springs Farm and Bed and Breakfast.

That's our farm, Don and I. Well, Don's been there his entire life.

He's fourth generation on this farm.

We offer a farm stay lodging.

We have three rooms we make available.

I do have a little, one more room available for the second weekend, otherwise booked up.

But we also have our farm store and we'll be featuring our grass

fed a beef as well as local honeys, maple syrup, scone mixes.

This year I've got somebody who uses our beef fat to make tallow creams.

And so yeah, we'll have quite a bit to feature as well as

We are going to be doing a fundraiser for the Farmer Angel Network, another group that I'm really involved in.

So our pie for sales will be available and so we want to encourage people to eat good and do good.

Oh, no doubt about it.

Where's the farthest person come from that stayed at your place?

That

has stayed.

I've had people from China stay at our place.

So yeah, it's, it's such a great opportunity to have people come and immerse themselves in farm life.

They recognize that we are a working farm.

We get to take them out to our pastures and meet our cattle face to face.

And I think one of the things they see is the way

the care and concern that we take good care of our cattle.

Just over the hill from us, then we'll go to number 11.

And we're mentioning several protein producers, but I want to say each one of us has our own specialty.

Everyone is a little bit different.

And so at the Greener Grass Collective at Idaho Valley Farm, we've got the ID family, and they

to have rotational grazed highlander cattle as well as pasture raised pork.

Again, the emphasis on no hormones, no antibiotics, and then also featuring Justina's artwork as well.

And there.

Their playscape they have this huge area that is just meant for kids because they have this huge playscape there for kids to enjoy and So make sure if you're if you travel with your kids you want to make that a stop on your

tour It's really unique that playscape.

Yes.

It's it's just designed in such a unique way,

right?

So again the hill and valley tour it's not one to hurry through you've got lots of places where you can spend a lot of time, don't you?

Yeah, and then just up the road on Highway K is Cold Spring Farm.

Jake and Katie Meyer and their four girls.

Again, they are the definition of the family farm.

They are milking a small herd of dairy cattle.

They raise and produce beef, pork, and lamb.

And this year, I'm really kind of excited for them because they will be introducing their private labeled cheese.

So this, you'll be able to buy cold spring farm cheddar cheese made exclusively from their milk.

And so just super excited for them.

And again, with their girls there, they'll be happy to show you all around the farm and show you how much fun it is growing up on a farm.

And people can actually see a working farm too.

For sure.

Yeah.

Great opportunity there.

Where are we at?

Number 13, I guess it

is.

Yeah.

Sandy and Melvin Smith.

Excuse me, the Narrows Creek Gardens.

It is again, one of these extremely unique farms in our region.

It's

primarily an erronea berry farm.

And if you don't know much about erronea berries, it's like one of those major super fruits that have give you lots of antioxidants and are just supposed to be extremely healthy for you.

And Mel has been very early on into the Hill and Valley, correct?

Yes.

Yeah, like 10 years if not the whole decade.

I believe so.

Yeah, we might be talking at a school, but it's pretty if not 10 very, very close.

And he also has a very interesting geodesic dome on his property that is wonderful to go and take a peek at and lots of gardens.

And raspberries, and I don't know, yeah, the raspberries might still be in season yet, so you might be able to catch a few of those.

It's been a nice long growing season this year,

hasn't it?

Yeah.

So we can benefit from that.

Number 14.

Bluehouse Blooms, that's me.

Oh.

My husband and I, Dean, like I said, we're newcomers to the region, only purchasing our property in Lyme Ridge about five years ago, but we've been growing flowers for four years and selling them for three.

We focus on market bouquets that you'll be able to grab and go on our farm.

We will also give you a tour of the flower field if you care to get your feet a little muddy because it is obviously a working farm.

And we will have a few extras.

My husband has become kind of an expert at granola making.

And so he's going to be offering some farm granola with our honey that we get from our bees.

So.

Where did you get the light bulb to start this farm?

I mean, you know, years ago, you might not have thought you were going

to.

Right.

Well, we never, we, we never had this kind of property, which was really, you know,

truly a farm and we like to joke that a lot of our friends have lake homes and we that's not really who we are or our budget and so when we thought well what would we like to do as we think about

later years and we thought a farm a little hobby farm would be great but we didn't want animals we're not brave enough like Dorothy and her husband to have animals and take care of them and and we've been vegetable growers our whole life but we thought there's a million vegetable growers out there and I just didn't see a lot of specialty cut flower growers in our region and it's turned out to be just a

Wonderful experience.

It's very physically challenging, but I have to say that there's not a single customer who, when they pick up a bouquet of flowers, doesn't smile, or when they're giving them to someone else.

It's just this little moment of pure joy.

Sure.

Well, hard work makes you young, right?

Yes.

Something like that.

We're at number 15.

Yes.

Then we go to the Brandy 9 World House.

Lisa but now you know has been one of the founding members of the Helen Valley tour and while she's usually here to talk about it today didn't work out but we're just happy to have them on the tour you know that's the place where you it is truly farm to table so much of either it's their beef that they're featuring or else other local

produce from around the area.

I know they've even featured some of my jams and some of their pizzas.

So they'll be live music there, I think on some of the weekends.

So make sure when you're hungry that you're near Lime Ridge and get a place to eat.

They have an awesome menu, you know, and they have that there.

Wood-fired pizzas,

some of the nights.

And wine.

I always like to point out that Lisa has a really extensive wine offering, which if you aren't very familiar with wine, I mean, you can go in and tap her brain and she can talk very expertly about the different kinds of wines that might go better with a certain pizza if it's hot or if it's, you know, cool.

And that was something that really surprised me.

Yep.

Right in downtown Lime Ridge.

Yeah.

We're at, oh, and we're going to a cheese factory next.

Yeah.

Car Valley.

Car Valley is literally two miles from our farm and we love it because there's nothing we like better than getting up and going and getting those fresh squeaky cheese curds.

But that would, if I just talked about Car Valley cheese curds, that would just be too little to talk about because their array of cheeses is amazing.

And the awards that they have racked up in terms of US and worldwide cheese

flavors is astounding.

So you have to go there.

You have to try and they have many samples out too, which is also great.

They're very liberal with their samples.

So you can try almost, you know, any kind of cheese that you want there.

Absolutely.

Another chance to get stocked up for the winter, right?

Absolutely.

So that's number 16, number 17 on the list for the Hill & Valley tour.

So you can go up to Walton.

So Walton is kind of just up the most northern part, kind of right in almost into Juneau County to visit Ernest Houpedin's painted forests.

So this is just a real hidden gem here in the countryside.

It is this beautiful building that has this mural painted on all four walls, kind of depicting the history of the modern woodmen.

Brotherhood and

Edwood College is the one that kind of oversees this.

David Wells is one of the art director there.

And I know they're going to have several other specialty artists that will be there.

And so kind of check out their Facebook page to see specifically what will be going on there.

But if you've never been there, it's such a unique experience.

And so I encourage you to stop up there.

Beautiful area.

That might be one of the furthest away from the main hub, isn't

it?

It is.

It's pretty far.

I'm gonna say, there's a little bit further we can take yet on

this.

Was that

right?

Okay.

Then you can go over to Woodland Valley Farms, Country Greenhouses with Russell and Kathy Price.

Just the most gorgeous variety of moms that you're gonna find in this whole area.

I mean, all the

different varieties of colors are just amazing.

And you know, it's really your place to go and get your fall decorations.

And I wanted to mention, I just went there, I don't grow mums.

And so I went there to get my decorations yesterday, and we filled up our pickup truck.

We they have pumpkins, they have gourds, they have really anything you could ever want to decorate your home, your home's exterior for fall.

It's amazing.

and I have to say the prices of the mums for the size they're about the size of I don't even a bushel basket a bushel basket and I was in Madison just the other day and the same half the size was twice the price so

I love them and the family is just outstanding and they've been on the tour and and they're they're anchors in this area.

Woodland Valley Farms, yes indeed and it's timely right now for your fall decorations.

It definitely is,

definitely is.

So next on the tour again kind of taking a little further north is the Spirit Valley alpacas with John and Kathy Busher.

This is just an opportunity, like Cindy said earlier, to really find a place of calm and peace and to be able to pet and snuggle these gentle animals.

And while the animals themselves are kind of the main attraction, she also has her farm store with fleece products and other alpaca themed products that you can pick up and take along with you.

And then coming back to Laval, we have BC Arts Gallery.

Bobby Kahoon is kind of the curator here, but they have over 30 different local artists that are showcased in this gallery.

Again, who would have known in Laval that we have this kind of extensive and, you know, creative

location for artists to showcase their items.

Will they have special things going on that day, Dorothy?

believe they will.

And then the last stop here, number 21, is Redstone Valley Farm.

Again, another young family, and I think that's one of the things that we're very proud of with the Hilling Valley Tour, that several of these farms are young

adults, young people getting started in farming or taking over in the next generation of the farm.

And Zach and Brianna Juziak also are young farmers who have a lot of energy and they are just so excited to have you come and look and purchase from their grass-fed beef.

They have fresh eggs, they have chicken, pork, and they'll have a variety of produce as well.

Farm businesses and I think of that and and food trucks and all these things that people You know really the businesses are just taking off in that regard.

They really are it's just that opportunity for you know, I think

Small businesses have that opportunity to thrive if they can figure out what their niche is.

We keep hearing all the gloom and doom about, oh, farms have to get bigger and they have to be so big to do this.

It's like, no, if you can be an entrepreneur and you can be creative and figure out where your market is, you can do just fine selling and producing from your own small business.

And the tour,

What's so great about the tour is that

As Dorothy said earlier, we're joining forces and bringing people to our region, which as a small business, we couldn't go out and reach out to 50, 100 different homes.

But if people come to our farms and experience what we're doing and seeing how we're growing, how we're producing, we're having a bigger impact in that way.

We're actually able to

open those doors and let people come in and experience it as a way where we can't get to everybody's house.

And I'm guessing as a business owner, Dorothy, just if you get people on the premises, they may come back again, right?

Yeah, often they do.

And that's the goal, right?

That is the goal that we have ongoing business to help sustain each of these small businesses.

So yeah, I see that quite often just in our own business.

I'm often surprised the people who stayed our bed and breakfast, who if they don't live too far away going home will take a bundle of beef back home with them.

I'm sure.

What about the map that we hold in our hand?

Where's the best place to get that?

So some of the best places to look for the maps are at the Reedsburg Chamber in Reedsburg.

Also, they're located at the Branding Iron Roadhouse and also at the Narrows Creek Winery.

But each of us, while you're on the tour, once you get started, each of the stops should have a map for you to pick up to if you need to get one.

and remember we have the digital uh Wisconsin agritourism passport that will have you know that kind of a mapping situation and on our website the hillan valley tour website there is a google version of this map that you can even print out at home and we have versions i believe yeah links on our website where if you don't have you can't pick up the one that we had professionally printed you can print out an eight and a half by 11 or i believe an 11 by 17 at home too

And maybe there's only one business that strikes your fancy.

I doubt it, but I mean, you can go to as few or as many as you want.

Exactly.

You know, yeah, you know, certainly we'd like you to go to as many as you possibly can, but we just recognize for some people, maybe it's like, like I said, they want to just go take their kids out or maybe it's just a couple and they just kind of want a few quiet moments and they want to, you know, just go visit.

Visit all the flowers, you know, for example, you know, that's a it's a romantic day out, you know date

or day

stock your freezer hit all the protein producers and you've got you know roasts and steak and hamburger for the rest of the winter

Yeah, absolutely planning ahead a little bit, right?

So it's going on this weekend and next anything else you want to add about the schedule ladies today

You know, I think, I think we've kind of covered it all.

We want to really thank you for allowing us to come in today and visit with you and letting folks know about the Hill and Valley exploration tour.

Well, it's always a pleasure.

And I know that you always booked this well in advance.

I think this might have been one of the, the first morning show bookings of the year in fact.

So, so you're already looking at number 11.

I'm sure

we are,

we are, where do you, where do you hope it goes in the future as you build on this?

Because you've accomplished a lot in 10 years, maybe in.

but seeing even more businesses here down the road.

You know, I think we kind of look at that growth and the opportunities for that.

And yeah, we definitely are kind of got an eye on the future of how it can grow.

I mean, we'd like to have an experience for people who are on the tour that offers the kind of variety like Dorothy was saying, maybe you want to stock your freezer.

Maybe you want to grab the last fresh flowers or the best produce that literally was picked

you know, the, the cucumbers that were picked that morning, you know, we want to make sure that we're trying to appeal to what people want to see the best of, you know, in Wisconsin.

I think you've thought about, I think you've done it, uh, and other times like maybe twice a year before, haven't you?

Or, or not?

No, this is our only fall event.

The event that we have in the spring, as long as you brought it up, we partner with the Sacred Heart Church in Reedsburg.

That had been a long time food fair that had been in place and the people who were running it said, you know, we'd like to retire.

And so we have stepped in.

So that is where we bring everybody to one location at the Sacred Heart School.

And it's a spring food fair, like the

Usually the first weekend in March, again, it's kind of that time of the year where people are like, oh, I'm so tired of cold and winter and stuff.

I can't wait to think about spring.

And yeah, we get about 20 to almost 30 vendors that come out for that as well.

So it's a little bit different, but still kind of under the umbrella of the Hill and Valley Exploration

Tour.

And features a lot of people on the tour.

You'll get honey producers, bakers,

the Wisconsin Farmers Union.

Yeah, as I say, you'll get the meat producers there as well.

And I bring dahlia, so people are starting to think, even though it's a little early to be planting, they start thinking about what they want to put in their gardens.

A great time of year.

Absolutely.

Well, good.

We'll keep reading good weather.

Again, you have four days to choose from either this Saturday, Sunday or next Saturday, Sunday.

You should get a few good days out of that.

I certainly hope so.

Absolutely.

Thanks for coming in, ladies.

Thank you.

Hill and Valley Exploration Tour, the next

Two weekends touring rural farms, businesses, historic sites, educational and artistic studios as well.

Dorothy Harms, board member in Cindy Johnson on the marketing team for the Hill and Valley Exploration Tour.