Klingers Welcome 'Alice' Finalists

By Jane Fyksen, Crops Editor
Thursday, May 10, 2007 10:25 AM CDT

The 60th Alice in Dairyland will be selected May 19 in Chippewa County.

"Building on a Tradition" is the theme the host county has chosen for this year's "Alice" finals. It's a perfect fit for Klinger Farm Market, too - one of the stops on a tour of Chippewa County agriculture the Alice finalists will take, and a major sponsor of this year's finals.

Klinger Farm Market, seven miles north of Chippewa Falls on Highway 124, has been building on tradition for 103 years. Though the operation has evolved dramatically since the late Max Klinger launched his dairy operation, family is still front and center - and lots of it.

From dairy, the Klinger family would switch to mink production and potatoes. Today, cash grain, direct-market vegetables and greenhouses dominate this large and highly diverse family farm.

It's another sign of the times that today, the main manager is female. Mary Klinger oversees a sprawling on-farm market, open seven days a week, year-round. It's a feast for the eyes with one greenhouse after another filled with flats and lush hanging baskets of flowers.

When Agri-View visited on a Tuesday morning last week, the place was hopping. Customers were leaving with carts overflowing with transplants, garden-art items, onion sets, bags of bulk seed and fresh produce. It was non-stop hustle and bustle for Mary, other family members and non-family employees.

The elder generation is still very much involved in this farm, with 1,000 acres owned and rented. It's a trio of brothers - Mary's 74-year-old father, Dennis, and her uncles, Bob, 72, and Dave, 63, who works closely with his niece on the retail/greenhouse end of the business.

Mary's mom, Pat, who was originally a "city girl" from Edgerton, also remains active, keeping everyone in line as mothers are known to do. Dennis and Pat have six children, 10 grandchildren and four great-grandkids. Recently, says Pat with pride, there were four generations pitching in, when her three-year-old great-grandchild shadowed her.

Bob is single, and Dave is a late-blooming newlywed, recently married to Jan. Mary is married to Gerald Amelse, who isn't involved in the farm. However, Mary's sister, Sandy Leirmo, lends a hand, as does her brother and sister-in-law, Duane and Mona Klinger; and her brother-in-law, Rocky Berg (married to her sister, Kathie). Yet another sibling, Sue Walloch, works part-time on the weekends. Various grandchildren of Dennis and Pat are also helping out. In total, there are 35 employees (mostly part-time) at the height of the season. Fifteen are full-time, including the three brothers and Mary.

The "farm" side of Klinger Farm Market, Inc. encompasses 700 tillable acres, roughly half of which can be irrigated. Dave says there are 250 acres of corn, much of which is destined for the ethanol plant at Wheeler; 150 acres of soybeans; about another 100 in potatoes, sweet corn and other vegetables for the market; 45 acres of sunflowers (which is sold out of the store as birdseed); and rye, utilized as a cover crop and plow-down, though they also sell rye straw for customer's gardens.

The vegetables run the gamut from A to Z and everything in between. "From asparagus to zucchinis," Pat reports.

The dairy cows left in the '60s, Pat recalls. Her father-in-law, the late John Klinger, was a pioneer in first fox production (going back to the '30s) and later, mink. At the "peak," they'd pelt 5,000 to 6,000 mink a year, notes Dave, adding that fur production lasted until the early '80s.

Pat adds that it was a proud moment for her father-in-law when he presented one former Alice in Dairyland with a mink stole, on behalf of that industry.

The potatoes were originally a FFA project of Mary's dad. An enterprising producer early on, Dennis had a test plot for certified seed potatoes when he was in high school back in the late '40s. Potatoes, which were sold to area people out of a little Quonset shed, led to other veggies.

It was Dave who really enjoyed vegetables and was instrumental in the growth of that segment of the family business. The flowers were a logical next step.

Mary, of course, grew up in the business and has never left, though she went to tech school for business and marketing.

Today, she oversees 18 greenhouses, which, along with the on-farm store and outdoor shrubbery and garden-art sales area, encompasses two-and-a-half acres. Every year they hold a spring open house, always the last full weekend of April. Repeat customers from far and wide throughout Wisconsin, as well as the Twin Cities and other points in Minnesota, wouldn't miss it. Dave notes that the "peak" for greenhouse sale is the Saturday before Mother's Day.

They have an extensive collection of perennials (over 400 different kinds), which, says Pat, are hardy enough to be successfully grown in Zone 4. They also offer 135 varieties of hostas.

They are, as noted, open year-round, seven days a week, with sales changing with the seasons. From April 1 to Nov. 1 the hours are 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. In the "off season" of November through March - if one can even call it that - they're still open seven days a week, though from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

This time of year customers clamor for flowers, vegetable transplants and landscape plants for their yards. Then produce sales dominate, as luscious tomatoes, fresh broccoli and the sweet corn (for which Klinger Farm Market is famous) and many more veggies come on.

Mary confirms they indeed specialize in sweet corn, with 40 acres of it, handpicked, every year. Seventy-five percent is sold right off the farm. Sweet corn sales run from late July to mid-September.

One customer comes every year toting a box that's been pre-weighed. He knows exactly how much Klinger Farm Market sweet corn to put in it. He ships that taste of "home" to children in Alaska each and every year.

Potatoes are still a mainstay. The family has 30 to 35 acres, and typically starting Fourth of July weekend, they hand-dig B-size reds, moving through the various varieties, and selling spuds from the store all winter-long and into spring.

Tomatoes and peppers go out by the bushels. They feature 10 varieties of hot peppers for the salsa-makers. "We're still rural. People around here are still canning," notes Mary of customers who seek larger quantities of vegetables for home-processing.

Times are a changing though, Mary notes. Many families aren't seeking the big quantities of vegetables they once did. "When I was in high school, we'd sell 100-pound bags of potatoes," she recalls, noting that these days, 5 or 10-pounds bags are in greater demand.

Mary remembers how husbands and wives would come to the farm for spuds. The wife would select several 100-pound bags, while her husband queried, "What are you going to do with all those potatoes?"

"Never you mind," she'd tell him. "We'll need that many."

"Now," says Mary, "the husband will pick up 15 or 20 pounds and the woman says, 'What are we supposed to do with all those potatoes?' There's less planning ahead."

Today's consumer does "like fresh," adds Mary. Many people visit weekly to purchase vegetables.

Another change that Pat has noticed is that "people are more intelligent about seeds and plants." Not only do they know exactly what they're looking for, but when they see something intriguing, they "want to know the scientific name," she says.

Martha Stewart and all of the home and garden shows on cable have been a boost to their business. Any time Martha or one of the others mention something on television, the Klinger family has learned that their customers will be asking for it in short order.

What's "hot" among gardeners now are hot peppers and heirloom tomatoes. "People like to try different tomatoes," states Mary.

Dave adds that blueberry plants are also in demand. People are putting a couple blueberry bushes in their yards.

In general, however, "it depends what day it is," says Mary of dealing with the ever-changing wants of the public. "You go with the flow," she states pragmatically.

What folks always plan for, however, are Klinger Farm Market's hanging baskets. They're known for the generous-sized baskets of mixed flowers. People worry they'll sell out. The annual flowers (literally 10s of 1,000s of individual plants) as well as the perennials and vegetable transplants, are grown by this hard-working family. The only items for sale they don't grow themselves are the shrubbery and apples (which are from local Chippewa County orchards). They're hands-on, even making a trip to Mexico every year, to source colorful glazed pots, row upon row of which line shelves in the retail sales area. There are birdbaths of every description, statuary and ancient Inca-like plaques.

The fall brings pumpkins and all that typically go with them. For the last several years, Dave says they've had a corn maze, about four acres. They carved out a tractor in the field when Farm Technology Days was hosted by Chippewa County. Three years ago, when their farm joined the esteemed ranks of century farms, the maize featured 100 years for the big anniversary.

When the cold winds blow and the last of the crops are in, Klinger Farm Market turns to wreaths and greenery for the Christmas season.

Though this Alice finals tour host-farm is atypical, it still maintains many Wisconsin farming "traditions." Dennis, for instance, does most of the planting. "Nobody drives straight enough," quips his younger brother Dave.

"They (the brothers) still drive around and look who has the straightest corn rows," Mary grins.

Spoken like a true farmer, Mary says what she enjoys most about her career is "being outside" and the fact that "everything changes - it's not the same every day." Her favorite season on the farm is May "when it's the busiest." She typically puts in 70 hours a week.

"It's satisfying when the product is going," she admits. "March and April are stressful. We're planting and the greenhouses are full. You always wonder: Are we going to sell all this?"

This year the plants are particularly vigorous, because the greenhouses have gotten "plenty of sun," says Mary. While they can control the heat, they're still at the mercy of Mother Nature in terms of sunny days or cloudy weather. In the fields they use row covers and plastic mulch to bring on vegetables a couple weeks earlier.

As noted, Klinger Farm Market (715-288-6324) will host the present Alice in Dairyland, Nicole Reese, and the six candidates for the state's ag ambassador post: Brenda Cavanaugh, Prairie du Sac; Tolea Kamm-Peissig, Athens; Amanda Levzow, Rio; Jill Makovec, Muscoda; and Susan Orth, Fennimore. The other tour stops are: ACE Ethanol at Stanley; AMPI Falls Dairy at Jim Falls; Five Star Dairy at Elk Mound, owned by cousins Less and Jim Mensen; the Leinenkugel Brewery at Chippewa Falls; Udder Wise Dairy LLC at Chippewa Falls, operated by Roger and Kathy Bohl and their son Nick and his wife Amanda.

Over the three days - May 17-19 - the finalists will be judged in a number of venues. On Friday, May 18, at 6:30 p.m., the public is invited to meet the candidates at an informal dinner and impromptu question and answer session at Heyde Center in Chippewa Falls. The cost is $10 per person.

The sixtieth "Alice" will be named during a banquet and reception on Saturday, May 19, starting at 5:30 p.m. at the Sleep Inn and Suites Conference Center, located just west of Chippewa Falls at the junction of Highway 29 and County Trunk T. The cost is $20 per person. Tickets for either event can be purchased from Chippewa County Extension (715-726-7950 or randy.knapp@ces.uwex.edu).

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