Despite the chilly weather and wet ground, thousands of people came out Sunday morning for the annual Breakfast on the Farm held at Twin Cities Vue Dairy just north of Manitowoc.
Becky Salm, the Chair of the Manitowoc County Dairy Breakfast was happy to see so many people come out to the event, even with the less-than-optimal conditions.
“We are so lucky to have so many wonderful host families,” she said. “That is not different than any Breakfast we have had in the past, thankfully. The Lepichs have been fantastic hosts.”
Salm did note that while she would have liked it to be a little nicer, she isn’t going to complain because “we needed this rain.”
We spoke with her just before 9:00 a.m., so there was a lot of time left to go, but Salm estimated that they would feed around 3,000 people by the time it was all said and done.
As for the farm itself, Salm tells us this year is a very special year for the Lepich family.
“This is their 50-year anniversary,” she explained. “James did not come from a farm family, so they are really first-generation farmers, him and his wife.”
Joanna Strzyzewski is in charge of making sure there are enough eggs, sausage, milk, and cheese at the breakfast, but she said it really is a community effort “bewtwen grocery stores, (and) the cheese plants.”
She went on to tell us that they had cheese from BelGioioso, Arla, Agropur, Krohs Dairy Store, and Sargento before noting “Everybody works together to make sure we have enough food for everyone here today.”
Also on hand was Dan Hale, who has been to hundreds of dairy breakfasts over his lifetime.
“I’m in the dairy industry in Northeast Wisconsin, so I go to a lot of County’s Dairy Breakfasts’ and enjoy Manitowoc’s very much,” he said. “Usually, I get to see an awful lot of people that I know, and I love helping promote the dairy industry.”
The youngest of the farm’s owners, James Lepich, told us that the setup was swift and smooth as “most of the time, everything is pretty clean out here.”
He also issued a thank you to everyone involved, and to everyone that came out to see their beautiful farm.
