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COLFAX, WIS. — "When I was a kid growing up on our dairy farm in west central Wisconsin 40 years ago, we didn't give it a second thought when we went out to the milkhouse at least a couple of times a month to get some cream to make whipped cream," said LeAnn R. Ralph, author of the third book in Rural Route 2 series, "Cream of the Crop (More True Stories from a Wisconsin Farm)" (September 2005; trade paperback; 190 pages; ISBN 1591138205).
"If Mom baked a pineapple upside-down cake or a pie or a pound cake, or if my big sister brought home ice cream and maraschino cherries and bananas to make banana splits, we made whipped cream to go along with it," Ralph said.
"We always had pie for dessert at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, too, and none of those holidays would have been the same without whipped cream from our very own cows," she noted.
"I really miss those 'good old days,'" Ralph said. "We were blissfully unaware that whipped cream wasn't good for a person, although I still say that even if whipped cream isn't especially good for your arteries, an occasional indulgence is good for the soul."
Nowadays, people are generally too conscious of the fat content to eat whipped cream three or four times a month, but cardiologists would not have to worry about farm families eating too much whipped cream, anyway, because there aren't hardly any farm families left, she noted.
"We have lost so many dairy farms in Wisconsin over the last several decades, and that means far fewer people have easy access to cream, not only for whipped cream, but to put in coffee or to eat on cereal," Ralph said.
Wisconsin has lost almost three-quarters of its dairy farms since 1969. According to statistics from the United States Census of Agriculture and the American Farm Bureau Federation, forty years ago, Wisconsin had 60,000 dairy farms. In May 2004, the number of dairy farms in Wisconsin was 15,591, according to the Wisconsin Agricultural Statistics Service. Statistics from the United States Census of Agriculture show the same trend for the country as a whole. In 1969, more than a half a million dairy farms operated in the United States. Today, only about 80,000 dairy farms are left.
"It used to be that you could drive up and down the roads in the area where I grew up and see dairy farm after dairy farm after dairy farm," Ralph said. "Today, most of those farms are gone, and in fact, in 2004, the last dairy farmer in my immediate neighborhood sold her herd of Jerseys. That's why I am writing these books--to help preserve a small part of our agricultural history."
Besides "Cream of the Crop," Ralph is the author of "Give Me a Home Where the Dairy Cows Roam" (trade paperback; Sept. 2004; ISBN1591135923 ) and "Christmas in Dairyland (True Stories from a Wisconsin Farm)" (trade paperback; August 2003; ISBN 1591133661). Each book contains 20 true stories appropriate for readers of all ages. According to The Midwest Book Review, Ralph's books are "highly recommended reading."
To read sample chapters, book reviews, and other readers' comments visit --
www. ruralroute2.com
Contact Information:
LeAnn R. Ralph
E6689 970th Ave.
Colfax, WI 54730
(715) 962-3368
e-mail: bigpines@ruralroute2.com