As so many people around the country know, Wisconsin is known for a lot of things. The World Champion Green Bay Packers. Cheese. Beer. And of course, freezing cold winters!
Unfortunately, we're now also know for Scott Walker, the Fitzgeralds, Paul Ryan, and a whole host of other right wing clowns.
But I suspect few people outside of Wisconsin know that, every Memorial Day weekend, residents in and around Madison gorge themselves on one of the state's iconic foods while listening to good music and enjoying a festival atmosphere.
In 1983, in an effort to thank the customers of his family-owned and operated grocery store, Tom Metcalfe (1935 – 2006) created a modest brat fry with a table, three chairs and a Weber grill. He cooked up brats and sold them for 50¢; people soon flocked to the store on Memorial Day weekend for a taste of the Wisconsin staple.
As word of mouth about the Memorial Day event at Hilldale grew, so did people’s appetites. Eventually creating so much demand for the juicy bratwursts that Tom Metcalfe needed to find help and here came the volunteers. Having a strong foundation and belief in community, Tom decided to donate the proceeds to the organizations whose members helped serve up the mouth-watering sausages.
Every years, Wisconsinites loosen their belts in the ongoing effort to break the prior year's consumption record. Last year, it was 209,376 of the tasty little fellas. And let me tell you...I don't know what magic all of those volunteers know, but those are the best brats I've had in my life.
The downside is that of course there has to be a brat sponsor. And that sponsor, my friends, is Johnsonville Sausage.
Johnsonville Sausage, the Sheboygan Falls company that donates 150,000 brats to the festival each year, is on the boycott list because of contributions made to Walker's campaign by the family owners.
In addition, Metcalfe's has also gotten into a bit of a PR mess:
He's (Tim Metcalfe) spent a lot of time on the phone and e-mailing recently explaining to customers that he indeed made a personal $500 donation to Walker in the primary race against Mark Neumann but not in the general election for governor.
So, in a case of SERIOUS ingenuity, of course the Mad City peeps are coordinating....
ALT BRAT FEST!!!
Brat-lover Carrie Dainty, a longtime patron of the annual Memorial Day weekend charity fundraiser, isn't relishing the thought of munching the brats donated by Johnsonville Sausage, whose executives, family members and employees have donated $44,250 to Walker since 2005.
So she and brother-in-law Joey Dunscombe, a chef at the Weary Traveler Free House at 1201 Williamson St., are planning an alternative fest serving locally-produced brats and other food, while also donating all proceeds to charity.
The two are going before the Madison Park Commission Wednesday seeking permission to have a one-day Alt Brat Fest on May 29 in Orton Park, 1103 Spaight St.
For those of you who CAN'T be in Mad City for the fest, it's all good.
There's also VIRTUAL BRAT FEST!!!
There is also a Virtual Alternative Brat Fest online -- where you get a "cyberbrat" instead of a real one - that has already raised more than $2,000 for the Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin.
Can you help? Let's show Scott Walker and his deep-pocketed pals that the best brats are the ones eaten on the LEFT!
Virtual Brat Fest
Much love to my Kossack peeps,
ANK