Laurel Burleson, a Dane County chef, thinks ugly apples make the best dishes. 

One of her goals as a chef and restaurant owner is to save usable produce from the waste bin.

“I know how hard (Wisconsin farmers) work every day, making these products that are delicious and nutritious and for anything to get thrown away just because it’s not aesthetically perfect is just outrageous,” said Burleson, owner of Ugly Apple Cafe. 

The latest fruit monitoring report from the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows many parts of  the state having great harvests, although northeastern Wisconsin orchards suffered from a cool spring. But most apple orchards are busy with the fall harvest. So what do you do with that abundance of apples? 

Burleson shared some recipes and her philosophy on cooking with WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.”

This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity. 

Rob Ferrett: What do you like to do with apples apart from just eating them?

Laurel Burleson: One that I really like to do is making apple marmalade. That is shredding apples and preserving them in sugar so that they keep their structure. It’s kind of the opposite of making applesauce. 

But we also make a lot of apple sauce and apple butter. That’s a good way to use a lot of apples all at once.

While the Wisconsin Badgers struggle on the football field, sitting at a disappointing 2-2 through four weeks, some of the program’s former transfers continue to find success.

One of those players is tight end Riley Nowakowski, who transferred to Indiana this offseason after five years with the Badgers. The Milwaukee, Wisconsin, native originally walked on to the program as an unranked outside linebacker. After playing sparingly during his first few seasons with the Badgers, he flipped over to fullback in 2022, then out to tight end after Phil Longo arrived in 2023. Nowakowski totaled 18 receptions for 131 yards and a touchdown from 2023-24; his two years as a primary offensive contributor.

The former Badger is already making significant progress toward those totals, now just four games into his Indiana career. He has four catches for 72 yards and a touchdown, plus one carry for a one-yard score. The versatile fullback/tight end delivered the highlight play of his career during Indiana’s blowout win over Illinois on Saturday, taking a 1st-down screen pass 43 yards to the house.

Wisconsin, meanwhile, has received solid contributions from Montana State transfer tight end Lance Mason. The veteran has 14 catches for 177 yards and two touchdowns to date, leading the team in each of those respective categories.

Get ready for an overall warmer stretch of weather as we head into this upcoming workweek. After some fog lifts this morning, we’ll have plenty of sunshine today with highs in the mid to upper 70s along the lake and low 80s inland.

Tonight will be dry with lows in the low 60s lakeside and upper 50s inland.

Monday through Wednesday should be very similar, with upper 70s to near 80 near the lake and low to mid 80s inland with plenty of sun.

We’ll start to bring in chances of showers or a T’storm starting Thursday right on into the weekend.

WATCH: Southeast Wisconsin weather: Dry Today, Warm Workweek Ahead

Southeast Wisconsin weather: Dry Today, Warm Workweek Ahead

TODAY: Any fog lifting through the morning, then becoming mostly sunny.
High: 77 lakefront… 83 inland.
Wind: E 5-10 MPH.

TONIGHT: Mostly clear.
Low: 62.
Wind: ESE 3-8 MPH.

MONDAY: Mostly sunny.
Highs: 78 lakefront… 83 inland.
Wind: ESE 5-10 MPH.

TUES: Mostly sunny and warm.
High: 80 lakefront… 84 inland.

WEDS: Mostly sunny and warm.
High: 81 lakefront… 85 inland.

THUR: Partly cloudy with a chance of a shower
or T’storm.
High: 80.

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