Wisconsin
Wisconsin holds on to title as nation’s top producer of green beans
It’s official. Wisconsin held on to its title as the nation’s top producer of snap beans, also known as green beans and string beans. According to the USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service – Vegetables 2023 Summary, state farmers produced 48% of the nation’s supply, harvesting 51,900 acres of the nutritious veggie in 2023 for a total production of 6.75 million cwt..
Despite a dry start to the growing season in 2023, farmers and canneries harvested 55,000 acres of sweet corn with a total production of 10.7 million cwt. Fresh market production accounted for 643,500 cwt with a total value of $25.9 million. Production of sweet corn for processing totaled 502,466 tons and was valued at $58.3 million.
Wisconsin ranked third for sweet corn production with 17 percent of the nation’s production. U.S. sweet corn production totaled 62.4 million cwt.
Green pea production totaled 1.39 million cwt from 28,500 harvested acres and was valued at $26.6 million. Fresh market production totaled 1,400 cwt for a total value of $274,000. The 69,470 tons of processing green pea production had a value of $26.3 million. Green pea production in the U.S. totaled 5.23 million cwt.
Cabbage production in 2023 totaled 2.40 million cwt with a total value of production of $32.3 million. There were 6,900 acres of cucumbers harvested in 2023 with a total value of production of $23.6 million. Wisconsin farmers harvested 2,900 acres of pumpkinsin 2023 with a total value of production of $9.0 million.
Wisconsin enjoys No. 1 rankings in the following commodities
- Cheese, total produced
- American Cheese
- Cheddar Cheese
- Italian Cheese
- Corn Silage
- Cranberries
- Dry whey
- Milking goats
- Mink Pelts
- Snap Beans
Wisconsin
Appleton Public Library wins 2025 Wisconsin Library of the Year award for distinguished service
The Appleton Public Library was named 2025 Library of the Year by the Wisconsin Library Association.
The award recognizes distinguished achievement in service for outstanding commitment to users, innovation and community impact.
Appleton spent nearly 17 years working to build a new public library. The effort culminated in February, when the city opened a newly renovated and expanded $40.4 million library at 200 N. Appleton St.
During construction, the library operated from two temporary locations: the former Best Buy store at 2411 S. Kensington Drive and the former Habitat ReStore at 3000 E. College Ave.
“Few institutions could withstand what APL has endured,” Common Council President Katie Van Zeeland said. “Our staff adapted through not one but two full relocations during construction, and they never wavered.”
While operating at the temporary sites, library staff found ways to reach new audiences and build relationships by creating a welcoming environment and working with partner organizations to provide programming opportunities throughout the city.
Staff also launched new initiatives to connect people, including job support programs and the Appleton Poet Laureate Program.
“This award honors both our staff, who have gone above and beyond to serve with creativity and care, and our community, whose trust and support make Appleton Public Library possible,” Library Director Colleen Rortvedt said.
The library will receive the 2025 Library of the Year award on Oct. 30 during the Awards & Honors Ceremony at the Wisconsin Library Association Annual Conference in Middleton.
Contact Duke Behnke at 920-993-7176 or dbehnke@gannett.com. Follow him on X at @DukeBehnke.
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.
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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.
RF: What goes into making apple butter?
LB: Very basically you make applesauce, so just cook down your apples and blend them up. Then you take that applesauce and cook it extremely slowly, either in a slow cooker or in the oven. Cook it down until it’s dark and rich and more closely resembling a peanut butter than applesauce.
From there, you can put in whatever spices you want: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, bay leaf. You just have to be careful because whatever you start with in the big batch will get super concentrated and reduced in your end product.
RF: With applesauce or apple butter, do we have to be fussy about the type of apples? Or can we mix and match?
LB: I like to mix and match, especially because the apple season starts really early. Some years you can get the first season apples in July.
They don’t hold very long and they’re very juicy, so they break down really easily, but they are very tart. I like to get some of those early season apples and make them into applesauce and freeze them and then when I have other sweeter varieties later I mix them and then reduce that all down into butter.
RF: You shared a savory recipe with us for pork chops with apple bacon cabbage. Tell us a little bit about this recipe.
LB: It’s really fun for the fall and even into the winter. You can kind of use any kind of variety of apple that’s a little bit tart and it’s OK if it breaks down and blends in because the cabbage is going to maintain its structure.
If the onions and apples melt away into a delicious sauce it’s just fine. But also, if you end up with some apple pieces, then it’s a nice little surprise like a little sweetness.
The Ugly Apple Cafe operates cafes inside the Dane County Courthouse and the City County Building in Madison and sells its products at the Monona Farmers Market.
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.
While Mason has been one of the Badgers’ few bright spots through four weeks, it’s hard to ignore Nowakowski’s emergence as one of Indiana’s dependable offensive playmakers.
Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion
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