Fort Atkinson Treasures

 Yesterday (Thurs. Nov.7) I drove one of my favorite "loops" along Highway 26, with stops in Fort Atkinson, Johnson Creek, and Watertown. This is a drive that presents numerous potential encounters with bargains, and always several choices to binge. There's so much, in fact, that I can't cover it all in one blog entry of reasonable length, especially when I score a jackpot of "B&Bs" like I did yesterday. So I'll break this trip into several entries for easier and less tiring reading on your part.

Fort Atkinson is home to several bargain venues, the most reliable one being the Jones Dairy Farm retail store, which almost never fails to disappoint. It's often the focal point of driving this whole loop, especially when I am running low on one of my most favorite pork products ... ham. The store almost always has it in great quantity, and at a fantastic price.

First, a little background, The name Jones Dairy Farm is a misnomer. It's not a dairy farm at all, but a meat processing company, which deals almost exclusively in pork. Most of it is in the form of ham, Canadian bacon, regular bacon, and breakfast sausage. They also offer a couple of specialty products, including liver sausage, and something called "Scrapple," which is a processed meat product most popular in the mid-Atlantic states. But it also has a niche market here in the Midwest, particular among the Amish where Scrapple fits in perfectly with the Amish philosophy of consuming every last molecule of the pig, no matter how disgusting it might be, or the quantity of spices required to cover up the nasty flavor of the raw pig byproducts contained therein.

The "Dairy Farm" part comes from the fact that when the Jones family first arrived in Fort Atkinson in 1832, they made their living as dairy farmers. Contracting a case of rheumatoid arthritis, the head of the family, Milo, was no longer able to milk cows, and instead turned to making sausage. He never bothered to change the name, and it has stuck ever since. At some point, the company decided to open a small retail store to offer its products, mostly as a courtesy to the community. It's also my understanding they work with one (if not several) food banks in Jefferson County. The store is located at the north end of the facility:

My favorite (and almost always available) bargain of theirs is the "ham ends." As the name implies, these are the end pieces of the company's "boneless ham." The hams are formed into into "logs" and sliced into various thicknesses for multiple products. When perfectly uniform diameter slices can no longer be made, Jones tosses the remainders (the "ends") into five-pound vacuum-sealed bags, and sells them for $5.50, or $1.10 per pound.

This is a tremendous bargain, if you don't mind slices of ham that gradually get smaller and smaller as you get to the very end of the chunk. The "very end" ends are perfect for cubing into soups, omelets, etc. What I do with the ham ends is first peel off the "rind" (which is entirely edible; I'll get to that in a moment) and then put the chunks on my electric slicer and cut thin slices for sandwiches. When I can't make any more slices, I use the very end pieces for a ham steak, or cube it, or sometimes chop it into ham salad.

The rinds I process with water in my Vitamix blender, which totally liquefies the mass into a savory broth that I use to make any number of soups -- bean and ham; potato and ham; split pea and ham; lentil and ham ... you get the idea. So there is virtually no waste on this product, and the ham is delicious, and costs half (or better) what the "perfect" product would cost at a regular grocery store.

The other product they almost always have on hand are the same end pieces in their Canadian bacon product, for I believe the same price. But I'm not a huge fan of Canadian bacon; it's a little too "dry" for my taste. But if you like Canadian bacon, this is even more of a bargain, probably about a third of what the "perfect" version costs at your average supermarket.

The store also has occasional deals on other overstocked, discontinued, slightly imperfect (or a combination thereof) products. This can be hit-or-miss, but it's always fun when you find something. Their other unblemished/normal products are priced at about what you would pay at a grocery store, and in some cases higher.

So this is one of the best bargains around, especially if you love ham and/or Canadian bacon. While Jones Dairy Farm (the main corporation) does all sorts of advertising, from local to national, the outlet store itself does no advertising (that I am aware of) so very few people know about this, outside the city of Fort Atkinson of course. It's definitely worth a stop. Be sure and take a cooler, especially if you're visiting on a warmer day. The store is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, closed Sundays. But, as I often caution with this blog, call them at (920) 563-2432 before you make the drive.

Nasco

OK, the other "must stop" destination in Fort Atkinson (and very close to the Jones Dairy Farm store) are the two outlet stores for the Nasco Corporation. This is a huge operation, with most of their business being conducted via catalog and mail order with schools all over the country. Remember those cutaway sculptures of the human digestive system in your high school biology class? Chances are, it came from Nasco. The amazing thing is they don't actually manufacture much, if anything, on their premises. Instead, they are a huge "one-stop" distribution company for products sourced from a diverse and often obscure and bizarre collection of companies located all over the world.

Their product offerings are so diverse, that they have two facilities in the city, each with its own outlet store. My favorite is is the outlet store for their "Educational Materials/Farm & Home Products " division. How could you possibly pass up a store with a name like that? Here, you are likely to find everything from a food processor, to udder balm, to a microscope set. I think my favorite products are their educational/science toys and kits, which hearken me back to my childhood and my endless forays into microscopes, chemistry sets, rock tumblers, shrimp hatcheries, and almost anything else that would prevent me from venturing into the outside world and facing the unpleasant possibility of having to interact with other children. This store is fascinating, and simply has shit that no other store has.

If you doubt this, consider this item I found at the store on this particular visit, which I consider the most unusual thing I have ever encountered on my "B&B" journeys:

That's right, my friends. This is a collection, literally, of shit. I laughed so hard when I found this, that I nearly wet myself. (Note to self: Check on feasibility of frame set: "Urine of North American Wildlife," possibly a scratch-n-sniff.)  I apologize for the big glare spot in the middle of the photo, partially obscuring the cotton-tail rabbit and lynx shit, but the damned display was wrapped in a plastic bag, and I was afraid if I unwrapped it, I would be forced to buy it. That prospect wouldn't have been so bad, and perhaps I would have even contemplated buying it. I mean, what a great conversation piece! "Hey, Bob, ever wonder what a mountain lion turd looks like? C'mon over here and I'll show you!"

But the frickin' thing was priced at $75. I wanted to ask one of the store clerks if that was the regular price, or a clearance price, begging the question of whether someone actually thought it was worth more than $75 at one time. But I couldn't bring myself to do it, because I wouldn't have been able to do it with a straight face.

For once, folks, I am speechless. But obviously, somewhere out there in this big wide wonderful world, there is a need for such a product. And its mere existence proves, beyond all doubt, that even shit is worth something if wrapped in a sufficiently pretty package.

All bullshit aside (which is conspicuously missing from the collection by the way) this is a great store to shop, particularly if you're looking for educational toys for kids, especially now with the holidays nearing. There's also a nice selection of small kitchen appliances, bakeware, pots and pans, and one of the nicest selections of sheep shears that I have ever seen, should the need ever arise. Some of the stuff in the store is in the "bargain" category, but much is priced on a par with what you would pay at most any discount department store. For instance, one time the store had a clearance on rolling containers (about the size of a milk carton case) with collapsing handle. When not in use, the whole thing folds down to about the size of a photo album. Just five bucks! I bought one, and use it to haul my watches in and out of watch shows. But whether you find a bargain or not, the big attraction at this store is the sheer variety and oddity of the merchandise.

The other Nasco outlet store is their "arts and crafts" store which offers a good cross-section of their vast inventory of goods to be found in their catalog. Again, pricing is hit and miss. But the store is very popular with the A&C crowd. There are always cars in the parking lot, and I'm told people from all over the state drive here to shop.

There seems to be quite a few other businesses in Fort Atkinson as well, clustered within that same south end of town. If anyone knows of any other "bargain" venues in Fort Atkinson, please leave a comment!

That's all folks. I'm all pooped out for today.

Bruce