Join the Wisconsin Historical Society Press, the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, Capital Brewery, and author Ed Janus in celebrating the release of "Creating Dairyland." On June 16, from 5 to 8 p.m., stop by the Bier Garten at Capital Brewery in Middleton, Wisconsin, for a book signing with the author, meet local dairy farmers and cheesemakers, take a photograph with Ginger the Jersey, listen to music by old time fiddlers, and enjoy gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches while sipping on a beer.

Ed Janus offers a sort of field guide to Dairyland, showing us how to "read" our landscape with fresh eyes, explaining what we see today by describing how and why it came to be. "Creating Dairyland" pays tribute to the many thousands of Wisconsin farmers who have found a way to stay on their land with their cows. Their remarkable effort of labor, intelligence and faith is one of the great stories of Wisconsin – a story still being written.

Ed Janus spent two years as a dairy farmer in Crawford County, Wisconsin, where he fell in love with cows, fields, barns and farmers. Since then he has interviewed hundreds of people as an audio journalist, writer and oral historian and has created radio programs for public radio, the Voice of America, and publishers in the U.S. and Germany. His first-person audio book on surviving breast cancer won top honors from the Audio Publishers Association in 1999.

In 2007 Ed created a series of audio profiles of today's dairy farmers and cheesemakers for the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, and he recently founded the Wisconsin Dairy History Project. He lives in Madison where he founded both the Madison Muskies baseball team and the world-renown Capital Brewery.

For more information, contact Melanie Roth at the Wisconsin Historical Society Press (608) 264-6465. PD

—From Wisconsin Historical Society Press news release