Matt and Carol's Travels: Making Our Back to South Dakota

Scenes before leaving Breezy Hill Campground. The top photo is a collage of a sunset after a big storm, and the moon that rose. The moon was orange thanks to the Canadian fires. The lower collage is the sunflower field near the campground, which is created yearly by the dairy farm that owns the creamery.

Since we were breaking camp on my birthday, we celebrated my birthday the night before.

With the birthday now celebrated, it was time to move on.

Wife: have you seen the dog bowl?

Husband: I didn't know he could bowl.

Our next stop was Fairchild, WI, at a campground we have stayed at before. I even reserved the same site we had last year.

We liked this spot because there was separation from the cabin to the left in the photos, even though it was close to the road, the traffic noise was occasional at worst.

OUR WELCOME PARTY

We didn't do much sightseeing, but I did go for a walk to visit the local cemetery. You see Fairchild is an extremely small town, with maybe 400 (living) residents, and just about as many permanent (deceased) residents.

While the town is small, they were represented in our struggles for freedom... from the Civil War, to the Gulf War.

The bottom right head stone is a sailor from the Civil War, and the most recent resident fought in the Vietnam War. All wars are represented in the collage.

I visit cemeteries because I have a morbid interest in how we choose to remember our loved ones, and this cemetery was no different.

The upper left head stone is that of a relative that fought in the Civil War, lower left is that of a father who loved the outdoors. Then there is the young man that also loved the outdoors, and he is remembered through an ironwork head stone. Lastly, there is the young man remembered as "Bear Cub".

There are many family plots in this cemetery too. The one the intrigued me the most was the Thunder family.

This collage is only a small representation of the family that lays at rest here. You may be asking why I was intrigued with this family... they are Native American Indians from the region, and one of their sons fought in the Gulf War.

Back home I go.

Carol and I had been discussing putting something on the range for more counter space...

Our solution was to build a removeable counter top. I made the counter top from solid cherry, to match our cabinets. In the Fairchild area it was difficult find small lumber, and we ended up at an Amish lumberyard. This lumberyard was paradise to me. The craftsman was kind enough to cut the wood to size... and it only cost $15.00.

While I was playing with the counter top, Carol was busy making more jerky...

CHICKEN JERKY

Got this on our way out of Wisconsin, and into Minnesota, quite an upgrade huh. Just kidding, this monster was in our site when we arrived.

The monster was two hours late leaving the site... but all was good, and we got settled in.

As I said, we got settled in, with a few minor issues.

This is the first time we have ever had our range top cover and grill grate end up on the floor. We have had a few issues with cabinet doors opening after large bumps.

Though the stay in Rochester was short, we made efforts to visit attractions in the area. The first stop was to...

For those that are not SPAM lovers/likers, you may want to slide past this section. This museum is located in Austin, MN.

Austin was not really an important town until George Hormel came to town in the 1890s. He formed a partnership with Albrecht Friedrich, and they opened a provisions store, selling provisions (groceries), and meat products. Albrecht's interests centered around the provision side, while George's interests were the meat side; this caused a riff after a couple of years, and they parted ways. George was interested in how to preserve meats for long periods of time, realizing the issue at hand were possible food shortages, and family finances.

His first packing plant, in 1891, was located in an abandoned creamery, and by the time he turned the reins over to his son in 1929, it was a multi-million dollar business. Turning the business over to his son Jay, George and his wife built a home in Bel-Air, CA., where he retired. He knew that if they stayed in Austin he could not keep his fingers out of the company.

GEORGE'S FIRST STORE

Notice the 12.5 cents for a pound of bacon, and a one pound, sugar cured ham went for 10 cents. If you wanted to place an order, just dial 80.

Lets get back to talking SPAM🄬.

Driving into Austin from the east, drivers can smell the aroma of SPAM🄬 wafting on the gentle breeze.

The museum is small, but packed (pun intended) with good information. For SPAM🄬 lovers... they provide as many samples as you want to consume. If you only remember one flavor of SPAM🄬 growing up, looky here...

What you see here is missing one of the newer flavors... Maple.

Many stations throughout the museum are interactive. At the beginning is a kiosk that allows visitors to view different recipes, and download them to the their e-mail for later retrieval.

As you might already know, Hormel owns SPAM🄬. Here is something you may not know... Hormel Corporation provides two-year scholarships to children of their employees. Besides the interactive stations, they have some oddities to gaze upon...

If you read the right issue of People Magazine, you may already know something about the motorcycle. This motorcycle is a one-of-a-kind manufactured in 2011. The bike does 100 mph... using bacon biodiesel. The name of the bike is: Black Label Bacon.

These instruments were commissioned in 2015 for a the SPAMERICAN tour that crossed the United States, bringing eats, beats, and crafty treats.

QUIZ TIME:

Q: What year was SPAM🄬 created?

A: 1937

Q: What country consumes the most spam per capita?

A: Guam

Q: How many cans of SPAM🄬 have been produced?

A: 9 billion

Q: How many cans of SPAM🄬 are eaten every second?

A: 12.8

Q: What size SPAM🄬 cans are sold in the United States?

A: 7oz and 12oz

The Hormel family was a very patriotic family. In 1898, Hormel Company was only a fledgling company, but George promised all his employees that went off to fight in the Spanish-American War, that they would have their jobs when they returned, and one of those volunteers was his brother Ben.

With the beginning of WWI, George's son Jay enlisted, and was sent off to France as a Chief Quartermaster. Jay could have gotten out of service because of the families importance in the food industry.

1941 saw Congress approving the "Lend-Lease Act". This Act promised aid to Great Britain, France, and Russia. The Hormel Company stepped up, supplying 15 million cans WEEKLY to the Lend Act. The equivalent of more than 133 million cans of SPAM🄬 fed hungry soldiers and civilians overseas between 1940 and 1945.

During the war years SPAM🄬 was still called canned luncheon meat. The company wanted to attract a larger consumer market so they went about looking for a new name for their canned luncheon meat, and arrived at SPAM🄬. SPAM was not a real word back in the early days. This will have importance later.

"Only those who have eaten SPAM🄬 at dawn, toasted on the end of a knitting needle at a bomb shelter, amongst debris, can really know how good it is."

With WWII looming, the Hormel Company promised the 1,961 employees who went off to fight, would have their jobs when they returned home. They hired in 1,300 women to take their place, ensuring no lag in production. See ladies, someone did understand that less women could achieve the same as a bunch of men. In 1944, 90% of Hormel's SPAM🄬 production went to feed Uncle Sam's operations, and in 1945 it dropped to 65%. Remember, we had troops in Europe, and the Pacific.

When Jay took over the company, he did not sit on his laurels, in fact, new products were created.

ON ONE OF OUR BOMBERS

PROGRESSION OF THE SPAM🄬 CAN

CON CARNE CREATED IN 1935

Jay was interested in producing canned products that were already cooked in the can, but there was three challenges he needed to solve... find proper degree of curing, find proper temperature of cooking, and maintaining a proper vacuum within the can. He brought in a German meat canning master, Paul Joern, to teach his employees.

A hole was made in the can, a thermometer was inserted to check the temperature, then the hole was solder sealed. Once they perfected the process, they now called their canned meat "Hormel Flavor-Sealed".

The United States is not the only consumers of SPAM🄬. We already know that Guam and Hawaii are large consumers of the product, believe it or not, you can find SPAM🄬 in Japan, Philippines, South Korea, China, England, and Latin America.

SPAM🄬 wasn't introduced into China until 2009. SPAM🄬 was produced for the first time in China in 2017, along with other Hormel products. SIDE NOTE: Here is some perspective on the length of the Great Wall of China; it takes 92,933,068 cans of SPAM🄬 to go the entire length of the wall, which is 13,171 miles.

Hawaii consumes so much SPAM🄬 that labels were designed specifically for the Hawaiian market, which consumes more than 8 MILLION cans a year.

Right behind the United States in consumption of SPAM🄬 is... South Korea. SPAM🄬 was introduced to them via U.S. soldiers during the Korean War. A Korean company, under license, began manufacturing SPAM🄬 for Korea in 1987.

Budae Jigae, or Army Stew, is a popular recipe among the locals. The stew contains kimchi, ramen noodles, classic SPAM🄬, hot pepper paste, and onions.

During two of their holidays (Thanksgiving and Lunar New Year), it is common for family and friends to receive SPAM🄬 products as gifts.

The United Kingdom is not to be left out. England lovingly refers to SPAM🄬 as "The Meat that Won the War", and celebrates a SPAM🄬 Appreciation Week, every year. A signature dish in England is the "SPAM🄬 Fritter". It is thick slices that are battered before frying. Consumers in England can also find this product in supermarkets.

This SPAM🄬 superfan got married at the Spam Museum in 2017.

How many of you out there remember Monty Python's Flying Circus? In 1970, they performed a skit that took place in a restaurant. A lady was trying to order food, but every item on the menu contained SPAM🄬, which she did not like. A big part of the skit were the Vikings singing SPAM SPAM SPAM... SPAM SPAM SPAM. There is an important note to this skid.

Why is the skit important? If you remember earlier, I said SPAM was not a word. Lets jump to 1993. Around March a corporate administrator accidently posted the same message 200 times to a discussion group and... hence the term SPAM was born regarding unwanted messages. Because SPAM was not a recognized word, it became recognized for all those unwanted messages, and this caused the Hormel company some concern initially. But as you can see, it did not affect the companies bottom line.

How Do You Measure Up:

Like measuring a horse in hands, we can be measured in SPAM🄬 cans. I was a tad over 22 cans, Carol came in at 21.

If you think you can measure up, try packing SPAM🄬...

INTERACTIVE PACKING STATION

Your job is to get the meat in the can, sealed, to the oven, labeled, and stacked. If you are fast enough, Hormel may hire you. A little bit about the oven. The real oven at the packing plant is six stories tall, and is variable speed. The reason the speed is adjustable is the difference in recipe ingredients, some require a faster time, others slower.

There is a conveyor above the visitor's head, and it carries 780 SPAM🄬 cans, with a pig leading the way.