PIPE, Wis. – On a sunny Saturday afternoon at LaClare Family Creamery, a crowd gathers to watch a pair of dairy goats deftly navigate a spiral walkway encircling a 26-foot tall wooden silo. As the duo finishes their lofty trek, a cheer breaks out below celebrating their feat.
Taking in the excitement is dairyman Jim Ostrom, a partner in the premier goat cheese operation located outside the small outpost of Pipe, Wis., nestled along the east shore of Lake Winnebago known as the Goat Capitol of the U.S.
Ostrom is especially fond of the 110-year-old silo which he helped transport – in pieces – from his mother s Watertown farm where it has stood for a century, protected inside the barn. The iconic structure was then reconstructed from it s original tongue and groove stave timbers fashioned out of Douglas fir harvested over a century ago from the forests out West.