Why do brats have big feet

Brigham said he was opening a grocery store in Plymouth but didn't want to deal with the meat counter. The Stayers and Hirsches agreed to rent a section of the store to sell their cuts of meat and other products. In the intervening years the families opened another storefront in Sheboygan and added a slaughterhouse on site so they could process animals from start to finished product.

Launa's first job was watching younger brother Ralph. By the time she was 12, she was also helping with the bookkeeping. When Ralph was old enough to take on that job, she was promoted to helping customers at the counter or, as they called it, waiting on trade. And when she got her driver's license, delivery duty was added.

If she was going to Plymouth, her dad loaded the car with meats and instructed her to make deliveries in Millersville and Sheboygan on her way. When it came time to link brats, all hands were involved including neighbor kids. Beyond bookkeeping, brat linking and waiting tray, Ralph and Launa learned every aspect of the family business from slaughterhouse to delivery.

They also learned the value of saving and investing from their mother, Alice. Ralph said he applied lessons learned from his parents when it came to running the business. They may not have been at his games, but they taught their kids the value of work and the joy of accomplishments. The stuff that Ralph says counts. The values that we learned and the way of life that we learned is the reason this is here," he said.

Sheboygan has a long history of welcoming immigrants from Germany, the original home of the bratwurst. Though bratwurst has been a Sheboygan staple for decades — the first Brat Days was held in — the local sausages weren't always known for their quality. And neither were any other bratwurst in the area. In the summer of , Ralph's dad went to work developing what would become the Johnsonville bratwurst that made the sausage company famous. The winning recipe involved a courser grind of pork than traditional German-style wursts and his own blend of seasonings.

Ed Sinner, an early customer, sold sandwiches outside Laack's Ballroom, a nearby dance hall. He used to buy 40 pounds of hamburgers and 10 pounds of brats to feed revelers, said Ralph. Within six months of the recipe change, he was ordering 10 pounds of burgers and 40 pounds of brats. Ralph studied finance and science at Notre Dame University.

At one point, his physics professor arranged a fellowship for him at the University of Michigan. Ralph returned to Johnsonville in , put on his green Dickies pants and big rubber boots and got back to "stuffing sausage, making sausage, killing pigs, cutting them up, the whole deal.

While working on the floor, Ralph thought about growing the business. But growing retail sales proved more difficult than physics. In Johnsonville split into retail and wholesale divisions. His parents ran the butcher shop and storefronts while Ralph focused on getting Johnsonville sausages into supermarkets around the state.

By Johnsonville was focused entirely on supplying sausage products to grocery stores and ready to expand beyond Wisconsin. It didn't hurt that she had already convinced two Fort Wayne grocery store chains to carry Johnsonville products before calling Ralph to ask for a job. The only problem was Johnsonville was in the process of building a new factory, and getting USDA certification to sell products across state lines didn't happen until June Still, Launa was out whetting the appetites of local grocers by frying samples of bratwurst for meat managers to try.

And yes, as you might suspect, the meat managers were all men. Men who were used to buying meat products from sales men. Furthermore, Launa wasn't following the standard sales practices. Not only did she have standing weekly meetings with the managers of the grocery chains — usually such meetings happened on open buying days with salesmen from various companies — but she asked that all Johnsonville products be grouped together in a 4- to 5-foot section.

Keep in mind, Johnsonville was making and selling more than just bratwurst. The close-knit Ptacek family has run the store for four generations now. When you were four or five years old […] you were carrying empty boxes and putting them in the box crusher. The Ptaceks pass down their respective skills to the next generation, keeping different departments of the store flourishing. For example, Raphael and Thomas Ptacek learned the butcher trade from their father, store owner Michael Ptacek.

Their talents can be seen in the meat case, which is full of an eclectic variety of brats, filled with anything from Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery cheese curds to wild rice and cranberries, all carefully handmade by the brothers.

One of the main reasons the family-owned-and-operated model, which could be considered outdated in some cities, has survived in Prescott is the community support of the Ptacek legacy. Residents not only shop at the store, but many are employed by it. When the Pcateks open the new, modern store in mid-May, the number of employees—almost exclusively from Prescott and its surrounding townships—will grow from 75 to Pat says keeping the worker pool local is a focus of the store, as well as an advantage.

When pressed to spill more details, Pat brings the conversation back to Google. And he wants to be first across the board. It helps to create something else to do, something fun to do, and it puts Prescott on the map a little bit. Skip to main content. I Accept. Please Select a Region Mexico Japan. United States Canada. France Korea. Visit Other Johnsonville Websites. Work for Johnsonville.