NEW GLARUS - A brief but heavy drench of rain Saturday morning turned the 33rd annual Breakfast on the Farm into a muddy mess - but that still didn't keep about 2,500 hearty souls from coming out to feast at Don and Jane Elmer's dairy farm outside New Glarus.
"The timing was terrible. We needed the rain, but we just didn't want it those particular hours," said Don Elmer. "Everything went out the window."
The rain crippled the annual event, which has been organized on area farms by the Green County Agricultural Chest annually since 1980 to showcase local dairy operations. Previously, the annual Dairy Breakfast was held at churches and schools.
A band scheduled to perform from the back of a flat-bed truck left without even unpacking their instruments.
Organizers anticipated about twice as many people - 5,000 - but the turnout still surprised Elmer.
"Earlier in the morning, I was wondering if we'd get 500," he said.
Attendees still managed to enjoy the generous portions of sausage, scrambled eggs, coffee cake, cheese, milk, orange juice and coffee, plus dishes of ice cream, which Boy Scouts delivered on trays through pouring rain to the tent where people huddled with their breakfasts.
"Can we get an 'amen' for Mother Nature?" emcee Pam Wyss jokingly asked the crowd.
At least some of the leftovers won't go to waste. Some food will be donated to Dane County's Breakfast on the Farm event, Elmer said.
The rain soaked the hayfield the Elmers designated for parking. Most vehicles had to be towed out of the field by tractors, churning up wide strips of mud. The Green County Sheriff's Department responded to one early morning collision between two cars sliding out of control.
Elmer's son Kyle and his friends and neighbors pulled out stuck vehicles all morning with their tractors.
"They were soaking wet and full of mud but they just kept going. They didn't give up," he said. "Finally somebody took 'em some food because they never got time to eat."
Overall, Elmer said he was impressed with the people who braved the mud and didn't let the rain dampen their spirits.
"You can't run the weather," he said. "We were lucky to get as many people as we did."
"The timing was terrible. We needed the rain, but we just didn't want it those particular hours," said Don Elmer. "Everything went out the window."
The rain crippled the annual event, which has been organized on area farms by the Green County Agricultural Chest annually since 1980 to showcase local dairy operations. Previously, the annual Dairy Breakfast was held at churches and schools.
A band scheduled to perform from the back of a flat-bed truck left without even unpacking their instruments.
Organizers anticipated about twice as many people - 5,000 - but the turnout still surprised Elmer.
"Earlier in the morning, I was wondering if we'd get 500," he said.
Attendees still managed to enjoy the generous portions of sausage, scrambled eggs, coffee cake, cheese, milk, orange juice and coffee, plus dishes of ice cream, which Boy Scouts delivered on trays through pouring rain to the tent where people huddled with their breakfasts.
"Can we get an 'amen' for Mother Nature?" emcee Pam Wyss jokingly asked the crowd.
At least some of the leftovers won't go to waste. Some food will be donated to Dane County's Breakfast on the Farm event, Elmer said.
The rain soaked the hayfield the Elmers designated for parking. Most vehicles had to be towed out of the field by tractors, churning up wide strips of mud. The Green County Sheriff's Department responded to one early morning collision between two cars sliding out of control.
Elmer's son Kyle and his friends and neighbors pulled out stuck vehicles all morning with their tractors.
"They were soaking wet and full of mud but they just kept going. They didn't give up," he said. "Finally somebody took 'em some food because they never got time to eat."
Overall, Elmer said he was impressed with the people who braved the mud and didn't let the rain dampen their spirits.
"You can't run the weather," he said. "We were lucky to get as many people as we did."