Wisconsin food and other home-grown presents can be nice holiday surprises. Go ask Alice (in Dairyland).

For people outside Wisconsin who might think of the state as a home of beer and cheese, and not much else, you could surprise them with other presents from the state at Christmas. 

The “Something Special from Wisconsin” campaign lists hundreds of companies that offer products which would make nice gifts.  Taylor Schaefer, who is this year’s Alice in Dairyland, encourages shoppers to seek out the home-grown presents.

“If you’re out on the road this holiday season, and making trips to visit family, we…have a map where you can identify where these companies are,” she says. “When I’m out on the road visiting places all over the state, (I) make sure that I stop by all these companies when I’m in the area.”

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection manages the Something Special promotion.

“It identifies companies that have at least 50 per cent of Wisconsin ingredients, production, or processing,” Schaefer says.

Schaefer says companies taking part in the campaign are listed on-line through somethingspecialwi.com.