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There isn’t a more perfect place to share a meal than at the Minnesota State Fair. And there may be no more prominent figure at the State Fair than Princess Kay of the Milky Way.
Minnesota Now host Nina Moini went Out to Lunch with this year’s winner, Malorie Thorson. The two shared fair favorites at the MPR stage and had a conversation about Thorson’s passion for dairy.
Our lunch guest: Malorie Thorson, Princess Kay of the Milky Way
Our restaurant: The Minnesota State Fair
The following has been edited for length and clarity. Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
Is it surreal that you have a butter sculpture? What will you do with it?
I’m very familiar with the butter sculptures, because my mom actually got sculpted in butter in 1996. She brought me to the State Fair every single year not only to see the cows, because I love cows, but also to see the butter sculptures and see who is getting carved that day.
All of us get to have the butter sculpture and then we also get to keep the scraps that are carved off during the process. That accumulates to 90 pounds of butter. Each finalist has their own unique way of what they want to do with it. My church holds an annual Good Neighbor Corn Feed, so I’d love to donate the scraps there to be able to get melted down and dip the cobs in.
And then for the actual sculpture, I’m really sentimental with it right now, so I’m definitely going to probably keep it for a year. Then after that, I would love to see myself being able to bake, because I’m a really big baker.
Tell me about growing up on the dairy farm.
I grew up in Waverly, Minnesota, which is only an hour west of the Twin Cities. Growing up on my family's dairy farm was such a dream. I fell in love with cows from a very young age. There are many pictures of me in the parlor with a step stool because I wasn't able to reach the cows at the time, so I'd carry around a step stool for all of milking to be able to be with my family.
My family farm actually is a sixth-generation dairy farm. So I have grown up with that legacy and with that passion basically being instilled in me since birth. I have seen other generations — my grandma, my mom, my dad — how passionate they are about the dairy industry and the joy that they have whenever something good happens and even the joy that they have when maybe the weather isn't cooperating.
So being able to just see that entire process really was what encouraged me to go to college to be a sixth-generation dairy farmer.
Tell us about being able to share where our food comes from and the people behind that, that feed us.
There’s definitely been a lot more interest in consumers wanting to know where their food comes from and dairy farmers want to give that opportunity for communities. So my family and I actually, we hosted breakfast on the farm.
That was a super cool opportunity for us to show people what it goes into the day-to-day process of producing a high quality dairy product for people to have on their tables, to be able to show that dairy farmers are sustainable with their environment and they want the communities to thrive, and be able to give them some real perspective on it.
This is just the beginning of being Princess Kay for the year. What are you looking forward to?
My formal title is being a goodwill ambassador for the dairy farmers of Minnesota. So that means I am willing to go anywhere to be able to tell people about dairy farmers and the dairy community. So I will attend school visits throughout the year and then other people within the dairy farming community have events as well.
I just love being able to tell the dairy story and how dairy farmers are committed to sustainability. They’re committed to making sure that the quality of dairy products is consistent from farm to table and they are committed in making sure that families have an option to go to that's affordable for them.
The Last Bite: What are the ingredients to sharing your passion with others?
I think the main ingredient in sharing your passion is to be authentically, true to yourself. That is the best advice I’ve received. When you let that be your forefront of communication, people are driven to you. They want to see you and they want to see the joy that you’re bringing. And so that is my best advice, is to be true, authentically to yourself and never forget where you came from, who you are and what you stand for.
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