PALMYRA, Wis. (SPECTRUM NEWS) — The Wisconsin State Fair is usually a destination for Wisconsinites' stomachs. However, with coronavirus forcing the 2020 fair to cancel all of that food won't be there this August.

The cancellation leaves producers with lost revenue. PT Farms LLC. In Palmyra usually sells half of its sweet corn to the Lion's Club for roasting corn at the Fair. The crop needed to be in the ground in April, PT Farms was told to plan like the fair would be there in August.

“Just plan like it's going to go on, so we did and now we've got lots of corn,” said Blane Poulson, who runs PT Farms with a new partner — John Troiola.

The two had been bracing to lose that sale.

“It wasn't totally unexpected, we could see that thing coming at us from a mile away, and we had already talked last year about getting a roaster, and this kind of pushed us there,” Poulson said.

Poulson and Troiola had talked about expanding operations soon and selling more directly to consumers. Now that's exactly what the'll have to do to move all of their crop along with a new corn roaster.

“Instead we just kind of adapted, went out and bought a corn roaster, I guess we're looking for other avenues to sell corn,” Troiola said.

So far they have two smaller-more regional events lined up to roast corn at and they're looking for more options.

“Tough times, you can't let it get you down, people always have obstacles to overcome, this is just one of those things,” Troiola said.

The farm has also found a handful of grocery stores to sell to. They expect a lot of 18 hour days this summer to move their crop, but they think they'll be able to.

“I think we can make it, i think we have to, we don't have any choice,” Poulson said.

By extension they plan to bring a taste of summer to people in a year when so many staple Wisconsin events are canceled.

“We're going to do our best to bring the state fair to people, that's our plan with this roaster,” Poulson said.