Ask Mr. Answer Person: "Has Wapsie Produce been revived?"

Ruth e-mails from Texas: "The Wapsie Produce poultry plant in Decorah closed a couple of years ago.   However, I saw Wapsie products including capons and hens,in gourmet grocery stores in Texas over this past holiday season. Just out of curiosity, has the business been revived?"

Mr. Answer Person says, "Quite the opposite.  The business held a "final auction" on Saturday morning to sell off all the remaining furnishings in the building.  Rumor has it that the building will be demolished next month.

Mr. Answer Person posed you question to co-owned Paul Nichols, who could think of only two possibilities to explain the capons in Texas:

1) Wapsie Produce sold its "Minowa Capons" name to a South Dakota business, so you might have seen their capons, if the label said "Minowa Capons."

2) If the label said "Wapsie Produce" on it, someone has been keeping capons in a freezer for two years!  Actually, Nichols says the capons should still have been good if they were properly refrigerated.

So there are the two possible explanations for seeing capons in a Texas grocery store.  Neither explanation involves Wapsie Produce going back into production.