We've already told you about a wacky Wisconsin law that requires restaurants to serve you real butter unless they tell you otherwise, but did you know that the history of butter and margarine in Wisconsin is far more complex than that?

When margarine was first introduced in the late 1800s, farmers across the country were concerned. They decried margarine as unhealthy, cancer-causing and insanity-inducing. Pro-butter folks implied that you couldn't possibly have any idea what went into your margarine and sold butter as being all-natural.

A number of anti-margarine laws were passed in Wisconsin, where we taxed and regulated margarine to protect dairy farmers. Many Wisconsin residents, though, weren't too invested in whether or not they should support farmers and the dairy industry. Margarine was cheaper and they wanted it.

So one of the weirdest legacies of the introduction of margarine were the clandestine "margarine runs" that friends and neighbors would set up. Every couple of weeks they'd send one person over the border to purchase margarine for all of them and illegally transport it back across the state line.

Wisconsin has long been known as the dairy state. We're rather proud of our farming history and the things we produce.

Margarine was first introduced in the late 1800s and farmers and politicians across the country immediately decried it. It was unnatural and a threat to the livelihood of many, especially those here in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin passed its first anti-margarine law in 1881. For almost a century there were taxes, licenses and restrictions on margarine in Wisconsin. And we were the last state to repeal our most restrictive margarine laws - they lasted until 1967.

Butter's natural yellow color comes from the way cows are fed - though many companies augment the color to make it brighter and more consistent.

So one way the dairy industry worked to fight margarine was to try to keep it from being yellow. Wisconsin banned yellow margarine, saying it would fake out consumers. Margarine was, at first, pink among other colors.

But margarine producers got smart and started producing it in large, white blocks - its natural color. Then they included a color capsule in the middle of the block. Upon purchasing the margarine, you smashed the block around until the color was distributed. Since the manufacturer wasn't coloring the margarine, it wasn't illegal.

It turns out butter wasn't actually particularly regulated or tasty. The advent of margarine begat the Wisconsin Dairymen's Association. Even still, with the Depression and the second World War, margarine was popular and ubiquitous - and most importantly, cheap.

Talk to your parents or grandparents and ask them if they ever took "margarine runs" in the 1950s. Margarine had become better tasting and cheaper, but it was still highly legislated against in Wisconsin.

So along each of our borders, margarine runs became popular. Neighborhoods would plan together and send one person across state lines to purchase large quantities of margarine. They'd take turns, sharing the gas burden, and they'd stock their trunks full. To the west, it was in to Minnesota or Iowa. To the east and south, down into Illinois and up north, they could try heading to the Upper Peninsula.

The runs were also technically illegal and many who were around at that time talk about taking side roads and veering away from the main highways. Then the margarine would be distributed throughout the neighborhood and kids were put to work kneading the color capsules into the blocks.

Once they returned home, the margarine run driver still would be fearful of getting caught and the households that received the contraband margarine would binge-bake and -cook so as to remove as much of the evidence as possible from the premises.

Wisconsin finally repealed the margarine color laws in 1967, though we still play a bit petty about anything that's not "real butter." Restaurants and prisons must serve you real butter unless they otherwise inform you. Most just get around this by serving both butter and margarine.

The now-familiar sight of rows of butter and margarine options in the grocery store are really just a generation old.

One great side-note to this story: In the 1950s, one of the most vociferous decriers of margarine was Gordon Roselip. He was challenged to a taste-test of butter and margarine and he was the only one on the panel that chose margarine. After his death, his family revealed that they'd been serving him margarine - procured in Iowa - for years. So he really did believe that the product he chose was the "butter" he ate every day.

My own mom remembers cruising Hwy 41 into Illinois with her dad to go procure margarine and then getting sore arms from having to incorporate the color capsule. Did any of you ever go on margarine runs? Tell us about it in the comments.