Bushel Magazine

Bushel was a Midwest regional men's magazine published quarterly out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1974 to 1982. Founded by Earl "Bud" Kessler—a former ad salesman for the Milwaukee Journal who used his severance to buy a used offset press—it was the quiet one at the end of the bar: unpretentious, a little rough around the edges, and proud of it.

Where the national magazines sold fantasy, Bushel sold familiarity. The girls were waitresses, bookkeepers, factory workers, and third-grade teachers from places like Fond du Lac, Minocqua, and Cedarburg. The articles covered ice fishing, truck road tests, bratwurst crawls, and the particular pleasures of surviving a Wisconsin winter. The advertising was all local: bait shops, hardware stores, farm supply, and beer—always beer.

Bud ran the whole operation from a rented storefront on South 27th Street (formerly Nowak's Shoe Repair). His wife Carol proofread each issue and "tolerated" the magazine because it paid the mortgage. Bushel folded in 1982 when rising paper costs finally outpaced advertising revenue. Bud reportedly went back to selling ads for the Journal. These issues were found in a box at a Milwaukee estate sale in 2025. Read more in our blog.