Archives

The Water Drains East Here In my front yard, there no longer remains any evidence that it rained and rained and rained for the early part of this season.  If you have a yard, probably you are [...]

Our Lives Article Featuring Farmer Cassie:  In March of 2024, I was asked to write an article for Our Lives magazine, Madison’s LQBTQ+ magazine. They wanted to know about my experience as a [...]

Impacts of SO MUCH Rain We are so touched by all of the folks who have checked in with us to make sure we are fairing okay with all of this rain! Thank you. So what are the impacts of all this [...]

Loving the Little Things Farming has its stresses, for sure. Undoubtedly you will learn about many of them as we move together through the season. As farmers, we are really good at talking about [...]

Wishing for More Stomachs One of the amazing things about being a farmer is having year round access to the food we grow and feeding ourselves locally every month of the year. While this is [...]

Vote Crossroads Best of Madison 2024 by June 30th! We are very honored this season to have made the final round of the Best of Madison for a CSA (veggie share) farm. Would you be willing to take [...]

2024 Reparations Recipient – Farmher Greens Dear Members, This year’s reparations farm recipient is FarmHer Greens in Madison, Wisconsin. FarmHer Greens was founded by Kim Fruin, and [...]

Air Traffic Control Starting in March, I begin seeding plants and tending plants in the greenhouse. During March and April, I spend long, quiet hours, carefully seeding the baby plants that will [...]

The June Explosion  The seasonal change that is June never ceases to amaze me. This will be our 20th season here at Crossroads, and this change never fails to astound. When we slowly begin the [...]

I always find it a wild cosmic coincidence that Michael and my birthdays’ perfectly bookend the veggie share season. Our last fall share goes out tomorrow, the 13th. Michael will celebrate [...]

Frito, Farm Cat in Training Currently Frito is splayed out on my desk in front of the computer screen. Most days now, she either lays in front of my screen or sits behind me on my desk chair. [...]

A Christmas Tree, Brussels Sprouts and a Chainsaw Fifteen years ago, Michael and I planted a hedgerow of trees along the west side of our fields at the farm on J to give us some visual and audio [...]

Chicken Races My kids are growing up. My eldest daughter, now 14, sometimes engages with me, but mostly shrugs and rolls her eyes when she’s not blaring Taylor Swift through her ear buds. [...]

Opossum Night-Hunting I’m in my pajamas. I’ve just finished a couple episodes of the Bear. Teeth brushing is occurring. The dog has been let out. I’ve turned the thermostat [...]

the Dreamy Temperature Many times I’ve wondered what food I would choose if I was forced to only be allowed to eat one dish ever.  (Corn tortilla chips and salsa. No question.) I’ve [...]

Two Seasons: Growing & Hockey Two years ago, I started playing hockey. A friend of mine told me about a gay hockey league in Madison (it’s actually the world’s largest) where [...]

A Wish to the Manufacturing World The thing about being a niche organic vegetable farmer is that the general manufacturing industry sometimes does not have products we need or desire. Since [...]

Field Foodies Go Fancy As you might imagine, on a farm we talk about food and cooking –  a lot. We show and tell what we are eating at lunch – get ideas from each other, brainstorm. [...]

It’s Always All Okay Seemingly faster than ever before, the end of the season is upon us. Yesterday, as we ate lunch outside – positioning ourselves purposefully in the sun to enjoy [...]

Leading Farm-Driven Food Access Initiatives The CSA Innovation Network has asked me to present an Ideas Lab to other farmers next week describing our farm’s food insecurity initiatives. [...]

Ashla, the farm puppy A few weeks ago, a past employee (and apprentice!) of ours, Jared, came back to the farm. It’s been great to have him back. But this newsletter isn’t about [...]

Barn Party Reflections I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about last weeks’ barn party. We hadn’t one in four years. It didn’t feel like something (post-pandemic) that [...]

Cozy Mornings, Delightful Days For the last ten minutes I been have sitting at my desk trying to think about something OTHER than the weather to write about. You’ve heard me write about the [...]

Dragonflies Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve noticed some new friends flying across the fields: dragonflies. They seemed to like the high heat especially. At first glance I would see one [...]

Strange Things We Learned in the Heat Last week’s heat was wild. The thing about farming is the crops don’t stop growing, don’t stop ripening just because it’s hot out. [...]

Tomato Time! Tomato season is upon us! For the next several weeks you will be receiving a bag of mixed tomatoes. There will be some traditional slicers, some romas, and then heirlooms. Heirlooms [...]

Winter Side Gigs – Crew Wants to Know Nothing like a cool, rainy day and a 55 degree night to have us all thinking about how ephermal summer is. Instead of a newsletter this week, I have [...]