CSA Newsletter

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 [...]

Clickety Clack, Pause, Whoosh This past weekend I took my kids to Noah’s Ark. As an enviromentalist, I have feelings about the Dells and waterparks in general, but as a parent I recognize [...]

Harvesting to the Sound of Earth Movers I try to tell myself that change is the only thing we can count on in this life. Just because I know this fact, it sometimes doesn’t ease the feeling [...]

Enjoying Our Worm Days Thick in the tall, leafy celery in the hoop house this morning, I found a sphinx moth. Seeing this beautiful, huge black and white moth felt special. With its wings spread, [...]

Eggplant through Mark Bittman’s Eyes A version of this article appears in print in the New York Times on June 26, 2013, Section D, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Meaty [...]

Perple, Buzzed Heads, & Garlic Perple, not purple. (Autocorrect keeps having a fit.) Perple is what happens on hour 5 of the garlic harvest. Agreeing to buzz heads and drink wine after work [...]

Cassandra and Mari Sometimes I look at my children and I just can’t believe how grown they are. This sounds trite, I know, but it is still true. Over the last couple of days I have  watched [...]

Butterhead & Other Unpredictables About 5 years ago we made the switch to offering a customizable veggie share. We wanted to try and stay competitive in a world of increasing choice and [...]

Strawberries and Whipped Cream In the last few years, my body has decided to reject certain foods. I don’t have deathly allergies or anything, but a growing list of foods just don’t [...]

It is nearly impossible to explain to non farmers the explosion of work that happens in the month leading up to the solstice. I find it most akin to child labor. Not that it is painful, but that [...]

Cassie: Hey Michael. Michael: What’s up? Cassie: Can you remember the last time it rained? I can’t. Michael: Ummmm… It’s been so long I don’t know the date. I think [...]

Okay, so it’s December. But in farmer speak, today feels like my last day of school. For twenty-eight consecutive weeks, starting in mid-June I do the following things for the veggie share [...]

The gray of late November and early December can be rough.  Crisp, bright-blue-sky snowy-ground-days can’t be counted on until January and February. My crew will be the first to tell you [...]

Just before the Thanksgiving, the farm did its member renewal drive for the upcoming summer 2023 season. It’s a 5 day drive, and we encourage members to sign up now so that the farm can [...]

Thanksgiving is complicated holiday for me. The cultural erasure that comes with the traditional American Thanksgiving story is incredibly problematic. My 7 year old came home last night, very [...]

In the original 101 Dalmatians, there is a super cute scene where they depict a cartoon montage of all these different humans walking their dogs. The dogs resemble their humans. The humans [...]

Creating a Rainforest in Our Guts The other day I listened to a Radiolab podcast about our guts. And well I just can’t stop thinking about what I learned. In our bodies we contain an [...]

For weeks now I’ve been bracing for the cold weather… that hasn’t come. These falls days are absolutely divine. I often tell my crews that the sunny afternoons in the fall are [...]

Each fall the transition is a little different from the busy summer season into the more mellow fall season. Most years there is a steady transition beginning in October of full time workers who [...]