CSA Newsletter

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 [...]

Two Part Dispatch: 1) Sorry. Not Sorry. 2) A Big Thank You Sorry. Not Sorry.  On a hike this weekend I ate a simple salad my partner whipped up for lunch. It had chopped fresh parsley, green bell [...]

Two Part Dispatch: 1)The Farm to Foodbank Program 2) A Big Thank You The Farm To Foodbank Program Call to Action: Encourage Your Dane County Supervisor to Support this Awesome Program! Covid-19 [...]

Last season we acquired a refrigerated truck trailer that we converted to a walk-in cooler. We call it cooler W, as it sits on the west side on our packshed. (creative, right?) We use it as a [...]

The concept of a life sacrificed to sustain and nourish the bodies of my family has always felt deeply spiritual to me.  Whether it’s the vegetables we take from the stem or the meat we [...]

Tomorrow night is our annual crew meal at Sardine Restaurant in Madison. We will all get dressed up and the farm will treat the crew to a fancy, locally sourced meal as we celebrate the season [...]

I know it’s gradual. Just like I know my kids growing up is gradual. Yet sometimes I feel struck by a change that feels sudden. This time of year is the going back to school time, the [...]

This season we have been staffed pretty well and generally able to stay above water – aka not drown in food we can’t harvest. But potatoes, oh potatoes. These have been the major crop [...]

The kids go back to school Thursday. Every year it seems the summer is spread out before us, and then, zip! it’s back to school already. You might think that the kids going back to school [...]

A few months back, a professor reached out asking if they could bring their class to our farm for a visit. The class was a group of divinity students from University of Dubuque Theological [...]

This weekend we butchered the 39 chickens I raise to nourish our family. It is always a difficult, spiritual experience for me.  I raise these birds from chick to slaughter. I do this because my [...]

Homemade Croutons are Where It’s At Yep. That’s right. I’m going to write a whole newsletter about making croutons. Store bought croutons are one thing. They are crunchy and [...]

The First Sweet Corn!  This morning was the first harvest of sweet corn! Our sweet corn successions are located at the K property this season. So most Tuesday  mornings now for the next 8 weeks, [...]

Greetings from Minnesota Greetings from family camp! (I’m writing this message on a rainy Friday afternoon, because once I’m actually up at family camp, there is no internet access!). [...]

Playing in the Fields This morning I am forcing myself to do work in the office.  It’s funny, I spend the whole winter doing office work – so many hours! But try and get me to spend [...]

A Magical Place To Grow Up Middle school is tough. No matter where you grow up. The pressure to fit into the norm is intense. In Mt. Horeb, the popular kids don’t come from farming [...]

An Ice-cream Maker I found myself in a conversation the other day, musing about ways to raise the quality of life at the farm house. Build a back porch? Maintain a cozy fire pit for friends to [...]

Happy Solstice! Today marks a special day – the most day light we will experience all year long. It sneaks up on me every time, and I find it so wild to think about how the days only get [...]

My youngest daughter Juna wrote me some poems. (Love love that in general.) Many of the poems are like what you’d expect from a 7 year-old writing poems. Except one. I am in love with this [...]

Welcome! Happy season ’22! It was a long, cold, late spring. Sometimes I wondered if the sun, heat, or food would arrive. We kept seeding and planting, trusting in the cycle of things.  Now [...]

Last Day Joys! Remember when you were a student and all the excitement you felt on the last day of school? That’s me today! Here I am putting together the last communication of the season [...]

Moving Through the Inventory A question we get a lot is, “What are you doing this time of year?” Quick answer: we are steadily moving through our inventory of vegetables, trying to [...]

Waiting for Snow Did you know there are still leeks, brussels sprouts, and kale out in fields that can be harvested?! On the one hand, I’m so excited about that fact. Local greens and [...]

Hopes for a Fuller Story As a grower and lover of food, I’m all about any holiday that encourages people to sit down and share a meal together in gratitude. I’m super excited to host [...]

Risk We are currently in the midst of our renewal drive, asking members of our summer veggie share to sign up for the upcoming 2022 season. It’s not going super well compared to past years. [...]

Buoyancy In a normal season, by late October it starts getting cold. Frosts don’t burn off until mid morning. Most of the crops are out of the ground. Work moves inside to the shed and the [...]

Meaning and Connection The other week I sat around a fire with some of my closest friends. One is a teacher. One is a professor. Another a doctor. Another a therapist. I felt awed by their [...]

While we are all still very much in harvest mode at the farm, we find ourselves here at the last week of the summer season. It’s hard not to reflect on season #17. Of all the seasons Mike [...]