the Crossroads Companion

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 his birthday on the 16th. The quiet, chill office [...]

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. (See farm’s latest Instagram/Facebook post for [...]

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 protection from the traffic along Highway P.  We [...]

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. My middle kiddo is an avid reader. And while this [...]

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 down. It’s full on getting ready for bed mode at [...]

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 never played the mind wonder game where I consider [...]

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 adults who’ve never played the game (or skated [...]

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 we’re so small in the grand scheme of things, it [...]

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. When harvesting a crop, we talk about ways we like [...]

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 its warmth admisdt the fall air – I looked [...]

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. (Crossroads is a leader is this area of work).  I am [...]

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 Jared. It’s about his puppy, Ashla. Ashla is just [...]

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 was missing from my life. Out of business [...]

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 weather a lot this season. First the drought. [...]

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 or two. But If I stopped and really started [...]

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. And the customers don’t want their food any [...]

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 are prized for their amazing flavors! Not so [...]

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 two asks regarding keeping busy in the winter. Ask [...]

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 that my kids absolutely LOVE water parks and so [...]

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 of change when it is unwanted. We started our [...]

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, it’s wider than my palm. Its beefy body is [...]

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 and Mighty.  Credit…Sabra Krock for The New [...]

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 is what happens after hour 6 of garlic harvest. I [...]

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 my 13 year old (who is feeling very charitable in [...]

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 convenience. Overall we are incredibly happy with the [...]

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 make me feel good.  Muskmelon and watermelon are on [...]

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 at a certain point there is nothing more one can [...]

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 the last time we had a measurable amount of [...]

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 program: Scout fields/storage and gather accurate [...]

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 that the gray brings me down. It doesn’t make [...]