Circle M Farm

Pretty pretty lettuces! To be specific: Red Sails, Buttercrunch Green, Simpson Elite, Red Salad Bowl, Green Romaine, Frisee endive, Bloomsdale spinach, Fireball and an Asian green called Autumn Poem, which sounds gorgeous but is quite dull looking in the field, worse still in mine as it’s being eaten by the dastardly flea beetle. But nevertheless, it’ll make good eating for us even with the tiny holes. All of these first fruits of spring make delicious eating, and better still, the variety in color guarantees a range of nutrients in addition to a lovely dish. continued »

Visitors to the farm during spring will often squint with deep concern into a pasture and then finally ask me, “Is that one alive?” continued »

A few times a week now I’m asked how many sheep I have and to my great shame I must answer that I have no idea. It’s really not that I have so very many, it’s just that I don’t think of them (or anything at all, really) in terms of numbers. I still can’t give my kids’ birthdates at the doctor without thinking really hard, and there’s only four of them! continued »

today.
What more can I say? continued »

I painted my nails dark red today. That’s how I mark that gardening season is heading into high gear. Starting about now every year, the nails get red and stay that way all through summer to camouflage stains. continued »

Tonight we celebrated the birth of the season’s last babies with a delicious three-course dinner. That’s pretty fancy this time of year when everything seems to happen at once: babies born, fences mended, gardens cultivated, seeds planted, sprouts watered, sheep shorn, goats milked, produce marketed and summer scheduled. continued »

Triplets! Prissy, our last pregnant ewe, delivered three strapping lambs at noon today. continued »

I ate my first pea shoot today. As the plant was only an inch tall, I was really jumping the gun on the spring harvest, but I couldn’t resist. So green. So fresh. So tasty! continued »

Little Gabby is our resident escape artist. A Nigerian Dwarf doe who interprets a fence as a nice tummy rub on the way into greener pastures, Gabby stands less than two feet tall and has no trouble working her way through holes the size of tissue boxes. Even while hugely pregnant. continued »

Eli, my sixteen-year-old son, and I witnessed a most incredible birth today. continued »