Circle M Farm

Certainly I now understand why many organic farms, even those that don’t participate in Community Supported Agriculture, are communes of some sort, or otherwise organized along alternative employment models. Many hands are required to manage well a chemical-free garden of any size, and more importantly, the great satisfaction derived from tending earth is all the more rich done alongside fellow earnest laborers.

WorkShare Member Emily on the front lines against weeds and chicken destruction in the perennial beds. Circle M is now ready to welcome artists and community members to Blanchardville’s first annual Artist in the Garden show and tour on July 29. Four artists have already painted here, pre-cleanup, and all of the paintings will be displayed in River Valley Trading Company, 204 S. Main, the day of the garden tour. Twenty other local gardens are involved and at least as many artists. Come out and see how beautiful the Pecatonica Valley is, and we’ll treat you to some Ginger-Mint Lemonade in our garden.

We had a wonderful and productive community work day here on Saturday. Our family of six was joined by five fabulous women who came out from Madison to pitch in with throwing muck, planting transplants, sowing seeds and weeding, weeding, weeding. First to arrive were Lois and her daughter Lydia, an amazing teen who’s helped out several times at Circle M. In fact, she seeded many of the squash now flowering in the gardens. Saturday was her 14th birthday! Next, Emily, a founding WorkShare Member, pulled up well-prepared with sunscreen and water bottle. Together with my daughter Emma and son Jake, this group made quick work of clearing out my neglected kitchen herb garden. (There were a few herbs left in there after they cleared the weeds out, but the empty garden inspired me to go to a nursery later in the afternoon and pick up 10 lavender plants.) While Lydia scraped the whole bare-looking surface with a hoe to slice off any emerging weeds, Shan headed to a local tree trimmer’s farm and brought home a pickup full of wood chips for mulch. Emily went to work in the chicken-holed perennial beds.

Then Natalie and Hillary arrived, new friends met via this blog, to infuse the day with even more good energy. We all headed down to the lower garden, which, though famous for its weeds, had several tidy rows recently tilled and ready to plant. In no time the group had planted six varieties of lettuce and five rows of spinach along the shady edges, as well as a row of stout celeriac transplants and four rows of mixed beets. Beans were picked, piglets were visited and potluck lunchtime arrived.

My children and I work at another local organic farm a few days a week, and potluck is always the high point of the day for us there. You’ve worked hard alongside each other, you’ve looked back on your collective progress in the form of full harvest buckets or soldierly rows of onion transplants, and now it’s time to sit and share. Something about passing and discussing food – ingredients, recipes or the farm of origin – is somehow centering and sacramental. Shannon and I went out for dinner to a fairly nice restaurant Saturday night, and frankly, the meal didn’t come close to our own work day potluck. Hillary had prepared a delicious Asian noodle dish with some vegetables she’d received in a Circle M CSA box. Emily made Amish Friendship Bread. My daughter Maggie made rice pudding. We built sandwiches and talked about each other’s professions and families and gardens. Questions raised, solutions discussed, jokes tried out and stories told are the ingredients that made the meal truly delicious.

Visitors who come to work at the farm often express thanks at the opportunity to learn about gardening, or work with animals, or spend time in the country. We can’t say enough how thankful we are for our children to participate in a larger community of individuals who also value tending earth and growing good food. And of course, we are ever so thankful for those weeds that get pulled and crops that get planted, as we are finding more and more that we simply can’t take care of this little farm ourselves. That’s likely just as it should be. Perhaps earth really was intended to be shared.