This box’s vegetables have been harvested in an 80-degree afternoon, a chilly rain, a clinging fog, a terrifying wind and an evening so cold we wore winter coats. (That was last night – hauling in all the squash and watermelons before they got damaged by the predicted frost.) All in one week! continued »
Yesterday I witnessed 10 geese leaving. They were silent, which was odd. Did they feel bad leaving in the steamy hot weather? Do they have a secret about the winter that we don’t know? Either way, it was rather disturbing to watch their departure southward from underneath my sweaty sun hat. continued »
Many of you may know that Circle M isn’t just about vegetables and meat. Fiber is actually a quite large part of our sustainable farming endeavor, and as the growing season comes to a close, wool season starts to get rolling. This weekend actually kicks off the first fiber event we’ll be participating in this fall, with the Driftless Area Fiber Arts Faire in Mineral Point. continued »
Hard to believe we are harvesting fall crops and now we’ve finally got summer weather! The plants really don’t seem to know what to do. Except the watermelons. They seem to be the happiest I’ve ever seen. Huge, juicy and sweet as can be. Consider these the last taste of summer. Here’s what else is in the box: continued »
Now that our houses are cold more evenings than not, it seems natural to use the oven at night to roast meats and vegetables for that lovely, smokey fall flavor. I’ve mostly put up my frying pan in exchange for baking sheets and the Dutch oven. You can roast a lot of what you got in the box this week – the peppers, tomatillos, kohlrabi, onions, eggplant, yellow squash and fennel will all surprise you with the subtle changes in flavor that occur with roasting. Mostly things get sweeter. Here’s what else is in the box: continued »
Boy, we had a close call this weekend. Sunday the overnight forecast was for 37 and in our valley we can generally count on being 5 degrees colder. With the threat of actually hitting freezing, we headed out to the gardens in twilight and draped the basil and peppers with floating row covers. Thankfully, we only dropped to about 34. Had it been much colder, we would have lost all the bean plants, the corn still on the stalks, the tomatillos and maybe even all the uncured pumpkins and winter squash we’ve been tending for so many months. Cold as it was, we are seeing some stress on the cucumbers, zucchinis and melons. Oh, but we feel lucky! The gardens are still producing lots of beautiful food, while our thoughts are turning to the rich and warm recipes of fall. We’ve included some for you below. Here’s what’s in the box: continued »
