Circle M Farm

Every time I put a Julia Child disc into the DVD player, I start off looking for laughs and end up looking for a pencil and paper. continued »

To atone for my recent disparaging comments about Julia Child’s grayscale “Potato Show,” I pulled out “Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1” and made her wonderful Potage Parmentier this week. Thank you, Madame Julia, for the world’s easiest and most romantic-sounding Potato Soup. continued »

“It is a good day for the beginnings of journeys.” So says author Sandra Steingraber to her newborn daughter in the prologue of “Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood.” And so I pass it along to you, by way of invitation. Today is the first in a series of Sunday posts at Reading Circle Books to spur discussion on “Having Faith.” We’ll be covering a new chapter each week. Jump in any time! continued »

People often ask me how it happened that we uprooted our city family and came to be market farming in rural southwest Wisconsin. The answer, plain and simple, is – books are to blame. continued »

Perhaps the best thing about the web, and the blogosphere in particular, is that it enables you to connect with like-minded people you might never meet otherwise. continued »

Several days after the artificial insemination adventure, I was filing the receipt from our swine semen supplier and noticed that the box and its fragile contents had cost us $79.00. continued »

This garden year has been one full of surprises, and I’m certain we’re not done yet! The morning’s shock was lurking under our dead and blackened squash leaves, which I was rifling through to find the few fruits I thought might have survived the frost. To my great delight I found dozens of colorful ripe Carnival squash that I didn’t think had made it out of the blossom stage. But there they were, and here they are. They must have been hardening up for weeks, hiding there beneath the monstrous canopy of vines. Here’s what else is in the box: continued »

Big ole’ Honeybun is most definitely comfortable now in her role as the mascot of my Summer Kitchen Dye Studio (the gussied-up name for my garage workspace equipped with an old stove, an old washer and a slew of shelves full of wool fleeces). continued »

We’ve welcomed a new member into our crazy mixed-up Circle M family this week – Honeybun, a delightfully large and fluffy buff-colored angora rabbit that is to be my companion in the summer kitchen dye studio. Lovely new friend and fellow spinner, Laurie, brought her down yesterday from Madison, where she was getting to be a bit bossy with the small children and cats in her home. I find her just darling – twice as big as I expected and three times as soft – and hope she’ll be happy with the cool concrete floor and quiet atmosphere of the studio. So far, she won’t come out of her cage. But I’m working hard to coax her out with pellets, carrots, and dog bones, so I can pluck her belly. continued »

Greetings from soggy Circle M! Now in Week 2 of flooding here in our valley, we’ve lost the storage potatoes, roasting corn and summer squash under the waters, but we’re certainly enjoying the green that’s returned to our pastures and meadows. Honestly the farm couldn’t be prettier. Shannon had to mow around the buildings this week, in between thunderstorms, of course, and the animals are beside themselves frisking about in the newly lush grasses and alfalfa. We’ve enjoyed canoeing in our lower paddocks, and appreciated new views discovered on detours we’ve taken since our road to town has been closed! continued »