A customer recently sent us a link to a really cool site, The Madison 100 Mile Diet Map, a resource created by four UW-Madison cartography students who wanted to provide an easy way for area residents to find locally produced foods. And Circle M is on the map! continued »
Like all Judeo-Christian celebrations, Sabbath and Sunday included, Easter is all about getting the day off work and eating. continued »
Spring began here this week with a bang. Literally. Five little piggies (actually huge 300-pound porkers), five sheep and two goats went off to market, as we harvested last year’s babies and made room for those soon-to-be born. The bittersweet event makes the start to the new season both deeply satisfying and awfully sobering. Like farming itself, I suppose. continued »
My first response to the news about this week’s gigantic beef recall was to read the stories and skip the videos offered on the internet. I feel pretty ambivalent about the ubiquitous access we have to graphic “news” footage. While I appreciate the accountability such access allows, I think the media often slides into a voyeuristic, almost abusive sensationalism that is as unhealthy for the viewers as it is unkind to the objects. Occasionally scarred by seeing such pieces, in this case I realized that as a small meat producer, I had a certain responsibility to know what the accusations of illegal and inhumane treatment at the slaughter facility were all about. The videos turned my stomach. continued »
The most pervasive feeling that characterizes my life here on this pretty little farm is Thankfulness. And then there are mornings like today when it’s 14 degrees below zero at morning chore time. continued »
Back when I lived in Chicago and was peripherally involved in the indie-folk music scene, I chanced to be in a band with a fabulous Rastafarian bassist named Spark. He would occasionally piss us all off by refusing to play in a particular venue. His reason? He objected to how the kitchen was run. 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 »
“Better to be lucky than good.”
Shannon picked up this salty proverb from a foreman during his days as laborer on a carpentry crew. It’s one we pulled out quite often during our home-remodeling years back in Chicago. Now it’s something of a daily liturgy spoken here on the farm. continued »
Tonight we’re experiencing another torrential rain with winds that sound like a hurricane. I should be feeling sympathy for my animals, but instead I’m fearing most for my potatoes. My poor soggy potatoes. How much more rain can the skies make? Where does it all suddenly come from? continued »
This past week we said goodbye to Nappy and August – two beautiful year-old ram lambs, part of the first set of babies born here at Circle M Farm. I gathered each up in my arms, small as they still were, said goodbye and thank you, blessed them with a prayer for peace and loaded them into a white wooden crate in the back of our pickup headed to the butcher. continued »
