I must say I am extraordinarily proud of this dish I made up for Saturday's field-to-table dinner. I get so much joy out of planning for these parties - and then there is the joy of HAVING them. Thanks for coming along on this culinary CSA adventure! So for this main dinner dish, I was inspired, as usual, by what was coming out of the gardens. This week the new crop is fennel - a personal favorite of mine. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the bulbs shredded and braised and roasted and sauteed.  In fact, one of our appetizers will be grilled flatbread with caramelized  I love the pretty fresh fronds, too, but I never can use up as much of them as I get. And thus, this Asian-inspired meatball was born. Don't see the connection? Well - I started with a Szechuan-flavored meatball concept and followed the flavors of Chinese five-spice, with it's strong star anise note, into some admittedly odd territory. The anise flavor in my meatballs come from loads and loads of chopped fennel fronds and stems - which makes for an incredibly moist and unusual texture and flavor, complimented by almond meal, which I used instead of grain so that I could accommodate our gluten-free dinner guests. Also holding the balls together is lots of egg, lots of garlic, lots of cilantro and a little bit of siracha. For presentation, I wound up going toward a Hmong larb-type of dish, since I had the last few small heads of Napa cabbage to use up. I don't want to give too much away, but the light glaze is based on local tart cherry sauce and jazzed up with some Madtown Nutbrown Ale.  My great hope, with the CSA shares and meals both, is to inspire you to look at your boxes and gardens with fresh eyes - allowing the produce itself to lead you into new and delightful places.

Speaking of new and delightful places, I've discovered TV and radio lately! Not sure if I am decent at either of them, but I am having a fun adventure.  It’s Soil Sisters Tour time and we’re getting some lovely media attention for the area and our lovely, special, rural places. What a blessing to be able to move forward in our efforts, both through the Farmers Union and our other community work, to help people connect to  the land. It feels like a very important moment we are having. But a busy busy busy one! I will be on TV again this coming week. If you’d like to see her whipping up some lovely Chocolate Zucchini Yeasted Waffles , tune into NBC15 at 6:10am on Tuesday morning – the 28th.  Of course, you’ve got the recipe up at the Recipe Blog, and it includes a recipe for Aronia Jam from Barham Gardens. You will be getting aronia in the boxes within a month.   The TV and radio spots have led to lots of print and blog pieces, as well, including a great Friday Farm Crush piece by Lauren Wells,  a local writer I just love. ( You can find links to all of these at the Circle M Market Farm facebook page, if you care to check them out)

Did you know that the Pecatonica Grapevine, also on the Soil Sisters Tour,  is also one of our CSA members? Christine gets a box from us on Friday night and by Saturday morning at 8, she’s whipped those fresh veggies up into egg bakes (our eggs, too!), salads and soups. That’s creativity!

Blanchardville’s got a Farmers Market now, every other week, and this Saturday is one of them. Come and visit us there from 8am to noon. We bring a few surplus veggies every week, but also healthy veggie muffins, goat cheese and  chevre truffles.  This week, we’ll have vendors selling bread and honey. And our first visit from our Amish Argyle Market friends! They’ll bring produce and canned goods.  Go get a cappuccino at the Grapevine,  then walk up to prett Ryan Park and visit the market.

We’re going to do a rather short and sweet harvest list here today, in an effort to squeeze a little more time from this week! And of course, check out the Farmer Kriss Pinterest Page with CSA Box Recipes.

Basil – Beautfiul ruffled, chartreuse Nufar basil. This is a new variety for us and we just adore the color, the texture and the taste. Use quickly or it will fade.

Circle M Salad Mix – Lovely salad mix with lettuce and sorrel and tons of edible flowers. We LOVE the look of this.

Arugula – Wonderful, still mild and not spicy. If you don’t mix this in with salad, then use it on top of a pizza!

Swiss Chard – We may have to give the plants a break if this week heats up, but BOY are these tender and sweet right now. I’m  pickling the pretty stems for a dish I’m serving at this Saturday’s Field-to-Table Dinner.

Zucchini – Young, fresh, tender, delish. We are currently eating this for breakfast, lunch and dinner. NO complaints!

Cucumbers – Finally the plants have scrambled up off of the ground and onto the trellises, so we are seeing less  bug damage. Yum!  Yogurt Cucumber Soup for our Field to Table  dinner on Saturday!  And you’ve got dill seed heads to pair with them.

Broccoli – Some of you have little heads and some of you have the first cutting of our sprouting broccoli, which makes all side shoots, which we prefer to heads. Let us know what you think! Chop and eat the whole tender stem. Delicious!

Herb Bouquets: Chives, Sage, Tarragon and Dill – All wonderful to pair with the lovely heirloom potatoes we’ve included.

Baby Beets: These are the thinning of small beets from our  Fall Beet patch. Enjoy with little scrubbing and just gently steamed or roasted. No boiling necessary! And Don’t Forget to enjoy the greens! Very nutritious, combine with the Chard, to which they are related!

Snow Peas – Lumpy but sweet and delicious. Zip off the strings and sauté in an Asian  stir fry. Or just eat right out of the bag, like I do!

Kale – Oh my. So gorgeous this week. Great with fennel and potatoes.

Fennel – I LOVE fennel and it’s delicious anise-y crunch! But I know there are some haters out there. Maybe you can enjoy how pretty it is as you pass it to a grateful Italian neighborJ. We will be making flatbreads on the grill for our field-to-table dinner that are slathered in fennel, caramelized onions, potatoes and blue cheese. YUM! Look for lots of great recipes on Pinterest.

Fresh Onions – One beautiful round Walla Walla and a squat Cippollini. Store in the fridge – not cured.

Heirloom New Potatoes – We’ve got gorgeous yellow Superior and purple Magic Molly varieties for you this week. Skins are very soft, not cured, and so store in the fridge and scrub gently before cooking.

Garlic

Gift from the Goats: Dill Goat Cheese, spreadable!

What a week! We've had pounding rain, gorgeous lightning, rampant growth, lavish harvests and some scary moments in the garden in the past few days. You can read about the scary bits here, get the recipe for those beautiful Chocolate Zucchini Muffins here, and watch me make my Sunshine Skillet on TV here. But all you need to know about your veggies this week is as follows. Here's what's in the box!

Head Lettuce - We grew these in the shade of some big fall cabbages so they would be tender in the heat. And so they are! Eat soon. Very fragile. But yummy!

Basil - Our big-leaved varieties took a beating in the storm, so we're letting them recover and bringing you this yummy little-leaved Thai Basil this week. Enjoy in spring rolls, stir fry and best of all - zucchini curry!

Dill - Pretty, fragrant and fragile. Store in the fridge in a little water, if possible.

Summer Savory - Like thyme, but easier to use! Spicy, hot, savory. Yep!

Chervil - This fun little French herb is delicate in impression and taste. We've bagged it in tiny bags to keep it fresh.  Slight anise flavor, use in eggs, on salads, in dressings.

Cilantro - So wonderfully tasty. But you love or hate it. If you love it, chop gently and put on top of curry, salad and eggs this week.  Try this great  recipe for cilantro cornbread croutons.

Swiss Chard - Bigger leaves, still tender. What a gift this cool weather is for greens!

Zucchini - Small and tender and wonderful to saute lightly in olive oil with garlic. We love this seasoned with a tiny bit of salt and brewer's yeast. Odd, yet wonderful.  Not a fan - try the Zucchini Chocolate Waffle recipe on the recipe blog.

Arugula - First leaves from our newest planting. So tender and delicious, not at all spicy yet. Add to a salad, saute with paste, use in a pesto or top a pizza.

Fennel - So pretty and magical and TASTY. Try this in combination with arugula or kale and potatoes in a hearty salad. Lots of terrific recipes on the pinterest page! Save the fronds to use in dressing - mince as you would dill. These are also great to flavor fish.

Cucumbers - First of the season and we're a bit embarrassed by them. The vines haven't climbed up the trellises yet, so these cukes are growing on the ground and very much attractive to cucumber beetles crawling there. But they taste great. So simply trim the skin off, and enjoy.

Napa Cabbage - This is it for the napa - enjoy!

Scallions - Still so tender. Use greens as well.

Snow Peas - Lumpy but soooo sweet. I zipped the strings off, cut into 1-inch pieces and made a great curry with these and the zucchini for my farm crew this week. Top with Cilantro!

Baby Beets - Thinning of our fall beets. Try gently scrubbing, and lightly boiling in vinegar water. Greens are tasty, too - add to the chard for a lovely gratin!

Kale - YUM

Choc mint and Lemon balm - We bunched this up so you could put the whole thing in a ball jar and make a great herbal tea. Steep for a few hours in boiling water and then strain. Add honey while still warm.

New Potatoes - Oh my! A surprise! We don't typically have these so early, but we dug them because we spotted something that looked like blight on the leaves. They are gorgeous! But the skins are very fragile. Scrub very very lightly and enjoy! Superior (yellow) and Magic Molly (purple).

Gifts from the Goats: Dill Goat Cheese

Well, it's been a big week for Farmer Kriss and the crew here at Circle M. The rains have been wonderful this spring but came at times and in amounts that made it difficult to get into the rows to weed and now we're paying for it. Some crops have been successfully saved by hand-weeding and others had to be tilled in. Two full plantings of carrots were overrun by weeds, as well as the second plantings of salad mix and spinach.  So those are the losses. The wins are the beautiful greens we're packing right now - lush and perfect when in some years we see signs of yellowing and fatigue by the time this heat comes on - and the second picking of snap peas!  That's diversified farming for you - you win some and you lose some, but there is always lots to eat and enjoy. We are very much enjoying the generous influx of healthy greens into our bodies, and we hope you are, too.

We've been busy off the farm, too! Kriss headed into Madison early Thursday morning to cook some of those terrific greens on WKOW Channel 27's Wake Up Wisconsin show, then took a much-appreciated ride on Madison's gorgeous bike trails before heading into the WORT studio to be interviewed by
Molly Stentz with fellow Soil Sister Lisa Kivirist. Their segment will air sometime next week on the In Our Backyard Show. The farmers were promoting the upcoming Soil Sisters Tour in and around Green County July 31 through Aug 2, but also discussed the current opportunities and barriers for women in sustainable agriculture. It was a lively discourse and should make for an interesting show - we'll let you know when it airs and send out a link to the archived recording.  The Wake Up Wisconsin piece is up here at the Channel 27 website.

You've got an uber-fragrant box this week with the bounty of herbs that are ready in the gardens right now. It'll be tough to use them all before they get wilty, and really, that's OK. Herbs are fine to use when wilty! Use them fresh, dry them on the counter spread on paper towels, or blitz in a food processor and freeze. But definitely experiment with these fresh flavors while you can.  Here's what else is in the box:

Elderberry Flowers- Foraged treat! We love to forage in the nearby fields and forest for our members when we can. This very fleeting seasonal treat is not something we'd recommend health-wise, except that it'll increase the thankfulness you feel for woodland edges. There are two basic ways we use these - fried into battered fritters, and soaked in vodka for a  year to make your own St. Germain elderflower liqueur. I just strained the elderflowers out of my St. Germain a few weeks ago and added it to some rhubarb simple syrup for an amazing cordial I offer to my bed and breakfast guests for a midnight snack with dark chocolate truffles. Slightly bitter and herbal, perfectly cleansing for bedtime! You'll find recipes for both fritters and cordial on this gorgeous website, LazySundayCooking.

Cilantro- So terrific with scallions in a salsa. Since we don't have tomatoes and peppers yet, we've been enjoying salsas made with the variety of in-season fruits that have been appearing at the co-ops and groceries. Try mango or peach this week.

Basil - Smaller bags of basil this week - the rains have really beat the leaves up.  Rinse the bagged leaves right before you are going to use them. Very tender. Best stored on the door of your fridge where it's not too cold.  Don't forget to consider basil as an ingredient in your summer cocktails. Booze and basil really suit each other. Check out our ideas on the Farmer Kriss Pinterest Page under CSA Box Recipes and The Farmhouse Bar page.

Circle M Summer Salad Mix - This bodacious batch of big-leaved lettuce varieties is loaded with edible flowers to make you smile as you eat.  Look for peppery orange nasturtium flowers (and lily-pad leaves), star-shaped white chickweed blossoms and confetti made from calendula, cornflower and marigolds.

Arugula - First picking of our second planting of arugula. This is a taste we just can't get enough of here on the farm. We enjoy this Italian green as a salad, dressed simply with olive oil and lemon juice, cooked with grains, and crisped on top of grilled pizza.

Dill - First picking! We always aim to have dill come with cucumbers - but it usually doesn't. The dill grows so fast and furious as it bolts to seed that the cucumbers can't keep up. We should have cukes in the box next box. Save the dill in your fridge in a ball jar with an inch of water, or enjoy on eggs now! Our next chevre recipe will be flavored with dill.

Zucchini - Yay! The first taste of summer, for sure! We missed a few out there under the leaves, so we used the big guys to make some moist and delicious Chocolate Zucchini muffins for this weekend's bed and breakfast guests and for market. Check out our recipe here.

Swiss Chard - Young leaves are so pretty and so soft and sweet. I just LOVE them - we will rarely pick big leaves of greens for you. We like little! This week they are going in my Morning Glory Muffins for the Argyle Farmers Market - I'm planning a white corn muffin with red chard stems and blue black caps.  Try these raw ribboned into salad and please do eat the stems. Very tasty chopped into scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Herb Bouquet: Flowering Oregano and Summer Savory  - We've said this already but WE LOVE FRESH HERBS here at Circle M. Having a bounty of fresh herbs to choose from transforms our summer cooking and baking. The best way to have these at hand is to pop them in a Ball jar filled with an inch  of water and store in the fridge.   The oregano - with pretty purple flowers - is great this time of year used on top of pizza cooked on the grill.

Mint Bouquet: Chocolate Mint and Lemon Balm -  Our suggestions - stuff this whole bouquet into a half-gallon Ball jar or a pitcher and pour boiling water over it. Drizzle about 1/4 cup honey in there, stir and mash, and leave to sit for a day on the counter. When you strain liquid off, you'll have a gorgeous, lightly pink tea that is barely sweet and amazingly refreshing chilled. Our bed and breakfast guests have been raving about it all weekend, and we've been sucking it down, too!

Kale Bouquets - Beautiful, lush, delicious and remarkably nutritious. Do you have enough ways to use up your kale? If not, please do check out the Farmer Kriss Pinterest page for ideas. OR watch Farmer Kriss make her Sunshine Skillet Saute with kale on the Wake Up Wisconsin show on Channel 27/ABC. That's right, I'm being taped for a segment on Thursday, July 9. I've been asked to do a "Veggie Main Dish" so I'm going with kale! I'm in a series with many of my "Soil Sisters" - women farmers who are doing a cool tour of their farms on the weekend of July 31 through Aug 2. See all the info here.

Mini Napa Cabbage - We grew this tiny variety of Napa Cabbage because it seemed a reasonable size to fit into our CSA boxes. The bonus is that they taste amazing and the little middle leaves work great as boats for dips! And we've been serving them to our bed and breakfast guests torn into their breakfast salads, sprinkled with edible flowers. So crunchy, so fresh!

Snap and Snow Peas - Hooray! Both sweet treats at the same time. We rarely get two boxes with snap peas - they tend to peter out in the heat, but the vines have been happy with these cool nights. And now the snows are coming on!   Zip the side strings off the side before you munch or cook. And I'd eat the fat snaps raw, maybe dipped in a yogurt sauce or our goat cheese. And cut into pieces and cook the flatter, lumpy snows in an Asian-flavored dish. Amazing with a little sesame oil!  Though it seems a shame to cook these, they get even sweeter when lightly sauteed!

Scallions - These, along with the dill, make our walk-in cooler smell amazing! Enjoy all the way up the stalk - Chinese-style! No need to throw anything in the compost but the roots.

Rhubarb - More! Experiment with a different dessert this week, or cook down with a little honey and chia seeds for a wonderful healthy jam. We've had rhubarb every day for the past month and I am still not sick of it.  I cooked some down with vinegar and honey to make a concentrated glaze for the ham I served at our Saturday field-to-table dinner. Then I cooked the leftovers with onions and kale for a wonderful lunch bowl of greens.

Garlic - This isn't cured but it has bulbed up, so use just like regular garlic but store in the fridge.

Herbs To Plant: Thyme - We use thyme in everything - all year long! But it is slow growing and we won't always be able to harvest enough to get in the boxes. So here's your very own plant. Put it in a six- or eight-inch pot and leave it in the sun near your kitchen where you can get it quick.

Gifts from the Goats: Tarragon Goat Chevre - We sold out of this at the Argyle Farmers Market last week, and customers kept coming and asking for more. So we thought we'd better makes some more and get it to you. There will be a few for the market, as well, so if you want more - come and see us Saturday  morning in Blanchardville from 8 to noon.   Enjoy! Dip those snap and snow peas in here for a great treat.

Please do check out the Soil Sisters event, coming up at the end of the month. More than a dozen women-owned farmers are involved this year, as well as several local farm-to-table restaurants and businesses. You can take classes, tours, a bus trip and have dinner on a farm, accompanied by music from MooGrass, a bluegrass band that Kriss plays with - and buy local goods. Get out and play! Of course, men and boys are welcome, too.

So  – we’re a little famous. See the July Issue of Mary Jane’s Farm magazine which features Circle M animals and people in an article called "Share Your Soil, Sisters! Host a Farm Tour." And indeed, we are going to share at a big Soil Sisters farm tour event at the end of the month.  Save the date for the Soil Sisters Tour –  July 31 through August 1.  Visit us and other women-owned farms and field-to-table restaurants in southwest Wisconsin, primarily in Green County.  Circle M will host several wool classes, and Kriss will be the tour guide for the bus trip! We'd love to see you at some of the events! Farmer Kriss will also be featured on  a Wake Up Wisconsin episode early in the morning next Thursday, July 9, for Channel 27/ABC - sharing her recipe for Sunshine Skillet Saute. You can see the recipe here, though!

That's enough about us - now it's all about the veggies! Here's what's in the box:

Elderberry Flowers- Foraged treat! We love to forage in the nearby fields and forest for our members when we can. This very fleeting seasonal treat is not something we'd recommend health-wise, except that it'll increase the thankfulness you feel for woodland edges. There are two basic ways we use these - fried into battered fritters, and soaked in vodka for a  year to make your own St. Germain elderflower liqueur. I just strained the elderflowers out of my St. Germain a few weeks ago and added it to some rhubarb simple syrup for an amazing cordial I offer to my bed and breakfast guests for a midnight snack with dark chocolate truffles. Slightly bitter and herbal, perfectly cleansing for bedtime! You'll find recipes for both fritters and cordial on this gorgeous website, LazySundayCooking.

Cilantro- So terrific with garlic scapes in a salsa. Since we don't have tomatoes and peppers yet, we made a salsa for pepper jam quesadillas this week with mango and rhubarb in equal amounts, then vinegar, cilantro, scallions, salt and tabasco to taste.

Black Caps- These tiny black raspberries grow wild in the woods around our place so we headed out with the crew to pick some for you this week. I guess you're lucky any made it back - they are delicious and we made our teeth blue with eating them!

Basil - Holy cow -  the basil really came on in the rain and heat. Hooray! Basil and scapes at the same time mean a wonderful sweet spring pesto! Sorry about the dirt - we got very very splashed around here. But if we wash them they won't last long for you. SO - Rinse these bagged leaves right before you are going to use them. Very tender. Best stored on the door of your fridge where it's not too cold.  Don't forget to consider basil as an ingredient in your summer cocktails. Booze and basil really suit each other. Check out our ideas on the Farmer Kriss Pinterest Page under CSA Box Recipes and The Farmhouse Bar page.

Head Lettuce - This week we've got terrific tender-leaved Green Oakleaf.

Swiss Chard - Young leaves are so pretty and so soft and sweet. I just LOVE them - we will rarely pick big leaves of greens for you. We like little! This week they are going in my Morning Glory Muffins for the Argyle Farmers Market - I'm planning a white corn muffin with red chard stems and blue black caps.  Try these raw ribboned into salad and please do eat the stems. Very tasty chopped into scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Herb Bouquet: Chocolate Mint, Flowering Oregano, Tarragon, and Chinese Leeks (Garlic Chives) - We've said this already but WE LOVE FRESH HERBS here at Circle M. Having a bounty of fresh herbs to choose from transforms our summer cooking and baking. The best way to have these at hand is to pop them in a Ball jar filled with an inch  of water and store in the fridge.  Chocolate Mint means Mojito Lemonade (simply add a few tablespoons of lime juice and a handful of mint leaves to a lemonade recipe) for crew lunches and Mojitos for REAL at dusk.  With your stalks of tarragon, which is lightly sweet and anise-flavored, we recommend making a wine-based salad dressing.   The oregano - with pretty purple flowers - is great this time of year used on top of pizza cooked on the grill.  The flat Chinese leeks can be used chopped into anything you'd like with chives.

Baby Kale - Beautiful, lush, delicious and remarkably nutritious. Do you have enough ways to use up your kale? If not, please do check out the Farmer Kriss Pinterest page for ideas. OR watch Farmer Kriss make her Sunshine Skillet Saute with kale on the Wake Up Wisconsin show on Channel 27/ABC. That's right, I'm being taped for a segment on Thursday, July 9. I've been asked to do a "Veggie Main Dish" so I'm going with kale! I'm in a series with many of my "Soil Sisters" - women farmers who are doing a cool tour of their farms on the weekend of July 31 through Aug 2. See all the info here.

Mini Napa Cabbage - We grew this tiny variety of Napa Cabbage because it seemed a reasonable size fit into our CSA boxes. The bonus is that these little leaves work great as boats for dips! The crew had them slathered in goat cheese or peanut butter for lunch this week.

Snap and Snow Peas - Hooray! A favorite crop for many of our crew each year, snaps are like a sweet snack that is good for you but keeps you craving more! Hopefully we'll have a couple weeks of harvest of these for you - it depends on how the weather goes, but the vines certainly are loaded now! Zip the string off the side before you munch.  Though it seems a shame to cook these, they get even sweeter when lightly sauteed! But I think the flatter, bigger snow peas are what really shine when lightly cooked.

Garlic Scapes - If you need more inspiration than these curly little treats can provide on their own, check out the wonderful Kitchen Vignettes video on making Garlic Scape Pancakes.

Scallions - The first of the new onions! Enjoy all the way up the stalk - Chinese-style! No need to throw anything in the compost but the roots.

Rhubarb - More! Experiment with a different dessert this week, or cook down with a little honey and chia seeds for a wonderful healthy jam. We've had rhubarb every day for the past month and I am still not sick of it.  I cooked some down with vinegar and honey to make a concentrated glaze for the ham I served at our Saturday field-to-table dinner. Then I cooked the leftovers with onions and kale for a wonderful lunch bowl of greens.

Garlic - This isn't cured but it has bulbed up, so use just like regular garlic but store in the fridge.

Horseradish - The lumpy root at the bottom of your box is, in fact, horseradish. It won't smell like much until you grate it - either with a cheese grater or a food processor. Then the damaged cells will release enzymes that react with the air and do the horseradish-y thing. Make sure to keep your eyes away from the fumes! Immediately add vinegar and salt to preserve, and store in the fridge. YUM. We added grated horseradish to shredded carrots and beets, then dressed with balsamic vinegar reduction, and served alongside our Rhubarb Crusted Ham at the Saturday dinner.  One of our farmhands, and server for the night, Sam, had the brilliant idea to add chopped cilantro and scallions and it was the BOMB!

Herbs To Plant: Thyme - We use thyme in everything - all year long! But it is slow growing and we won't always be able to harvest enough to get in the boxes. So here's your very own plant. Put it in a six- or eight-inch pot and leave it in the sun near your kitchen where you can get it quick.

Gifts from the Goats: Chive Blossom Goat Cheese - This has been our most popular goat cheese flavor, both at the farm dinner and at the farmers market. But the blossoms are now done on the plants and this is the last chive blossom goat cheese of the year. Enjoy! Dip those snap and snow peas in here for a great treat.