Yippee! First tomato box and it includes the first raspberries, first peppers and first eggplants – a week of firsts and high summer now!  Everything we harvested this week seemed covered in honey bees – which was lovely, friendly and reassuring, and reminded us that we aren’t the only ones busily hustling out in those fields in late August. This box represents the beginning of hot season fruits that in our little cool valley are not easy to grow – when they appear we always feel so victorious because our chilly nights tend to work against us. Of course, those nights in the 50s (we actually had some DAYS in the 50s this week!) give us good sleep and great greens, so we aren’t complaining. And RAIN – we needed it bad, and we got it bad. Some of the tender things we packed, like chard and heirloom tomatoes and basil look a bit rough around the edges because of the two pounding storms we had this week, but a bit of damage was worth it to get those crops something other than well water from our irrigation tape.

This week is a turning point here on the farm. As we start to harvest the high summer crops, we till in the early spring plots and make our final plantings for fall harvests of cool season crops again.  Other than planting cover crops to enrich the soil and bulbs for garlic and flowers, we have put our last seeds in the ground for 2015.  As we lose sunlight, we anticipate the chill days of fall and the harvest of frost-sweetened cole and root crops.  But that's weeks away - there are many harvests of tomatoes and peppers between now and then!  And here’s what’s in the box:

Basil – The Japanese beetles have found the basil rows, so the bags are small this week. But we planted a new group on the other side of the farm inside our hoop house, so we hope evade those bugs and keep you in pesto until the end of tomato season.

Raspberries – These little jewels are the first fruits on our loaded vines. Our varieties are fall cultivars, so we should have a lot for you in the coming weeks.

Tomatoes – This early harvest off the tomato vines is mostly little cherries of various colors, but each of you got a bunch of slicers, too. Eat the soft ones first and save the firmer ones. We tried to pack everyone a variety of slicers at different ripenesses so they’d last you two weeks. Remember – color doesn’t count! We’ve got tomatoes that’ll be ripe when green, when orange, when purple, when pink and when red, so go by feel.

Tomatillos – Some years I don’t grow these and some years I do. If you’ve ever grown them, you know they are just such a pain to harvest!  They grow in little paper bags, so you can’t see how big they are and you have to feel them to find out if they are full in the bag, which is when they are ready. Often, they fall from the plant RIGHT as they ripen. Frustrating, but SOOO YUMMY. I must say I am glad I grew them this year. We’ve been roasting them and making salsa verde with the lovely big scallions and Hungarian hot wax peppers. We wish we had cilantro in the field, but we are buying it, just like you! The hot dry weather last week sent them all into bolting.  Check the Farmer Kriss Pinterest page for recipes.

Yellow  Squash and Zucchinis – This is the end of the zucchini and the peak of the yellow squash. We LOVE zucchini as you know, but we love yellow squash even more! We have been making our bed and breakfast guests frittatas with yellow squash and Swiss chard – delicious!  

Cucumbers – A GREAT year here for cukes, though bugs have been making their way up the vines this week, and you’ll notice damaged skins. The squash beetles have overcome the zucchini, and that must have kept them distracted from the cuke vines for a while, but now they are everywhere. Still, the vines are producing like crazy. Enjoy!

Peppers – You’ve each got two green sweet peppers and two yellow Hungarian HOT wax peppers.  Enjoy – lots more to come! We grew peppers in the our hoop house this year so that we could enjoy a longer harvest season than we usually do – once the nights get often into the low 50s we can close the sides and let the peppers keep ripening.

Eggplant –  Just a few little ones this week! Dice and enjoy sautéed with squash and pepper. Don’t peel! At this size they are not bitter skinned.

Herb Bags: Chocolate Mint, Sage, Summer Savory and Rosemary – Mint bunches are ideal for Mojitos on a hot sultry August afternoon. The sage, savory and rosemary will all be great with your new potatoes, squashes, tomatoes and eggplant. Think Mediterranean!  

Swiss Chard – We gave these plants a little break for a few weeks and now they are back with gusto! We are using this for our fresh eating greens these days, but use as you would  spinach in all cooked dishes. We’ve been pickling the stems, diced, and using them for relish.

Onions – We’ve packed you a handful of special little Red Marble pearl onions. I am super proud of these because I’ve grown them a couple of times and never harvest them small enough to use as pearls. Somehow I always just miss the window between too small and too big – but this year I nailed it! Enjoy! Peel carefully and lightly sauté or steam. We’re serving these roasted with the final green beans at our field to table dinner this Saturday. They are wonderful with mushrooms, too! You also have some yellow shallots. Very tasty.  

Scallions – These Nabechan scallions are getting bigger and stronger, but you can still use most of the stem. I clean off the bulb, cut it in half, and then chop on up the stem. Perfect for salsa.

Mini Cabbages – We started growing small cabbages when we packed Shortie Shares and needed to find small varieties of things to fit in the boxes. But we fell in love with these pointy heirloom Early Jersey Wakefield cabbages on the merits of taste and cuteness as well! Plus, now there is room for other things in your box! Try a fresh slaw or sauté with summer squash.

New Red Potatoes – These lovely Dark Red Norlands are terrific both for baking or boiling. Enjoy with toasted sage butter, or roast them with olive oil and rosemary.

Yippee! First tomato box and it includes the first raspberries, first collards and first peppers – it is high summer now! Everything we harvested this week seemed covered in honey bees – which was lovely, friendly and reassuring, and reminded us that we aren’t the only ones busily hustling out in those fields in August. This box represents the beginning of hot season fruits that in our little cool valley are not easy to grow – when they appear we always feel so victorious because our chilly nights tend to work against us. Of course, those nights in the 60s give us good sleep and great greens, so we aren’t complaining.

In addition to harvesting this past week, we also spent some time filming here on the farm with Inga Witschre, host of the delightful PBS series “Around the Farm Table.” We talked and played a bit too much, so we didn’t finish filming the episode yet, but we did whip up a great breakfast for some of my bed and breakfast guests. Inga made a frittata with veggies from the gardens, and I, of course, made Chocolate Zucchini mini bundt cakes served with jam and berries.  Head over to the Recipe Blog for the instructions.  We’ve got a bit more to film, but stayed tuned and I’ll let you know when the episode is going to air!

Here’s what’s in the box:





Basil – The Japanese beetles have found the basil rows, so the bags are small this week. But we planted a new group on the other side of the farm inside our hoop house, so we hope to keep you in pesto until the end of tomato season.

Raspberries – These little jewels are the first fruits on our loaded vines. Our varieties are fall cultivars, so we should have a lot for you in the coming weeks.

Tomatoes! – This first harvest off the tomato vines is primarily little cherries of various colors, but each of you got one ripe Black Prince slicer. They are our first to ripen every year and we just love them.

Yellow  Squash and Zucchinis – This is the end of the zucchini and the beginning of yellow squash. We LOVE zucchini as you know, but we love yellow squash even more! We wouldn’t think of baking with these – the flavor is so creamy and nutty and incredible lightly sautéed with garlic, onions, or whatever you want! Egg hash is a staple here in summer squash season, and we of course, have been serving it to our bed and breakfast guests a lot.  Last week we had guests from France, Holland and England, and they all call zucchinis "courgettes," which I find soooooo pretty! Almost makes them sound too pretty to eat.

Sprouting Broccoli – Have we already said a millllllllion times how much we love sprouting broccoli! These lovely plants are like shrubs in the garden now and they just keep producing sweet, tender stalks. Where head broccoli is now bolting in the heat, these plants are delighted to keep making us food. Thank you, pretty plants!

Cucumbers – A GREAT year here for cukes. The squash beetles have overcome the zucchini, and that must have kept them distracted from the cuke vines, which still just have a reasonable amount of cucumber beetles on them. A blessing. This might be a year for you to try refrigerator pickles, if you never have. Look for some nice recipes on our Farmer Kriss Pinterest page.

Peppers – Yay! You’ve got one each of a chartreuse sweet pepper, a green pepper and a HOT Hungarian wax which is long and skinny. Enjoy – lots more to come! We grew peppers in the our hoop house this year so that we could enjoy a longer harvest season than we usually do – once the nights get reliably into the low 50s we can close the sides and let the peppers keep ripening.

Chocolate Mint – These bunches are ideal for those Mojitos on a hot sultry August afternoon. Also great blitzed and blended into chocolate cakes and brownies this time of year, and perfect to garnish your fruit salads and tarts. Keep in a jar with a little water in the fridge and you should be able to pick off these for a couple of weeks.

Swiss Chard – we gave these plants a little break for a few weeks and now they are back with a terrific vengeance! We are using this for our fresh eating green these days, but use as you would  spinach in all cooked dishes. We’ve been pickling the stems, diced, and using them for relish.

String Beans – What a BUMPER crop this year! Delicious! Sautee just lightly to preserve flavor and crunch. We included Red Marble onions in this box, because if you peel them and half or leave whole, they look and taste great cooked up with the multi-colored beans.  Treat them like pearl onions – which they are, only prettier! The purple beans will stay purple if you barely cook them, too.

Parsley – The first harvest off of our plants, which we grew in the shade so they wouldn’t bolt in the heat. But since it’s a cool year, they just took forever to grow!

Fennel – Our fennel bulbs were looking like they wanted to bolt and flower, so we are going to let them. So pretty and so loved by butterflies and bees! But we harvested some nice baby bulbs for you to enjoy. We’ve been chopping the bulbs thinly and using like celery in potato salads. The fronds make a great herb to season and top when plating the salad.

Collards – YUM! I am a fan off every single brassica that is grown on the face of the earth, but I must say that collards are at the top of the list. A southern favorite that is basically a cabbage that never heads up, this green is perfect chopped and cooked in the skillet from your morning bacon. For some reason, collards pair so very well with all smoked meats. I like them with cubed salami, and ham hocks, as well. Drizzle after sautéing with a little balsamic vinegar reduction and you will swoon!

Onions – We’ve packed some nice mild yellow globe onions, and some very special Red Marble pearl onions. I am super proud of these because I’ve grown them a couple of times and never harvest them small enough to use as pearls. Somehow I always just miss the window between too small and too big – but this year I nailed it! Enjoy! We served a gorgeous dish at a party this week with lightly sautéed string beans, Red Marble onions, halved, and mushrooms. Lightly seasoned with olive oil and salt, they were perfect at room temperature.

Scallions – These Nabechan scallions are getting bigger and stronger, but you can still use most of the stem. I clean off the bulb, cut it in half, and then chop on up the stem.

Garlic – Our garlic bulbs are very small this year. Not quite sure why, but we grew them in two spots and both made diminutive little clumps. Tasty, tho’. Enjoy!

GO SLOW IN THE DRIVE THIS WEEK - KITTENS ARE CRAWLING EVERYWHERE NOW! ENJOY THE SNUGGLES :)

Half way through the season! And we are eating like royalty, no? We tend to think of this 5th box as the last burst of spring before we begin tomato season.  And it sure does feel like summer now, doesn’t it?  Speaking of summer – we are suddenly seeing sweet corn in and around town. Our sweet corn is tassled out, but still very small, and weare not sure when we’ll be able to pack it or how much we’ll be able to get to you.  So this week, we recommend you head down to Doc Reeson’s place and buy some of the first sweet corn of the season from our local neighbor farmers. We bought some this morning to use in our Circle M Corn Souffle for a lunch we catered our here. It is delicious and you should go get some while you’re in town for this weekend’s big 125th Anniversary Celebration in Blanchardville! Parades, plays, petting zoos, carriage rides, old-time bands, quilts, fish boil, bands and FUN all weekend long. See you there!

Here's what's in the box:

Basil – Beautfiul ruffled, chartreuse Nufar basil. Not much, as the Japanese beetles are eating these plants. That’s a first for us here at Circle M. Those stinkers!

Arugula – Wonderful, and starting to get spicy. If you don’t enjoy this as a fresh eating green, go ahead and chop and sauté lightly to eat over rice or pasta, or better yet, put on top of a grilled pizza before you put it on!

Flower Confetti – We’ve packed you some whole calendula and cornflowers to pull the petals off and use as confetti in your concoctions this week. Great on salad, soup, or any dish. Nasturtiums use whole and enjoy the peppery taste.

Zucchini  and Yellow Squash– Young, fresh, tender, delish. We are currently eating this for breakfast, lunch and dinner. NO complaints! Have you tried Zoodles? Zucchini noodles? Create noodles with a carrot peeler, or buy an inexpensive "spiralizer" at Willy Street Co-op or on Amazon. Get rid of carbs and enjoy those yummy pasta sauces! OR shred your zukes and add those carbs back in with some delicious, yet nutritious baked goods. See our moist, rich Chocolate Zucchini Cake recipe - we just whipped this up into tiny bundt cakes with Inga Witscher on her Around The Farm  Table television show!

String Beans -  Tons! Two bags each. And all colors coming ripe at the same time! The purple will turn green when you cook them, though.  Tender, thin, sweet and delicious. Don’t overcook these, they are so very very delicious you’ll want to enjoy them in all their beany glory!

Cucumbers – A jillion! Finally the plants have scrambled up off of the ground and onto the trellises, so we are seeing less  bug damage. Yum!  I’ve been enjoying these very much with chive goat cheese, but they are also very wonderful just sprinkled with vinegar, salt and pepper.

Broccoli – Some of you have little heads and some of you have the tiny spears of our sprouting broccoli, which makes all side shoots. We prefer these to heads, but we’d love to know what you think, too! Chop and eat the whole tender stem. The plants didn't make much this week because it was a bit hot and dry, but we expect these to produce for us all season long. Delicious!

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

Kale – These bouquets continue to be soooo pretty. We feel very lucky to be eating such luscious greens in the heat of the summer. Enjoy in massaged salads, paired with potatoes in soup and salads, and sautéed with tomatoes and zucchini.

Fresh Onions –Store in the fridge – these sweet Walla Wallas are not cured.

Scallions – Very big and beefy. So easy to clean and use!

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

Garlic -  Not cured, so store in the fridge.

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.

Boy O Boy! Have we had some rain and some wind and some extremes this past week! Many of our neighbors experienced tragic losses of old trees and necessary fences and expensive roofs, and we are sorry for any losses you had in the storm. We personally are very grateful that we had very little damage in our little neck of the woods - all the animals and plants are well. And we are certainly grateful for rains the week before horseradish digging! Look at these beautiful roots. You've got them in your boxes, and we're serving them grated in a balsamic reduction alongside a Rhubarb-Crusted Ham for our first field-to-table dinner this Saturday. DE-lish.

Heat and moisture have created such a lush environment in the fields that the vegetables are practically climbing into the kitchen and onto our plates. But of course the weeds are shooting up right next to them and we scramble here to keep up with the transplanting, harvesting, tilling, seeding and endless weeding of June.  June is bonkers on a market farm! But so very very yummy and so achingly beautiful.

We are excited to have you out this week - whether you'll be a guest at the dinner or just stopping by to get your box, we hope you have some time to wander the farm and taste some of the non-food delights the land offers us this month. There are baby ducks and chicks behind the barn, muddy piglets in the pens, tiny kittens on the back porch, lilies exploding in the perennial flower beds and nests of all sorts in the trees. Listen and look for spring peepers, orioles and hummingbirds. And enjoy the first few fireflies!

So  – we’re a little famous. See the July Issue of Mary Jane’s Farm magazine which features Circle M animals and people in the Soil Sisters article.  And save the date for the Soil Sisters Tour – this July 31 through August 1.  Visit us and other women-owned farms and field-to-table restaurants in southwest Wisconsin. Circle M will host several wool classes, and Kriss will be the tour guide for the bus trip!

Well, that's all of our news for the week - now it's on to the veggies! Here's what's In The Box. Remember to use the first things listed first, they are the most perishable:

Cilantro - So tender, first cutting. I had a handful chopped on top of a Mexican-flavored bean salad yesterday. Summer on a fork! Since we don't have tomatoes yet, we've been playing around with fruit salsas. Since mangos are in season and on sale at most grocers, we've been combining them with what we've got here in abundance to make wonderful combos. For the farm dinner Saturday, we'll have Mango/Rhubarb Salsa with Grilled Spinach Quesadillas for our appetizer.

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 - First cutting leaves are so pretty and so soft and sweet. I just LOVE them. This week they are going in my Morning Glory Muffins for the little Blanchardville Farmers Market - come out and get one Saturday morning in Ryan Park from 8 to noon.  Try these raw ribboned into salad and please do eat the stems. Very tasty chopped into scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Spinach - Ah! Sweet stems and tender leaves. I think baby spinach isn't worth eating but young adult leaves are totally the bomb. I would never cook such lovely stuff, but you can if you like. Actually, I lied. I made great quesadillas for crew lunch yesterday with multi-grain tortillas wrapped around whole spinach leaves and cherry farmer cheese. AMAZING. But this is the last spinach we'll have for a few weeks, since these plants bolted in the heat. We've got new spinach and new salad mix growing, but neither are big enough to harvest yet.

Herb Bouquet: Chocolate Mint, Lemon Balm, Oregano,  Tarragon, Lovage, Sage 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. This week we made this incredible Lemon Balm Sage Jelly  for our Bed and Breakfast guests to have on scones. You have enough of each in your box to make it, too.  Lemon Balm makes a great anti-anxiety tea. Add honey while steeping all the leaves in hot water, the strain and chill. Sip on it cold from the fridge throughout the day.  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 lovage you've had before - a terrific perennial celery plant with a hint of nutmeg flavor.  The Chinese leeks are the flat-leaved chives - snip into eggs, salads, goat cheese.  The oregano - just about to flower - is great this time of year used on top of pizza cooked on the grill.  Both the mint and the lemon balm can be started in your own yard by holding some of the stalks in water on the counter until you see little roots form. Could be just a day or two.

Baby Kale - Kale at any size is a good thing. But Baby Kale is a great thing. You could make Kale Chips out of these whole leaves, ribbon into a salad or add to soup. Try blended into a guacamole - with the big bunch of cilantro in your box! We grow six different varieties so we ca make you pretty bouquets all season long.

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 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!

Garlic Scapes - This bag of curly green pig-tails are the seed heads we harvest off off garlic in spring. Have a mild and sweet garlic-y flavor.  Mince like a scallion and add to eggs or any dish you'd enjoy with garlic. Our good friends at Stoney Acres Farm in Athens put these whole on their wood-oven pizzas - pick one up sometime when you go north. And our neighbor Chelsea Chandler at Plowshares and Prairie Farm makes them into great pickles. I'll be throwing them into the food processor with basil and olive oil for my first pesto of the year! Try pesto on grilled cheese with Farmer John's Provonella Cheese! If you need more inspiration than these curly little treats can provide, check out the wonderful Kitchen Vignettes video on making Garlic Scape Pancakes.

Green Garlic - This is young garlic, not cured. Store in your fridge and use up like regular garlic. You will find the taste is a bit more mild.

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'm cooking some down right now to make a concentrated glaze for the ham I plan to serve at our Saturday dinner.

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.

Herbs To Plant: Savory, Ornamental Hot Pepper, Basil - We've given you a pack of three plants this week to pop into a pot on your patio, or plant out into the garden. The tallest plant is an ornamental pepper, very pretty, but also edible. HOT. The long stem with tiny leaves is summer savory, which tastes similar to thyme but grows faster. Snip often and it will branch into a nice bush. Same with the little bright green basil. Snip daily for a great big bush.

Gifts from the Goats: Lemon Honey Goat Cheese - We love to experiment with cheese all through the milking season. We especially like the results this week. The lemon zest/honey chevre is perfect crumbled over a salad, spread on a Napa Cabbage leaf or used as a dip for snap peas.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE  take a look at the Farmer Kriss Pinterest Page this week - I put a TON of great resources up on the CSA Box Recipe Page, but also at The Farmhouse Bar. And we've got a great recipe of the week up on the Recipe Blog page - our newly-invented Polenta Sage Muffins, to be served with our ham at the field-to-table dinner on Saturday.

 Ah! The intersection of strawberry and spinach season - what a treat! Made double-wonderful with the addition of goat cheese. We've given you everything you need for this salad Box 2 -  minus the delicious balsamic vinegar reduction that we recommend picking up at Brennan's Market. Trader Joe's also has a great one. We go through gallons of this stuff in salad season!

It's been a great recovery week in the gardens. We had a dry few weeks that were very stressful on our tender spring crops, but now everything is lush and happy with all the rain we've had. Including the weeds, unfortunately - but that's just how it goes! Everything grows. And thank goodness. We are eating so very well.  And we are excited to share with you!

Hey – we’re a little famous. See the July Issue of Mary Jane’s Farm magazine which features Circle M animals and people in the Soil Sisters article. And save the date for the Soil Sisters Tour – this July 31 through August 1. Visit us and other women-owned farms and field-to-table restaurants!


Here's what's in the box - remember to use the first things first. We've made our harvest list from most perishable to least.

Salad Mix WITH Edible Flowers!- One of our farm hands did confess last Thursday that the violas got skipped in the salad mix :) Ooops. No big deal - they are for fun more than flavor. But you've definitely got them this week - along with cream-colored arugula flowers.  For greens, we've made a sweet and spicy mix of lettuces, mustards,  brassicas,  arugula and nasturtium leaves (they look like lily pads and taste like pepper - yum!).

Strawberries - These little heirloom varieties are small but sweet. Enjoy!

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! 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.

Pea Shoots - We didn't think we'd have these a second time around for you - but we did!

Head Lettuce - This week we've got terrific tender-leaved Green Oakleaf and the lovely spotted Mayan Jaguar semi-Romaine.

Swiss Chard - First cutting leaves are so pretty and so soft and sweet. I just LOVE them. This week they are going in my Morning Glory Muffins for the little Argyle Farmers Market. Try these raw ribboned into salad and please do eat the stems. Very tasty chopped into scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Spinach - Ah! Sweet stems and tender leaves. I think baby spinach isn't worth eating but young adult leaves are totally the bomb. I would never cook such lovely stuff, but you can if you like. Actually, I lied. I made great quesadillas for crew lunch yesterday with multi-grain tortillas wrapped around whole spinach leaves and cherry farmer cheese. AMAZING.

Baby Kale - Kale at any size is a good thing. But Baby Kale is a great thing. You could make Kale Chips out of these whole leaves, ribbon into a salad or add to soup. Try blended into a guacamole - with the big bunch of cilantro in your box! We grow six different varieties so we ca make you pretty bouquets all season long.

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.

Broccoli Raab - Truly a spring favorite for me. I feel spoiled everytime I eat eat! So much bang for the prep buck! Just chop everything but the toughest bottom stem into two-inch pieces and saute! Would be amazing with the fresh garlic, but also wonderful dressed with garlic scape pesto.

Garlic Scapes - This bag of curly green pig-tails are the seed heads we harvest off off garlic in spring. Have a mild and sweet garlic-y flavor.  Mince like a scallion and add to eggs or any dish you'd enjoy with garlic. Our good friends at Stoney Acres Farm in Athens put these whole on their wood-oven pizzas - pick one up sometime when you go north. And our neighbor Chelsea Chandler at Plowshares and Prairie Farm makes them into great pickles. I'll be throwing them into the food processor with basil and olive oil for my first pesto of the year! Try pesto on grilled cheese with Farmer John's Provonella Cheese!

Green Garlic - This is young garlic, not cured. Store in your fridge and use up like regular dried garlic. Discard the stem once the green gets tough.

Cilantro - So tender, first cutting. I had a handful chopped on top of a Mexican-flavored bean salad yesterday. Summer on a fork!

Rhubarb - More! Experiment with a different dessert this week, or cook down with a little honey and chia seeds for a wonderful healthy jam.

Herb Bouquet: Chocolate Mint, Lemon Balm, Rosemary, Sage - 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. This week we made this incredible Lemon Balm Sage Jelly to have for our Bed and Breakfast guests to have on scones. You have enough of each in your box to make it, too.  Lemon Balm makes a great anti-anxiety tea. Add honey while steeping all the leaves in hot water, the strain and chill. Sip on it cold from the fridge throughout the day.  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. Snip the rosemary into potato dishes or a shortbread cookie recipe.  Both the mint and the lemon balm can be started in your own yard by holding some of the stalks in water on the counter until you see little roots form. Could be just a day or two.

Herbs To Plant: Savory, Ornamental Hot Pepper, Basil - We've given you a pack of three plants this week to pop into a pot on your patio, or plant out into the garden. The tallest plant is an ornamental pepper, very pretty, but also edible. HOT. The long stem with tiny leaves is summer savory, which tastes similar to thyme but grows faster. Snip often and it will branch into a nice bush. Same with the little bright green basil. Snip daily for a great big bush.

Gifts from the Goats: Peanut Butter Truffles and Lemon Honey Goat Cheese - We love to experiment with goat milk all through the milking season. We especially like the results this week. These creamy peanut butter truffles are made with our chevre and Callebaut bittersweet chocolate. And the lemon zest/honey chevre is perfect with a Spinach Strawberry Salad!

DO NOT FORGET to take a look at the Recipe Blog page and the Farmer Kriss Pinterest Page.

Welcome to the CSA Season, local farm friends! We are so excited to be welcoming you to the homestead this weekend to pick up your produce shares and hopefully take some time to visit the piglets, lambs, goat kids, chickens, ducklings and kittens.  You will likely be greeted by Sunny the cow dog or Toulouse the goose, but we would love to say hi, too, so look around for us.

You'll find a lot of herbs in your box this week because they need to be cut back early and often in order to keep producing for us through the season. Use what you can, freeze or dry what you can't, and enjoy experimenting! We'll give you lots of ideas for using these in all of your dishes both savory and sweet, but the main thing is to nibble them yourself and see what you might like to do with them based on how they appeal to you. We think that fresh herbs, used creatively, are the main thing that sets great cooking apart from good cooking. In fact, we're such believers in herbs, we include some herb plants in your early boxes each year so that you can plant some at home in pots or the ground, and harvest fresh every day, even in between boxes. This week, you've got parsley and cilantro to get started with. Both of these benefit from a little bit of shade in the heat of the day, so you should have no problem growing these on a porch or patio. Cut often!

It may seem obvious, but we want to mention that we'd like you to return your boxes and clamshells to us. Hang on to them and bring them back to us at the next delivery. Thanks!

And now, here's what's in the box. Please notice that we'll put the most perishable things at the very top of the list and work our way down to the least. So use the things at the top of the list first. For recipe ideas, click through to the Farmer Kriss Pinterest Page and the Circle M Recipe Blog. Have fun and bon appetit!

Pea Shoots - These are a very fleeting treat we are only able to pack in the first box each year. We grow these little peas in the greenhouse so they'll get long, leggy and tender, as opposed to the beefy pea vines we have in the garden growing up the trellises to bring us snap and snow pods in the coming weeks. Enjoy these tossed on top of a salad. You can use them long as is, or chop into smaller pieces. You might end up just eating them straight out of the clamshell!

Circle M Spring Salad Mix with Edible Violas - Those of you who've already been with us through the years know that we LOVE edible flowers here at Circle M. We grow lots of them to try and get them in the salad mixes all season long.  If you ever need flowers to decorate a cake or cheese plate, let us know and we'll pick you some! This mix features a little bit of everything - lettuces, baby brassicas, tiny kale, spicy mustards and tender Asian greens.

Head Lettuce - Crisp and delicious Oakleaf head.

Chicory - Yep, that is a version of a dandelion! These pretty red-veined leaves are a bitter green, wonderful raw, lightly steamed or sauteed in a tiny bit of olive oil and served with our warm chive goat cheese and some caramelized onions and mushrooms.

Nettles - We harvested these with gloves and you SHOULD NOT TOUCH THEM. But you should eat them. Pour the entire bag into a colandar. Rinse. Then put the whole bunch into a skillet and saute in butter or olive oil. I usually serve with eggs. But these are great with mushrooms, or brats. They have a rather spinach-y flavor and are nutritionally fabulous.

Spinach - First cutting. Sweet and tender. Try raw. And those long stems? They are the best part of the plant at this time of year. Trust us.

Sorrel - These bright lance-shaped leaves in a bag are the Sour Patch Kids of the veggie garden. They'll make you pucker - in a good way! We love these ribboned and added to a breakfast salad, or sauteed on pasta, or even chopped into a rhubarb cake recipe.  The English do a great creamy Sorrel Soup. When schools come for field trips to the farm, these leaves are always the ones the kids come back to and want to taste some more.  Zip in the blender with olive oil and lemon juice for a great salad dressing.

Arugula - The few days of heat has made these leaves grow rather aggressive in flavor. We like them raw in salads, but cooked they are a bit more mild. Chop or ribbon. Great paired with lentils in a Mediterranean style and dressed lightly with olive oil and feta cheese. Try a terrific pizza with arugula bits tossed ON TOP of whatever you typically enjoy. It'll crisp up for you and taste peppery and amazing.

Mibuna - This rubber-banded bunch of dark green lance-shaped leaves is a much-loved cooking green in Japan that is from the mustard family. Try raw in salad, or chopped and tossed in stir-fry. Wonderful in miso broth or egg drop soup. You can mix with the turnips and turnip greens and cook like Southern collard greens - with bacon or ham and onions (or the green garlic we've included in your box). We've posted a few great recipes at the Farmer Kriss Pinterest Page titled CSA Box Recipes.

Herb Bouquet - Chives, Oregano, Lovage
These will keep for a week or more on your kitchen counter in a vase of water. Better yet, put the vase in the fridge. Just pull flowers and leaves daily and cook away! Both the chive flowers and the chive leaves are edible. BUT the stalks that the chive flowers grow on are not. So pull the little bulblets from the flowers and toss them on egg dishes, salads and pasta, then toss the stems. Oregano is terrific fresh - toss on top of pizza in whole leaves. Simply hang what you don't think you'll use this week, and it'll dry in a few days. Then crumble into a ball jar and use all year. Lovage is a perennial celery. We won't have celery to harvest until fall, so these leaves and stems will make a great substitute until then. Has a hint of nutmeg flavor in it!

Broccoli Raab - A personal favorite of mine. Spicy and fresh all at once. These stalks look like broccoli that hasn't quite made it, and that's just as it should be. I chop the entire stalk, leaves included, into two-inch pieces and sautee in green garlic and olive oil. But you can also strip the leaves and chop separately and steam or saute the stalks alone to plate up in a lovely manner. Have had some wonderful raab dishes at Lombardino's.

Green Garlic - Looks like scallions, but it is early garlic that you can use just like a green onion. Chop all the way up the stalk until you get to the stiff green part. Mild and amazing!

Rhubarb - OH! The joy of that first fruit taste in spring! Thick stalks may seem intimidating, but they are so easy to clean and chop and they cook up as tender and tasty as skinny stalks. Please forgive the dirt and grass on these! This pounding rain was much needed and is much appreciated, but has really muddied the produce up. In the past we've washed the stalks at harvest time, but we found that the ends split that way. Please wash right before use.  We put our latest favorite Rhubarb Cake up at the Recipe Blog and if you scroll down that blog, you'll find our Gluten-Free Rhubarb Custard Pie Recipe.  OK, and so I also went crazy on the Pinterest recipe search for rhubarb this weekend - in preparation for baking some rhubarb goodies for our first Blanchardville Farmer's Market on Saturday. Check out the Farmer Kriss CSA Box Recipe page, which includes this great Rhubarb Brownie Recipe!

Tiny Turnips and Turnip Greens - Our early spring radishes took a beating in the heat this past week and got woody and tough before we could get them in your boxes. We've seeded more in the shade, but until then, enjoy these few thinnings from our up-and-coming turnip rows. The turnips have some bug damage, but cut the holes out end enjoy both the tender roots and the nutritious greens cooked lightly in olive oil and salt.

Popcorn - We harvest this in fall and let it dry all winter and spring. The darling little ears can be shelled and popped by the quarter-cup in a lunch bag put in the microwave for about a minute and a half. For a fun experiment, husk an ear and put the whole cob in a bag to pop in the microwave! Not all of the kernels will pop this way, but it will be fun and cute!

Herbs to Plant: Parsley and Cilantro

Gift from the Goats: Chive Blossom Goat Cheese!
Since we've gone with a smaller CSA membership this year, we are able to share more of the farm's goodness with you. Each week, your box will include some small gift from the goats - our lovely dairy does. This time around, we've got the first goat cheese of the year - a Chive Blossom Chevre that'll pair great with the arugula or chicory! Coming next week - Chevre Truffles!