We were told to arrive early by some of the locals. We were warned that the line can get really long. We showed up around 4:45pm, 15 minutes after Pizza Night was listed as starting. We were directed into the overflow parking lot and when we inquired if this was because it was already full, the parking lot attendant gave us an emphatic nod. We 
had misjudged what it meant to arrive early! It was turning into a sunny, beautiful evening, summer was winding down, and apparently many people in the Madison area took a day off in the middle of the week, just like I did. Otherwise I am not sure how so many people managed to get to this out of the way bakery before 4:45 pm on a Wednesday.
For my part, I left Minneapolis in the late morning and traveled to Cave of the Mounds in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin. I met up with my parents and my brother and sister-in-law, 
who had made a similar journey starting from northern Indiana and Chicago. We spent some time enjoying the beautiful grounds, the Prairie Restoration Project, and the Butterfly Gardens although we arrived a little too late to do a cave tour. We were delighted to see a brochure for Howe Caverns in upstate NY where we had actually done a cave tour earlier this summer. That cave tour had coincided with another Pizza Farm excursion to 9 Miles East Farm in NY and we speculated about the apparent connection between pizza farms and caves.
Cress Spring Bakery was only about 15 minutes from the Cave and kind of in the middle of nowhere. The overflow parking made it seem even farther out as we hiked about a quarter mile with all of our picnic set up supplies. My mom and I had both decided not to bring our wagons. Luckily, between the 5 of us, we managed to haul our chairs, table, blankets, mini cooler, and unbeknownst to me, some early birthday presents.
The lawn was already quite full. We picked the flattest spot we could find. It seemed out of the way at 5pm, but as the evening went on, there really weren’t any out of the way places. The lines were already long and not moving too fast, so we grabbed a menu and
waited. My brother split off to the beer line, which seemed slightly shorter, and Alexa and I made some executive decisions about what types of pizza to order. With the smaller sized pizzas and knowing that I had two friends joining us from Madison, we decided we could do with no less than seven pizzas. I guess that technically fits with our ordering formula, total number of people – 1 = pizza ordered, although I wasn’t really counting on my friends’ two year old to contribute very much to the eating. I think it turned out to be the right number. Our wait time was estimated to be 1 hour and 45 minutes to 2 hours! The locals were right! You gotta get here early and when they say early, they mean early! I learned of another option that I hadn’t noticed on the website, but you do have the option to call in your order and then pay at pick up. This sort of felt like cheating to me, but it could be a good option if I wasn’t so stubborn.
In the meantime we occupied ourselves with an appetizer basket, local beers, chips and dip, and a cucumber salad that Matt and Anna brought from their garden once they arrived from Madison. My mom chose this time to surprise me with my early birthday gifts! And I certainly was surprised. But as she pointed out, it seemed most appropriate to get two Christmas Pizza shirts and a pizza pillow while on a Pizza Farm.
After the birthday present excitement wore off, we wandered down a small path that led to a cow pasture with some unusual looking cows.
My dad got their attention by doing his world famous Moo. My mom was sidetracked by looking for monarch eggs on all the milkweed growing on the farm. It still had only been an hour and it was time to refill our beers. The beer line was not moving very quickly either, so I impatiently ditched my brother in line for the sake of my blog and went over to chat with some of the pizza farmers. Corina, the woman handing out the pizzas, had a few minutes between every order to answer some of my questions. Cress Spring has been doing pizza night for 3 years now. On a busy night like the one we were at, they serve up around 340 pizzas and that is about the maximum they can handle as far as how much dough they prepare and how long it takes for everyone to get served and then for clean up. I imagine a busy pizza night is quite a late night for all the workers.
Finally our pizza was ready! I was proudly wearing my new Christmas Pizza Shirt as I 
wove my way through the crowd carrying seven pizza boxes to our hungry group. We laid them out on our blanket and it was a beautiful sight; a margherita, a greek, a carmelized onion with gorgonzola and walnuts, a goat cheddar with chorizo and chimichurri, a tomato sauce base with mozzarella and prosciutto and arugula, a summer vegetable one, and the last minute choice by Alexa to go with the Barbecue Pork with red pepper and sweet corn. The Barbecue Pork ended up being a crowd favorite along with the prosciutto and arugula one. The margherita was a slight disappointment, but the other six were great. The crust was good and the topping combinations were fun and interesting.
Cress Spring Bakery has a good thing going on and the people in the Madison area seem to rightfully appreciate it. Sometimes I’ll come across a Madison resident at the co-op in Minneapolis where I work and many of them are familiar and excited about Cress Spring. I am glad I had the chance to experience it and I am glad I was able to share it with family and friends.
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