Going to two Pizza Farms in a span of 3 days made for exactly my kind of summer vacation. I filled in the spare hours between Pizza Night One at Red Barn Farm and Pizza Night Two at Borner Farm Project by visiting old friends and meeting new babies around Minneapolis. After a few days of Twin Cities parks, bikes rides, co-ops, beers, and brunches, I packed up my car and prepared to head home. Part of my plan included picking up pie from Pie & Mighty in Minneapolis right when they opened and then hitting the road to get to Prescott, Wisconsin around 4pm to get my reservation for the first 11 pies out of the oven. When I ordered the pizza, I wasn’t totally sure who would be able to attend, so naturally, I over ordered to be safe. The group we had probably could have gotten by with 6 pies, but instead we all went home with A LOT of leftovers. Borner Farm puts together some of my favorite pizza and I have to admit, the pies were bigger than I remembered, which also contributed to my over-ordering.
Our little caravan of pizza eaters converged at Borner Farm right around 4pm. Since we had the earliest reservation, we ended up being the first guests at the farm and had the place to ourselves for a bit. My original Last Night’s Pizza Box buddy, Robinette, rode with me out to the farm. We had three surprise guests in the back seat of my car – Betty White, Goldie Hawn, and Jackie Brown – three chickens, white, gold, and brown respectively, that needed a ride to Madison. Not surprisingly, their presence deterred anyone else from carpooling with me and Robin. It felt like the old days.
Carrots! Revealed to be the “secret ingredient” in the sauce 
Farmer Amy giving a lesson on catching bugs 
Garlic Scapes! The stars of the Great ‘Scape Pizza.
Because of the required reservations and the guest limits necessitated by Covid regulations, the farm did not feel crowded at all. In fact, when I walked through the garden area looking for a farmer to talk to with a group of my friends between the ages of 2 and 6, we ran into Farmer Amy and got a personalized tour! Farmer Amy was happy to show us some of the very ingredients that had topped our pizza or been mixed into the sauce, including garlic scapes and carrots. She also gave a lesson on how to feed bugs to the resident chickens and my friends turned out to be naturals at the bug-on-a-stick technique! It was really fun to be able to engage so directly with one of the farmers and the hosts of Borner Farm Project were welcoming and gracious the entire night.
The pizza specials of the week featured Beet & Kale, Sausage & Fennel, and Garlic Scapes. The pizzas offered every week were delicious, too. The pepperoni and pepper option and Borner’s take on the Greek were two of my favorites. With so many choices available, I could not resist eating too much pizza. After pizza, I miraculously found room for dessert and proceeded to eat too much of that as we split up all the Pie & Mighty pies and the Borner Farm Project seasonal Carrot Cake and Rhubarb Crisp a la mode. I still had a long drive ahead of me to get back to Chicago, so I got involved in some chasing and tackling and wrestling to re-energize myself.
After dinner, I took the girls (Betty, Goldie, and Jackie) and split off in the opposite direction of my other friends as they headed back to Minneapolis and I began my drive home to Illinois. Everyone, including the 3 chickens, made it to their destinations successfully.
