August 22 Cress Spring Bakery

Cress Spring Bakery doesn’t need any more publicity.  They have become well loved in the Madison area over the past several years of serving pizza and they were featured in the New York Times.  The Pizza Crew, led by bakery owner Jeff, has been pushing hard this summer to keep up with the popularity of Pizza Nights.  They may be playing around with ideas for next year on how to adapt to the ever-growing demand for Cress Spring Pizza.  I spoke with one of the farmers that works the cooperative farm that is home to the bakery and he showed some surprise that I have traveled to so many other Pizza Farms.  “If there are so many,” he commented, “why is everybody here?!”  My best answer was, “Cress Spring is so good!”

I learned from last year that the wait for pizza at Cress Spring can be extremely long.  I remember standing in line for about 15 minutes and then waiting a bit over 2 hours from the time of ordering.  I decided to try a different option that Cress Spring offers and call in my pizza order in the morning.  The Facebook page advertised that call in orders are accepted starting at 7:30 AM on Wednesday and there are a limited number of time slots and call-ins that they can take.  One of the guests with me was 3 years old and I thought it would be better for everyone if we could eat our dinner before 7:30 or 8PM as happened last year.  Cress Spring provides sides and appetizers and I always have a few chips and snacks to bring along, but I don’t like to spoil my appetite for the main pizza event.

I set a reminder in my phone for 7:25 AM and started my Pizza Farm road trip right at home in Chicago by calling Cress Spring Bakery on redial for 12 minutes before getting through to put in the order.  I felt like I was trying to get expensive concert tickets, except that I was trying to order a Greek, BBQ Pork, Poached Fig and Sausage, and Mozzarella, Proscuitto, and Arugula pizza to be ready right on time for an early dinner.

After that, I had plenty of time to pack, make myself breakfast, and hit the road from Chicago to Madison.  I arrived in Madison with some time to explore the city before Pizza Night while my friends were still at work.  I walked several miles from the Willy Street Co-op, around the capital, and over to the University of Wisconsin Madison campus, enjoying the sunshine and the lakes and ogling over the amazing system of bike paths.  I was lucky because at the beginning of the week Madison was hit with 11 inches of rain and some of the surrounding areas were even worse off.  Cress Spring Bakery had posted on their facebook page that one of the main routes out to the farm was closed because of flooding and damage from the storm.  On Wednesday it was a gorgeous, hot, sunny day with a breeze coming off the lake, perfect for me to walk around and be on a mid-week vacation.

When my friend was done with work, we headed out to Blue Mounds.  Traffic leaving the city was slow, but it felt good to finally get out to the country.  As soon as we walked from our car to the Pizza Night lawn in the shade of the valley, it was cool enough for me to put on my pizza sweatshirt.  The band was playing and the lawn was filling up with lawn chairs balanced precariously on the slope of the hill and blankets spread out between them.  The beer list included many exciting local options including Ale Asylum and Karben4.  And our pizza was ready before we got there since I hadn’t taken into consideration how much traffic would slow us down.  We were meeting two other friends at the farm and they had arrived slightly before us and put in their pizza order when they arrived.  They were surprised to hear that the pizza would take over 2 hours to be ready, but luckily for them, we had our 4 pizzas to share as appetizers.  As the adults shared pizza and drinks, the kids took over the lower part of the lawn, running around and playing with balls and toys and pizza pillows packed from home or with musical shakers provided by the band.  I could see some of the results of the torrential rain as we walked the path to the cow fields and had to maneuver around huge puddles and avoid muddy spots.

I also met Donald, one of the farmers that shares the land Cress Spring Bakery is on.  He told me about the 70 acre cooperatively owned farm on the other side of the treeline and we marveled at what a great job Jeff and the pizza crew did.  Donald assured me they would be cranking out over 300 pizzas that night from a single oven.

I enjoyed my pizza and my entire evening.  I think my favorite was the Figgy Pig, the combination of poached figs, sausage, and cheese.  I also enjoyed the Three Little Pigs, a sort of meat lovers style, that our later crew ordered and shared, because I love when places make their own pepperoni.

It was a long day for everyone and as the sun set and the lightning bugs and bats came out, we packed up all our gear and headed home.  Another successful Pizza Night.

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