A hole in the ice

Since 1998, when Prentice was given his first cow, we have had anywhere from one to ten cows through the winters. Most of those winters have been weathered here at the Village Farm in Freedom and most have involved long, stiff lengths of frozen or freezing hoses that we have used to water the herd. Last year, Prentice had an idea that was "just the thing," everyday brilliance, let's say. . . of foregoing the hassle of the hoses in favor of an old fashioned solution: a hole in the ice.

Our "unplugged" barn (read: no electricity or running water) is 600 feet or so south of the house and what it lacks in conveniences, it makes up for in its charm. Sheathed in re-used metal siding (read: rumpled and peppered with holes), it isn't pretty. This fact has never occurred to me, but it doesn't have even one window. But it does the job, as they say, and it is in a wonderful site; the barn is situated on the south side of a little knoll and is smack dab next to a small pond.

We call this little kettle, "the barn pond" or "the frog pond" if it is spring.

I have a mighty fascination with pre-historic times and often find myself wondering at all the things we have forgotten over the millenia. Anyways, keeping a hole in the ice open, and dipping a bucket into it each and every day of the winter is the closest thing to going back in time that I have ever experienced. People have been doing this for thousands of years. There is something about that hole in the ice that is as primal to northern latitudes people as the fiery hearth. In some ways, it is the hearth's opposite: dark, cold and spooky. But, like the hearth, it is life-giving and elemental.

(Sometimes when I gaze into the hole, I pretend I am a polar bear, waiting for a seal to surface.)

Our four adult cows and two teenagers drink about 30-40 gallons of water per day in the winter. For me (Polly), that is 4 trips to and from the pond with an almost full five gallon bucket in each hand.

One January day, as I was pouring a bucketful into the cows' trough, I saw a black something in the water. It was a tadpole. I thought that tadpoles buried their little selves in the mud for the cold months! This one was quite perky and not at all muddy, and so I decided it would make a good surprise for the boys. The poor thing sloshed all the way up to the house with me and when I showed it to Josey and Ben, they politely told me to "please put it back, Mama." I was expecting them to want to keep it in a fishbowl --as a pet! But no. I suppose it was an odd visitor from another season and they just assumed catch their own tadpoles by themselves in the spring.

The hole in the ice is a winter treat and will go the way of the snowmen and snow forts in the weeks ahead. Needless to say, I will miss it and already look forward to tending its edges next winter.

Spring is on the way,

Polly

Pre Buy Season for Vegetables (and Flowers!)

Every time I drive down Rte 137 to Belfast, I pass Thompson's Oil and their lit up roadside sign onto which the folks in the office (with the plastic letters) can post messages. These signs are ubiquitous in rural Maine. The maple syrup shacks have them, the granges, the gas stations and farmstands. Starting in September or maybe even earlier, the one at Thompson's announces "Pre-Buy Season is Here." Buying propane or heating oil is cheaper if you lock in at September prices. At least that is the hope.

Well, we have no marquee sign but this blog will have to do. I am taking a lead from this terminology and announcing that "Pre-Buy Season is Here" --for Village Farm vegetables.

We are happy and excited to be heading into our 4th year of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) here and hope that we will have the privilege of growing for YOU in the months ahead.

CSA is a way to support a local farm with your financial commitment in advance of the growing season. Yes, our CSA helps us pay for expenses that we incur in the spring but more than that, it creates a community of eaters and a community of farm supporters. We know where our vegetables are going before they are even picked. We do our marketing in the slower winter months and then get busy growing for the households that have signed on as members.

Purchasing a CSA share is also a commitment to your health! Many members have told us how many MORE vegetables they eat during the Village Farm CSA season. That is something to consider.

Any of you who have been CSA members know what fresh and flavorful, nutrient dense, and downright beautiful vegetables we grow around here. We wash them, cool them and let you select your week's sustenance each Monday(in Belfast) or Tuesday (at the farm) evening from June-October. If you have never been a member of a CSA, give us a call with your questions. We can provide as much detail on what we have grown and distributed in the past as you could possibly want and will let you know what to expect in 2011.

We might also add to our marquee sign "Find us on Facebook" as we have indeed, taken the plunge with the hopes of connecting to our customers, friends and potential CSA members in the way/place where most people seem to be. . . on Facebook. We hope this is not folly but we are going to give it a try.

That said, word of mouth is simply and truly the best form of advertising for small businesses like ours, so please, if you would, spread the word about Village Farm. We are hoping to grow our CSA from 63 to 75 households in 2011.

What else is new? We will be offering a flower share this year, downsizing/simplifying to offer just one share size, and growing roots and greens for a fall CSA share (more on that in a few months!) Remember flowers? That is a bee in there having morning glory nectar for breakfast.

That is the news from here.

Best wishes to one and all.

From all of us at Village Farm,

Polly

Shovelling Acres

Usually we refer to the +/- 4 acres of crops that we plant and cultivate and harvest but this winter we are into acres of snow removal. Prentice and the Ford plowtruck have kept the driveway passable with dozens and dozens of trips to and fro. I am not counting that in the snow removal calculations, however.

The only building on the place when we bought it in 2001 was a delapidated pole barn south of where our house sits now. At that time, we were happy to have a place to shelter and milk our small herd of cattle and to stash all of Prentice's wood collection (he was a cabinet maker before farming full-time, remember. . .) Well that 40x 60 pole barn is still delapidated. You might say more delapidated now than ever, despite some minor improvements for the cows' quarters. . . and with all this snow, and hearing of collapsed barns around, Prentice set to shovelling it off. It took him several hours over a couple of days. The roof was "spongy" underfoot (Uh-oh).

Then there are the hoophouses. We have both been somewhat maniacally shovelling up and down all sides of the tomato house and heated greenhouse lest the snow builds up above the hipboards = about shoulder height boards that anchor the plastic and form the top of the roll up sides. Yikes. So far (knock on wood) all is well but he have seen and heard of collapsed (hoop) houses and it makes a farmer want to cry.

We long ago stopped shovelling to the chicken tractor, outdoor water hydrant, even the cellar door has been turned over to King Winter's drifts. We do have the all-important snowforts however, and a path from the driveway to the front door. Shovel-shovel.

A few weeks ago Josey realized that he could climb up three graduated lumber piles then the old green house roof to arrive at the top of a fairly steep slope and the peak of the garage/shop building. Sledding has never been such a thrill. This week he has been jumping off the roof as well. Weeee!

Thankfully, there is always the hearth to retreat to after a wintry adventure.

Wishing you warmth and good company during these brighter and longer days of winter.

All the best from here,

Polly, and all at Village Farm

Tracks in the Snow

Hauling grain to the chickens before dusk.

With that 1" of fresh powder last night, the whole barnyard and door yard were refreshed just like someone shook the etch-a-sketch and made the canvas blank. I paused before I stepped out the door early this morning. I was about to "spoil" something quite beautiful with my boot tracks. But onward! Chores must be done! Animals fed and watered!

Between critters and boots of various sizes, the footsteps around the place are many; our favorite paths and places to sit or stand in the sun apparent. Then there are all the gliding things, sleds, snowboards, skis and the like. Some tire tracks, of course, are on the driveway. Enter the woods and the tracks become a puzzling mystery of who, why, when? Joseph and I saw this snowshoe hare track in our woods with what we think is a blood laced urine spot. Prentice saw the tracks of a mouse disappear "into thin air" in the middle of the field until he noticed the tell-tale flight feather marks of a winged raptor that had swooped down and snatched it up. An owl?

All of that is to say, we are enjoying winter here on the Village Farm. We hope you are too, in whatever ways feel right.

We are getting our 2011 CSA brochures ready and will be updating the printable sign up form on our website this week. We have interviewed some potential apprentices and have enjoyed those meetings very much. We are still delivering winter squash and eggs to the Belfast Coop.

The stack of seed catalogs is calling. . .

That is all for now!

Best wishes to one and all.

Polly, for all of us at Village Farm

Roots, roots, and more roots!

Hi there blog followers! I write this many weeks ago and just realized that I never posted it! Oops! here's a little late fall news:

Greetings from Village Farm!

It was so very windy here on the prairie today. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we are looking forward to being with friends and family for a good feed and some moments of raucous thanks and some moments of silent gratitude for all the wonders of food, family, health and happiness.

We have some new-ish pictures that illustrate what is going on around here. Among the last jobs the HB and Les worked on before they left for other adventures in early November, was the Annual Digging of the Rosemaries. I have had some of these rosemaries for ten years and each fall, we carefully dig up each rootball and gently place them in pots. The rosemaries stay out in the fall air for a few weeks before moving into the sunny but cool basement where they will spend the winter months. We can't quite send these Mediterranean natives abroad or to Florida, so the basement has to do. They will get replanted (again) in the spring and we will snip their amazing flavored sprigs all summer. This year we dug some thyme, sage and lavender as well to see how they overwinter chez basement.

Yet another fine group of Unity College students joined the Village Farm forces for a day in early November. What a stellar day it was! We chose a task that fit the weather and the many willing hands: moving all the irrigation pipe from the fields to its winter pile by the greenhouse. We chatted and walked, all the while carrying 20-30 foot long pipes together. Thank you Unity College students! Come back and visit anytime!

The simple beauty of some purple cauliflower on a wooden cutboard. Still roasting all the crucifers: kale, brussel sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli. . . I noticed the Barefoot Contessa had roasted brussel sprouts on her Thanksgiving menu. (We will too!)

The last BIG job each fall is to harvest the trees and shrubs we grow for FEDCO. It takes us a few days but is good, wholesome work and so satisfying to see such healthy roots and beautiful plants up close. Prentice did a lot of 'timing' of the digging operation. In an effort to watch our efficiencies and also our profitability, we are converting a lot of anecdotal "oh, that takes forever" or "that just takes five minutes" into actual timed efforts. We are not racing the clock, mind you. Just keeping the normal pace but writing down how long different tasks ACTUALLY take.

This is the borrowed horse trailer full of trees and shrubs. They are buried in wet sawdust and bound for FEDCO's basement warehouse where they will sit dormant for the winter until they are shipped and sold in April and May. Witch Hazel, Red Maple, Snowberry, Coralberry, Roundleafed Dogwood, Brown Ash. . . and others.

And saving the best for last, this is the most fun we have been having lately. We grew about 500 row feet of mangel beets in the house garden and harvested them along with all the other fall roots. They got washed but rather than getting bagged and sold or stored in the walk-in cooler, they went down to the barn. These beets are for the cows. We covered a huge mountain of beets on the dirt floor in the barn with a tarp and hay for insulation from the frosts. We have been chopping two buckets a day for the six cows of Village Farm and as you can see should you click on the video below, it is a pretty fun job! Uploading the video is taking a good bit of time, so only one for today. (And I have no idea why it is so small.. . . ) Will post one of the cows eating the beets soon.

Warm wishes to one an all for a cozy and delicious weekend.

From all of us at the Village Farm, Polly

Hard work, yes. But it's OUR work.

Hello out there, friends of Village Farm!
Below is a portrait of our tractor by Lily Piel. Lily, a Portland based photographer, visited us a few weeks ago to photograph our operation for The Carrot Project, an awesome funder of grants and loans to farmers. Lily's pictures and portraits make my snapshots look like just that--snapshots. Amazing how the skilled photographer can pull out a whole lot of beauty from the very ordinary.

Have a look at her collection here. This one is also by Lily.

At the end of another growing season, we shift into a slower gear, reflect on the months past and start to make lists of what we would like to learn/change for next year.

So many people, friends, family, customers and even strangers (who see me carrying boxes into the Belfast Coop, for example) say, "What hard work!" To which I say something like:

Yes, but I love it, so it doesn't feel like hard work all the time.

-OR-

Heavy, hot, wet, and undervalued--yes. But I get to be outside, with my family, with the plants and birdsongs and . . .

-OR-

I would find lots of jobs much harder work than this!

Freely chosen, being a farmer is a good gig. We are a tiny operation, in the scheme of things, so our days are incredibly varied. I think often when I am harvesting a whole 200 foot bed of broccoli or 30# of salad greens:

I am doing this one job for 30 minutes or so. Some people, farm laborers employed by the BIG agribusinesses out there, do this for 8 hours straight. And then again tomorrow. . . Or maybe a machine does this job. . .

Some jobs ARE hard. It's pouring and cold and your fingers don't want to work. It's steamy and the blackflies are biting. There are cucumbers to harvest and cucumber plants make you itch. And on and on. We all have our strengths around here, and we all have the jobs we'd rather leave to others. But, for the most part, there aren't many jobs that we detest or are too hard on us. The work here is not too hard. We would say it is just about right.

We had a great bunch of friends and CSA members here on October 6th for the Work Party. We call it a party because it is meant to be FUN. We choose a good job for a crowd, get out there, chat it up and do a task. Then we eat. This fine autumn day found us harvesting dry beans as the picture below illustrates, cleaning onions that were finished curing in the greenhouse and harvesting something else which I have forgotten. . . carrots?

I am still giddy with joy that one CSA member took it upon himself to not only wash all of the farmhouse windows (inside and out!!! --AMAZING) but also to sharpen all of our kitchen knives. I am not kidding. Big thanks to all the helping hands of the day and growing season.

Many of you apologized for or lamented not being able to get to a work party. It really isn't primarily about the work accomplished. Most important is to have members with us for a morning. It is our intention that our member/supporters feel that they are welcome, their skills are welcome and we are grateful for their participation in our life and farming business. So we invite you to come and work and eat with us a few times each growing season. . .

More soon about fall vegetables available for the holidays ahead.

Take care,

Polly for all of us at Village Farm

The week's CSA vegetables:

Choice of winter squash, onions, white and orange carrots, fennel bulb, cilantro or parsley,

broccoli or cauliflower, kale or chard, Kennebec potatoes, green peppers.

This may be my favorite picture of the season. The "blossom end" of a butternut squash, of course, this beautiful mandala is on each squash but a bit different--like a fingerprint. The greenhouse, once full of seedlings is now full of onions and winter squash. The former being cleaned and bagged after a few weeks of curing and the latter, in the first days of curing. The heat and sun thicken the squashes' skin and thus make the fruits more storable during the long months ahead.

The picture below is of the glorious afternoon bringing in all the squash and pumpkins from the field. Note the yellow watermelon on the end of the trailer. A fleeting moment in the farm year when both melons and winter squash are harvested and eaten!

Below, you are looking south across the fall potato field. The ground between the potatoes was planted with oats, assuring that once the potatoes were dug, there would be something on the ground to hold the soil for the winter. We are doing more and more intercropping like this; experimenting all the time with what and when to plant the undersown crop, often clover or oats. There's something to be said for cleanly cultivated beds where there is a crop and then bare soil around it. But where there is enough fertility and water to support two crops, one a vegetable and one a soil building or soil holding crop, it makes much more sense. Nature doesn't like bare soil.

The potatoes are being dug, row by row, as needed. Other crops have "gone by" as we say, and those fields are in the rpocess of being cleaned up and planted to winter rye, a cover crop that will germinate in cool soils, grow a bit this fall and survive the winter to grow next spring. We enjoyed meeting another group of Unity College students last week and they graciously helped clean up the black plastic mulch from this filed of summer squash. There was one scary monster among them who put on a show for the children. I am told he is even a CSA member!!
Hauling in trailer loads of winter squash is one form of farm entertainment and excitement but cows on the loose and three wheeled tractors are another. We had not one but two after dark cow wrangling adventures. Er. . .actually, I should say some people had such adventures. In all honesty, I decline the cow chasing adventures whenever possible. . . especially after dark and when I am in charge of the children. Anyways, they were all collected, thanks to many hands and remain safe and sound inside their appointed quarters.

But the three wheeled tractor story and picture goes like this. HB was driving the tractor and POP! the front right wheel falls off. Down goes the front end and "WHOA!" says HB. "Just wore out," says Prentice. "What a pain," says Benny. Nice living 1 mile from a tractor repair business. It is back on the job.

Well, we heard from many of you that the escarole recipes helped tackle those escarole heads. We enjoyed pumpkin pie yesterday and are diving headfirst into roasted root vegetables these days. Have you tried roasting broccoli and caulifower? Just cut into chunks, drizzle with olive oil, s&P and put in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 min. They will get all crispy and yummy. It is our favorite way to eat those beauties these days. See this recipe for kale chips, too. There are lots of recipes on the web for kale chips. I just tear kale into 3" pieces, rub them with oil (they should be dry before you add the oil) and sprinkle with salt and pepper. 350 degrees until they are crisp. stirring and baking in a single layer seem to aid crispiness.

Can't quite mention this past week without mentioning "the lottery ticket" I "won." I spent last Friday at the Common Ground Fair tasting food all day. My name was drawn as a "food judge" and so I got free samples from almost every food booth at the Fair. It was fun but also a lot of work (standing in lines!). Alex, HB, Les and Joseph all came with and weighed in on taste, texture, price, etc. and at the end of the day, we met up with the other four judges and agreed on the Best of Show, Best Vegetarian, etc etc. There was some really amazing food and some not so amazing. I have never made so many decisions in one day. A once in a lifetime day, glad to have the opportunity but glad that it is not everyday!!

DATES:

End of season potluck will happen this Tuesday evening, October 5th, from 430-7. We will be mostly outside, so please dress for the weather. We are looking forward to a bit of "Farm Talk" so come ready to share your thoughts about our Village Farm season and the future. Pick out a Jack o Lantern, too! Come one and all.

Work Party October 9th from 9-1130 with a hearty lunch provided at noon. Always fun and productive times for all. Come on out for the day!!! (RSVP helpful in knowing how much lunch to prepare. thank you.)

As always, be in touch with any thoughts or questions. Best wishes from all of us,

Polly