Turkeys

The big excitement around the farm this week was the butchering of our turkeys for the Thanksgiving dinner at the school. Truth be told most of those who worked with the birds long enough where ready for them to go, even while a procession of "mourners" came by the farm in the bird's last days to bid them adieu!

I promised you photos in my last post, but considering the nature of the work, some folks weak constitutions, and/or just general dislike of meat, I will forgo this time. . . that and my eight year old had the camera, and you know boys!! So instead I will leave you today with what has become my favorite song and film ever to deal with the process of animals becoming food. . . and veggies too.

Many thanks to the youngsters from New Jersey who submit this for the Farm to Fork conference in Portland, Oregon last March!!!! Check it out!!

"Who put the burger on my plate?"

Just a quick update

It seems like it has been forever since I have posted - vacation was good. Funny how one doesn't miss technology when they are away from it. The farm looks good. Dana and the gang did a phenomenal job keeping things running.
We are ready for the last regular harvest of the year in just a week!!!!! The last of the goodies will be coming in for the college folk to feast on for the Thanksgiving meal. Cabbage, bunching onions, just a few more beets, broccoli, carrots, etc . . . .

Speaking of Thanksgiving, we are having a going away party for some of our long term farm residents this week in conjunction with the holiday. A few brave farm souls have volunteered to head up to our friends at Little Alaska Farm to butcher the turkeys that will be used for the Thanksgiving meal. Not necessarily what one thinks about when they think about a school ag program, but it is part of the agriculture world, and this time of year is a major revenue generator for farms around the country.

Alright. . . off to play in the dirt. I will get some photos up here in a few days!

Sheep

The sheep stood for a portrait today. From left: Buster, Dyna(mite), and Danny the Dancer. Lovely photo by Heather.

The Intern Speaks

Hello everybody, this is Farm Intern Dana. I have been handed the reigns for the blog and, oh yes, the farm, while Farm Manager Mike is away. The week has gone well, despite 3 sick volunteers and a busted farm van. The brakes have been fixed as of today, though, and we will have enough hands on deck this afternoon to catch up on all the extra compost! Meanwhile, we have been keeping busy. We planting the first beds of winter lettuce in one of the hoop houses, and they've all survived TWO chilly nights now! We had some help from a small group of 7th graders on Monday. We filled the back of the Educational Field with enough garlic to wipe out all your Halloween vampires. We've also been cleaning, and improving the habitats for all our animals. Many thanks to Chris, who cleaned out the turkey coop yesterday (P.U.). The neighborhood foxes are hanging out awfully near the coops these days, but with the pens sealed up tight everyone should be safe. The sheep are crazy as usual, running amok in the onions when the spirit moves them, but we've managed to protect most of the crop from the wooly beasts. I guess that's the story for now. I haven't figured out how to get a picture on this thing yet, but to make up for it I will provide a farm joke: "A farmer is a person who's out standing in her field." Ha! Time for me to go do that now. Bye.

So did I mention that we have hoop houses?!?

"It finally looks like a farm."

That was the exclamation by one of the volunteers this week. Odd timing seeing as we are now cleaning out the fields for the winter. In my opinion it is beginning to look barren. . . actually a lot like when I first arrived at the property.

Since those early days of the farm we have removed fences, add fences, added critters, reorganized field arrangements, added plowed land. . . but no addition is so exciting as having the hoops up!!

The commotion and festive exclamations by the volunteers and interns were so loud that one of our public relations friends (whose offices are on the property we share) came out of her office with camera in tow to see what was going on!

Here are some photos from the day:

First we had to clean off the leaves. . . autumn. . . sheesh!
Then we had to get "the Chris" out. . .
The arduous task of pulling the 108.65 pound double layer of poly up and over the frame. . .
Much celebrating, and Chris doing the "happy dance". . .
Lining up the poly and making it taut.
Attaching the wiggle wire. . .

Of course there was other work to be done too. . . Feed corn to pull in. . .
And fields to clean up to prepare for garlic planting. . .

Many thanks to all of our volunteers who came out to help with no more reward than the opportunity experience our charm and the satisfaction of a job well done!!
And special thanks to our photographer who is trying to get a photography club started on campus!!!!

This is an amazing time of year (a follow up to the previous post)

It is so bizarre to feel "caught up"!

The interns and volunteers on the farm have been absolutely amazing. So much so, in fact, that I am worried that I am going to have to be creative about projects. Hmmm, there is always that eight cords of wood that needs to be split!!!!

So the weather, yes, I promised this to be a follow up to the last blog. . . The cold is only one of many factors that can make a farmer grumpy. One of the other top three (snow being the third) is the wind. The hoops are framed, the hardware is on the roll up side bars are assembled - all that is left is the two layers of poly (the plastic). Remember that Wednesday was our day to finish that part. . . Well, it turns out that heavy winds and a sheet of plastic 150 feet by 24 feet don't mix all that well, especially if we are trying to elevate them. Thankfully, where we don't have any engineering majors, we do have folks with a good sense of science and nature! So we opted to postpone the hoop covering for another day.

Next week - garlic planting.

Ah yes, the weather!

In none of my previous jobs have I ever been so attentive to the weather. I have had jobs where the weather affected me as much as it will on the farm, but for some reason I just didn't care. But now. . .

Already we have had three frosts, and snow is in the forecast for tonight. Wow, have I ever become neurotic about the weather - mostly just the snow though. It represents many things - the end of the "natural" growing season, cold weather, short days. . .

We have taken over most of the available "growing" spaces at the school for our winter experiments. Currently the science department's greenhouse is full of agriculture starts (the good news is that our disciplines are inter related and we get along really well - they are great folks!). The hoop houses on the other hand have continued to throw us challenges! The first house is up, framed and ready for the poly sheeting to be put on! That happens Wednesday. The second hoop, remember - the one that was impeded by every boulder in Maine?? Well, it has thrown us some new curve balls that are not insurmountable, but sure are darned irritating. It is going to require a healthy bit of extra work before it is ready for the poly, which puts me behind schedule. . . again!

My joy is that we have garnered extra help by way of very willing volunteers, we have a phenomenal staff, and this farm has largely been founded and built on stubborn determination, so I am confident that we will overcome. It will all get done, just not in my timing. Still, it will get done. And when it does, then I will sit back with a cup of warm cider (now available at Java Joe's by the way!!!!) and take it all in!

What a season!!