From Pest to Protein

In preparing the beds for planting, we unearthed many big brown beetles. We collected them as a treat for the chickens, and enjoyed watching the hens scramble and cluck in delight as we tossed them in the pen.

A new coat for spring

Slowly but surely we are scraping and painting the weathered exterior of the house and barn. Though the work is long and repetitive, we are gradually rewarded with the visual revival of the front courtyard. It's also reassuring to be able to open a door or window without a shower of paint chips raining down on you.

Tucking in the beds

Since our fields have not been worked in years, we are expecting to receive regular payments from the weed bank. To aid in our weed battles, and to help maintain soil moisture in our sandy soils, we are applying plastic mulch to a number of our beds. We use white plastic for cool crops such as brassicas and lettuce, and we'll use black for the heat loving solanums and cucurbits. Though much work to lay (and remove at the end of the season), the mulch should save many an hour of weeding. By next season we hope to have the sod and weeds under control so we do not need to use this non-renewable resource!

Berta

This first season we are faced with the challenge of breaking sod that has been established for the last decade. Ideally we would have tilled in the fall, but our arrival was such that we missed the opportunity before the ground froze. So this spring we have employed the help of Berta, our newly named BCS walking tractor. Actually the rotary plow PTO attachment is called a Berta Plow, but the name has stuck for the tractor as well. In any case, with Berta's help we have started plowing under the sod in our garden plots, along with the generous layer of compost and rock powders that we spread earlier. The result is a transformation from thick sod to nicely fluffed soil in raised beds. Thanks Berta!

Enter interns

We are happy to welcome Hilary and Jack as our first interns. They work hard while maintaining high spirits in all types of work and weather.  We feel very fortunate to have them! Look under the "Team" tab to find out more about them.

Day of pigs!

The baby pigs are here! The six of them arrived Wednesday morning from a farm just up the road in Saco. They spend most of their days lazing in the sun and all night curled up on top of each other in the leafy bedding of their 'pig palace.' They are still wary of humans, but are slowly getting more courageous with their frequent ogling visitors.