April News

April 2026 New

 Cold nights and these late season snow sprinklings feel like winter is having as hard a time transitioning to spring as I was having, although the sudden greening of the grass and ever persistent blooms of the daffodils make clear the inevitability of the change.  The peepers came back to life a few weeks ago which always signals it's time for me to start sleeping out on the screened porch, their chirping along with the distant sounds of turkeys doing their mating cry strangely soothing throughout the night.  Long hikes have shifted to early morning local woods walking and coming home with wet feet and a muddy dog.  

Kyle and I made a last-minute decision to put up a new small greenhouse to act as an intermediate space for more cold tolerant seedlings that are not ready to go outside.  We had been visiting a friend's farm and saw her seedling setup, and it gave me a good visual of what I felt like we needed to expand on here.  We fill up our small heated Seedhouse fast and usually move things out to the big tunnel. This new greenhouse will save us running many feet of hoses, is close to the house and is small enough to lightly heat during a below freezing cold snap as expected over the next few nights.  I made some phone calls and we were able to purchase, pickup, and build the new tunnel to completion just in time to move onions into it making space for the next round of seed starting.  The kids were amazingly tolerant of our rushed building timeline, Ryah in particular self-entertained near us working for a long amount of time, although at one point from up on the ladder I looked down at her crawling through the grass "roaring" having shed all of her clothes. The tunnel model is called a "bobcat" and we are keeping the name, as it feels an appropriate reference to all my track sighting this winter and spring. 

The sheep we picked up to keep Stetson company earlier this winter were listed as not bred, so the very distinct cry of a lamb last week when I went to do evening chores startled me out of my auto pilot feeding routine.  I glanced into the stall and saw a perfectly fluffy white lamb alongside one of the ewes.  There was a chaotic half hour of us separating the mom and baby from the horse (although he seemed quite peacefully excited about the new addition, his size is a hazard for a few weeks), but everyone then re-settled in.  Sometime between morning and evening feeding the Ewe had given birth to the lamb and cleaned her all up, so she was fluffy and dry.  Joni and Ryah were beyond excited, hanging over the stall asking to see the new "cub", a testament to their current obsession with all thing's lions.  We have yet to name the lamb, originally thinking we'd go paw patrol themed but I'm now leaning towards "Simba".    

The other bit of farm news is we are considering dropping our Organic Certification next year.  Many of the farmers in our circles have done this already or are thinking about doing the same.  The cost of certifying has become prohibitively expensive, and the federal cost share rebate has not come through for last year and it is unclear if it will at all again.  We also personally feel like the certification process through MOFGA is inadequate and doesn't fully capture the type of farming we do here.  I have a good friend who is a professor of sustainable agriculture at UMASS Amherst, and she is working with her students to come up with marketing signs and a survey for us to have at our markets and CSA pickup to see how people feel about the change.  Stay tuned...and tell me what you think! 

We are still waiting to hear if we will receive USDA funding to put up another full-sized greenhouse out in the field along with funding to do pollinator habitat improvements like adding shrubs and bushes that flower at the tail ends of the season.  We expect to hear back sometime this spring,  

We will be attending Bridgton, Kennebunk, and Scarborough Markets starting in late June.  Our summer CSA season kicks off in late June, and we always look forward to our winter CSA cooperative the Foothill Farm Alliance.  

We have not received a huge amount of interest in the Earle Farm pickup, so please reach out if you are planning on joining for that pickup so we can make a timely decision on offering that location.  

Happy spring,