Blog
Romancing Spring
February 2, 2024
The days are definitely getting longer, my friend, just as surely as the nights are that much shorter. The change might seem incremental, but it’ll soon pick up speed - it always does, have some faith.
In a few short weeks even our hens will know Spring is on the way, and they’ll start to lay again. The “pineal gland” in their brain monitors the amount of daylight and in the Fall, as the days get shorter, the gland triggers an uptick in melatonin which allows the hens to “rest and rejuvenate.
Crossing Paths
January 26, 2024
Just as the sun came up, the snow stopped, and the wind moved on. It was so bitterly cold, though, the only hope of staying warm was to just keep moving - quickly. I wanted to check the fence line for any trees that might have come down in the storm, and I was indeed making great time. When I crossed the stream, though, a series of tracks caught my eye. Pleased to see that I wasn’t the only one out doing chores in the freezing cold, I paused for a while to look at the storyboard recorded in the
Forty Days and Forty Nights
January 12, 2024
During the summer when the grass is growing, we move our sheep from one pasture to the next before they graze the grass too short. The sheep are constantly moving, and the grass is constantly growing. When the first pasture has fully recovered, we let them back in to graze it again. The process is called rotational grazing, and it works pretty well. During extended droughts and wintertime, we keep the sheep in one pasture until the grass begins to grow again. That pasture is traditionally calle
Counting Peas
January 4, 2024
Our friends with culinary ties to the South made their annual pilgrimage to buy smoked pork jowl from our farm last week. The jowl is traditionally cooked with collard greens, black-eyed-peas and served with cornbread. All of which are believed to bring good luck and prosperity in the New Year. The meal served either at midnight, or on New Year’s Day, has many iterations across the South and very specific ingredients and traditions surrounding each variation. I can’t keep track of them all but t
From Pangaea - with love
December 30, 2023
On the very last day of 2020 I found a quartz geode laying on top of a stone wall in our pig pasture. It's small – the exposed quartz is only about two square inches, but still, I'm not sure how I never noticed it before. I thought the pigs must have uncovered it, but there is lichen on it, so it's been exposed for a while.
It was likely formed 200 million years ago, when our farm (along with the rest of North America) was connected to the northwest coast of Africa as part of the
Guilty As Charged
December 22, 2023
“Mast” is defined as “the fruit of forest trees and shrubs” - in other words, nuts, pinecones, and seeds. “Masting” is the synchronized overproduction of that fruit. Every 3-5 years all the oak trees in a region will produce an overabundance of acorns. Pine trees have mast years every 7-10 years and 2023 is clearly one of those years! Masting is beneficial to trees as the intermittent over abundance means there are many more nuts or pinecones than the local squirrel population can possibly eat a
The Civility of Swine
December 15, 2023
For everything that is annoying about pigs (and the list is indeed very long) – they are surprisingly civilized with one another. They are rarely aggressive, and bullying has yet to ever be a problem for us. Introducing new pigs to an established group, like we did this week, can be as easy as just opening the trailer door. Of course, having plenty of food helps keep the peace with all our animals! Not exactly angels, the bigger pigs will always assert their right to eat the best food at the be
Everything Everywhere
December 8, 2023
Motley flocks of small black birds have been hanging out in our trees at dusk and dawn. I haven’t figured out if they are migrating flocks or if it’s the same ragtag mob I keep seeing - I’m not very good with faces and they all pretty much look the same to me. In late autumn, Red-winged Blackbirds, Grackles and Starlings will often band together in very large mixed flocks, either for safety, migration purposes, gregarious partying or just the pure joy of making humans nervous.
Connecticut Grown Beauty
December 1, 2023
Long after the autumn leaves are off our trees, and their color has completely faded, Connecticut’s native witch hazel comes into bloom. The timing seems self-defeating as only a few cold tolerant insects can withstand the temperatures this time of year and are available to pollinate it. The thermoregulating moths are attracted to witch hazel’s showy yellow flowers and fragrance - and songbirds are attracted to the protein rich moths.
On this cold December morning, the witch hazel in our wood
Mashed Potatoes
November 24, 2023
Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday. For us it has always been about family, land, and gratitude. When my mom was growing up on the property there had always been a very formal Thanksgiving meal, after which the minister and his wife went home, and the family had a very informal bonfire by the pond on the old Clatter Valley Road.
When my grandmother died, my mother and her siblings dispensed with the formal gathering and decided to just have a picnic dinner in the field instead. It’s
