Week 12

The farm feels so quiet without so many interns and the buzz of the farm camp kids. We are enjoying the quiet change but do miss all the camaraderie of the mid summer. We said goodbye to what we think is our final house guests of the summer yet I know the summer still officially has one more month. There is always some confusion there between the end of summer vacation, the start of school, and the official frost date/fall equinox in my season meter. The cooler nights bring on an easier sleep and make any idle time seem wasted when there is so much work to be done to get ready for the winter.
The work of putting food by, cover cropping the garden rows that are finished producing and chopping wood brings my thoughts to the natural divisions of labor that occur in our house. There is definitely a gender divide that my early 20's feminist self would have balked at. The kind of divide that speaks of whole courses on women's studies that would pit classmates in heated discussions regarding the inherent value of this divide, its origins and how to reset the paradigm to create an equality between the genders. This early 20's self would have also cringed at the thought that time and experience bring a certain wisdom and a mellowing of what were thought of at the time as cemented ideals. But now, 15 years later, I am quite comfortable in my farm-wife routine. I know I can fix my bike, change the oil and the spark plugs on an engine, trouble shoot the tractor, run the chainsaw, build an outhouse but where I am happiest and most content is when I'm assuring my family will eat well all winter. Just like the maturity it takes to admit you aren't enjoying a book and choosing to put it down before finishing it, I know I don't like to wrestle with the weed wacker
and fix engines. I do like the chainsaw and I love to chop wood and John makes a better breakfast than anyone else I know. Ultimately, it comes down to a certain level of moderation with your partner and an appreciation of the skills and talents you each bring to a relationship. Ours is unusual in that it includes our work and our life all wrapped up together. The gender divide we have manifested works for our family. The challenge come in the jobs we both don't enjoy and then, to settle all those matters, we resort to a good, old fashioned game of rock-paper-scissors.

If you've made it to the end of all this, you are probably wondering why I chose to write about work....well, remember how as a CSA member you agreed to a little volunteer work time in the garden?.....only 8 weeks left to fulfill that commitment!

Here are the options:

• Any Tuesday or Friday morning RAIN OR SHINE, join us for the harvest. We start at 5:45 and head in for a quick breakfast at 7 and are back in the field at 7:30. You can join us early or later. We try to be done by 11ish (sometimes we don't meet our own deadline) and you can take your share when you leave. It is always nice to see folks out in the early AM for the harvest and the work moves quickly with extra hands

• Saturdays from 9-12 we usually work but some weekends we take the day off. If you want to join us, we would love the company just call or email in advance to make sure we will be in the field

• Tuesday, September 9th, Potato digging potluck work party 4-7:30

• Saturday, October 18th 1-3 garden clean-up work party

Harvest List
Potatoes
Cipollini onions
lettuce
kale
tomatoes
cucumbers
basil
kohlrabi
parsley
green peppers
Blessings on the meal,
Stacy and John
Duck a l'orange
(aka...farm camp ducks dressed up for a Friday dinner)

As I begin my final week at Broadturn Farm there is so much to reflect upon about this summer I hardly know where to begin. It seems just yesterday that I arrived, bright-eyed and ready to work, and already it is time to say goodbye to this year’s farm crew, to milking Dulce and drinking raw milk, and to collecting and scrambling fresh eggs. It is also time to say goodbye to the crops that I helped seed, cultivated, and harvest. But before I go any further let me introduce myself. I’m Clare, the only non-New Englander (I’m from the South), the only vegetarian in the group, and a returnee from last season. While things are pretty different up here and people say “wicked” and “are you from away?” I just loved Broadturn Farm and John, Stacy, Emma, and Flora so much that I had to come back for more. Thankfully they allowed me return! While last year I worked solely as a farm camp counselor this year I had the opportunity to work both as a camp counselor and a farm apprentice and learned an extraordinary amount about the frustrations and rewards of farming. This summer I also discovered numerous opportunities to find joy and peace in the field no matter the time of day, the weather, or the job at hand. Although I could list boatloads of activities I’ve loved these past three months I’ve listed only ten experiences that have brought me particular joy in the field and at farm camp this summer. Here they are… Enjoy!
1. Opening and closing the hoop house – maybe because the activity signals the rising and setting of the sun and the beginning and ending of our day.

2. Harvesting cucumbers, squash, an zucchini – trying to find them under their stems and leaves is like playing a game of hide n’ seek.

3. Suckering tomatoes and watching them grow into delicious ripe fruit. Aren’t you just dreaming of tomatoes and cheese sandwiches?

4. 9 AM on Monday mornings – whether I was on camp or in the field I loved watching the farm campers arrive and seeing the excitement on their faces.

5. Using the wheel-hoe in the corn – weed control work is SO rewarding and I am a mean wheel-hoer.

6. Family dinners on the farm – there always seems to be room for one more and there are never any squabbles over the quantity or quality of food.

7.Taking a dip at the Saco River and then having a lesson on pest control on hot Monday afternoons.

8. Eating fresh butter and homemade strawberry-rhubarb jam on toast for breakfast.

9. Collecting eggs and washing them – collecting eggs was voted as the favorite farm camp chore multiple weeks in a row.

10. Harvesting flowers as the sun rises. Sunflowers are my favorite but straw flowers are a close second!


Thank you all for a great season and for helping to make my second summer at Broadturn farm as enjoyable and fulfilling as my first!

Peace, Clare

The Harvest
Lettuce
Beans
Beets
Carrots
Onion
Potatoes
Cilantro
Tomato
Broccoli Raab
Cucumbers

a last note about the weather.... We continue to struggle with the effects of a very wet summer. For example, we expected to harvest a large crop of broccoli this week and find black rotten tops on nearly all of the crop. Most of our greens have "spots" and the tomatoes will be a race to harvest before diseases catch up with them. The Broccoli Raab is a little early to be harvested-- it has not really sprouted yet, but leaving it in the field longer is a risk. We hope you all understand the challenges of this midsummer weather. ---John

Week 10--Apprentice Amanda's Take on the Farm

Throughout the summer, I have occasionally found it necessary to go “off farm” for the day to maintain the relationships in my life that involve people rather than produce. Although the joy of seeing friends and family is enough to motivate me to drive many hours across New England, there is always a note of anxiety as I pull away from Broadturn Farm. I try to stuff my car with as many vegetables, eggs and dairy products to last me my time away but, invariably, there come the time when I must stare pasteurized milk or margarine in the face.

I recently took an entire week off to spend some vacation time with my family on a lake near Rangeley. Although my schedule was my own and there were no animals to feed or vegetables to harvest, I popped awake at 5am anyway, ready to get up and move. At first, it was luxurious to sneak back down under the covers for a few extra hours of sleep or spend the entire morning reading and drinking coffee, but after a few days, my fingers started to tingle with the need for work.

I went off to the woods on a foraging trip for wild raspberries.
I settled into the berry picking zone I became accustomed to during strawberry season and filled my bowl while dreaming of extravagant creations—pancakes, pies, jams and crisps. Soon after, however, my legs started to twitch. Without the dozens of trips running back to the house from the fields to retrieve a forgotten tool and the constant movement of weeding an entire quarter-acre in one day, my body craved "real" work. I tried runs, walks, bikes and swims yet nothing made me quite as tired as a day in the field. I helplessly watched as my feet and hands became clean (for the first time all summer) and my calluses began to come off.


I returned to the farm astounded at how much had changed in one week. There were foot-tall weeds in places I had expertly weeded before I left, the farm camp roosters had tripled in size and the sunflowers had grown several feet at least. Flora, it seemed, was a whole new person—a much more grown up young lady than when I had seen her just seven days before. I had to spend a day figuring out the new routines of chores and catch up on a week’s worth of gossip. I slept easily each night, my feet and hands once again filthy.My vacation was, perhaps, a trial run for leaving the farm at the end of the summer. It is now all too evident that the two weeks I have left working here will fly by. I am dumbfounded at how quickly this summer has gone. It seems like not so long ago that the tomatoes were seedlings in the greenhouse yet now they are graceful plants, taller than me, and beginning to blush with the first fruit. All too soon I will return to my winter-life at college and spend my time daydreaming of Dulcie.

I must soak up as much of these last weeks as possible—stuff my belly with veggies and milk much as I did in my first week, amazed at the delicious food and attempting to soak up nutrients for my dining-hall-fed body. Broadturn Farm is already in my pantry in the form of strawberry rhubarb jam and I now feel the need to make as many pickles and dilly beans as possible to last me through the Vermont winter.

It is fun to realize that even when I leave, my messy fingerprints will be stamped across the farm. Either literally in the case of roofing tar on the apprentice cabins Tim and I roofed or more symbolically in the case of produce I planted but will not get to eat. I love to think that come October, while I am writing term papers and cramming for tests, CSA distributions will be full of winter squash and kale I planted and weeded in June. I wish you all a wonderful autumn full of romps across this great state of Maine. It has been a joy to grow food for you this summer.







-Amanda




This week's harvest:
onions
carrots
chard
basil
cilantro
dill
red cabbage / pac choi
broccoli raab
lettuce
arugula
potatoes
green beans

P.S.
A note on the rain....the lack of sunshine and the overwhelming amount of rainfall are affecting fruiting plants who need the light and sun to encourage pollinators and fruiting to occur. As a result, the tomatoes are coming but are slow to ripen and some of the summer curcubits (squash, cukes) are struggling to get pollinated and set fruit that doesn't mold. We are hopeful that the sun returns in short order and the retreat of wet weather allows the garden to dry out.

Upcoming events here at the farm....
Sunday, August 17th, weeding work party 1-3
Tuesday, September 9th, Potato digging potluck work party 4-7:30
Saturday, October 18th 1-3 garden clean-up work party

9th Week

Though Stacy and I have been at this farming gig for about 7 years, we have been too transient to have worked the same soil for more than three years. We've set-up greenhouse structures half a dozen times, overseen three irrigation system, and schemed three separate garden layouts. We've built storage shelves, established organic certification, run electricity, and marketed for each of the three farms we have lived and worked at. We are in our second season at Broadturn Farm and we look forward with high hopes at being here for the long haul. That makes this season unique. Our second seasons at our previous farms were overshadowed by the knowledge of a future move. Short term tenancy does not do a farm very well-- weeds are more easily ignored when you know you won't have to pull them in years to come.
But here in Scarborough signs are being made for a long commitment. A stone walkway is being built outside our front door (thanks Megan). The ornamental gardens are growing perennial flowers (thanks Liz). Permanent fences are laid out and ready to be installed. (thanks to our neighboring farmers) And literally, a farm sign in in the making. It takes years to get some basic infrastructure in place, as well as gain a knowledge of a paticular piece of land, and as you can guess, it takes the helping hands of many people-- volunteers, interns, and agritourist guests (thanks Tim.)
A backgound player of the highest importance is, of course, our Land Trust who owns this property. The members of the land trust have been hands-on and involved when they are needed most, and hands-off and at a respectful distance when the occasion warrents it. We are beginning to explore the need for a sub-committee of the land trust, which will continue to guide the develpement of the farm. "Friends of Broadturn Farm" would be a gathering of interested community members who can learn about the needs of the farm, as a community based entity, and brainstorm on ways the land trust and Broadturn Farm can integrate goals. ...talk about building infrastructure for the long haul! We are very excited about this possibility, and welcome any suggestions and volunteers from our community. We are looking towards the fall to get going on this, but keep us in mind if you have the interest and energy!
THE HARVEST:
Lettuce
Green onions
Beets
Red Potatoes
Summer Squashes (yellow, zucchini, patty pan)
Cucumbers
Basil
Green Beans
Russian Red Kale (pictured at the top of the post)
Pac Choi (Bac Choy? Pak Choi?)

Check out the "SWAP BOX" for extras and for items that others have left behind. Leave your unwanted items for others to enjoy. Don't take it all!
The "summer squashes" are all fairly interchangable but each one does have a subtle difference in flavor. The patty-pan is perhaps the least well-known, but it is just as delicious as the other two. The zucchini is "Costata Romanesco", an heirloom variety known for a nutty flavor but a low yield. Try to get a chance to have a taste of all three types over the next few weeks.
The Red Norland Potatoes are "new", i.e. the skins can be rubbed off with your fingers. They will not store too long, but being fresh dug this morning, they are more moist and creamy than normal potatoes.
Watch your step in the garden!
Blessings on the meal.
---John