Patrons of Husbandry – a website dedicated to the Granges located in Maine
Agricultural Committee and information
The Maine Farmer Resource Network is a coalition of Maine agriculture agencies and organizations working together to connect all Maine farmers to resources for farm business success. Visit the MFRN website for resources on Farm Business Planning, Managing Farm Risk, Marketing, Farmer Mental Health, and more.
Maine is a beautiful place to ride, with thousands of miles of scenic trails winding through peaceful forests and small rural towns. Always check with the local club to make sure the trails are open. You can also find trail news and notices on the Bureau of Parks and Lands website.
Many ATV trails in Maine exist thanks to the generosity of private landowners who allow access. Here’s how you can do your part to keep Maine’s ATV trails open for generations to come:
ATV registration renewals can be completed online. New registrations must be done through a registration agent such as a town office or the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW) main office in Augusta. For more information about ATV rules and laws in Maine, visit MDIFW’s ATV webpage.
The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry (MDACF) is thinking about adding “Saturday Events” to their 2026 Agricultural Trades Show and wants your input. They are gathering feedback before they finalize decisions and are asking the public to participate in a brief survey and to help spread the word to farmers, agricultural businesses, and anyone interested in attending next year’s trades show.
The Maine Agricultural Trades Show, hosted annually by the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry, is a premier event for farmers, producers, and the public to explore Maine’s dynamic agricultural sector.
The MDACF puts on a bustling trade show floor, with exhibits from equipment suppliers, service providers, and agricultural organizations. Attendees can participate in conferences, certification courses, and workshops covering topics such as sustainable farming, food systems, and natural resource management. The Maine Agricultural Trades Show also offers opportunities to connect with experts, learn about new technologies, and discover local food and farming initiatives.
To participate in the survey and provide your input for next year’s show, click here.
Webmaster’s note: The format of this column includes all of the Quill’s Endians participating at various times and in various ways! Phil writes this month’s column.
Joel and Theresa Salatin hold a special place in our hearts. It was his books that started us on this grass-based farming path nearly 30 years ago. He has continued writing as their farm, Polyface, has grown and transformed their area in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. As their son Daniel has taken over the daily operations of Polyface, many others who served as interns now operate adjacent farms to supply food to their customers.
Joel and Theresa’s journey is catalogued in Joel’s “how-to” books, along with their philosophy on life, love, and legacy. Of the best sentiments he expressed, in my view, is one agreeing with Wendell Berry, “To steward a place well, you need to love it, and to love it well, you need to know it.”
Such knowledge comes from experience bearing it out. Stewardship and learning to love through knowing are concepts that grow deeper with each passing year and each passing generation.
Every day here at Quill’s End Farm, we get to study a little more, learn a little more, know a little more, and love a little more deeply. I hope that, like the Salatins’ Polyface Farm in the Shenandoah Valley, our places and communities will thrive for what we learn, how we love it, and for our stewardship.
Heather and Phil Retberg and their three children run Quill’s End Farm, a 105-acre property in Penobscot that they bought in 2004. They use rotational grazing on their fifteen open acres and are renovating thirty more acres from woods to pasture to increase grazing for their pigs, grass-fed cattle, lambs, laying hens, and goats. Quill’s Endians are members of Halcyon Grange and publish a newsletter for their farm’s buying club of farmers in her area and generously permit us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.
By Roberta Meserve, MSG Ag Director
(207) 998-3857
Time to catch up on committee happenings.
The Ag committee had a busy winter, with a presence at the Augusta Trade Show and at the MAAF (Maine Association of Agricultural Fairs) convention in January, and at Ag Day at the State Legislature in March.
At the Trade Show, committee members took turns manning our table, promoting our scholarship, and chatting with passers-by. At the MAAF meeting, we had a table promoting Grange fair exhibits and shared information with State Ag Fair exhibition hall superintendents. At the Legislature, we again promoted our scholarship and had fudge (and some seeds) for those visiting our table.
At each event, we were able to interact with many Ag-related groups and enterprises from all parts of the state.
In early May, we met to choose scholarship recipients. The applicants were from all parts of the state. We were able to provide a scholarship of $500.00 each to these nine deserving students:
Webmaster’s note: The format of this column includes all of the Quill’s Endians participating at various times and in various ways! Phil writes this month’s column.
Winter dairy farming makes for a horrible workout routine. Short bursts of activity are often followed by longer bursts of “rest.”
Winter chore time includes twice-a-day cleaning of the main area of the barn that houses the cows. We push the bedding and manure into a pile by the door and then shovel it into a pile outside the door where it can be accessed by a tractor. All well and good–gets a body moving and warmed right up.
Then, we water and feed the cows. While they are all bellied up to the feeders, we brush them clean. You can imagine this takes a bit of doing in the winter. Then we wash their udders and begin milking.
All that activity before milking is enough to work up a sweat in the coldest weather. The (lack of) activity during milking is enough of a slowdown to cool you off.
Hauling hay is an even worse workout. Our hay suppliers are around half an hour away. We drive the half hour, load a truck for half an hour, then sit and drive home for half an hour, and then unload for half an hour–a physical therapist’s nightmare.
This is all to say, by April, we are watching that sweet grass pretty closely. The sooner we have 5 or 6 inches in the fields, the sooner we can liberate the cows, stop pushing manure, and stop hauling hay. We can start just walking the cows about to do their jobs.
We love cows of grass! We love cows pooping on grass, where our labor is not needed for clean up. We love cows eating grass where our hauling labor is not needed. Here is to the coming of spring and retiring, well, seasonally retiring anyways, the winter shovel.
Heather and Phil Retberg and their three children run Quill’s End Farm, a 105-acre property in Penobscot that they bought in 2004. They use rotational grazing on their fifteen open acres and are renovating thirty more acres from woods to pasture to increase grazing for their pigs, grass-fed cattle, lambs, laying hens, and goats. Quill’s Endians are members of Halcyon Grange and publish a newsletter for their farm’s buying club of farmers in her area and generously permit us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.
The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry (DACF) has announced that enrollment is open for the 2025 Maine Senior FarmShare Program (MSFP). This program connects Maine farmers with eligible older adults to provide access to fresh, unprocessed, locally grown fruits, vegetables, culinary herbs and honey. Participants receive a $50 share of Maine-grown produce throughout the growing season by signing up directly with a participating farm or an enrolled Maine farmers’ market.
Enrollment is first-come, first-served while funds remain available.
Participants must be Maine residents aged 60 years or older or 18 years or older for disabled adults living in a housing facility with congregate dining. The income eligibility guidelines are listed on the DACF MSFP website.
Mainers who meet the eligibility criteria can sign up with a participating farm or Farmer’s market. The Maine Senior FarmShare Program also allows seniors to have others, including farmers, act on their behalf. The participants and proxy must sign the proxy form before the proxy performs any actions on the participant’s behalf. These authorized representatives, or proxies, can do the following at any point during the season:
• apply for certification;
• shop at a farmers’ markets or farm stands;
• pick up eligible foods from a participating farmer or authorized agent;
• receive deliveries.
To learn more about the Senior FarmShare program, visit their website. You can also email seniorfarmshare.agr@maine.gov or call (207)287-3491.
Webmaster’s note: The format of this column includes all of the Quill’s Endians participating at various times and in various ways! Phil writes this month’s column.
Last winter, I was fighting chronic Lyme disease. Chronic Lyme disease presents differently for each individual affected by it. I thought that the symptom of brain fog had mostly skipped me, but early this morning, there was some evidence to the contrary.
Bonnie Three birthed a beautiful healthy heifer calf. Bonnie has a Three in her name because this farm always has a Bonnie. It is a tribute to our very first cow whose name was Bonnie. So…that out of the way, Bonnie Three calved this morning. She was not, according to my notes and memory, supposed to do that until the middle of May. Because her calving date was marked as May, she has only had a very abbreviated “vacation” from milking.
The cows usually are “dried off” for two months. This allows them a rest period and to put on some weight and grow a healthy calf. While Bonnie’s calving went well and she has a healthy heifer calf, she has only had a couple of weeks off. Apparently the herd is still having symptoms of my time with Lyme disease.
Case in point? We have ten milking cows. Given a two month vacation for each cow before calving, in order to keep a steady supply of milk, we should be milking 8-ish at any given time and have a calf every month-plus. Since February third, when Pippin freshened, we have had five calves. Five cows freshening in the span of a little more than one month is not an ideal dispersal of milk flow over time for a steady supply. A correction of this glut-scarcity cycle problem will require milking some of the cows longer and keeping them open (unbred) for a longer period. The repercussions of my Lyme brain fog will stretch out in the barn for another couple of years to get this all straightened out again.
As we are now milking all ten cows at once, the floodgates are open. Milk, cream, yogurt, and cheese are all available in abundance. Our pigs won’t consider a dry meal and even the hens are partaking in skim milk to wash down theirs.
Thankfully, the symptoms of Lyme have vacated my body. Hopefully, with time and proper bull control, they will leave my farm.
Heather and Phil Retberg and their three children run Quill’s End Farm, a 105-acre property in Penobscot that they bought in 2004. They use rotational grazing on their fifteen open acres and are renovating thirty more acres from woods to pasture to increase grazing for their pigs, grass-fed cattle, lambs, laying hens, and goats. Heather is Vice President of Halcyon Grange #345 and writes a newsletter for their farm’s buying club of farmers in her area and has generously permitted us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.
March 23, 2025
The Maine Maple Producers Association has announced the 42nd annual Maine Maple Sunday weekend. Set for March 22-23, sugar houses across the state will offer events, games, activities, sugarbush tours, music and much more.
Over 100 sugar houses, farms and orchards are participating in this year’s Maple Sunday weekend at locations across the state. This is a great way to celebrate our Maine maple producers while enjoying a sweet treat!
Some locations will be open for activities on both Saturday and Sunday, while others will only be open one day, so be sure to double check with each sugarhouse before heading out! For a list of participating locations, visit the Maine Maple Producers Association website.