Category: Agriculture

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.

Some Calm

Over the years, we have tried to make fence-training livestock a “less-risk” enterprise.  Some critters new to an electrified fence train quickly and recoil from the pain.  Some jump forward in surprise.  Therefore, we provide a backstop and a physical barrier in front of the fence.  It seems straightforward enough.  If you train on a hot fence that carries a 5,000-plus volt jolt, a couple of times generally provides ample reason for respect.  Cattle are generally easier to contain than other livestock.  They tend to shy away from “testing” the fence more than goats and hogs do. 

Imagine our surprise to find our heifers gallivanting around the neighborhood several times in the last week!  Surprise is the gentlest word I can conjure just now.  Imagine our… surprise!

Waiting when something is amiss is a special kind of pain. But wait, we must.   We could track them only so far.  We had no luck.  We could only hope someone would spot them near (and not in) the road and alert us.  The calves were up in our friends’ blueberry barrens or nearby woods for most of last Tuesday, but not to be seen or called forth.  The first phone call came just before Carolyn and I were to leave for Ellsworth to drop off a truck for service.  With help from Noah of Rainbow Farm, the three of us were able to bring them home and put them back where they belonged.  And there they stayed, peacefully rotational-grazing in a pasture. 

Until they didn’t.

Two days later, a message left in the middle of the night alerted us they were no longer peacefully grazing in our pasture.  We tracked them to the same spot, only to not find them again.

The torturous waiting began anew.  Thankfully, we did not have to wait nearly as long the second time.  Benjamin and Carolyn brought them home and I moved their “home” to the main pasture–where we can keep a closer eye  on them.

We’ve heard there is a bear about in the neighborhood.  Although bears respect electric fencing well, perhaps he spooked the heifers to not.  Four days and counting, they are still home with no breakouts.   We can go about our business with some calm.

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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.

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.

Peak Summer

With Independence Day upon us, high summer kicked into gear for everyone around here.  Our lives become richer with the busyness.  Opportunities for leisure and play abound right alongside work.  Reconnecting with family from near and far becomes easier with the outdoor temperature and nature in full summer garb.  

We also get so many great reasons to complain.  The traffic, the lines, the entitlement.  No lack of complaints makes for no lull in conversations.  And the heat!  We northerners can wax eloquently about our near death, 85-degree discomfort with glee for hours.  Oh, the misery! 

Full swing summer puts Quill’s End Farm into 5th gear.  We got somewhere to be, and we aren’t there yet.  For the first time in twenty years, even though we are grazing more cows than ever before, the pasture got ahead of us.  Benjamin took an acre of it and made hay.

I dream of a time when we can put up all of our own hay.  The problem is, I want all of the hay to be as good as the pasture.  High legume content, desirable species hay growing on fertile ground.  That means that after you pick up your hay, you lay down compost to more than replace what you took, thereby improving soil. 

On Friday, after a late night hay gathering, we spread that acre with four-year old compost that looks like topsoil.  Satisfaction.  Benjamin also spread younger, nubblier compost on next year’s garden plot which will soon get plowed and cover cropped.  It made a hot July day extra satisfying. 

As predicted, we then received multiple showers and downpours to help everything along.  This also helped my state of mind, as taking hay from a pasture mid-season is no light thing.  I dread the possibility of feeding hay in late August should the weather turn dry and the pastures slow down too much to keep up with the cows.

As your homes and lives fill up with friends and families, we pray for ease, relaxation, and fantastic meals.  Our pork, dairy and veggies are ready to impress your company.  Whether grilling or crockpotting, we’ve got something exquisite to fill your plates while your loved ones fill your heart.

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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.

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.

The Farmstead Root Cellar in June

There are many things that we do on small farms that seem logical to us, but are not necessarily logical to commodity farmers. Alongside the enterprises that earn us money, we homestead. We keep a garden, fruit trees, and cane fruits for our own larder and to share with friends. We tap maple trees to boil sap and sweeten our mornings.

There are certain things that resonate with any food grower. The excitement of the first fresh greens, the sun-warmed first tomatoes, the crisp, tangy bite of an apple while you stand beneath the tree.

Since we eat seasonally, these are things we don’t enjoy all year round, but we can extend that excitement pretty far.

We have been eating a lot of potatoes recently. We do love potatoes, but there is also an urgency for consumption this time of the year. Our supply, while holding out in quantity, is slowly degrading in quality. Today, for our second meal with potatoes in it, I uncovered our last half-bushel. I’m fairly certain that these are not potatoes of unusual size, but after fishing through the dregs of the last container for every last usable spud, they seemed like whoppers to me. A two-bite home fry! The excitement of the last of the potatoes will soon give way to the longing for new potatoes with firm crisp flesh, but for now a gigantic, medium-sized potato will do very well. 

As we were relishing our good fortune, Benjamin related a story about a farming friend of his eating apples in June. Wrinkly, soft fleshed June apples from your own farm! Nothing better, until…

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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.