Category: Agriculture

By Heather Retberg, Quills End Farm

The cold of December arrived this week, and with it a reprieve from the mud that has plagued us on the ridge for a couple of months.  In warm and wet October and November, the coming cold seemed impossible, like the present was to remain that way forever.  

No matter the season, I make adjustments that seem permanent.  I don’t think of feeding hay in June, even though that is when it is made.  It seems then that the grass will last forever.  I gleefully move the cows through the fields and watch the beauty of ruminants being ruminants. 

The wisdom of the seasons thwarts my complacency, however, and moves everything along as should be.  And so I adapt.  After a couple of days, what was new becomes normal and lends a sense of permanence in an impermanent world.

For now, the cold invigorates me and keeps me mud-free as I tend to the hogs. This is fantastic.  For now, the cold also adds time to the day, as hauling water, setting up feed, and tending critters takes more time and care than in the summer and early fall.  This calls me to patience.

Finally, the season seems as it should be.  December ushers in the cycle of dormancy to our lives with its refreshing starts to the days, its stunning late sunrises and way too early sunsets to bookend the light and the darkness.   

Editor’s note: Phil continues to write “View from the Farm” while Heather recovers from her surgery. Send her a card/note at Quill’s End Farm, 192 Front Ridge Road, North Penobscot ME 04476

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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 given us permission to share some of her columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

By Heather Retberg, Quills End Farm

The Small Joys

Sometimes, it is necessary to notice the small joys that await while working.  That is difficult for those of us who only possess two speeds, full-tilt and stop.  It is also difficult when work is constant, because another task always awaits, often an urgent one.

Farming isn’t always joy filled;  sometimes, I have to confess, my passion does feel rather like work.   This morning, while I milked the cows and after I had finished with Merry, she turned to leave the parlor and stopped to lick my forearm, so I took a second.  She is a lover, and she’d be okay to just sit and kiss and hug, so we did for a second.  

After milking and before the rain started in earnest, I needed to take a round bale of hay down to the hogs.  The last big rain made their paddock soggy where they had rooted up the ground.  The round bale covers the scar, seeds the soil, and entertains the hogs for a bit.  It is also really entertaining to watch happy hogs.

At the first sight of the tractor and the 4 foot by 4 foot round bale, they followed to where I placed it in the paddock.  They lined up and started nosing it instantly, and only moved out of the way as I rolled it slowly and left a swath of hay behind me.  Then came sheer joy as they cavorted and galloped and rolled and smelled and ate and collapsed on the fresh carpet of hay.  It was so like hearing the uncontrolled laughter of a toddler…pure, unbridled joy. As the rain poured down this afternoon, I wasn’t just glad of the moments of pleasure I’d been lucky to provide and witness.  I was also glad that their shelter has a deep layer of hay in it, and that despite the elements, they were snoozing away the day in comfort.  

Editor’s note: Phil continues to write “View from the Farm” while Heather recovers from her surgery. Send her a card/note at Quill’s End Farm, 192 Front Ridge Road, North Penobscot ME 04476

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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 given us permission to share some of her columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

By Heather Retberg, Quills End Farm

What Rests in an Apple

Quite often in the fall, while I walk up from delivering the cows to their latest patch of grass, I swing by an apple tree or three and taste.  Every year it amazes me how such a variety of flavor and experience comes from the same genus.  I suppose it shouldn’t, as the milk from every cow tastes different, makes different cheese and different yogurt. 

However, the apples seem more distinct.  One warms and comforts like a fire, the next refreshes like a cold shower in the summer.  They remind me of why fall is my favorite season.  Food is everywhere!

And apples are a hope for the future.

A pippin is the hope that we will be here to taste, that the world will be at peace enough to enjoy the complexity of flavors, that the land will still yield.  A lot rests in an apple.  Yes, it is immediate alimentation.  However, beyond satiating our hunger there is an inexact map that leads a casual disposal of an apple core to become an act of exploration.  This happened many many times around our haunts, and has led to glory and disappointment, but always hope.  All of the varieties now cherished by our populace were chance encounters with hope, and eventually, with the palate. Tasting fall, with its beautiful foliage and crisp air helps me remember what hope tastes like.

Editor’s note: Phil continues to write “View from the Farm” while Heather recovers from her surgery. Send her a card/note at Quill’s End Farm, 192 Front Ridge Road, North Penobscot ME 04476

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Heather and Phil Retberg together with 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 given us permission to share some of her columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.