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.
Know it Well
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.