Maine State Grange

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.

Moving a Tad Faster

So it happens once again. The nip in the air, the first hard frost, the first fire of the season in the wood stove . Now time is a wastin’, and the cool morning starts make a body move just a tad faster. We know where we are headed. 

What needs finishing is everything, because summer lulled us into comfort, seduced us with sunlight past suppertime. Now the frost slaps us awake. Remember! It’s Coming! Just as the sun disappears for over half the day, we awake. To action, October cries when September fails. 

Even the birds stopping on their way south seem frantic now flitting from goldenrod to aster to burdock as they focus on a different task than raising broods. The wild turkeys seem to have time for leisure still as they stroll the field picking at this and that on their way to the orchard.

We have switched gears now that the Ford tractor is back together. The second kitchen, firewood, building projects, and barn winter preparation now take our spare moments of daylight in between milking times. Soon, the storage potatoes and garlic planting will be added to the list. That reads like a lot…here is hoping November is mild.

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.

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.

Formidable Fall Tasks

It happened this week.  We grazed the last of the standing stockpiled forage and started to feed hay.  The first spot that we are “bale grazing” is next to a swale that we filled with soil last year to better define it.  It also serves as the spillway for our small pond.  The wet springs of the last couple of years had made it a prime candidate for muddy grazing in the shoulder seasons.  Hopefully, the extra soil will funnel the overflow and feeding out hay in this spot will produce better grazing in the future. 

After finishing up in that spot, barring a miraculous return of growth for fall grazing, the cows will venture north to bale graze a section of our neighbor’s field that can really use rehabilitation.  A drought put to good use?

As the frenzied pace of August winds down, our energies are directed toward the project list.  Our fall list is a formidable one; topmost is streamlining our milking chore time by finishing a dairy processing kitchen.  As possible, I’ve been plugging away this last month to frame a ceiling and run the electrical wiring.  Equipment is starting to arrive with more in the wings awaiting procurement.  Finishing this kitchen space will allow us to house a miniature bulk tank that will rapidly chill and hold milk reducing the need to have someone at the ready to bottle as we milk each chore time.  This will make it a lot more feasible to do chore time without assistance, freeing up a farmer for other tasks. 

This particular project has been 15 years in the making.  Well, in the starting anyway.  I guess it  took Carolyn’s departure to Sweden to become urgent enough, though it’s been on our minds since she was five and…started a few times since then.  She has dutifully bottled milk twice a day for the last 4 years.

Despite the formidable list, September is the month of overflowing bounty for Maine farmers.  Everywhere on the farm, the year’s labor shows rewards.  This year’s new hens are laying eggs in abundance now.  The last batch of big meat birds is in the freezer, and Benjamin’s garden is producing delights.  Delights that pair well with dairy, pork, and veal.  Make us your meal plan, we won’t disappoint.

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.