By Heather Retberg, Quills End Farm
“This farm is run on grit and spit and duct tape.” So said Ben when he was but twelve. He was not wrong. Plus a little baling twine.
But, jokes and knowing smiles aside, when the twine frays and the duct tape doesn’t hold, the grit takes us only so far.
Supportive customers and patrons have taken us a step further, and encouraged us with tangible and loving support; and grace has supplied the rest. It’s hard for us to reckon that we’ve been juggling that salad of grit and duct tape, grace and gratitude for decades now.
The fraying twine isn’t just a metaphor, though. It only holds for so long. And, then something more rugged is needed.
How could the juggling act change if there was systemic support? We’ve been working on that question for a bit more than a decade, too. And, in that first pandemic year, amidst the intensity of it all, we brainstormed with creative minds and hard-working colleagues across farming and food production, financial, and economic development sectors. We came up with a proposal for greater resilience in Maine, so we could move away from the vulnerability of importing more than 90% of our food from industrial sources. We called it the Resilience Project and used a pitchfork as a metaphor to help us make the point. The pandemic had exposed so many weaknesses in our food system, how could we take the pile of pandemic poop and turn it into compost that would nourish a better food system right from the ground up? We’d need a sharp-tined pitchfork and some of that farmer grit and spit.
We shared the barebones (well, tines) of our policy brainstorm proposal with Department officials from the Bureau of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry; we talked to folks at Maine Farmland Trust and the University of Maine, and legislators, too.
Thankfully, we weren’t the only ones. From organizations that work on food insecurity, to farms and food processors to non-profits working on hunger, farming sustainability, and getting more Maine food into Maine’s schools and other institutions, all were saying the same thing: if Maine is going to feed itself, or, leastwise, increase the amount of food we produce for ourselves, we need infrastructure. On small farms and larger farms, in communities, and for food processors. We need food production infrastructure, storage, and distribution networks. We need more Maine dairy, grain, meats, and fruit.
On our front, we are working hard to grow more community-based food production to increase resilience by diversifying and decentralizing food production. Infrastructure is key.
Now in 2022, the state of Maine has earmarked some of the federal Covid relief dollars, 20 million of them, for the Agriculture Infrastructure Investment Program, a grant to start turning Maine’s liabilities into a stronger food system.
Another walloping winter storm on Friday left us with power and no good excuse not to set ourselves by the fire between chore times with pen and paper and let the ideas swirl with the snowflakes. As the cringe-worthy rain gave way to giant, wet snowflakes, Phil and I revisited a topic long since left dusty on a forgotten shelf: if there was a budget if we had access to financial capital, what infrastructure would we add and how? Where could it go? Would new buildings be needed? Half of what is needed has been right front and center for years, but to actually build it and house new equipment would take some creative juice. Thank heaven for all that snow!
We have 2 1/2 more weeks to fill in the blanks, get the estimates, and flesh out the plans so we won’t be relying so much on grit and duct tape for the decades to come, but could be broadening and deepening what we do with access to capital for equipment and more on-farm infrastructure at Quill’s End to reach more of you with a whole lot more efficiency.
Resourcefulness is a wonderful thing, but so are resources.
The right tools for the work at hand make for better work.
From mid-winter we wish you comfort in the blanket of snow we now have covering the earth, a blanket of relief with promise.
It’s ‘poor man’s fertilizer’ and insulation for plants; the cold, if it will last long enough(!), a killer of ticks and unwelcome parasites and bacteria.
A real winter means a healthier spring and summer. That blanket of snow is a canvas for wildlife escapades (foxes about!) and potential for the coming year, a portend of good things yet to come.
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.