Tag: Farms

View from the Farm – October, 2026

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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.

Alternating Notes

This past week held notes of dissonance. Discordant, sad strains in the melody of fall’s alternating glory of rain and shine, a long-awaited harmony.

Benjamin headed off to Draft Animal Power Network field days in Vermont. This means we employ help at chore times. 

Our cows know our boundaries.  If anyone else tends to them, they need to find this new human’s boundaries, much like children in a classroom with substitute teachers.  For example: we milk in a parlor with two stanchions.  While one cow is milked, the next one is let in to be prepped.  We milk in the same order day after day.  The cows know when their turn is coming and busy themselves with hay until then. 

Unless…they need to test someone new.  Since last Wednesday when Ben left, the jumble has begun after the first cow, Polly.  Astrid refused outright to come into the parlor just to see which tricks might be employed to persuade her otherwise.  I stepped in with apples…the stomach wins the heart.

I made it my goal to just keep up with grazing rotations while Benjamin was away.  The hens move every two or three days, the hogs as they use up a paddock, the cows twice daily.  I was on top of everything until Eliza calved on Friday. 

Everything went well.  This is Eliza’s 7th calf.  

We typically give a new mama a day or two in the barn to keep an eye on things postpartum.  When I walked into the barn on Saturday morning, I immediately knew something was wrong.  Eliza was unable to get up and bloated.  I set to action with Fisher, who was milking cows that morning and our oldest son, Alexander.  We propped her up with bales of hay.  She started to belch and get rid of the bloat.  I figured she would be up in no time. 

After milking she was still unable to stand.  We gave her some oral calcium and glucose, hoping her system would recover quickly.  I called our vet.  By 1:30 that afternoon, she had passed, most likely from internal bleeding postpartum. 

This is a big loss, as sad as it was unpreventable.  Eliza was our oldest cow and the herd matriarch.   She left us a cunning, super-smart, little heifer.  This wee slip of a calf has big shoes to fill.

Ben returns tonight (Sunday).  The cows will have to behave again and… he’ll have a good-bye to say and a tree to plant over Eliza.  The regular melody will return.  As will those dissonant notes.  Alternating necessities each in their turn, the flip side one of the other.

As our many summertime guests head home for the winter, I entreat all of you to please spread the good word.  Our local farms are overflowing with bounty and quality unlike anything you can purchase at the grocery store.  “The best dairy in Hancock County” (according to Google reviews) is in your neighborhood.  Visit your farms and eat well.

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 the area, and generously permit us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

View from the Farm – September, 2026

Photo of Quill's Endians

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.

Action Following Sentiment

We are a bit beat after Saturday, as it marked the end of meat bird season here at Quill’s End. 9 friends came and helped us process the last 250 birds, which are now packed into fridges and freezers awaiting your tables. Soon we will add storage potatoes to our mix.  Milk, cheese, yogurt, cream.  Eggs, pork, beef, chicken.  Garlic, kale, carrots.  We’ve got your plates covered.
 

With mid-September rolling in, the apples are sweetening.  Benjamin’s work in the orchard is showing.  Our first fall apple, Gertrud’s Pippin, is in its prime starting mid-September.  These apples have crisp flesh and a nice balance of tart and sweet.  Benjamin says it is everything Wolf River promises and doesn’t deliver.  We will be offering Gertrud’s Pippin starting this week.

It has given me hope reading all the tributes and remembrances of Wendell Berry these past two weeks.  Here is to action following sentiment! 

Webmaster’s Note: Wendell Berry, the acclaimed American novelist, poet, essayist, farmer, and environmental activist, died on August 31, 2026, at the age of 92 at his home in Port Royal, Kentucky. He championed small family farms, local communities, and sustainable agriculture, frequently warning against the harms of industrialization and corporate agribusiness.

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 the area, and generously permit us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

View from the Farm – August, 2026

Photo of Quill's Endians

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.

Eggs and chicken, chicken and eggs

Having poultry on Quill’s End Farm has always seemed like a no brainer. In natural ecosystems, ground nesting birds follow ruminants and “clean up” the larvae that invariably populate ruminant’s waste. This helps break the pathogen cycle and also cuts down the fly population. The poultry also add their own manure to the soil to stimulate growth.
 

The Quill’s End hens and meat birds move on a regular basis in pens or behind electric netting that ensures their safety from ground predators. This gives them insects and pasture to augment their diet. It also makes for an incredibly tasty egg or chicken.
 

The business of getting eggs and chicken to you is not as idyllic. We currently process around 250 chickens three times per summer. These days are both long but immensely enjoyable. A crew gathers to make light work of the task, and a lunch unlike any other follows the work. Because the task is not loud, the conversation and laughter around the table elevate the work. Anticipation of the shared meal spurs the crew on.
 

Processing eggs lacks the communal aspect. Because eggs come in at a steady rate every day, washing and packing eggs usually is solitary work. We try to add a little whimsy to the process by “mixing” up eggs in the cartons. You might find a large egg next to a small one. You may find green or white eggs in your carton. You may find patterns in the placement of said colored or colorless eggs. The specialness of the eggs happens in the field, the patterns and size games are just for your, and our, entertainment.
 

We have oh so much plenty of eggs and chicken right now, we can cover your mornings and suppers all month. Avail yourself of the bounty.

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 the area, and generously permit us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

View from the Farm – July, 2026

Photo of Quill's Endians

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 Work Has Meaning

I had a chance to travel out of state last month to celebrate my mother’s 80th birthday.  Most of my siblings made it to the party in Saginaw, MI. I stayed with my older brother in the old neighborhood around the high school we all attended.

A lot of things stuck me about the city and its citizens.

 This body has always needed movement, and on daily walks around the neighborhood I remembered the lovely uncomplicated days there. Killing time with a gaggle of neighbors, bicycles at the ready to travel about as we whiled away the summer.

The sidewalks are empty now. My daily walks held not one interaction with man or beast.  No one shooting hoops or sitting on the front porches. I’ve got theories, but mostly just sadness.

 While in Michigan, I wanted to visit my cousin. He and his family milk 130ish Holsteins that live in a free stall barn 365 days a year.  His acreage, flat loamy soil, grows hay, corn, and soybeans that then make up the diet for the cows.  Most of our tour of the farm concentrated on seeing equipment. Tractors with eight tires and 4 steps into a climate-controlled cab. 

 Very much a dying breed, this is the example of small farms that the 1950’s envisioned.  They keep no garden, they raise no critters for their own table, they do not drink milk from their cows. They shop for groceries.

 My cousin, now nearly 70 years old, has made a life and a living from his farm. His son and family will continue.  An anomaly among the 1% of Americans that are farmers.

It was difficult to travel. A mix of emotions as I spent time with family and also experienced a taste of 2026 in an American city and on an American farm that feeds into our industrial food system.

 Time away refreshes what we do at Quill’s End. It turns out that growing food for ourselves and for our community adds layers and layers of satisfaction.  From soil to patron, community to ecosystem, the work has meaning. We thank you for the chance.

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 the area, and generously permit us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

View from the Farm – June, 2026

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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.

A Living Diet

In the first couple of weeks on pasture, the cows’ milk flow increases.  The composition of the milk changes along with the volume, and the cream takes on a golden yellow from the pasture. 

The flavor also changes.  A living diet replaces the stored forage of winter, and every grass and legume is cropped by the cows for immediate use.  The whole process changes the microbes in the rumen, the first chamber of four that make up the incredible digestive system of ruminants.  The cellulose content of rooted, growing pasture encourages bacteria that can handle higher protein and energy foods.  This more digestible food increases the volume of milk, as the cow’s energy needs are more than met.

The cream’s change of color to yellow is breed specific.  Jerseys and Guernseys tend to put the most color into their milk from excess beta carotene in their diets and an inability to fully process it.  

We have the now unusual opportunity to watch the change in real time.  When rotating stock in the farm store, there is always amusement as this week’s cheeses and yogurts are set behind last weeks.  One could almost date them by color.

The butter made in late May and into June is a hoot.  The color intensifies with every step and yields a deep yellow color and smooth texture that always return us to this time of year when consumed in the winter. 

 With plenty of milk comes plenty of cream, so butter making, not on the schedule for months, now enters our minds for rainy days.  If you’ve made butter, you know the satisfaction of watching the impossible change from liquid to solid.  If you’ve not made butter, well, you should.  It is a magic show in the kitchen.

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 the area, and generously permit us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

View from the Farm – May, 2026

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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 Soft Start

Since early April, when the frost departed from the soil in the pastures, we have been privy to the scene that unfolds every spring. From 1/4″ clover leaves, cute as a kitten to a grass farmer, to the stout orchardgrass, bullying its way to the heavens, the season never yet disappoints.  But the greens.  They change every day just ever so.  Under gray skies, the glow seems otherworldly.  Sunny skies seem to make smiling green, bright and toothy as it blows gently in a breeze and receives its soundtrack from the newly arrived frenzy of birds.  

The trees are starting to play along as well.  The multitude of reds and yellows adding to the drama of yet another unfolding.  They just frame the scene as the mist and clouds roll by, adding the promise of summer to the dreariness.  Underneath the coming canopy they are all business, soaking up all the moisture they can bear to miraculously turn it into foliage. 

The soft start.  It is frustrating to us as we wait.  Know that we might be the only ones waiting in nature.  The rest are off to the races while we enjoy the view.

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 the area, and generously permit us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

View from the Farm – April, 2026

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.

Practice Resurrection

Last fall, as the drought lasted and lasted, we started to bale feed in our neighbor’s field.  Bale feeding can improve soil and the stand of forage in a hurry.  By rolling out round bales and placing an electric fence just so, the cows waste little of the hay and manure the ground below them in an even manner.  What is left behind is a thin compost pile that feeds the communities of bacteria, insects, and microbes as they break down the hay and excrement left behind from the cattle’s slow move through the field.  Organic matter increases, minerals are made bioavailable, and the seed bank, including the new seed from the hay, is stimulated.  Time does the rest. 

If our previous experience with bale feeding holds, the field will become a lot more useful as not only feed, but also a carbon sink and soil creator.  Wendell Berry wrote “practice resurrection”.  On a very small scale, we can help it along and benefit the ecosystem while we benefit the cows by letting them live out their design as ruminants.
 

As this spring has progressed, this particular field, which is sandy-soiled and sloping, has been able to bear traffic with no damage.  So, we resumed our incomplete march to Back Ridge Road, and will be able to treat the whole field to bale feeding.  It is a pleasure to see the cows outdoors taking nutrients uphill that require no shoveling, no composting, and no spreading to do the thing.

Here is to cows pooping where they ought!

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 the area, and generously permit us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

View from the Farm – March, 2026

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.

Search for the Holy Grail

March is like the third question posed at The Bridge of Death in Monty Python’s Search for the Holy Grail. To cross the bridge to spring, you must get it right or stump the questioner.

We know January. We come into it girded and resolved. We can because we know both the question and the answer. Like the first question posed at the bridge, “What is your name?”, we do not need to hesitate. We can tick off 31 days in January because we have realistic expectations and nights that last forever.

February can very much be like the second question, “What is your quest?” It can trip you up. An answer doesn’t come immediately because it takes a little priority and work to settle on such an answer in adult life, but it is still an answerable question. Just like question #1, you’ve answered this before.

We don’t expect much from February. Still girded and not quite out of resolve, we can take 28 or 29 days of it. Heads down and headed in the right direction, we expect nothing and are pleased when, toward the end of the month, we get a little reprieve. 

Not that we need it. 

But March, we might not be able to answer for March. March can be a sucker punch or a love tap. In order to pass to April, March asks, “What is the capitol of Assyria or the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?” or rather more simply asks, “What is your favorite color?” March can bury you. In mud, in rain, in snow, in ice. The grip of winter weakens slowly. Our resolve gets tossed aside by the lies of a beautiful day leaving us prone for the next. It is a 31-day labor for spring.

All will be forgotten come April.

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 the area, and generously permit us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

View from the Farm – February, 2026

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.

Winter Drought

With snow on the ground and winter enveloping us, it may seem hard to remember  that we still are in a drought. But it’s very present with us here at the farm this winter.

I’ve been thinking about it a lot this week because of a quickly approaching deadline for a drought relief grant. We are hoping to get funding for an irrigation pond. Re-charge rates, test pits, volume, acreage, conversion charts,  rates of application–all the water things are on my mind as the critters chew through the limited quantity of hay from last year.

I’m learning the multitude of steps involved should anyone ever dig a proper pond for irrigation.  It seems the excavator might be the first and last step instead of the only step. Lots of steps in between. In the meantime, I’m trying to set aside enough time to complete the actual first step, completing the grant application for funding.

Winter doesn’t help, even though I always think that is where time resides. “I’ll get to that in the winter, when I have time.”  Winter farming doesn’t really agree with that sentiment. Everything now must be hauled to the farm, into the barn, and back out. The hay, the water, the bedding.  The milk, the manure, the used bedding. The shoveling and the loading and unloading. They all take time, and daylight time at that.  There is nothing so wonderful after winter as watching cows poop on grass.

It’s hard to think of a pond, which only holds summery type feelings, when forking out 2027’s compost from the barn while wearing a load of laundry.  Perhaps, if I concentrate now and write the grant well, I can add some resilience in the future when drought strikes again.

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 the area, and generously permit us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

View from the Farm – January, 2026

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.

Rings of Growth

Heather and I had a chance to walk along the shore on Saturday. The trees in those woods along the harbor hold up a mirror, I think, about the people, too, who inhabit the rugged coast of Maine.

A clear, cold January day in the single digits with a biting wind and little snow cover shows the struggles. Some of the trees seem to have taken wrong turns before beating a path toward a “success” that is not wholly guaranteed. One bad storm, one poor year and…
the experiment changes.

The tree becomes forest floor duff. In the meantime, hold on to that ledge with all you’ve got. Send out another root to catch an inch of soil. Nourishment and anchor all in one and a better chance to stave off the inevitable. It’s hard living along the coast.

But the beauty of the struggle is inescapable. The stone, stacked by God to hold just enough back from the open jaws of the Atlantic. The rockweed, placed just so that the tide delivers food for the stretching roots. The crooked, crooked shoreline to offer just enough windbreak to hold on. The clear, cold sky, reading stature and form like an open book, laying the natural history bare for any and all to see.

This winter has come off just right. It’s a reminder that another ring of growth comes with scars from the wind and the waves. This winter also shows us what is necessary for survival. A good roof over sturdy walls. Plenty of laundry layered on a body to be outdoors. Woods to break the wind. A full pantry to keep you. A farmer to fill it. 

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.