{"id":100122,"date":"2026-09-14T15:41:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T19:41:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?p=100122"},"modified":"2026-09-14T15:41:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T19:41:29","slug":"view-from-the-farm-november-2017-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3-2-2-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?p=100122","title":{"rendered":"View from the Farm – September, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Webmaster’s note: <\/em>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Action Following Sentiment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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.\u00a0Soon we will add storage potatoes to our mix.\u00a0\u00a0Milk, cheese, yogurt, cream.\u00a0 Eggs, pork, beef, chicken.\u00a0 Garlic, kale, carrots.\u00a0 We’ve got your plates covered.
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With mid-September rolling in, the apples are sweetening.\u00a0 Benjamin’s work in the orchard is showing.\u00a0 Our first fall apple, Gertrud’s Pippin, is in its prime starting mid-September.\u00a0 These apples have crisp flesh and a nice balance of tart and sweet.\u00a0 Benjamin says it is everything Wolf\u00a0River promises and doesn’t deliver.\u00a0 We will be offering Gertrud’s Pippin starting this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Webmaster’s Note:<\/strong> 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.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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. 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<\/a> for more information.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading “View from the Farm – September, 2026”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,835,836,74,688],"post_folder":[704],"class_list":["post-100122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","tag-agriculture-2","tag-chicken","tag-eggs","tag-farms","tag-quills-end-farm"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"post-thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Walter Boomsma","author_link":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?author=2122"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"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…","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1arC1-q2S","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100123,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100122\/revisions\/100123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100122"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_folder&post=100122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}