{"id":97495,"date":"2025-10-13T07:02:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T11:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?p=97495"},"modified":"2025-10-13T07:02:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T11:02:21","slug":"view-from-the-farm-november-2017-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3-2-2-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?p=97495","title":{"rendered":"View from the Farm – September, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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

Formidable Fall Tasks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It happened this week.\u00a0 We grazed the last of the standing stockpiled forage and started to feed hay.\u00a0 The first spot that we are “bale grazing” is next to a swale that we filled with soil last year to better define it.\u00a0 It also serves as the spillway for our small pond.\u00a0 The wet springs of the last couple of years had made it a prime candidate for muddy grazing in the shoulder seasons.\u00a0 Hopefully, the extra soil will funnel the overflow and feeding out hay in this spot will produce better grazing in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After finishing up in that spot, barring a miraculous return of growth for fall grazing, the cows will venture north to bale\u00a0graze a section of our neighbor’s field that can really use rehabilitation.\u00a0 A drought put to good use?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the frenzied pace of August winds down, our energies are directed toward the project list.\u00a0 Our fall list is a formidable one; topmost is streamlining our milking chore time by finishing a dairy processing kitchen.\u00a0 As possible, I’ve been plugging away this last month to frame a ceiling and run the electrical wiring.\u00a0 Equipment is starting to arrive with more in the wings awaiting procurement.\u00a0 Finishing this kitchen space will allow us to house a miniature bulk\u00a0tank that will rapidly chill and hold milk reducing the need to have someone at the ready to bottle as we milk each chore time.\u00a0 This will make it a lot more feasible to do chore time without assistance, freeing up a farmer for other tasks.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This particular project has been 15 years in the making.\u00a0 Well, in the starting anyway.\u00a0 I guess it\u00a0 took Carolyn’s departure to Sweden to become urgent enough, though it’s\u00a0been on our minds since she was five and…started a few times since then.\u00a0\u00a0She has dutifully bottled milk twice a day for the last 4 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the formidable list, September is the month of overflowing bounty for Maine farmers.\u00a0 Everywhere on the farm, the year’s labor shows rewards.\u00a0 This year’s new hens are laying eggs in abundance now.\u00a0 The last batch of big meat birds is in the freezer, and Benjamin’s garden is producing delights.\u00a0 Delights that pair well with dairy, pork, and veal.\u00a0 Make us your meal plan, we won’t disappoint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

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<\/a> for more information.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/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. Formidable Fall Tasks It happened this week.\u00a0 We grazed the last of the standing stockpiled forage and started to feed hay.\u00a0 The first spot that we are “bale grazing” … Continue reading “View from the Farm – September, 2025”<\/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_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,74],"post_folder":[505],"class_list":["post-97495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","tag-agriculture-2","tag-farms"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","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. Formidable Fall Tasks It happened this week.\u00a0 We grazed the last of the standing stockpiled forage and started to feed hay.\u00a0 The first spot that we are “bale grazing”…","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1arC1-pmv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97495","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=97495"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97707,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97495\/revisions\/97707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97495"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_folder&post=97495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}