On the Farm

By Hadley Stock, Farm Manager

This field season will wrap up with 200 meat birds, 7 pigs, 16 turkeys & 14 lambs in the freezer, almost 1,000 lbs of blueberries picked, and 1,500 bales of hay put up in the barn. After the hustle of this growing season, planning for the next one will be welcome. Planning includes:

• deciding on breeding dates for the ewes and Strawberry Jello, our sow; planning for next spring’s lambs, piglets and chicks

• thinking through new aspects to the farm program for next summer

• continuing to build integrated systems that make the farm work a little bit better for everyone who enjoys it.

We especially enjoyed having the Student Conservation Association on property in August and teaching this cohort of remarkable young land stewards from New York City about regenerative farming and food production.

Earlier this year we learned of a substantial gift from an anonymous fund holder at the Vermont Community Foundation to support our work at the Mettawee Community School. The contribution is intended to help us improve access to the parcel from the school and establish a sustainable route through the low-lying wetland areas, allowing students to explore fragile habitats without damaging them. Over the summer, Rob worked with a team of three seniors from the University of Vermont’s Rubinstein School via a class in which students partner with organizations around the state to help address realworld challenges. Through this collaboration, we were able to make a significant amount of progress on acquiring the permits necessary for this work, creating a set of GIS layers that will aid in the development of the trail network, and designing a host of interpretive waypoints that will allow students to install temporary educational resources that they create.