MFFC Farm Update

“Arrivals” is the theme of this summer season, as both new and returning appearances continue to freshen the landscape, especially here at Merck Forest. New farm animals have been settling into our pastures and barns in the last couple of months, a firewood processor visited to help us provide firewood for all of our cabins, and every day brings sightings of increased animal and insect activity and new flowering plants and trees. During the month of May we welcomed about 30 lambs to our flock, and many of them are already nibbling grass right alongside their mothers as we begin to rotate the flock of ewes and lambs from pasture to pasture, following the fresh growth of grass and leaving behind fertilizer for the fields in their wake. Five pigs have taken up residence for the summer and fall in the spruce tree pasture uphill from the windmill, and at about 10 weeks old they are growing fast. In the beginning of June we also had an exciting morning visit to the post office in Rupert, where a cardboard box full of Buff Orphington chicks waited, practically vibrating with the scratching of tiny feet and a chorus of shrill cheeping.

Raspberries and blueberries are on the way as well, and an experimental addition to several of the raspberry rows is wool mulch, sheared from our own flock of sheep. This spring some MFFC staff spent time spreading wool out between the raspberry canes, in an attempt to stifle the weeds and keep the soil moist. If you find yourself picking berries here this summer, look for the fuzzy carpet of white, brown and gray wool underneath the raspberries!

Every day that I walk up to the farm I notice something that I didn’t see the day or week before. Spittlebugs, tiny insect larvae that feed on plant sap and produce little bubble houses for themselves that look like wads of spit, are everywhere. Daisies, hawkweed, Bird’s foot trefoil, and asters provide flecks of color on a landscape that is finally green, and new flowers continue to appear all the time.

Whether you make it up to Merck Forest this summer or are spending time at home or elsewhere, take note of the new arrivals; on the farm, in the fields, and in the woods. The landscape is constantly and rhythmically changing, familiar in many ways from previous summers but no less exciting and fresh.