The January chill has us planning for warmer days ahead, even though the fields are covered in snow and the temps are freezing our farm partners are crop planning for the next season to carry us through another year. The bounty continues year round – winter squash, potatoes, apples, cranberries, garlic, shallots, fresh greens, meats, cheese, grains, ferments and many farm products are all available in your Farm Boxes so you can meal plan all Maine menus all year long!
Note that we will communicate any weather related delivery schedule modifications to you via email, please check your messages if severe weather is threatening.
Update from Tide Mill Organic Farm
Even though the days are getting longer, we are definitely in the throes of winter with our negative four degree temperatures this morning! Keeping the farm roads plowed and sanded requires hours of work that doesn't exist in warmer temperatures. But you also can't get towed in a sled behind a 4 wheeler through the fields in the summer, so it's a trade off we are happy to live with. Even with all the challenges and extra work the cold temperatures bring, we are grateful to be eating supper by 6 instead of 8 and for more time to cook, play games and sleep! We also were happy to spend the holidays with all our kids and our parents together after three years of our oldest daughter, Hailey being in college in Hawaii.
Our annual Caroling to the Cows on Christmas Eve was a huge hit for the humans whose souls were warmed gathering to sing together with the cows in the background as well as for the cows who showed their appreciation by making more milk that evening. On the heels of outer space themed names for our calves in 2021; 2022 is the year of the oceanic world. Siesta's heifer who was born on Jan. 10 and pictured below is named Sargossa. Three times a week, we bottle our milk as mostly gallons and half gallons, pints and chocolate pints. Selling milk to local cheese makers reduces our need to skim cream and make butter but with 4 calves since Christmas and more cows due, there is bound to be extra milk. Our newest piglets who are half Mangalista are quite excited about cream making as they LOVE the skim milk.
Our weekly missions revolve around our delivery runs that can be a test in flexibility with winter weather events. We continue to harvest and process chickens every week and are making slow, but steady progress in finishing our new poultry barn. Our Saturday farm market has adopted winter hours of 11 to 1 and we are very busy that entire time. We are encouraged by more and more of our neighbors going out of their way to buy our food and feel such gratitude to be able to provide organic, local food for our community, doing what we love to do, organic farming and contributing to a reviving diversified agricultural landscape of Eastern Maine.
Carly, Aaron, Hailey, Paige, Henry, Ruth
