Every day, people ask us: What’s going on in your fields this year?
If you listen to our podcast, you already know the answer, but since we are still building that audience I’ll explain here as well.
Last fall, in 2022, after the pumpkin season was over, Jeff and I made the decision to part ways with the large farm we have been allowing to farm our land for the past decade and take over management of the farm ourselves. And, boy, did we pick a terrible year to venture into full-time farming. Here in midcoast Maine, it has been unseasonable hot and humid with a LOT of rain. While the rain helps crops grow, it also fuels weeds — hence the current state of our fields (see above).
We spent much of the spring building more pasture for our cows (we have a total of eight right now, but will be going into the winter with fewer after a trip to the butcher). We planted as usual after Memorial Day and then it started to rain. Every single day. For weeks. When it wasn’t raining, temps were in the 80s and everything — including weeds — put on growth fast when the sun was shining.
If we had stayed with the larger farm, our fields no doubt would look different, but that’s part of the reason we decided to take on the responsibility ourselves. We are heading toward a no-till style of farming and are still learning about best practices and methods that work here. We came to that decision too late in the game to start no-till this spring and this season, we can’t possibly keep up weeding by hand or even with the tractors. We hope will have pumpkins to sell in the fall, as we usually do, but it’s still too early to say for sure.
I have some nice looking garlic, though, and I’m working on an online ordering site that will allow people to pick up items on their own schedule without having to man the farm stand.
As well, we have been working on equipment to get everything running in tip-top shape. Unexpectedly, my Dad purchased a couple of tractors with the intention of combining the two into one good tractor — but as it turned out, he make two good tractors instead. He didn’t need two identical tractors and Jeff couldn’t be more excited about the latest addition to the tractor fleet, which Dad delivered last weekend. It still needs a new bucket, so that’s another project for down the road, but Jeff will have that figured out in no time.
We are hoping to start doing our own haying too, but don’t have all of the equipment we need yet. In the meantime, here’s how we are dealing with our standing hay: Jeff cuts it using the rotary cutter on the blue Ford tractor, then we use pitchforks to scoop it in to the back of the pickup or UTV to feed out to the Highlands that have a smaller pasture area than the Belties. It took us a while, but we finally got enough pasture for the grass to get ahead of the Belties — though we are planning on another expansion of the pasture in the next couple of weeks.
So, that’s the short story, haha. We’re trying to podcast more often too and as we do that, I’ll try to update the website as well.
Two Rock Ridge Farm 