Runamuk Acres Conservation Farm
Soil-first farming, building health from the ground up!
It’s officially official; at long last Runamuk has a forever-farm of it’s very own! On Wednesday, June 27th, after nearly 10 years working toward this goal─I finally became a land-owner. Big Thanks to the Dream Team! Closing was held at the USDA Service Center in Skowhegan, Maine, and my whole team turned out for the…
Land-access is one of the biggest challenges facing beginning farmers today, and one that I have certainly struggled with as I’ve worked to build my income from farming. Runamuk has moved a number of times and it is always such an ordeal that─to make light of the situation─I’ve come to refer to these transitions as the…
Beekeeping in today’s modern environment is probably one of the hardest forms of agriculture that exists. If you can think of a worse one, by all means leave a comment below to share with us lol. Meanwhile, the 2017-2018 winter was another rough winter for beekeepers here in Maine; many beekeepers lost a lot of…
This season my 11 year old son is growing strawberries on the GreenStalk garden planter for our family. It’s important to me to teach my children how to produce their own food, and the GreenStalk tower planter is a fun, and easy to use introduction to growing. Food Production is Essential My boys are 15…
What a great time we had at the Farmer Talent Show Sunday night! It was a hugely successful event, and thanks to those who participated and came out to see the show, we were able to raise the funds needed to keep the Maine Harvest Bucks program going at the Madison Farmers’ Market. If you’re…
At long last I have an Official Closing Date on my #foreverfarm! We have overcome every hurdle─Runamuk and I, and this property I’ve affectionately dubbed “the Hive House”─in order to come together to form this union between farmer and farm. There’s no going back now; it’s only a matter of time before I finally have…
On Thursday the FSA’s appraisal of the Hive-House went to the FSA and on Friday I received news of the property’s good report. The appraisal is a critical step in the FSA’s loan process because they need to be able to validate the loan, as they are funded by tax-payer’s money─they can’t pay more for…
This past weekend Runamuk kicked off it’s 2018 growing season with a bang. We joined our fellow farmers at the Madison Farmers’ Market on Saturday, retrieved the first round of new bees for the apiary, and made a chicken-run for the 50 new layers I’d ordered several months back. The flurry of activity kept my…
Potatoes are one of the easiest crops to produce and gardeners can grow their own potatoes using the trench and hill method, even in a first-year garden. I don’t know about your household, but for ours potatoes are a staple in the pantry, and we go through a LOT of potatoes! Thankfully they’re easy to…
I fully admit that I have been suffering an increasing level of anxiety and stress during this home-stretch of buying a farm. The USDA’s program for beginning farmers seeking to finance the purchase of a property for farming is a grueling process and since passing the 200th Day it’s become more difficult for me─largely because…