Runamuk Acres Conservation Farm
Soil-first farming, building health from the ground up!
I don’t know whether I hadn’t had an infestation of hornworms before, or I just hadn’t noticed them (which seems rather impossible!), but the tobacco hornworms have had a good year this year and there’s no avoiding them. One day all your beautiful tomato and pepper plants are healthy and fine, and the next–bam! –you’re…
Recently I went around to the various Runamuk apiaries to perform my annual mite-tests, and while the 12 colonies under my care have struggled to produce surplus honey, I am happy to say that compared to last year when mite problems ran rampant throughout the state–and even my own hives–this year mites have posed less…
At the August meeting of the Somerset Beekeepers, we hosted two of UMaine’s academics who have been actively researching native bees in Maine and in the agricultural system. Dr. Sam Hanes’ is an anthropologist studying the perceptions growers have relating to the benefits of incorporating native pollinators into their farming efforts, and the methods they…
Tuesday night the Somerset Beekeepers met for their monthly meeting, and were joined by a number of the county’s master gardeners in welcoming Dr. Sam Hanes and Eric Venturini, a masters degree student, both of whom came over from the University of Maine at Orono to speak with us. I’ve mentioned before the good work…
I haven’t written in a while, I know. It’s been a difficult summer for me, to say the least. And it’s been hard enough to admit to myself that we’re not moving, let alone admitting it to the world in writing here on the blog. We’ve attempted construction loans with 2 banks, and failed.
I’ve been hard at work on this, and it’s taken a bit of finagling since it’s all happening rather last minute, but I am now confident in announcing the Grand Opening Event for the new Madison Farmers’ Market!
Despite my best efforts this spring to make successful and productive splits and nucs (read more about that here), I still found myself with 4 out of 12 hives Queenless come July. I do not claim to know it all when it comes to bees and beekeeping, and after talking to beekeepers with 30 and…
Since this was my first time growing garlic, I was pretty stoked to go and dig up the bulbs earlier this week. I’d planted the garlic cloves back in October (you can read about that endeavor here). I mulched them heavily with dry leaves and watched over them all winter. This spring I pulled up…
A new farmers’ market has been proposed in my local community, and I have stepped up to take on organization of this project. The town of Madison sits adjacent to my hometown of Anson, directly across the Kennebec River. While the people of Anson and Madison may not necessarily share a love for one another,…
The call came on Friday morning, the representative from Skowhegan Savings called to say that our loan request had been rejected. Apparently the underwriter felt that we just don’t have enough wiggle room if something were to go wrong during the construction process. It wasn’t a terrible shock, Keith and I know that we’re not…