A week ago today I was in a frantic frenzy to get the Runamuk homestead de-cluttered, cleaned, and scoured in preparation for an inspection by Maine’s Division of Quality Assurance and Regulations. Marshall Piper, the Consumer Protection Inspector who manages inspection and licensing of home-processing and commercial kitchen licensing for …
It is with a heavy heart that I share this news with you. In the wee-hours of the morning on Sunday, July 20th, our brave little dog Ava ferociously faced off with one of the forest’s wild creatures, and lost her battle. We did not see the animal that took …
It was the first thunderstorm we’d had since moving back onto the property–and what a doozy of a storm it was! Howling winds and torrential rains, hail, and deafening thunder berated the area. Pease Hill, where the Runamuk farm is settled near the peak of the hill (one of the …
It wasn’t the way I had intended to celebrate the summer solstice, but because last Saturday was raining and wet, the Open-Hive Event (OHE) that Runamuk was hosting for the Somerset Beekeepers was postponed til the 21st–which just happened to be the longest day of the year–the Summer Solstice. Most …
Yesterday as I was preparing to head down to the field to work in the garden, I received a phone call–some locals over in Madison had seen my advertisement in Uncle Henry’s (the ad basically says that we’re looking for livestock in our area), and were we interested in a …
My farmers’ tan is a testament to the amount of time I’ve been spending in the market garden lately, working long hours in the sun and in drizzling rain to get crops in the ground. It’s an on-going process, and there’s also successive sowings to think about–and the fall crops …
Things are not going exactly how I’d hoped. The meager savings Keith and I had managed to set aside have been spent–already invested into the farm. Despite the fact that I ran an 11-family CSA 2 years ago, we were not able to attract the number of CSA subscribers we’d …
Is it strange to be so excited–so ecstatic–over the establishment of new garden plots? Perhaps this is something that only fellow gardeners, homesteaders, and farmers can understand–and if that is the the case–then I imagine that I am in good company. The lingering winter delayed our farm expansion quite a …
Sunday was the first market of the season for our local Madison Farmers’ Market–Runamuk was there with 4 other vendors, and also the local boy scout group was there with us. It was a big improvement from last year when it was just myself and 85 year-old Thelma Lawrence of …
Thanks to the lingering winter-weather, we’re experiencing some frustrating delays in production. New livestock shelters and gardens cannot be constructed until the snow has melted, and the mud has firmed up at least some. However, despite the delay–I have managed to bring a few new critters to the farm. Willow …
