Runamuk Acres Conservation Farm
Soil-first farming, building health from the ground up!
This past Sunday Runamuk participated in it’s 1st-ever Maine Open Farm Day. This was Maine’s 30th annual Open Farm Day, which gives the public the opportunity to meet their local farmers and support agricultural businesses across the state. Runamuk invited it’s local community to stop by the farm, offering tours, the chance to pet the…
Friday evening was the first market of the season for the Kingfield Farmers’ Market, held at Rolling Fatties in Kingfield, Maine. Runamuk was there with our organic (but not certified) eggs, beeswax soaps and salves, and some fresh vegetables. Earlier this year I’d made up my mind to give up markets and shift instead toward…
I love that my forever-farm came with so much open acreage that I can run livestock on pasture. Approximately 12 acres of pasture out behind the farmhouse, and maybe 3-4 acres surrounding the house itself. The pasture, in tandem with investment in electric net-fencing and solar chargers, has opened the door to new opportunities for…
A prolonged winter, combined with a cool, wet spring, made for a late start to the 2019 growing season, and even now temperatures remain rather on the cool side. These conditions have made it difficult for the planting of some temperature-sensitive crops. The apiary is particularly tricky to manage in such cool weather, but I…
It’s finally happening; Spring comes to the Bigelows, where I have chosen to make my stand with Runamuk. Rivers and streams are swollen with rain and melt-waters, rushing through gullies and valleys carved into the landscape by a million Springs before this. The ground softens, thawing as the days grow milder, and the world around…
Some pretty exciting stuff’s happening at Runamuk in the 2019 growing season: new gardens, new growing structures, upcoming events, and even more critters! Farmers across the state are gearing up for the coming season and I’ve dropped to 2 days per week in the Call Center at Johnny’s Selected seeds. I’m back on the farm…
Sick sheep seldom survive; that’s what Gordon Blauvelt told me this week when I stopped in to retrieve 2 more bags of grain for the sheep. Miracle’s second round of antibiotics and all of the extra grain and alfalfa cubes I’d been feeding her had not improved her health or conditioning. Her breathing was fast…
The novelty of winter snow has worn off as the difficulties posed by months of cold and snow have mounted, and I have dubbed this Manic March in light of recent events here on the farm. Winter is always hard─especially in a place like Maine. It’s cold, there’s lots of snow, wind, and ice. Things…
There’s another Winter Storm dropping snow on the state of Maine this morning. My muscles and joints have finally stopped aching from the last storm, but I’m ready to go again, shovel in hand, to face whatever Mother Nature has in store for me. This winter has been something of a mixed bag for Runamuk─and…
I haven’t posted about it in a while, but I’m still growing shoots and sprouts as part of my Winter Growing Challenge, and I am loving my homegrown winter salads! I’ve modified my methods for growing shoots this year, and─so long as I remember to soak the seed on a regular basis─I’ve been harvesting 1…