Runamuk Acres Conservation Farm
Soil-first farming, building health from the ground up!
Page 82 of the 2019 Johnny’s Selected Seeds catalog is about recommended lettuce varieties for hydroponic growing─but you’ll also find my own smiling face there! That’s right!! Johnny’s has chosen to feature little ol’ me as a valued provider of knowledgeable service in their Call Center! When Amanda Terenzoni from the marketing team initially contacted…
October is a tricky month for farmers. One day it’s mild and beautiful─you take pause to admire the spectacle of Maine’s glorious fall foliage; the next day the temperature plunges, the wind picks up, and the threat of snow looms in the forecast. For the last few weeks I’ve been walking this line between preparing…
Last week was all about cover-cropping the garden here at Runamuk. The chickens had completed their work and I had my new broadfork, along with some seed to put down; there’s something particularly intimate and romantic about working soil, so I was especially jacked up for the project. Aside from the continued focus on the…
What’s the dirt on broadforks anyway? Have you heard of these tools? Have you used one yourself? What if I told you that there’s a tool out there which reduces the need for tilling? What if I said that─when used in tandem with other practices aimed at promoting agrodiversity─this tool promotes soil health, encourages wildlife…
We’re slowly getting settled here at the Hive House─there are several projects I’m in the midst of, and a number of tasks still wanting my attention, but I’m gaining. After taking last week off from market and Johnny’s for the #GreatFarmMove, I’ll be back at the Madison Farmers’ Market this Saturday, and then back to…
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…
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…
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…
Today marks the 200th day since I first dropped off my application with the USDA’s Farm Service Agency back on September 28th. 200 days slogging my way through the red tape associated with the government-financing process in hopes of one day owning my own forever-farm. Everyone wants to know what’s going on─have we Closed yet?…