Critters of Spring

It’s finally that time of year! The farm is quickly coming alive with new critters being born almost daily (well, not quite, but it feels that way to us farmers). This week has been especially busy with two of our sows farrowing beautiful litters of little heritage piglets…and plenty more piglets to come! We have also been blessed with the early arrival of many young calves - six so far this season. And we even received our first group of baby meat bird chicks this week - so it’s been quite busy on the farm. We welcome these days and the farm’s spring renewal. The farm is open for your enjoyment so please do come on down and wander around to see the piglets, baby calves, and the rest of the farm which is just beginning to show signs of spring.

While everyone loves to see the baby animals, including our own staff, it also is a sign that we have to start busting a move to get ready for the season. As a pasture-based livestock farm, we are passionate about growing our animals on pasture and NOT keeping them penned up in barns. So this means we have plenty of work ahead of us to prepare for this transition. Our work at Codman is particularly challenging because we manage over 150 acres of land in Lincoln and Concord and we graze our animals on over a dozen fields. It’s hard work managing all of this land but it’s also rewarding to see the positive impact we can have.

For instance, over the past several years the town has experienced an increase in the invasive Carolina Horse Nettle weed - which has been making its way into open fields around town. This nasty weed spreads by seed and root has nasty thorns, is poisonous, and is resistant to chemical treatment. There are not many ways to eradicate this type of invasive weed. But through the use of our heritage pigs’ natural super-power…rooting, we can weaken the plants and slowly destroy them in our pastures through repeated rooting and tillage. The awesomeness of this approach is we just direct the pigs where to do their thang and they are happy to root up the green cover crops we plant AND the invasive weeds that inhabit the fields. They don’t eat the horse nettle plants, they just disturb their surroundings over time, and through successive rotations of cover crops and light mechanical tillage - the horse nettle dies off and the fields become totally free of this nasty invasive. Eventually, we will turn these fields back into lush pastures for grazing and move the pigs elsewhere to spread their powers to other fields in need.

Spreading cover crops on Codman North Field

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FARM STORE

We wanted to provide an update regarding an incident that occurred in the Farm Store this week. As many know, our awesome Farm Store is open 24/7 and is fully stocked with a highly curated selection of the best local foods that can be found in the region. Our dedication to remaining open at all times AND operating on the self-serve / HONOR system - has been one of our pride and joys and certainly something that makes us very unique.

Unfortunately, this aspect of our store can be taken advantage of. We are very sad to report we had quite a large theft late one evening this past week. A large amount of chicken and other high-value items were stolen from our store. This is always deeply saddening to witness and makes all our hearts sink. We work so very hard to grow the best quality products we can and to then see folks take advantage of our honor store is very depressing.

The good news is that our robust video surveillance system which records all activity 24 hours a day captured the entire theft including the license plate of the suspects. The Lincoln Police Department has been notified and they are in the process of hopefully recouping the value of our loss. We are always grateful for the support of the Lincoln Police Department whenever these situations arise. In the future, if folks are shopping in the store at odd hours and see something suspicious or just “off” - say something, call the police if it’s after hours, or let our staff know as soon as possible.

We hope in the future we won’t have to up our game and solicit the help of AI Farm-Chick-Bots to begin patrolling the grounds, as seen in the photo below. We are beginning to work on prototypes with Lincoln Labs just in case….

Happy 50th To Us!

Did you know that this year Codman Community Farms turns 50? Oh my, our Golden Anniversary! While we will do away with the need for lavish golden-like gifts we will indeed be celebrating the year in many ways.

We have many events on the docket including some not listed above. The farm turning 50 is a special occasion and first and foremost want to thank the Lincoln Community for its dedication to the farm over all these years. There have been many ups and downs but we are so proud of where we are today and are planning so many new and wonderful changes for this year and beyond.

As spring approaches we are extremely busy devising new ways to welcome everyone to the farm, including the final touches on our plans to renovate the Codman Community Courtyard. For those not aware, the area in front of our main barn will be renovated this spring into a new, pedestrian-friendly gathering space. It will be a beautiful new space devoid of mud, ice, and rocks and instead filled with new flower plantings, benches for lounging, and maybe even a few picnic tables.

For now, the space is still being used for intermittent parking since our nice bright orange parking cones blocking the area have been clobbered into tiny little orange bits so many times we have given up on the effort. We do intend to finally prohibit parking in the area once the renovation is complete…so time is ticking on all of you cone killers! You know who you are. Yeah yeah, I know when it’s raining or dark and it’s just easier. I got you. But know your days are numbered.

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FARM UPDATES

While the photo above looks like it was taken on a beautiful Fall day, in fact, it was taken this weekend as a group of volunteers and Codman Board members began tapping maple trees for sap. I’m beginning to wonder if we should just do away with seasons altogether as they don’t seem to mean anything anyway these days!

The tapping of the trees marks the beginning of the end of “winter” and the early signs that “spring” is coming. At Codman, the maple sugaring season represents the pinnacle of volunteerism since full-time farm staff are not involved in the process. For many years it’s been a passion passed down from board member to board member, and this year is no exception. Board President, Jason Curtin (seen above in his barely noticeable yellow corduroys), and Steve Hoenig have been instrumental in preparing for this season. Steve has worked tirelessly to prepare our new evaporator (new to us, courtesy of a donation from one Richard Nichols) for the first batch of syrup - and Jason organized a workday a few weekends ago to fill the sugar shack to the brim with freshly split wood.

Steve reported that the taps this weekend were flowing heavily and so we are hoping for some heavy flows these first few weeks. The work is non-stop once it starts since the taps need to be constantly monitored and buckets emptied to ensure a steady capturing of the sap. Bucket after bucket is emptied into larger containers and then brought back to the farm for eventual boiling in the sugar shack.

Once enough sap is collected the evaporator will be fired up and the process of reducing the sap to syrup will begin. It’s a 40:1 ratio so it takes a lot of sap to make a gallon of syrup. Do the math with me! 40 gallons of sap equals…..yes yes, 1 gallon of syrup. Good job. So, it takes a lot of wood to boil down all of that sap. Usually, we have a few weekends where volunteers will hang out in the sugar shack to keep the fire burning and sap a boilin’. It’s good fun and a great excuse to gather and celebrate the approach of spring.

questions or comments can be sent to pete@codmanfarm.org

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MESA at CODMAN!

As promised, 2023 will be a year of change and excitement at Codman Farm. For the first time ever, I am extremely excited to announce that the farm will be hosting TWO International Agricultural Stewards to work, live and learn at the farm this season.

We have partnered with MESA - Multinational Exchange for Sustainable Agriculture which is a nonprofit organization that “sponsors the Sustainable Agriculture & Global Exchange (SAGE) program. SAGE is a J-1 visa-designated training opportunity for beginning and established international farmers (Stewards) to train with U.S.-based farmers or ag. related organizations (Hosts) for an entire season”

“U.S. Host sites embrace MESA’s learn-and-share model of cross-cultural exchange and are eager to share and learn traditions, techniques, and innovations in sustainable food and farming systems with Stewards”

We are always looking for new and innovative ways to share our work as a sustainable farm and what better way than to invite folks from across the world to live and learn about what we are doing here!?

After a lengthy application process by both us as a farm and the candidates themselves and after several rounds of international zoom meetings - we are happy to be the hosts for Kenyan farmers Timothy Chege Kiarie and Joshua Mutarin Tinka. They will both be living on the farm. They will be helping and learning all aspects of what we do here, with a focus on helping in the market garden and with our livestock.

If this visa process proceeds smoothly we will be welcoming Timothy and Joshua to live in the apartment in the farmhouse by mid-April and you will no doubt see them working and training alongside our existing farm crew as we begin or 50th farming season at Codman.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

The apartment on the farm is currently unfurnished and so we will be seeking donations for a few items to help us make the apartment as comfortable as possible for Timothy and Joshua. At this time we are seeking the following:

• Lightly used and clean twin or double bed mattresses with frames (2)

• Clean bedding for above

• Dressers (2)

• Lamps (2)

• Clean couch or living room chairs (1-2)

• Small dining room table with chairs (1-table, 2+ chairs)

• Table or floor fans

• Pots/pans/dishes/silverware in good shape

Please email pete@codmanfarm.org if you have any items you feel are appropriate for our needs. Thank you!

FARM STORE & KITCHEN

We are testing new recipes and gearing up!

Our kitchen has been slowly gearing up these past weeks and we have just hired our first-ever Codman Kitchen Chef to begin cooking an array of tasty dishes made from our own proteins and local produce. Next week we will introduce our new chef so stay tuned for that exciting announcement!

We know we have been teasing the heck out of folks with our delicious, deeply flavored pasture-raised roasted chicken and beef stock and most recently our first batch of meatloaf. Coming soon we plan to have a regular supply of stocks in our fridges and then expand into hearty soups, chilis, and stews and perhaps start dabbling with items like mini-quiche, braised meats for dinner entrees, and more. We hope you are as excited as we are to see the Codman Kitchen come alive.

Before and After

The power of poop! After about 45 days the pasture below at Mt. Misery field fully recovered from their impact of the meat chickens. Impact ~ Rest and Recovery yields healthy, beautiful, fertile pastures!

New Self-Checkout Terminals!

It's been two weeks since we installed our new self-checkout system and it's finally working, more or less as we had hoped! We certainly had a few ups and downs over the last few weeks and we are grateful to everyone who has rolled with us during the transition. We are slowly customizing the screens so they look more like our beautiful farm, and we hope to continue to make small improvements so there are fewer and fewer issues during the checkout process.

We also wanted to continue to point out nuances to this new system in case you have had issues or questions along the way. Some of these are a repeat of the last newsletter...

PLEASE NOTE:

• The barcode scanner is integrated into the body of the device so instead of a hand scanner wand flopping about, each item will need to be waved under the center body of the system. You will see a RED GLOW emanating from the scanner. Wave the barcodes about 6 inches from the scanner to scan your items.

• A receipt printer is integrated into the body of the device for anyone who wants a printed receipt. If the brown light is blinking on the printer it may mean the paper is low or out. We receive alarms from the system when this occurs so we will correct the issue shortly but feel free to alert Tyler or other staff if you see someone around!

• E-mail receipts are only available if you have an account established.

• The fingerprint reader can be used to establish an account. Just place your finger on the reader to start the process of establishing an account. Some folks have had issues with it working but mostly the issues are with folks who have DRY fingers! If you moisten your finger (I won't tell you how!), it can help the reader quite a bit.

• Member cards will be available soon for folks who want to use them as another way to access your account.

• SNAP/EBT benefits are currently only accepted on Terminal 3 which is the terminal near the glass coolers in the barn.

• Credit cards/Apple pay etc will still be accepted on the new pin pad, which is attached to the screen. Your credit card is inserted into the bottom where we have a little hand indicating how to insert the card. It's a bit hidden down there!

• Bread and a few other non-barcoded items can be selected and added to your cart using the button "produce/nonbarcoded items". Very similar to the current system.

• Any LOOSE items for sale that are NOT bagged MUST be pre-weighed on the scale so you can get a barcode to scale upon checkout.

Spring...Yes, please!

Oh yes, I think it's time. If you are like me, you are also more than ready for warmer days, abundant sunshine, and the lushness and hope that comes with spring. Please mother nature, no more snow. I'm asking nicely. It's time to grow food. Can we just get on with it?

I think I speak for most, except for the rabid skiers among us, that we are ready for winter to close up shop so spring can do its thing. Once I get a sneak peek of spring/summer with these 60-70 degree days, my own sap gets flowing and I feel the urge to move our critters to pasture and get the veggies planted in the gardens. There continue to be so many worrisome things happening in the world that the farm still feels like a place of refuge where we can escape and just enjoy the bubbling steam of sap in the sugar shack, the green shoots of spring bulbs, and the deep squishy mud of spring. It's simple stuff - and it's exactly that simplicity that clears the mind and nourishes the soul. So come on down to the farm, visit with the piglets (that should arrive any day), take a peek in the brooder barn to see the chicks (arriving next week), and walk down the laneway alongside the gardens as they begin to bloom with lush produce.

While visiting, take a look around and notice what's here at this moment in time. Within a month or so the farm will begin to transform. All of the water wagons, coops, feeders, and water systems will soon be pressure washed, painted, greased, and repaired in preparation for another season of keeping our critters well fed, watered, and safe. Once the weather warms up a bit more and the pastures come alive the laying hens, our guardian dogs Portia and Sophie, and many of the mobile coops will be moved down the street to Codman North field so the birds can free range on the open fields. And once the hens leave the greenhouse the work of cleaning and sanitizing the greenhouse begins so we can give the space time to air out before we prep the soil for our summer tomato crop.

In the meantime, Jared is busy welding the frames for three new coops which will complete our fleet of seven larger open floored coops for the meat chickens. These modular coops will be built from scratch here on the farm - to suit our unique needs, and then reassembled at Mt. Misery field where we grow almost 6000 meat chickens to be sold exclusively here on the farm, in our Store.

And the lists go on and on. More piglets will be born, the cows will be moved to pasture where they will have their spring calves, the new flock of 1400 hens will arrive...and turkey poults too... and all the while the greenhouses and gardens will be growing a wide variety of greens, roots, shoots, and fruits. As my son Abe would say, "Good times". Indeed! Lots of work, for sure, but definitely "good times" ahead. And we look forward to sharing all these good times with you through our many volunteer opportunities, new and exciting workshops, the launching of our commercial kitchen, and the many community events on our calendar.

Hope to see you soon....Pete

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Update on the

DRIVEWAY PROJECT

For many years now we have been dreaming of a new driveway for the farm. During winter while I dream of palm trees and turquoise waters for a warm-weather escape, I also dream of the day when I don't have to ice skate across the frozen driveway to get out of the farmhouse or maybe one day not have to drag mud and gravel into our new commercial kitchen. It's simple pleasures folks! And frequent visitors to the farm in winter can relate to this for sure. The driveway is in a sorry state!

Due to many many years of erosion and lack of upkeep, the driveway has degraded to a point where it needs a serious upgrade. Luckily, we are on the cusp of a vast improvement.

In the coming weeks, we hope the town will approve the last of the funding needed to regrade and improve the entire driveway and courtyard in front of the main entrance to the barn. In collaboration with many town departments and using some of Codmans' own funds, we plan a major upgrade to the entrance and parking area on this town-owned property. As a reminder, Codman Community Farms is an independent non-profit entity, but we reside on town-owned property and while we steward the land, the town remains the vital resource for maintaining the integrity of this historic property.

Once we achieve full funding we will be working with the engineering firm and the town to bring this project to fruition - hopefully by this summer or fall. As seen below, the main parking area will be slightly enlarged and shifted to the left, to the area where the dilapidated concrete foundation of an old barn once stood. A new ADA compliant entrance will be built into the side of the barn and the area in red, below, will be a new and improved courtyard to be used for community events and gatherings. Parking will no longer be permitted in this space.

After years of planning, we are excited about these improvements. They will mean a more accessible farm for all, a safer and easier parking experience, and a more friendly environment to enjoy all the farm has to offer, no matter the time of year.

Snow Day = Farm Chores!

With not much snow this season, and plenty of school snow days in reserve we enjoyed a day of egg collecting and egg washing this past Friday due to the schools being closed. My son, Abe, was a willing participant (mostly) as we attempted to fill the day with activities, other than "screen time". So for a few productive hours, we collected egg after egg from the nest boxes, eventually filling almost five, 5-gallon buckets of eggs.

I didn't grow up on a farm and so sometimes I am uncertain and just feel weird not knowing if I'm supposed to force my kid to do farm chores. I don't have a history of hard-knock farm tales like, "Well, MY daddy made me get up at 4 am before school each day to muck out the stalls, milk the cows, and churn the butter...so darn straight you're gonna do the same..." But carrying out chores and accomplishing meaningful tasks are innately satisfying nonetheless. So for a few hours, egg duties were ours and we embraced the day and our time together. Hopefully, more enjoyable, productive days like this will continue as Abe grows and can contribute in greater and deeper ways to the farm. We feel lucky living on a farm and most days I think he’d agree.