We were excited this last weekend to show Congressman Jim McGovern and Representative Natalie Blais around the farm! We visited the animals and hiked down to the construction site to check out the new program building and dorms (more on the construction here, if you’re interested).
Jody Hopp, our amazing program manager, has been taking some beautiful pictures around the farm lately. She’s noticed the farm cats venturing outside more frequently as temperatures warm. The lambs are being born and snuggling up with their moms. The first snow drops are blooming and the willow buds are opening up!
We’ve been collecting sap and boiling away for the last few weeks. Here’s a quick look at how we collect sap and turn it into delicious syrup!
We welcomed the first lamb of the season on 2/22/2022! She came a week earlier than expected, but she’s healthy and happy and already frolicking around the barn. Mom is also doing great! Her name? Tuesday!
Is that a smile?
Weighing the lamb! We use an old pair of Carhartts for the sling.
Right after Tuesday was born. Mom still wasn’t shorn!
It’s been a great week! Thanks to everyone who joined us for February Vacation this year! Here’s a little peak at some of the fun we had.
We started the Families on the Farm program in October of 2020, six grueling months into the pandemic. We wanted to have kids back on the farm, we wanted to connect to our community, we wanted everyone to feel safe. We decided we’d run a small, simple program where families would be invited to help a staff member do chores. We’d limit the program to one to two families at a time, and we’d ask parents to accompany their children in case they needed help. We would all be masked, we would stay socially distant.
I remember running Families on the Farm back then–the whole thing was very fun, very funny. How do you explain a quick release hose from six feet away? Or help carry a bale of hay? Or herd sheep? With a lot of detailed instructions, patience, and laughter. Parents stepped up to help when needed, but also spent a good amount of time blown away watching their kids lug full-sized bales of hay up hills, muck stalls, and scrub water dishes (“she’d never do that at home…” one mom whispered to me).
Just over a year later, we’re still running Families on the Farm. We’ve eased up on the masking and social distancing, but we’ve decided to keep many other elements the same. We love the small, intimate nature of this program. It’s a great way for us to get to know families. Jody Hopp runs the Families on the Farm now. She appreciates the one-on-one time with the families.
“It’s sweet and the interactions between kids and parents as they work together feel really meaningful. I think parents are surprised by the care and attentiveness their kids show while working with the animals–especially the larger ones!”
Interested in coming out to help with chores? We’d love to see you! You can find out more about Families on the Farm on our program page.
It’s hard to believe summer is already over. Maybe taking a look back at some of our favorite photos will make these first cold days of Fall feel a little warmer.
Introducing Jacob Krain: Red Gate Farm Assistant Director and Amazing Storyteller! Jake participated in CISA’s (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture) storytelling event Field Notes. He and five other local food and farm lovers shared true stories about farming, cooking, eating and more. Way to go Jake!
Here’s something I love: students sneaking fruits and vegetables from the garden. I can understand Mr. Mcgreggor’s aversion to rabbits, but even he would have succumbed to the sweetness of a five-year-old playing coy about the six carrots he has stuffed in a single tiny pants pocket. Or the 7-year-old with tell-tale sticky blue fingers. Or the 10-year-old who has disappeared in the sugar-snap-peas for the third time.
Most students I discover with cheeks stuffed like chipmunks have a certain gleam in their eyes. They are thrilled by their own audacity. The carrot in their hand is an illicit treasure, a cookie from the cookie jar, and they’ve been bold enough to it take from right under my nose. In these cases, I like to play along:
“Hey you! What’s that I see in your hand, huh?!”
They try to hide it, I pretend to be horrified:
“A CARROT. You’re eating a CARROT? The HORROR! How could you!”
I throw my arms, I gnash my teeth, I faint! The performance is rewarded with big messy grins on dirty faces, and a half-dozen more carrots missing from bed 23.
Some students do not gleam when caught. They look down, they frown. These students, I reassure. “I’m so glad you found the carrots! Will you pick one for me?” We hangout and eat together. We pick more for our friends and teachers. We throw blueberries high in the air and catch them in our mouths, we try strawberries wrapped in mint leaves, we slice a beet in two and use the pieces to cover our arms in polka-dots.
In the end, every student who works in the garden knows they can snack, taste test, and feast to their heart's content. I’m sure Mr. Mcgreggor would be aghast, but I couldn't be happier to see the things I grow consumed with wild and reckless abandon.
Haunted ducks, radioactive sheep, princesses, and monkeys, all in one wonderful night! Halloween this year was different (what hasn’t been?) but still full of joy, laughter, and candy. Thank you to everyone who came out and celebrated with us and to the awesome group of volunteers who made the whole thing possible.
This week was very similar to last. I spent the majority of my time in the sugar house, feeding the fire, and making sure that all was well with the pan and the sap levels. We boiled every day this week except on Tuesday, because of the weather. We had started the fire, and had just gotten things setup, but then it got really windy and Ben explained to me that in years past they have had trouble with the wind. In order for the draft to move the evaporator steam out of the sugar house, the door must stay partly open at all times, and if it gets very windy out, salt and sand off the road can blow in and contaminate the syrup which would ruin the entire batch. So that is why we were not able to continue on Thursday.
Something I noticed was that the front pan, which does most of the evaporation, has gotten much darker since last week. The sap has turned a more caramel color. There are two main reasons for this: one is that the more the pan is used throughout the season, the more heating and reheating of sap goes on, and now that we are midway through the season, the pan has been stained with burnt sugars and a mineral substance called “sugar sand.” The other reason is that the later in the season, the darker the sap becomes as it matures in the trees. The sap gets a green tinge to it. So that is why I noticed the darker color that has formed.
I was able to get a lot of progress on my tree mapping project this week, and I am in a place, where I can easily finish next week, which is my last week on the farm. I am excited to get another week of collecting and boiling.
This week was very eventful. It started with the first sap collection of the year. Ben taught me how to pump the sap from the large collecting tanks into the back of the truck. We then unloaded the sap into a large silver tank next to the sugar house. In the first collection, I made a huge mistake, where I turned the valve on the tank the wrong way, and we lost 250 gallons of sap. So I definitely learned from that one, and won’t make that mistake again. Because we lost that much sap, we were not able to boil until Thursday. However, there was plenty more sap to collect and the first boil was very exciting. I learned most of what is to be learned about the evaporation process.
I got the chance to tend the fire. It needs feeding every 8 minutes to make sure that the fire stays at a consistent hot temperature. I learned about how we know when it is time to draw off, and how to use the hydrometer to test density. We drew off periodically and finished the syrup in a propane fueled finishing pan before bottling the syrup into mason jars. We have a main boiling pan, and a smaller pan. The smaller pan is for the sap that is closer to syrup and ready to be drawn off. The current of the pans flow in such a way that where the sap enters the system is where the sugar content is lowest. The liquid flows across pan where it changes density as the sugar content is concentrated through evaporation.
This week we collected roughly 1,100 gallons of sap, including what was lost in the accident. From that have so far made about 11 gallons of syrup. However there is still sap in the evaporator that remains to boiled in subsequent days.
This week at Red Gate, we set up all the main tapping lines and prepared for the sugaring season to really kick off. I spent Monday up in the sugarbush learning the process of how taps are put in, and how the lines are set up to make an easy flow to the collecting tanks. We set about 5 or 6 different tubing lines that flow into the main line. Tuesday was spent tapping a different section of woods that runs into a large silver tank located near the site of the old sugar house.
Read MoreElias Stegeman is working as an Apprentice at Red Gate Farm. He is focusing on maple sugaring, and is immersing himself in all aspects of the farm’s small operation. Throughout the season he is keeping a journal of his days and activities to share with our community.
Read More
CONTACT
Farm Director, Ben Murray (contact)
4 Norman Road, Ashfield, MA 01330
(413) 625-9503
click here for directions
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