Lifestyles

A look backward and forward

By BECKY NELSON
Bramblings
As one season ends and another begins at the farm, I can’t help but look backward for a recap. Our maple season ended abruptly just a couple of week ago. We were worried earlier in the season, when cold weather during the daylight hours kept the sap from running as the calendar pages flipped over well into March. We have been preparing the maple orchard earlier in the season than we traditionally did a couple of decades ago in response to changing springtime patterns that brought the first sap run in late February instead of in March.

The old timers used to predict the first boil of the season around Town Meeting Day. This year, they would have been pretty close to accurate. There was a week very early in February that brought a one day run, but to have the trees tapped and ready to go might have limited later runs. We were not ready for the season at that point, as our efforts to clean fallen debris off the tubing lines from numerous wind storms during the fall and winter took us later and later into February. 

We were finally ready for the sap to start about a week before Mother Nature was ready to warm up enough for the trees to start preparing for spring. Again, we wondered and worried a bit, hoping and praying that we would still have a maple season despite the late date of the start. Like many others around us in this particular area, we ended the season at about eighty percent of the production we were projecting in a “normal” season. The production is about enough to keep our retail shop in syrup until next year, with no syrup above our sale projection to sell to wholesalers.

With a diversified farm, a dip in production for one crop does not spell absolute disaster. For those who rely solely upon a single crop, that production dip or a downward spiral in pricing, rise in supply costs or fluctuation in markets can absolutely spell disaster. We feel blessed that we are among the farms still opening the barn doors every day, as there are many around the state and the New England region that have closed up shop.

Because of the late end to the maple season and the reliance on only we two aging owners and some volunteer help to accomplish the work, we have headed into the busy spring season of planting and prepping for summer growing a bit weary. Throw into the mix a glorious week enjoying new growth and renewal of our species spent helping out in the household of our newest grandchild, and we are chasing our tails and putting double-duty efforts into spring pruning of apples and raspberries, seeding crops in the hoop houses and preparing seedlings that are cold sensitive and readying them for some boosted growth when they hit the soil next month.

The beautiful flowers of last week on the maples, willows and all other trees have dropped and the buds are starting to open on most of the tree species around the farm. As these changes occur, I can’t help but look forward. The grass is growing at a rapid rate and the pastures are starting to green as the cows lean longingly against the fences, impatiently waiting for the first day out to eat something other than hay. The turkeys are still seen in full strut as spring urges awaken, roads close and drivers are delayed for amphibian migrations as they move from winter homes to pools and waterways for breeding, and the does in the local deer herd come to the edges of the fields to graze on the new grass shoots to feed the fawns growing in their wombs.

Spring is a glorious time around here, and despite our fatigue, the promise of growth and harvest are oddly invigorating. There is something about the sunshine streaming through the windows in the early morning and the warm rain falling on the new grass that gives my thoughts and my soul a warm boost. The smell of the soil as you plant your gardens or flowers, the feel of the sun warming you as you work, the oun of the peepers in the ponds and vernal pools … there is nothing like spring. I hope you all have a wonderful spring and get outside to enjoy the amazing transformations that nature is undergoing from the dark dreariness of winter to the vibrant colors and sounds of spring and summer. 

I hope you all enjoy a bit of that renewal, growth and transformation yourselves as well.

 

Becky is co-owner of Beaver Pond Farm in Newport, [email protected]

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