Morgan Bay Farm

Change happens quickly in a New England spring. Suddenly there are leaves on the trees, green, green grass, flowering trees, continuous bird song,  and the first harvests from the garden. Apple blossom petals rain from the sky like snowflakes. The delicious smell of lilacs is everywhere. In the weeks to come miracles will happen daily - new flowers and vegetables, strawberries in June, then raspberries, blueberries, black berries, elderberries. The grass in the field will grow so tall that it will have to be bush-hogged. June bugs will crash into the windows and do their crazy upside-down break dance on the ground. Peepers and wood frogs chirrup day and night and a zillion tadpoles swim in the ponds. Bullfrogs and green frogs lounge at the water's edge, and oh, the fireflies! On the Summer Solstice they fill the field with their flickering lights and we will sleep under the elderberry bushes to see what magic happens then.
As the summer progresses we will have new foods from the garden almost daily - starting with Asparagus and rhubarb, ending with winter squashes, pumpkins and potatoes in the Fall.

Kate, with the help of her CSA members has been preparing ground and planting when weather permits. Our rainy time seems to be through (we hope) and yesterday the team of workers got potatoes in the ground.

                                                                          KATE

 Planting potates

Paula Rocks!

We Mainers always say that one of our best crops is rocks.
Every year as we prepare our ground for planting we get a new crop of rocks. No matter that we got them all out during the last growing season (or so we thought), new ones appear every year.

This is a period of intense hard work, especially since Kate is
tilling new areas, never before planted, and removing clumps of sod and rock, digging new beds, applying lime and other amendments, and all the while planting. I marvel at her energy and spirit. It is a delight to hear the chatter and laughter in the fields while Kate and the CSA members dig, hoe, rake, lug compost and put plants in the ground. It is an example of community cooperation that makes me feel that all is well with our world.

The hens have been generous with their eggs and fresh asparagus has accompanied many of our meals. We combined eggs and asparagus for eggs Benedict to

great success. I fretted over the finickiness of the hollandaise sauce, but as you can see it worked. The yellow yolks from our free range chickens made a brilliant sauce.

Lucky is the light-brown- backed head down hen

The hen that had the mishap with the fox is fully recovered. We named her "Lucky." The flock of 5 is healthy and beautiful. We average 3 eggs a day from them.

Recipe for Rhubarb Pie

 pastry for a 2-crust pie
2 eggs
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons flour
pinch of salt
4 cups chopped rhubarb

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Use your favorite pie crust recipe. Roll out the bottom crust and fit it into the pie plate. In a mixing bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, flour, and salt and beat well. Add the rhubarb and stir until well blended. Spoon the mixture into the bottom crust. Add a lattice top. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake for 30 minutes longer. Serves 6 to 8.

This weekend I will take a break from farm chores and travel to Freeport with my oldest daughter, Kelly, to take part in the Bicycle Coalition of Maine's Women's Ride, hosted by L.L. Bean.
Senses and muscles delight in a New England Spring.

Of Chickens, Fox, Pupcakes and Elderberry Jam

Things are pretty soggy here on the farm. We haven't seen sun in over a week. The fog conceals the bay and the lower fields. All is chill and gray. Rain is off and on, soaking at times. We can't get the crops in nor the weeds out. The grasses and weeds are growing rapidly providing cover for the strawberry blond mama fox who stalks the hens, hoping to feed her hungry kits. I feel sorry for her, but I do not want to supply her with chicken dinners. Twice she has been here, not 3 yards from the back door where the chickens congregate under the bird feeder to scavange sunflower seeds. She actually had one of the girls in her jaws and was making off with her while the squawking and feather flapping of the other birds alerted me that something different was happening in the dooryard. I looked out the window to see the fox, fowl in its mouth running past the potting shed. I ran out of the house shouting and clapping my hands as hard as I could. The fox dropped the bird. I couldn't believe it. Even more unbelievable was no physical harm had come to the bird. The fox ran off, stopped down the field to turn and look at me, and then disappeared into the woods. The little flock of 5 birds ran for cover into the elderberry grove and there they spent the rest of the day. I checked on the assaulted bird periodically. She looked stunned with a glazed stare and mouth agape and settled behind a bush while the other hens pecked the ground for worms. Later on I found an egg without a shell in the garden. It was a mess of yolk and albumen; the egg was scared out of her. Poor girl!
Our two Australian Shepherds weren't on the property at the time, but the fox has come back when they were here and he still got pretty close.

Our Aussie, Lola, turned 4 on May 17th and Frankie turned 6 on May 2. To celebrate their birthdays I made them "pupcakes" which were served with vanilla icecream. I'd share the pupcake recipe, but I don't think they much cared for them. They were made from whole wheat, carrots, banana, honey, vanilla, egg, cinnamon. Frankie took his out and buried it. Lola took hers to the woodshed and set it on the ground, looking at it and looking at me as if to say, "would it hurt your feelings if I didn't eat this?" They gobbled the icecream, though.

 The greenhouse is full of seedlings waiting to go in the ground. We have passed our usual last frost date and would normally be planting like crazy, but much of the ground is a swamp. Kate, who is doing a CSA on this land, fortunately planted hundreds of onions, leeks, peas, lettuces, and brassicas before the deluge and they seem to be thriving.  They'll really "pop" when the sun finally shines.

When life give you clouds and rain, make jam. That's what I've done this week, made a couple of batches of elderberry jam from frozen berries, to set out on the farm stand shelves when we open in June. Then there will come the strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and elderberries for eating, jam and freezing.
The fruit trees are in flower, humming birds are humming, we've eaten the season's first fresh asparagus and fiddleheads. The rhubarb is ready for cutting. All around us is nature's bounty and we are grateful!