Megan's Kitchen Recipes: Potato Buttermilk Rolls.

Wood Prairie Family Farm Photos.

What a Difference a Week Makes in Maine. We've been seeing these three-amigos Moose off and on for the last month. Even when we don't see them we know they're around because in a display of Bovine solidarity they regularly knock down the electric fence keeping our cattle in. At first light one morning last week, Caleb’s wife, Lizzi, took this shot from the kitchen window of their home up by the Big Pond. It's looking west towards our stream, a tributary to the South Branch of Whitney Brook, which is just beyond the treeline. Those Moose are eating a sweet plowdown crop of the Biofumigant Rapeseed. Next year on these same home farm fields we will be growing our 2023 crop of Organic Maine Certified Seed Potatoes. Rapeseed is a Brassica family member and is akin to Organic Tillage Radish. Rapeseed is especially rich in natural 'glucosinolates' (GSLs) which researchers have proven - including after a multi-year study performed by University of Maine and USDA scientists on our farm - reduce soil borne pests such as pathogenic nematodes, and funguses, plus it inhibiting weed seed germination. Biofumigant crops make for higher quality cash crops, and this is most especially important for those of us who grow Organic Seed. On our farm we see Moose a lot. One Fall about 15 years ago at exactly this same time of year, we had a dozen Moose grazing our Rapeseed just as we drove over before daybreak to plow it down. It’s our belief that our frosty Fall Maine nights sweeten up the Rape to the point where Moose can't resist raiding the candy store.

Last Day of 2022 Farming Season on Wood Prairie Family Farm. The weather forecast had warned Mainers that we were situated in the crosshairs of two major wet weather systems which would merge right on top of us over the weekend. Since Veteran's Day would be the last dry day, it was clear it was finally time to plowdown our last Organic Cover Crop and put away the tractors for the year. Just hours after we finished this tractor work that evening it began to rain and eventually dropped 2.5” of rain over a couple of days. Jim took this shot looking north on Veteran's Day, the day after Lizzi caught the three moose on camera. In fact, Caleb, driving the silver White 105 tractor, is in the very same spot the Moose were grazing the day before. He is pulling a 7-foot Woods Bushhog Mower which chops up the knee-high crop of soil biofumigant Rapeseed allowing better incorporation. Jim is driving the green Oliver 1850 Diesel which is pulling the red International Harvester 7-tooth Chisel Plow. The teeth have 'twisted shank' feet which not only rip into the soil 12 inches deep but turn under 90% of the crop top residue. As that residue decomposes in the soil it gives off the natural cleansing gas which science has proved is as effective as conventional-farm-toxin Methyl Bromide, a perennial candidate for getting banned and a known deadly Ozone depleter. Almost 50 years of organic farming has taught us that there's usually a good organic solution for challenges faced by farmers. A good solution benefits the environment and doesn't poison the soil, or the food we eat or the seed we sell. So, this good solution is win-win for everybody except the chemical companies.

  Here We Go Again: Winter Snow Arrives in Maine. We follow the weather closely during Winter so we can keep a handle on where it’s safe to ship our perishable Organic Certified Seed Potatoes. Almost always there’s only enough cold for one side of one country or the other. However, the pattern following Veteran’s Day was a rare one in which all of the Lower 48 States were unseasonably cold from coast to coast. Our cold, heavy weekend rainfall shifted over to snow Sunday night. This shot, taken Monday morning, shows additional Home Farm fields which had their Rapeseed cover crop chisel-plowed in just days before. It was +30ºF, still spitting snow and the northwest wind was strong and blowing in the flakes from Canada horizontally. Since that morning this photo was taken, we’re had another six inches of snow and with the steady cold temperatures the ground is frozen over solid. All of a sudden the outside work season in Maine is done. Now our work shifts over to the inside, grading Organic Seed Potatoes and packing and shipping bags of Organic Seed. It’s a safe bet we’ll thaw out and lose our snow by May.