Newsletters

Photo by Adam Wilson Greetings Friends and Neighbors,  North Wind howled and nipped at exposed skin as the Farm Team worked to clear Snow from the parking lot and walkways. Would anyone show up for Gift Distribution on a day like this? Would we be able to keep the Bread and Soup – and our…

Photo by John Hadden Greetings Friends and Neighbors,  Heavy snow bends Hemlock branches to the ground. Without Wind, even the smallest twigs of old Apple hold up huge white pillows. The landscape is full of whimsy. Animal tracks, accumulated over the past weeks, are now covered-over by this same whiteness – the teachers’ many scribbled…

Photo by Ben Sklar Greetings Friends and Neighbors,  How does one respond with courage to a world in freefall? This past week I spent many hours walking the fields and woods, listening for words worth adding to the fray, the frenzy of a collapsing mutual life. I wrote those words down and include them here…

Greetings Friends and Neighbors,  New Snow overnight – fallen through warm and windless air – clings to every branch and twig. Owl sits watch over the clearing from an inner limb of tall Hemlock beside the house. Deer left tracks in the night, digging for the last of the fall Turnips and Kale. Last week…

Photo by John Hadden Greetings Friends and Neighbors,  Nearly-Full Moon begins her ascent from behind the high Eastern Ridge, where the last of Sun’s light has been gathered up by brilliant white, Snow-encrusted alpine Spruce. As she catches your eye, she reaches out to steal one of your breaths. Stop for a moment. Please. Behold…

Greetings Friends and Neighbors,  Twenty ewes graze beside the narrow path from the house. Glenys – the matriarch of the flock – walks to my side and lowers her head for me to scratch between her shoulder blades. The flock is calm and quiet this evening in a way I have not seen in months.…

Greetings Friends and Neighbors,  Less than a week from Solstice, Sun uses the dark bodies of Hemlock and Pine to draw long sweeps of icy shadow on the ground and pours through house windows to paint the walls and floor with warm arcs of yellow light. Sifted bran from the bakery, spread yesterday as fertilizer…

Photo by Dick Mitchell Greetings Friends and Neighbors,  Our beloved friend Dick arrived with his camera as we ran the sheep from their fall hill pasture back to the Home Farm last Friday. As a long fall finally turns to winter, we joyfully continue the work of harvesting, preserving, washing, chopping, roasting, boiling and baking…

Photo: Ben Sklar Greetings Friends and Neighbors,  Blue Sky arrives infrequently here in November, and so Sunday morning glitter-frost-sunrise pouring over the Western Ridge powerfully claims my attention. The Farm Team arrives to meet in the sunny greenhouse to plan the week ahead and by 9 am we are already shedding layers. The air is…