agriculture and flora

Program offers low-cost rain barrels

April 26, 2014

Haven’t installed a rain barrel yet? Did you install one last year and need a second one to collect more water? The Lincoln Water Department has again teamed up with Upcycle Products Inc. to offer low-cost barrels. Order them online by May 10 from the Upcycle.com website (click on the Lincoln form in the right hand column). The barrels will be delivered for pick up at Stonegate Gardens on South Great Road on Saturday, May 17 from 4-6 p.m.

Using rain barrels to water your gardens reduces the water drawn from our drinking water supply, helping Lincoln to achieve the DEP’s water conservation goals while simultaneously saving you money. The soft, chemical-free rain water is very good for grass and other plants. During a rain storm, an enormous quantity of water runs off a roof, so you may want to order more than one. Each 4’ x 8’ section of roof that receives a quarter-inch of rain will fill a 55-gallon barrel.

“Peter Pease has been our best customer so far,” says Lincoln Water Commissioner Ruth Ann Hendrickson. “I went to see his installation. He uses four to supply soaker hoses and two to fill buckets for hand watering. Peter reports that he had to use sprinklers far less last summer in spite of the weeks without rain.”

All the Upcycle Products plastic rain barrels were originally used for transporting food products to the U.S. from overseas, while the oak barrels were used for whiskey, so this program not only promotes water conservation but also diverts large quantities of material from the waste stream. Reuse is the best form of recycling.

Early May is packed with Lincoln events

April 23, 2014

Here are just a few of the events coming up in Lincoln early next month. Click the links for details in the Lincoln Squirrel calendar or on the website of the group that’s running the event.

May Day Merriness — Thursday, May 1
1-2:30 p.m., Drumlin Farm
We’ll make and decorate May baskets, then gather flowers from spring’s bounty to fill them. Plant some flower seeds in the garden and some to take home. This is a great family program for all ages. Registration is required; $12 for Mass Audubon members, $15 for nonmembers. More info…

Trail walks led by Conservation staff

April 18, 2014

Visit a different area of Lincoln’s open space each week on Wednesday walks led by Conservation Department staff on Wednesdays from 9:30-11:30 a.m. Walks are typically about 2.5 miles long. Wear sturdy shoes and always dress for the weather (walks are held rain or shine). Meeting places and descriptions are listed below.

Cool stuff coming up in Lincoln

March 11, 2014

Events in the next few days in Lincoln include a trip down memory lane with several former Lincoln police chiefs, a town candidate forum, and Drumlin Farm’s annual Sap-to-Syrup breakfast.

On Friday, March 14, the Lincoln Council on Aging will screen “50 Years of Public Safety” starting at 1 p.m. in Bemis Hall. The 2004 DVD features former Lincoln Police Chiefs Leo Algeo and Allen Bowles—both of whom will be there to participate in a panel after the film, along with another former Lincoln chief, Dominic Arena, and current chief Kevin Mooney. Find out how public safety in Lincoln has changed over the years, reminisce, tell some stories of your own, and ask questions.

On Saturday, March 15, the Republican and Democratic Town Committees are co-sponsoring a nonpartisan candidate forum at 2 p.m. in Bemis Hall. Meet the 20+ candidates who are on the ballot for the March 31 town election, and learn their qualifications and interests, and become informed about important issues that may impact the town for years.

There are a few spots left for the Sap-to-Syrup breakfasts at Drumlin Farm on Saturday and Sunday, March 16 and 17 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tickets ($15 for adults and $12 for children over age 2) include a half-hour seating for a breakfast of pancakes with real maple syrup, Drumlin Farm roasted potatoes and sausage, plus access to special programming around the farm. See how sap is collected, explore the natural history of trees, learn about Native American sap-to-syrup techniques and purchase maple syrup made at Drumlin Farm to take home with you. Call 781-259-2206 or register online.

Farm shares shares now on sale

March 5, 2014

You wouldn’t know by looking outside, but it’s almost growing season, and local farms are gearing up to sell CSA (community-supported agriculture) shares of vegetables and meat this summer.

Drumlin Farm family programs

February 5, 2014

Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary has plenty of programs to keep you busy through this cold winter season. Check out this sampling of upcoming programs! For more information about our programs or to register, call 781-259-2200 or visit www.massaudubon.org.drumlinfarm.

Winter Wool Craft Series: Knitting II – Building Skills
Saturday, Feb. 8, 10 a.m. to noon
What can you make from wool? Join other teens 13-17 interested in creating amazing projects and developing craft skills. Visit with the sheep and build on your basic knitting skills. $20 for members, $24 for nonmembers.

Chickadee Birders: Eagles and Owls
Sunday, Feb. 9, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The North Shore is a perfect place to go in search of all our favorite wintering birds, such as ducks, eagles, and owls. We will introduce elementary age children (ages 7-11 or grades 2-5) to the basics of birding, bird life, and seasonal migration. Birding is a lifelong skill that can lead to a greater interest in the outdoors and the environment as a whole. $30 for members, $36 for nonmembers.

Kinglet Birders: Owl Prowl
Sunday, Feb. 9, 1:30-3 p.m.
Share the exciting and fascinating world of birds with your 4-6 year-old child as we search for owls and meet some of Drumlin Farm’s owl residents. Meet some of Drumlin Farm’s birds up close and explore field, forest and wetland looking for the birds that make these habitats their home. Learn activities that you can take home to expand your experience, wherever you live. $10 for members, $12 for nonmembers.

Wondrous Wool
Tuesday, Feb. 11, 1-2:30 p.m.
Visit the soft and fluffy sheep all snug in their barn. After our visit share sheepish stories and make a woolly toy to take home. A great family program! $12 for members, $15 for nonmembers.

Owl Always Love Ewe
Friday, Feb. 14, 3:30-5 p.m.
It’s Valentine’s Day—what would Ewe want? Owl might have a different idea; mice are so very nice. Let’s visit with the sheep and make some wooly valentines. Perhaps Owl could teach us a Love Song to woo someone special. Whoo, whoo, who loves Ewe? A great family program! $12 for members, $15 for nonmembers.

Teen Birders: Eagles and Owls
Saturday, Feb. 15, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Birders aged 12-17 can travel with us to Newburyport and Parker River National Wildlife Refuge for a full day of searching for eagles, hawks, owls and more! $35 for members, $42 for nonmembers.

Naturalist Walk
Saturday, Feb. 15, 1-3 p.m.
Are you interested in the natural world around you? Join us on these Saturday afternoon excursions that will focus on observing, exploring and appreciating the world around us. We’ll cover wetlands to uplands, exploring all the habitats of the sanctuary, as we look for amphibians, reptiles, mammals, flowering plants, trees, shrubs, lichens, fungi, insects, and birds. We’ll follow the seasonal changes that occur on the sanctuary as the year progresses. Each walk will focus on a particular area or habitat as we build our understanding of ecological communities and our mutual interdependence. This program is open to adults or teens 16-17 accompanied by an adult. Pre-registration is not required. $10 for members, $12 for nonmembers.

Robichaud takes over as head farmer at Codman

February 4, 2014

Eric Robichaud served his secret-recipe pancakes at Codman’s Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast on January 11, where staff and board members honored long-term volunteers who help with animal care and egg collecting each week. (Photo courtesy Codman Community Farms)

This is an edited version of an article appeared in the January issue of the Codman Community Farms member newsletter.

Codman Community Farms recently welcomed a new head farmer, Eric Robichaud, who grew up on a farm—Codman Farm, to be exact.

How do you feel about leaf blowers?

January 14, 2014

The town’s Leaf Blower Study Committee is asking resident to complete an online survey about leaf blower use in Lincoln as part of its research on noise and air pollution impacts of leaf blowers, possible alternatives and potential cost impacts.

Paper copies of the survey can be picked up and returned to the Town Office Building, Bemis Hall, the Lincoln Public Library, or the Parks & Recreation Department.

The panel will also hold a public meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 7:30 p.m. in the Donaldson Room at the Town Offices to give residents an opportunity to air their opinions and to hear what the committee is up to.

Formed as a result of a vote at the March 2013 Town Meeting, the Leaf Blower Study Committee has been meeting since July and will make a presentation at Town Meeting this March. However, vice chair John Koenig in December said the group will not be proposing any regulations for a vote at that time, saying at the December 16 Board of Selectmen meeting that it was “too soon.” Although the group has asked for a spot on the agenda, “we don’t really have a plan yet for what we’re going to do at Town Meeting,” he said.

With the help of the survey and other input, the committee hopes to find out “if we have a mandate at all” for restricting leaf blower usage, Koenig said. How to enforce any such regulations will also an issue, he added.

The committee has compiled research on the effects of leaf blowers, which members say include air and noise pollution from the two-stroke gasoline engines as well as pollution from particles blown into the air by the devices. These particles, which can remain airborne for up to three days, include dirt, road salt, animal feces and other substances in addition to bits of grass and leaves, Koenig said.

“What you end up with is an aerosol of a lot of offensive products,” he said. The machines can also cause horticultural damage by blowing off topsoil, he added.

Some commercial property owners use leaf blowers year-round to clear paths and paved surfaces of dirt and litter. In Lincoln, the “epicenter” of this type of use is in the Lincoln Station area, he said, but the town also uses leaf-blowers on recreation fields and other public property.

Perhaps driven by the wide availability of leaf-blowers themselves, standards have changed in recent decades. “There’s this notion that the place has got to look nice,” Selectman Renel Fredriksen noted.

Although alternative machines are being developed, “we know electric equipment is not commercial grade… there needs to be some better technology,” Koenig said. Alternatives might include using gas blowers only at the height of leaf season and electric ones at other times of the year, or having neighbors share an electric leaf blower and battery packs, or even subsidizing exchanges whereby residents could trade in gas-powered leaf blowers for electric models, Koenig said.

Selectman Noah Eckhouse said it was important to hear from all sides and “have a balanced outcome” before making any decisions. He noted that other outdoor equipment such as chainsaws also produce smoke and noise.

“It’s a quintessential Lincoln type of topic,” Board of Selectman Chair Peter Braun said.

Help button up the farm for winter on Dec. 8

December 1, 2013

Work off your Thanksgiving weight gain on Sunday, Dec. 8 at the Codman Community Farms (CCF) volunteer work day to button up the farm for winter. We’ll start at 9:30 a.m., and you’re welcome to come all day or even just for an hour. There will be tasks appropriate for young and old, and lunch and snacks will be provided.

Codman turkey, beef and pork available

Thinking about serving turkey for Christmas or New Year dinner? There are still a few turkeys available that were raised at CCF on natural feed and fresh-frozen. They’re priced at $5 per pound. Stop by the farm office/kitchen and talk to Farmer Eric or email info@codmanfarm.org.

If you’re tired of turkey, consider joining the farm’s meat CSA, where each month from January to June, you get 10 pounds of Codman-raised, hormone- and antibiotic-free pork and beef for $600. For more information or to register and pay online, see the CCF website’s Farm Store page.

Kids dig the pigs at Harvest Weekend

November 6, 2013

Story and photos by Brett Wittenberg

Lying face down in the mud, snorting and rooting, were a bunch of stinking, lethargic and—if you asked kids visiting Drumlin Farm on Harvest Weekend—endlessly fascinating creatures.

Like changing leaves and cooler temperatures, Harvest Weekend has become an annual reminder that autumn is in full swing in Lincoln. On Oct. 19 and 20, more than 3,000 visitors came from near and far to take part in the agricultural fun.

At the pig pen, Jen Sundstrom’s three kids took turns weighing themselves on a scale that told you, if you happened to be a pig, whether you’d be a piglet; a “finishing” pig, ready for market, a sow or a boar (see photos below). They climbed a stepstool to observe the real thing inside a wood-sided pen.

“The kids are loving the pigs,” said the Medford mom, covering her smile and her nose with her white turtleneck (her children didn’t seem to notice the odor).

The farm animals were a clear favorite with the younger visitors. Others explored the crop fields, went on hay rides, and picked their own fresh potatoes, squash and tomatoes to take home. Volunteers and staff circulated among the goat house, the horse barn, the chicken coop and the raptor and reptile houses to teach visitors about the farm’s year-round inhabitants.

“What I like most is actually this—seeing the people hang out, enjoying the simple activities, going out to the pick-your-owns… enjoying our fields which most people don’t get out to, getting to see the crops that we’re growing, and being able to harvest some stuff themselves. That’s my favorite,” a Harvest Weekend staffer said.

Heading down the hill from the front gate, visitors caught sight of kids laughing and darting in and out of the canopy of a flapping rainbow-colored parachute, gluing googly eyes and pom-poms to miniature pumpkins, kicking pumpkin-colored rubber balls, and “milking” wooden cows.

After stopping by the refreshment stand for glasses of cold apple cider, cookies from Concord’s Verrill Farm and sugar-dusted cider donuts, kids crowded around enclosures housing chickens, goats, pigs, cows, owls, and hawks. Even house mice drew a crowd as they skittered around a box of leaves while a staffer described their diet and habitats.

Two-year-old Avery of Lexington, sporting a ponytail and silver puffy boots, said excitedly that the pigs were her favorite part of Harvest Weekend, though she also liked the chickens, who were “climbing up the houses,” she observed.

Drumlin Farm is an interactive classroom of zoological facts for its youngest patrons, but older visitors seemed just as enthralled. “I like the raptors, all the owls and hawks,” said 47-year-old Ed Krasinski, who traveled to Lincoln from Salem, N.H., with his eight-year-old daughter and his wife, who said she used to visit Drumlin Farm when she was a kid.

“We just came to bring the girls to see the animals,” said Julie Fuller, 65, who drove six hours from New Jersey to accompany her three granddaughters, a 5-year-old and two-year-old twins, on their outing.

Hal Baker manned a booth of brochures, pamphlets and energy-saving light bulbs for Next Step Living, a New England residential energy efficiency company. Although he was on the job last Sunday, looking to sign up passers-by for home energy audits, he seemed to be enjoying himself as much as any visitor. His personal connection with Drumlin Farm spoke to its enduring appeal.

“I came here almost 50 years ago,” Baker recalled. “The first time I came here is when I was a little kid with my parents back in the early sixties.”