The Lincoln Squirrel – News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.

agriculture and flora

Four-legged farm animals follow Codman’s chickens out to pasture

(Editor’s note: Click here to read an earlier story about Codman Community Farm by Sarah Cannon Holden.)

Abe Lowy, son of farmer Pete Lowy, makes friends with one of Codman Community Farm’s new sheep.

By Sarah Cannon Holden

Once there’s even a hint of spring, a farmer’s life is full of chores and challenges that keep him or her busy all day everyday for eight months until the snows fly in late November. Earlier this spring, the chickens were put out to pasture at Lincoln’s Codman Community Farm. Next up: Farmer Pete Lowy and his crew make plans for the large animals.

The farm workers have to transport the 30 head of cattle that wintered at the farm to Lincoln’s lush summer pastures, and it’s a mighty task. In the Wild West, cattle can be herded along a highway, but here in Lincoln, they have to be transported in trailers. This year the farm has 10 mature cows and one bull along with 20 one- and two-year-old calves calves. They’ve all spent the winter together, but come May when all the cattle are moved to pasture, the older calves are separated from the younger ones, which stay with their mother. The calves that are weaned from their mothers will head out to pasture and will eventually be harvested or kept as new breeding stock.

This cycle continues for the cows, which can get pregnant every year during the summer and have about 17 years of fertility and production. They give birth to their calves on pasture in the warm spring and summer months. Red Devon cattle are an old heritage breed from England and thrive in this climate with no help needed during calving. The gestation period for a cow is 283 days.

Soon, Pete will move the cattle to Farm Meadow behind Donelan’s. When Codman first approached Lincoln’s Conservation Commission about using that meadow, there was some concern about disturbing the bobolinks and other grassland birds that have nested there for years. We in Lincoln have a particular fondness for bobolinks, as some say that their name comes from the sound of their call – Bob O’Lincoln. They migrate each year from South America to breed and nest in North America in the summer. Their preference is for hay fields with ample tall grasses, where they make their cup-shaped nests on the ground. One can sit quietly in their nesting areas to watch them fly in and land on a blade of grass before returning to their nests.

Pete believed that there could be a solution that would allow the bobolinks and the cattle to thrive in peaceful coexistence. Though it appeared at first that the bobolink’s habitat covered most of Farm Meadow, it turned out that the birds’ primary habitat was closer to the center than the edge. With great care, Codman developed a plan for the meadow so that the bobolinks could happily settle in a circular fenced-off area at the center of the meadow (the “hubcap”), leaving the perimeter for the cattle to graze in the “wheel.” Movable solar-powered electric fencing can be installed, creating paddocks within the larger field. The Conservation Commission agreed to this plan, as did many in the community who attended a meeting on the subject a few years ago. It seemed a win-win for all.

Every two or three days, the paddock where the cows are grazing is shifted forward along the circumference of the circle, and the cows happily run to the fresh patch of grass. Once the cattle make it around the circle in the 12-15 separate movable paddocks, the rotation can begin again on fresh, fertilized and regenerated grasses. To give the cattle some shade, as there are no trees on Farm Meadow, Codman purchased a “shade haven” — essentially a giant umbrella, which moves around the meadow with the cattle and the water wagon.

The cattle are not the only four-legged animals overseen by Codman — the farm also raises scores of heritage pigs on pastures throughout town. There was a time when Codman’s ten pigs were kept at the farm, where they wallowed in mud and dug up anything they could find. Many will remember those pigs and know exactly why it is said that something “smells like a pigsty!” No longer. The farm now grows upwards of 100 pigs each year for harvest and sale at the farm store, which sells produce and other items including over a dozen sausage varieties, three different smoked bacons, roasts, pate and other items.

Nowadays, the pigs have a great life while living on the farm. They’re sent out to pasture each spring, where they root up and till selected areas of fields that have become overgrown and need renovation. The pigs do a fine job at this — it’s truly their passion! Anything to be found one foot above or below ground is their devouring and exploring specialty. They go after invasives, dandelions, and poison ivy, all of which can completely take over stone walls.

Pigs like roots best of all, so they go after stolon (plants with horizontal runners with a root system that’s full of carbohydrates). Once the animals have done their work in one spot, the farmers come in and work the soil and move the pigs along. There is constant rotation in an effort to get rid of invasives, which can be accomplished once the root system becomes weakened and finally gives up. Because the pigs are kept on the move and the soil is tilled, the smell is minimal.

Of course, all of this takes time. One could put pigs in a dusty and dark barn, but such a system would not be optimal for the pig, the land or, ultimately, the consumer.

This year there are plans for pasturing a small flock of lambs on some fields close to the farm. The 10 two-month-old lambs arrived on the farm about 10 days ago. They will graze pastures on hillsides and areas where it’s difficult to harvest hay or have the chickens graze. Other fields around town are being considered for other livestock rotations including Police Pasture behind the Public Safety Building, which will also host vegetables in the front portion along Codman Road. The back half of the pasture along the stone wall was recently cleared and will continue to be a grazing pasture.

The activities of Codman Community Farm are spread far and wide all over Lincoln. Why not take a walk or a bike ride to see if you can find the sheep, the cattle, the pigs, the chickens, and the vegetable gardens, and then stop by the Farm Store for fresh eggs or a pack of bacon.

To read more about Codman farming methods, see “Codman Community Farms grows by adopting modern practices” (Lincoln Squirrel, November 2, 2017).

Free heat pump brings Codman Community Farms closer to net zero

The indoor unit of Codman Community Farm’s new heat pump.

CCF Board President David Alperovitz, New England Ductless owner Joseph Wood, and CCF Farm Manager Pete Lowy with the heat pump’s outdoor unit.

Codman Community Farms has been selected as a recipient of a free cold-climate heat pump from New England Ductless, one of the installers for HeatSmart Carlisle, Concord & Lincoln (HeatSmart CCL), based on the success of that program.

HeatSmart CCL is community-led initiative to learn about and purchase clean energy technologies. New England Ductless of Milton was selected through a competitive solicitation as the air-source heat pump installer for the organization. In 2018, with support from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, HeatSmart CCL secured contracts to install 49 cold-climate air-source heat pumps and 23 ground-source heat pumps.

Also  In 2018, Codman Community Farms (CCF) began to work towards a goal of having the farm’s operational buildings becoming net-zero energy while simultaneously reducing the farm’s overall reliance on fossil fuels. With the completion of a 54 kW solar electric array expected in June 2019, this goal will be realized. CCF has taken other steps to meet the goals of its Green Energy Plan, including installing a solar hot-water system for egg washing and farm house staff, evaluating bids for the solar electric array, and applying for a state grant to support additional measures.

The farm had considered installing a cold-climate heat pump but did not proceed due to budgetary constraints. However, New England Ductless made this possible in April by installing a Mitsubishi Hyper-Heat cold-climate heat pump in Codman Farms’ 700-square-foot kitchen/dining area, which is used for cooking classes, nutrition education, farm luncheons and dinners, and other events.

The new heating and cooling system replaces an inefficient propane furnace and non-functioning central air conditioner, and makes the farm’s operational buildings fossil-fuel-free. When the solar array is operational, the heat pump will heat and cool the kitchen/dining area while producing no greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, the installation allows CCF to remove two unsightly propane tanks and eliminates the need for propane deliveries.

The Lincoln Historical Committee was especially pleased that the company was able to conceal the heat-pump line set in the attic space to help preserve the historical character of the space.

HeatSmart CCL will host heat-pump educational events on Saturday, June 8 from 1:30–3:30 p.m. in the Concord-Carlisle High School learning commons and Tuesday, June 11 from 7–8:30 pm. in the Wayland Public Library. Click here for more information.

Codman Farm: its seasons and its chickens

By Sarah Cannon Holden

Three of the hundreds of new chicks for 2019 (click image to enlarge; all photos by Sarah Cannon Holden).

Spring has arrived, and the activities at Codman Farm in Lincoln are unfolding at a rapid pace as Farm Manager Pete Lowy prepares for the arrivals of peeping baby chickens, young sheep, soft and fluffy goslings, and joyful piglets.

These newcomers to Lincoln will join the 20 calves and their ten mothers who have wintered at the farm, along with their common father, Codman’s very large bull. Chickens that have spent the winter at Codman will be replaced with new layers (economically, it doesn’t make sense to keep laying chickens for more than one year; after that, their egg production declines rapidly.) In mid-May, 1,300 new hens will arrive to replenish the flock. Soon all the animals will be put out to pasture in multiple locations around town.

Since Pete’s arrival in 2016, Codman Farm is now a pasture-based farm. There’s a lot more happening than what see from the corner of Codman and Lincoln Roads. When some people visit the farm, they may ask, “Where are the animals?” At any time of year, one can see thousands of eggs being washed in the lower barn, and maybe some cattle in a nearby field. They can see farming equipment near the historic white barns, but from spring to fall, most of the animals — the cattle, chickens, pigs, and sheep — are grazing all over town on 80 acres of mostly town-owned fields.

In keeping with the town’s agricultural heritage, Codman Farm pastures animals on 4.5 acres off Old Sudbury Road, 20 acres behind Donelan’s on Farm Meadow Field, 12 acres at Mt. Misery, and 25 acres on Codman Road fields, in addition to some private acreage and 30 acres at Minute Man National Park.

In the early days of winter, the animals are gathered in from those distant fields. During the winter months, the cows and their calves live at the farm. Half the stock of chickens is kept over the winter so the farm has eggs for its farm store; other chickens are sold as live birds, while still others are sold for tasty chicken soup. Pigs are sent off to the butcher, and turkeys and geese are raised to maturity in time for Thanksgiving.

Andy the guard dog with the flock of poultry he protects.

At the same time, the farmers transport the chickens back to the farm, where they’re housed in a greenhouse known on the farm as a “high tunnel.” It’s a large arched steel pole structure covered with translucent plastic that is heated by the sun up to temperatures of 60 degrees even on a cold winter’s day.

Come early April, the farmers move these mature laying hens back out to pasture on either North or South Codman Field near Rt. 126. When this year’s new birds are old enough to be in the pastures, last year’s hens are sent to market. Each summer, all the Codman chickens feed on grass and grains while fertilizing the fields, thus increasing the fertility of the soil and making for green verdant pastures for all to enjoy.

Farmer Pete Lowy mans the egg washer.

The layer chickens graze under the watchful eye of Andy, one of the livestock guardian dogs, a special Anatolian shepard/Akbash breed. You might see him resting by day, as his major job is to protect the chickens from nocturnal predators. On occasion, a wise old owl catches onto Andy’s daytime patterns and dives into the flock to snatch an unwary chicken before the dog wakes up!

The customs of a hatchery and the chicken market in general are not exactly common knowledge. Over the winter, the farmers make many decisions about the upcoming season’s chicken flock. Pete buys his chicks from a hatchery in Pennsylvania, one of the hatcheries that exist in clusters around the country. If you buy a so-called “straight run” of eggs for meat birds, you get whatever hatches. You have a 50-50 chance of chicks that will become hens or roosters. It turns out, however, that male meat birds are sold at maturity at discounts. Or for a higher price, you can order only female chicks. Each hatchery has its specialist “sexer” who can determine whether the chick is male or female so farmers can make their choice. The hatchery industry is complex and lives in its own world of trade.

The meat chickens have an entirely different life cycle from the layers. In early spring, the meat chicks are fed and kept warm under heat lamps in the brooder. In a few weeks, they’ll be ready for the green pasture of the fields and the farmers will move them along with their large mobile coop, water, and feeding bins to the Mt. Misery fields located off Old Concord Road. They are enclosed in small hoop houses on that lush field which the farmers move every few days to ensure fresh green grass.

When it comes time for the meat chickens to go to market, a group of volunteers gathers with the farmers for “chicken catch night” — a social event with a farming chore. The challenge is to catch the chickens and get them to a Rhode Island processing facility the next morning. The following day, the farmers pick up the USDA-inspected meat at the processor and bring them back to the farm, where they’re sold in the Codman Farm Store. This process occurs every three weeks during the summer months.

A visit to Codman Farm and a walk to see the chickens will remind any visitor of the work it takes to put healthy food on our tables. It demonstrates the importance of not overgrazing the land, and the role of chickens in the scratching and fertilization of the soils.

Stop by the farm store and see the incredible variety of meats, eggs, and produce available — all grown here in Lincoln.

To read more about Codman Farm, see “Codman Community Farms grows by adopting modern practices” (Lincoln Squirrel, November 2, 2017).

Council on Aging activities in April

Lincoln Academy with Richard Pierson: Healthy aging — a new science, a new art
April 1 at 12:30 p.m.
Come to Bemis Hall on Monday, April 1 at 12:30 p.m. when Richard Pierson, M.D., retired professor of medicine at Columbia University discusses “Healthy Aging: A New Science, A New Art.” As more and more people live to their 90s and 100s, “healthy aging” has become both absolutely essential and more complex. Pierson will talk about how ideas of aging have changed over the millennia, how our body composition changes and affects our health as we age, and how this will affect society and our everyday lives. All ages welcome.

Noticing walks with John Calabria
April 2 at 1 p.m.
LOCATION: Mt. Misery parking lot on Rt. 117
Enjoy a gently paced walk through nature guided by John Calabria on April 2 from 1-2:30 p.m. at a location posted at lincolnconservation.org. Bring walking sticks or walking poles if you like. Other walks will be held May 7 and June 4. If the weather is bad, call 781-259-9251 after 10 a.m. the morning of the walk for an update. Co-sponsored by the COA and the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust.

Lincoln Trad Jazz Band
April 5 at 12:30 p.m. [Read more…] about Council on Aging activities in April

Letter to the editor: contribute to Codman campaign

To the editor:

We write to ask you to consider supporting Codman Community Farms (CCF) with a donation to our Vision 2020 Capital Campaign via our website or a check mailed to Codman Farm at 58 Codman Rd.

Over the last three years, CCF has undergone a transformation. We hired Pete Lowy as Farm Manager in 2016, and under his guidance, the farm has evolved from a small-scale barnyard and hay operation to a vibrant pasture-based livestock operation. Pete and his staff utilize cutting-edge rotational grazing practices with thousands of animals on fields across Lincoln to grow healthy, organically raised eggs, meat, and produce.

This transformation has brought stability to our farm operations, and we are now turning our focus to strengthening our community outreach and education programs, lowering our carbon footprint with a net-zero solar installation, and addressing some of our aging infrastructure. The Vision 2020 Capital Campaign will fund these efforts. You can read more about the projects supported by this campaign, and make a donation by clicking here.

CCF was founded as a non-profit in 1973 by a dynamic group of Lincoln residents who were passionate about preserving the historic property and maintaining its character as a genuine working farm. Today, as it has been since its founding, CCF finances its operations by the sale of farm products, membership support, community events, grants and a relatively small endowment. CCF does not receive any operational funding from the town of Lincoln other than maintenance of town-owned buildings.

We have raised more than 85% of our $350,000 Capital Campaign goal, and as we enter the home stretch we reach out to you, the community of Lincoln, to help us raise the funds needed. Please consider supporting the sustainability and future of this farm with a donation to our Capital Campaign.

Sincerely,

Codman Farm Capital Campaign Committee:
David Alperovitz, Nancy Fleming, Pete Lowy, Jeff Patterson, Ginger Reiner, and Drew Shilling

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published.

Running of the dogs? (Lincoln Through the Lens)

Toby, an Anatolian shepherd who lives with and protects the chickens of Codman Community Farms, gallops through the enclosure. Photo by Eli Newell.

Readers may submit photos for consideration for Lincoln Through the Lens by emailing them to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. If your photo is published, you’ll receive credit in the Squirrel. Photos must be taken in Lincoln and include the date, location, and names of any people who are identifiable in the photo. Previously published photos can be viewed on the Lincoln Through the Lens page of the Lincoln Squirrel.

Special Town Meeting vote on marijuana businesses planned

The town will schedule a Special Town Meeting this fall to vote on extending the current moratorium on recreational marijuana businesses in Lincoln and whether to seek a full ban on such businesses.

Massachusetts legalized recreational marijuana sales in 2016, but individual cities and towns can choose to opt out of marijuana growing, processing, testing or retail businesses. Lincoln narrowly voted to legalize recreational marijuana in the state election in 2016; as a result, any future partial or full ban in Lincoln must be approved by a two-thirds majority at Town Meeting and by a simple majority at a later ballot vote.

In March 2017, Lincolnites approved a temporary moratorium on cannabis businesses while residents decided on a permanent course of action. That moratorium is set to expire on November 20, but the town has the option of extending it for a limited period of time. This fall’s Town Meeting vote will seek to extend it until June 30, 2019.

At the fall vote, residents will also be asked if they want to institute a full ban on all cannabis businesses. If two-thirds say yes, the town will seek to affirm that vote at the ballot box after the spring 2019 Annual Town Meeting. “We’re fairly close to two-thirds now in terms of support for a full ban,” Selectman James Craig noted at the board’s June 19 meeting, referring to results of a town-wide survey mailed to residents in April.

If the two-thirds bar isn’t met, the Marijuana Study Committee will seek more feedback with another survey “so we can really drill down on what appetite the town has for commercial development ore retails sales” of cannabis products, Craig said. The Planning Board would then draw up proposed zoning amendments to regulate businesses and would bring them to a Town Meeting vote in spring 2019.

If the town does nothing, the state could begin issuing licenses to marijuana-based establishments in Lincoln once the moratorium has expired, as noted in the FAQ document posted by the committee in April.

Selectmen emphasized that any town-wide action on cannabis businesses will not affect the personal rights granted under the 2016 statewide legalization of recreational marijuana. Under the new law, Massachusetts residents 21 and older may use, grow and possess marijuana products. Individuals may possess under 10 ounces of marijuana inside their homes and under one ounce in public, as well as grow up to six marijuana plants in their homes (or 12 plants in households with two adults). Public consumption and driving under the influence of marijauan remain illegal.

There will be another public forum on marijuana businesses in Lincoln in October. “We want to make sure people understand what they’re voting on” at the Special Town Meeting later in the fall, Craig said.

Food Project teens dig in (Lincoln Though the Lens)

Earlier this month, the Food Project welcomed 100 teenagers from diverse cultural, racial, economic, and geographic backgrounds to work as Seed Crew members on their urban and suburban farms in Lincoln and three other towns. During the summer season, they work together to grow vegetables and to donate or distribute nearly 200,000 servings of produce to increase food access throughout eastern Massachusetts—all while developing important leadership, teamwork, and civic participation skills. Photos courtesy Ross Condit of the Food Project.

Drumlin Farm opens new Environmental Learning Center

Mass Audubon staff and friends at the grand opening of the Environmental Learning Center at Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary. Left to right: Jennifer Feller, Bob Delano (Chapman Construction/Design), Laura Krich, Brandt Wild (Chapman Construction/Design), Renata Pomponi (Drumlin Farm sanctuary director), Gary Clayton (president, Mass Audubon), Marian Thornton, Nick d’Arbeloff (Mass Audubon board of directors), Christy Foote-Smith (former Drumlin Farm sanctuary director), Tia Pinney, Susan Madaus, Dick Thornton, Bill Maclay (Maclay Architects), and Robin Stuart. Photo by Heidi Thoren.

Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary celebrated the grand opening of its new Environmental Learning Center on June 9, almost two years after construction began.

The gathering at the popular Mass Audubon wildlife sanctuary and working farm in Lincoln commenced with a ribbon-cutting followed by building tours, opportunities to meet raptors and Drumlin Farm’s resident fox, hands-on science activities, and educational program highlights.

The 3,700-square-foot Environmental Learning Center (ELC), and its neighboring outdoor classroom structure, the Bluebird Pavilion, are situated between the wildlife sanctuary’s nature center and the site of the former education building. The ELC is about three times the size of the building it replaced at Drumlin, which as of 2017 employed about 15 year-round educators and conducts about 40,000 educational programs (some off-site).

The ELC and the pavilion will serve as the hub from which all of Drumlin Farm’s environmental education programming will flow. They will provide the home base for the programs through which Drumlin Farm teacher/naturalists and other educators support Mass Audubon’s mission to connect people and nature. Featuring a 42.8-kilowatt system of rooftop solar panels and many other energy-conserving construction methods and materials, the building will be net-positive, annually generating more energy than it will consume.

The ELC opening represents another phase in a long-term update plan for Drumlin Farm funded by a capital campaign that aimed to raise $4.7 million. Several years ago, the farm replaced its Farm Life Center, where most programs that involve cooking take place. In late 2016, the New England Wildlife Explorations exhibit opened, replacing the old Drumlin Underground exhibit.

Drumlin Farm Director Renata Pomponi described the grand opening of the new facility as a “watershed moment” for the wildlife sanctuary.

“Mass Audubon’s enduring commitment to nature-based education has never been stronger, and Drumlin Farm is excited about the pivotal role the Environmental Learning Center will play as we build on that legacy, developing environmental and climate science programs that further conservation in the 21st century,” she said.