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

agriculture and flora

Drumlin Farms announces Fall Harvest Celebration

Explore the gardens and crop fields with Drumlin Farm staff, meet some of our native wildlife, create fun crafts, and enjoy fresh, delicious produce direct from the farm stand at its annual Fall Harvest Celebration on Saturday, Sept. 14.

Drumlin Farm teacher-naturalists will present family-friendly activities throughout the day to share the bounty of the fall harvest and help visitors discover how tasty sustainable agriculture can be. All activities are free with admission ($8 for adults, $6 for seniors and children 2-12, free for Mass Audubon members). Drop-in activities will run from 10 a.m.–4 p.m.; the wildlife sanctuary will be open from 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

Schedule of free drop-in activities (weather permitting):

10 a.m.
Make an Herbal Bouquet
Use herbs from our garden to create a beautiful display to take home. 

10:30 a.m.
Farmer’s Foe
Meet a critter that likes to eat the vegetables in our gardens.

10:30 a.m.–noon
Pick Your Own Veggies
Harvest your own vegetables in Boyce Field.

11:30 a.m., 2 p.m., and 3:30 p.m.
Cooking Demonstration
Join our food and farm educator as she uses Drumlin Farm produce to make easy, fun foods. And she might need some helping hands!

12:30 p.m.
Farmer’s Friend
Find some worms that help enrich the soil and learn why they’re important members of our ecosystem.

2 p.m.
Beyond Butter
Help shake cream to turn it into butter, and gather and add herbs to make it extra tasty.

2:30 p.m.
All About Bees
Learn about the science of bees and how pollinators make our crops possible.

3:45 p.m.
Get Crafty
Make a seed necklace.

All day:

  • Kid-friendly crafts
  • Scavenger hunt
  • Farm stand produce available for purchase

Open house at Codman Community Farms

Codman Community Farms will host an open house on Saturday, July 27 from 10 a.m.–noon, with tours of the farm, cold drinks in the barn, and a chance for Q&A with CCF staff and board members. It’s a great chance to learn more about the farm and how it produces meat and eggs using sustainable, ethical practices. The farm store will be selling pasture-raised chicken, eggs, beef, pork, raspberries, and vegetables.

Walking tours leave from the main barn next to the farm store starting at 10:15 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. Longer and shorter routes will be available. RSVP on the farm’s Facebook page or by emailing jon@codmanfarm.org.

Codman Campout: an appreciation

By Ginger Reiner

Saturday night, June 15 — a full moon illuminates the barnyard and surrounding fields. Tents dot the landscape: in the community garden, on the grass in front of Barn B, and one right next to the lamb pen. A campfire is roaring, surrounded by farm friends singing (to the tune of “Country Road,” of course!):

Codman Road, take me home,
To the place, where I belong.
We’ve been thinkin’, that we love Lincoln,
Take me home, Codman Road

Further away, little flashlights flicker in and out as a massive game of flashlight hide-and-seek occupies most of the under-12 set. 

The Codman Campout has always been one of my favorite farm events. A low-key June dinner outside the barn, lots of kids playing lots of different games, a night under the stars. This year was made all the more special as we enjoyed Codman’s own beef, pork, and chicken for dinner. We ate farm-raised hamburgers, sausage, chicken drumsticks, hot dogs, and veggie sandwiches, plus brownies and s’mores for dessert!

Click on images below for larger versions and captions:
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”114″ gal_title=”Codman campout 2019″]

(See story and photos from the 2012 Codman Campout)

The moon remained bright, but eventually the guitar playing wound down, all the hiders were found by the seekers, and the whole farm, animals and humans, conked out for the night. We were up with the animals the next morning for bagels, orange juice, and lots of coffee for the adults, and an early-morning hide and seek game began again almost immediately.

A huge thanks to the Codman Board and volunteers for organizing this year’s spectacular event, I’m already looking forward to next year, and brushing up on my campy Codman songs

Ginger Reiner is the treasurer for Codman Community Farms.

Que solar solar! (Lincoln Through the Lens)

Codman Community Farm is about to go “net zero” in terms of energy use, thanks partly to the rooftop solar panels now being installed. It’s the first town building to host a solar project, though certainly not the last — the renovated Lincoln School will also be net-zero. Click here for more photos, and see the Lincoln Squirrel articles on April 7 and May 13, 2019 for more background.

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.