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- Click on Photos to Enlarge -
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Cool Month, Cool Soil, Delayed Planting in Maine.
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In the photo above, on a cool May day Caleb (green hoodie) releases
Brook Trout into our Small Pond, as Megan (buffalo plaid wool coat) looks on.
These Brookies were raised by members of the local Mi’kmaq tribe. The Annual Trout Sale was coordinated by our
friend, Angie Wotton, manager at the local Southern Aroostook Soil and Water
Conservation District.
Northern Maine has had a
cool May with a string of cold nights.
The soil temperature has been stuck in the mid-40s now for almost three
weeks. Since we like to hold off
planting until the soil temp has risen to 50oF (taken 6” depth at 7am) we’ve
been waiting out the cold by letting our palletized Greensprouted Seed Potatoes
safely mature in their trays inside our sheds.
The forecast ahead looks good – clear and
warmer. Soon we’ll dry out from the 1.6”
of rain we’ve had fall in the last five days and be able to start planting this
year’s crop of Organic Maine Certified Seed Potatoes.
If you haven’t had the chance to order
yet, don’t worry! You still have time to
order Organic Vegetable Seed and
Organic Seed Potatoes and grow nice, big crops.
Our selections are still good!
In
this issue of the Wood Prairie Seed Piece, we share some more recent
Farm Stories & Photos with you.
Plus, we have a Special Memorial Day Weekend Offer for FREE
Smart Bags! Also, we share a
valuable and classic 1924 USDA publication entitled, Costs and Farm Practices in
Producing Potatoes.
We’ve been farming organically for the better
part of 50 years. We are your go-to
source for the best in everything Organic. Count on us for Organic
Maine Certified Seed Potatoes, Organic
Sweet Potato Slips, Organic
Vegetable Seed, Organic
Herb Seed, Organic
Flower Seed, Organic
Cover Crop Seed, Organic
Fertilizer, and Tools
and Supplies.
Thanks for your support & Happy Memorial Day!
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Special
Offer! FREE Wood Prairie Smart Bag!
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Place a New Order
and Receive a FREE Wood Prairie 15-Gallon Smart Bag ($19.99 value) with
a Minimum $70 Order.
FREE Smart Bag must ship with order and no later than 06/15/23.
Please
use Coupon Code WPFF263.
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How-To Gardening Resources.
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Wood Prairie Family Farm Stories.
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View From Top of Mars Hill Mountain.
‘Big
Rock’ Ski Area, located on the west side of Mars Hill Mountain (elev. 1660 ft),
features a one-thousand-foot drop – which is pretty substantial in these parts
- and is located just twenty minutes
from Wood Prairie Family Farm’s front door.
For many years Megan, Caleb, and Caleb’s siblings would all ski together
on Winter Sundays thanks to bargain-basement season-passes which successfully targeted
local Aroostook families. Earlier this month after the snow had left us,
Caleb’s sister, Amy (left), Megan (right) and Jim hiked to the top and had the
mountain all to themselves. It’s a two-mile, two-hour roundtrip. The view in this photo is looking westward. The three dark peaks on the near horizon
are (left to right) Maple Mountain, Number Nine Mountain and Hedgehog
Mountain. Our farm is this side of
Nine Mountain. If you look carefully to
the left of Maple Mountain, to the southwest you can see snow-covered Katahdin
(elev. 5267 ft), Maine’s tallest mountain.
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Bringing Home Yet Another Oliver Tractor.
We
have always farmed with Oliver Tractors and we are always on the lookout for
good deals on hardworking Olivers. Here,
Caleb is unchaining his most recent find, brought home from Central Maine: a
1966 Oliver 1650 Diesel which had been offered to him for a surprisingly low
price. The 66-horsepower 1650 Diesels
were made from 1964-1969 in Charles City, Iowa.
Bradbury Bros here in Bridgewater was an Oliver dealer for many years and
so there were always a lot of Olivers nearby.
In 1969 you could buy a 1650
Diesel new for $7100 (which is almost $59,000 in 2023 dollars). We own several 1650 Diesels and use them
daily on the farm. If we were to detach
and sell that nice heavy-duty loader bucket assembly from this tractor, its
value would pretty much equal what Caleb paid for the entire machine. The Injection Pump on the engine had been
recently replaced. That one repair alone
is worth a thousand dollars. We’ll break
her in this Spring and see how she does before we make a final decision about
how we’ll use her in the future.
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Mixing Flower Seed for Beneficial Insect Flower Beds.
This
is the third year of our ongoing Flower trialing program. We continue to work at identifying different
varieties of Flower and Cover Crops which offer not only beauty to the eye but attract
and nourish Beneficial Insects which then in turn prey upon crop pests such as
Colorado Potato Beetles, Potato Leaf Hoppers and Aphids. This fairly new ecological insect
control strategy is still being perfected by Potato farmers worldwide,
especially by pioneers in Europe and Australia. We plant the perimeters of our Organic Seed Potato fields and
in alleyways inside those fields with the goal of allowing the Beneficals to
never have to travel more than 150-feet to find Flower protection and sustenance. This year we are testing seventeen Flowers. Some of the top varieties which we have gained
the most confidence in are Organic
Buckwheat, Organic Tana Phacelia,
Organic Seashells Cosmos, Organic California Orange Poppy,
Organic Annual Blue Flax, Organic Hairy Vetch, Organic Crimson Clover, Organic Tapmaster Daikon Radish,
Organic Bouquet Dill, Organic Snow White Ammi and Organic Prairie Glow Rudbeckia. |
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Quick Links to
Popular Products.
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Caleb & Jim & Megan Gerritsen
Wood Prairie Family Farm
49 Kinney Road
Bridgewater, Maine 04735
(207) 429 - 9765 / 207
(429) - 9682
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