Happy Valentines Day from Abe and the critters at Codman Farm!
(This video was created by Abe Lowy, who, once uploaded to YouTube,
officially declared himself a "You Tubber!") Uh oh.
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!
This weekend we celebrate Valentine's Day and that means we find ourselves thinking more deeply about friends and family that are so important to us in our daily lives. It also can be a time for reflecting on why we value our relationships and how, moving forward, we can strive to be even better friends and lovers. And it's this conscious decision to engage with those most cherished in our lives and being there to intentionally support them that has been so forefront in my thinking lately. How this intentionality, this dedication, lies at the foundation, the bedrock, for our existence as a farm.
Codman Community Farms was created in the early 1970s by many in the community who wanted to preserve this place as a working farm. It easily could have become a ball field, a home for the Department of Public Works, or even developed into housing lots. But a dedicated group of people worked diligently over many years to create CCF as the 501c3 non-profit it is today. With hard work and tenacity, they created an entity that has survived almost 50 years, which is tasked with preserving the open lands of Lincoln, committed to engaging in active agricultural pursuits and educating others about the importance of local food and farming. Scores of volunteer members of our Board of Directors have spent thousands of hours toiling away to keep CCF going all these years. And it's exactly that hard work, that commitment, that LOVE and INTENTIONALITY that has propelled us to where we are today. We are proud to continue this work through the many improvements we are making to the farm in 2021 with the launching of our new commercial kitchen, our new driveway project, renovations to our barns, and investments in new equipment to better care for our land and livestock.
With our own hard work assured, we now rely on YOU to continue to support our work to further this mission. Our success will only truly be realized if the community remains engaged and supportive of our work. This can be the simple act of shopping in our Farm Store and using your fork and pocketbook to declare your support for great, local, healthy food grown in your community. By visiting CCF you are making an intentional statement that you want to know where your food comes from, you want to support the vitality of local farming, and want to keep resources in your community. These decisions have a tremendous impact and reverberate far and wide. Your support keeps hundreds of people employed on dozens of farms and local food businesses in Massachusetts and New England. Your support keeps hundreds, thousands of acres of farmland open, alive, and thriving. Your intentional support makes a difference, it really does.
Lastly, we wanted to say how much we miss all of our friends being able to gather in good cheer on the farm. It's been a tough year and we hope everyone is maintaining good spirits as we round the bend and head towards spring. We are sending out good vibes that 2021 will be a year when we can once again have large gatherings and festivals and are also hoping to expand our educational and outreach programs. We have some amazing ideas in the works to educate and inform and bring even more community to the farm. From wild mushroom and foraging walks to cooking and gardening classes and field walks, we have much in store for this season. Stay tuned for more information and thanks, as always, for supporting CCF in any way you can.
If you haven't visited with the pigs lately, you are missing out on some darn cute piglets that have been born over the past couple of weeks. The sows of course waited to have their piglets on the coldest of cold days - but most of the piglets survived their brush with the arctic blast and are now growing quickly. We have at least 15 piglets under the barn that are venturing out from their momma crevices. As they build their confidence they can be seen scurrying around the piles of hay - stretching their legs and just being good little curious piggies. Next time you are at the farm, walk down the stairs and take a peek at the pigs under the barns...then stroll to behind the other smaller barn where we have another 24 pigs growing ...they love visitors and are quite the rambunctious teenage pigs right now.
FUN FACTS...
Did you know gestation for a pig is 3 months 3 weeks 3 days? And sows can have up to 20 piglets!? Heritage breeds typically have smaller litters ranging in size from 5-14 piglets. Our sows usually have 6-12 and about 75% end up surviving the first week. It is common for sows to accidentally hurt (crush, smother, step on) their young when nursing during the first week so it's a bit treacherous being a baby pig the first few days! But after surviving the first tumultuous week, it's usually smooth sailing. When piglets are born they typically weigh 2lbs and within 7 months weigh over 250lbs! Now you know why they are called HOGS!
APEX ORCHARD
If you have bought apples from us recently you know how amazingly sweet, crunchy and delicious they are but perhaps you didn't know they come from Apex Orchard located in Shelburne, MA?! We have been carrying apples from Apex for two years now and are so happy to be working with them. We receive deliveries every Wednesday along with their own honey, vinegar and BBQ sauce. Apex is exactly the kind of farm we are grateful to partner with - they respect the land they manage, treat their employees like family and use Integrated Pest Management to reduce spraying as much as possible, only spraying when pest levels reach untenably high levels. They are a family farm that has been farming the same land since the 1800's...7 generations of farmers!
Sadly I just learned that one of their long-time workers from Jamaica passed away from cancer. The workers from Jamaica form the backbone of the farm and they are long term employees, often working at the farm for over 20 years. They are family and I learned that everyone at the farm is devasted from this loss. They are sponsoring a GoFundMe campaign to assist with his funeral and other family expenses. If anyone wants to chip in, here is the link...
Yesterday, Sangita Chandra from WCVB tv was here filming a segment for an upcoming Chronicle episode on what it's like to farm in the winter in New England. They were visiting a bunch of farms in the area and we were honored to be chosen as a location. Below, you can see her interviewing our friend and professor Brian Donahue from Brandeis. Jen and I were also interviewed and we then provided them with a full tour of the farm - so hopefully, in a few weeks, you will all see us on TV, along with our beautiful pigs, chickens and cattle!
