| Upcoming Events! | Supper Club
February 17
7pm
Josiah Smith Tavern
This month's farm-to-table dinner will focus on food from the winter pantry. Sam Hunt, our wonderful chef, will take his inspiration for this meal from his winter pantry staples. His meals are always delicious and the casual dining experience (bring your own wine and sit family style at our long farm table) is always fun and friendly. To make a reservation, please click here. Our Supper Clubs are scheduled monthly all year long. Please check our website for more information about these unique, fun events, including the full schedule.
Backyard Sappers workshop
February 26
10am
456 Wellesley Street
Have you ever wanted to learn how to tap your own Sugar Maple trees to make maple syrup? Join Douglas Cook, Land's Sake's Education Director to learn all about the Sugaring process. This two-hour course will cover the history, science and art of making great maple syrup. There is $10 fee to cover expenses and enrollment is limited to 25 participants. To register, contact Douglas Cook, Education Director, at greenpower@landssake.org
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Land's Sake Volunteers
| Ever thought about volunteering for Land's Sake? If so, let us know! Your skills and enthusiasm are welcome.
In particular, we are looking for database and writing skills. If interested, please email Eric Kreilick at eric@landssake.org. Thank you!
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Land's Sake Membership
| One of the best ways you can support Land's Sake is to become a member, or renew your membership. Our work would not be possible without the help of our generous members. In addition to supporting the mission of Land's Sake, members receive benefits including complimentary admission to certain events and discounts on services and education programs.
We are most grateful for your support!
For information about membership, click here. All membership donations are tax deductible.
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Hello Land's Sake friends, When I first started at Land's Sake last summer, the Board and staff were very clear about the need to develop effective internal systems and policies within this organization. This has been our focus for the past six months.
- This fall we brought the staff together for a comprehensive process to develop our 2011 budget.
- This fall we began a detailed process of Review and Refocus within our education programs. This work will continue through the winter and into spring. We are 100% committed to providing the very best environmental education programs available.
- This month we also begin a comprehensive review of safety at Land's Sake. We are currently assembling a committee to lead this process. The committee will review current policies and operations and then present recommendations to me and to the Board. We are fully committed to creating and maintaining the safest environment possible for our staff, customers, and the public.
- In the coming weeks, we will host a team from Accounting Management Solutions, Inc. (AMS) who will conduct a thorough review of our financial systems and policies. AMS's report will serve as our road map for creating financial systems based on the best practices within the industry. As a conservation organization with a mission to serve the public, sound stewardship of our financial resources is one of our core values.
In the coming year our focus will be on putting these core values--healthy budgets, exceptional educational programs, safety, and financial stewardship--at the center of our planning and work. I hope you will join us in our efforts with your support. Thank you! Eric Kreilick, Executive Director
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Retooled Youth Education Programs
by Douglas Cook, Education Director
Even under this fresh blanket of snow, I know that the ground is already thinking about waking up. The days are getting longer and soon enough summer will be here. Over the past few weeks I have had the honor of working with two of the brightest minds in farm-based education. Pat Gray and Greg Gale, former Executive Director and Program Manager of The Food Project, have helped us strengthen our core programs and reinvest in our educational roots. More changes are coming, so stay tuned!
Our newly reformatted Green Power Summer program will be a full-day, week long, work and service based program for 13, 14, and 15 year old students. These young farmers will learn what it takes to produce crops for the farm stand and for donations to local hunger relief organizations. Through their experiences working with animals and in the fields they will learn to model our Green Power core principles: Work Hard, Work Together, Give Back, Show Leadership and Live Local. Participants can enroll for one or multiple weeks.
The Farm and Forest Explorers program is now a half-day, week long, activity based experience for 10,11 and 12 year old students. Explorers will help with animal chores, work in the garden, and spend time reflecting on the abundance in arms reach. Our unique activities are designed to engage their minds and bodies with our core educational goals: Environmental Literacy, Local History and Healthy Living.
A lot can be accomplished in a week! At Land's Sake we know that as a healthy community we can make a difference, and our students will be able to taste first hand the value of working together on the land. Don't miss out on these inspiring programs this summer. Please check our Blog and Facebook regularly for exciting updates.
For registration information, please email Doug Cook, Education Director, at greenpower@landssake.org or call 781-893-1162
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Forestry Update
by Ben Wilson We have sold out of firewood for this winter, but we are hard at work in the Highland Forest harvesting firewood for delivery next Fall. We are off to a good start despite the early snow storms, and are selectively cutting mostly oak and black birch that are bent or crowded in order to thin the forest and allow new healthy trees to thrive. Our goal is to leave as little impact as possible while harvesting. We are continuing with the Forestry Management cutting plan we filed last year and plan to harvest 50 cords this year that will be for sale next Fall. The stacks are starting to build up along the fire road. You will find us out there for the rest of the winter so if you're in the Highland Forest, feel free to stop by and take a look! For more information about Land's Sake's sustainable forestry operations, please email Dave Quinn at dave@landssake.org. |
Farm report
by Melanie Hardy, Farm Manager
January and February are the months in which we dream about how well our farm will run in the coming season and beyond. For me, these exciting plans for the future are truly born in the dead of winter, emerging from the seeds we sowed in the fields during the height of last season while we worked, thought out loud and frantically scribbled grubby notes that we shoved deep into our pockets on some dusty, too-busy, July day. Now is when we pull out those grubby notes to remind ourselves of our ideas. In my imagination, the ideas we choose to nurture are plant shoots, pushing their way into crisp, blue winter skies.
The dreaming and planning we do aren't just about soil health, or growing the biggest tomatoes. It's also about sustaining and encouraging the vibrant community surrounding Land's Sake, creating a happy and healthy workplace, training future farmers, becoming more socially responsible farmers, providing educational opportunities to the public and creating connections in every direction, in any way we can. So it makes sense, then, that I find inspiration to expand on those tucked-away summertime ideas, from my most cherished parts of the slower winter season, from sometimes seemingly unexpected places: enthusiastic descriptions of vegetable varieties we read about in seed catalogs, walks through snow-covered city parks, lots of time reading farm periodicals, visits with family, crafting, good food, long overdue time with friends, art openings, good books, music, workshops, watching movies, watching my new favorite television show Friday Night Lights (yes, it's true), and, of course, brainstorming with co-workers and peer farmers and mentors.
I often pinch myself because I can't believe how lucky I am to be in a profession that allows me the time to assess our successes and failures from a good, healthy distance. The cycles of farming are so wonderful in that way. Nothing beats sitting down with a cup of tea and talking about what we want to work well, or better, and then seeing what happens and then getting a chance to discuss it all again over another cup of tea the following winter. The solid support we receive to do all of this work comes from a generous and deep community, a passionate and capable Board, an intelligent and outstanding staff and the good land that becomes a canvas for our collective dreams. And for that, we are endlessly thankful.
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Thank you again for your participation and support of Land's Sake. We are so grateful for our Land's Sake family. Please check out our website, www.LandsSake.org for more information and help spread the word! cheers,
the Land's Sake staff |
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