| Upcoming Events! | |
Supper Club
April 14
7pm Josiah Smith Tavern
Our March Supper Club is sold out, but we have plenty of seats available for April 14th. For this dinner, Sam Hunt, our wonderful chef, will prepare dishes featuring storage vegetables, as we use up the last of them and make room for spring! 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.
NEW!
Backyard Beekeeping workshop
March 15
7pm
Weston Public Library Community Room
Curious about keeping honeybees and making your own honey? Andy Reseska of Reseska Apiaries has built the region's largest beekeeping operation from the ground up. Now he is eager to share his wealth of knowledge in this five-session beekeeping course which will teach you what you need to know to skills to successfully keep bees in your own backyard. The program consists of two indoor sessions at the Weston Public Library and three outdoor workshops working with bee colonies at Lands Sake Farm in Weston. Educational materials and references will be provided. Registration is limited to 30 participants. To register, download the registration form. For more information about Andy and Reseska Apiaries, visit bostonhoneycompany.com
NEW!
Berry Pruning workshop
March 19
10am
Land's Sake Farm Land's Sake is excited to offer an opportunity for home gardeners to gain real experience in perennial berry maintenance under the direct tutelage of our veteran berry manager Ben Wilson. This two-hour workshop will cover all the basic information you will need--from techniques to tools--to prune your own berries. You will be able to practice your new knowledge by working along side Land's Sake staff as they prune our raspberries or blueberries at Land's Sake Farm. Come prepared to work, ask questions, and learn as much a you can. We will provide materials for you to take home. To register contact our Education Director at Doug@landssake.org. SAVE THE DATE! Sugaring Off! Festival
March 26
9am-1pm
Sugar Shack at the Weston Middle School We hope you'll join us at our annual Sugaring Off festival on March 26th to celebrate the Maple Season. There will be music, pancakes (with syrup of course!), tours of the Sugar House, and a chance to buy syrup to take home. Nothing is quite as sweet and wonderful as maple syrup, and you can't get much more local than ours! See you there! |
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,
Here in New England, something remarkable begins in February. Warming days begin to wake the trees and sap begins to flow, signaling the start of Maple Season. Much like farming, producing great maple syrup requires a sensitivity to the natural environment and an ability to adapt to it. Nature's schedule is not always convenient to our own but, if maple syrup is the goal, then when the sap flows, you collect. When the sap is flowing strong sometimes this means everyone here must drop what they are doing and help haul sap buckets. Last week this mandate provided me a much needed interruption from life behind a desk.
Engaging with the natural world is a powerful antidote for a great many ills. For me, this engagement often brings a wellspring of gratitude for the natural world, for good work and the remarkable gift of life.
Back behind the desk, we are moving forward as an organization. The review of our financial systems is complete and we are now developing a plan of action to address areas highlighted by the review. In addition, Jean Thomas, who served as the Global Safety and Compliance Officer for the William Clinton Foundation, has agreed to Chair our Safety and Compliance Committee which will conduct a comprehensive safety audit. Finally, we are in the final stages of retooling our summer Green Power program led by our Education Director, Doug Cook. We are proud to offer this remarkable summer program for youth.
I encourage you to join us in our work, during a volunteer day in the woods, as a Green Power or Farm & Forest Explorer student this summer, at a community boil at the Sugar House or for a great meal at the Supper Club. We look forward to seeing you!
Eric Kreilick, Executive Director
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Maple season: a report from the field
by Dave Quinn
 Land's Sake's Bill McElwain Sugar House at the Weston Middle SchoolHere in Weston, Maple Season is in full swing. While tramping through the snow in a t-shirt and snowshoes, carrying buckets overflowing with sap, I am reminded that early Spring has always been one of my favorite seasons. This year, twenty students registered for the Green Power Maple program and so far, we have gathered over 750 gallons of cold, clear sap. Once the first 500 gallons were collected, we fired up the evaporator in the Bill McElwain Sugar House. Our Production Manager, Stephanie Andrews, has been diligently working to keep up with the flow to craft high quality local syrup. We've already bottled our first 7 plus gallons and I can tell you, it's delicious! The Maple Season mantra, "warm days, cold nights" has been heard over and again. Let's hope for a few more great weeks. We hope to see you again at another community boil, and on March 26th at our Sugaring Off Festival. |
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Time to register to Summer Youth Education programs
by Douglas Cook, Education Director
It's not too early to register for a spot in our summer youth programs: Farm and Forest Explorers for 10, 11 and 12 year-olds and Green Power for 13, 14 and 15 year-olds.
We've made some changes this year. Farm and Forest Explorers is now a half-day, week-long activity-based experience. Green Power will be a full-day, week-long work and service based program. For more information, download our brochure. For registration information, please call 781-893-1162, go online or email me at greenpower@landssake.org.
Finally, thanks to all who came out for the Green Power Open House last weekend. It was great to meet new neighbors and to see your support of Land's Sake and this upcoming season of Green Power Summer.
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Forestry Update
by Dave Quinn Stephanie and Hilary (two farmers turned loggers), are splitting and stacking firewood after digging out a nice trench for the pile.The theme of this winter for the forestry crew has been, surprise surprise, SNOW! Even with the difficult conditions in the woods of Weston, our forestry crew has been snowly (I mean slowly) making progress thinning a small area of trees in the Highland Forest for firewood. As you can imagine, working in 2 to 3 feet of snow is a challenge. In addition to digging out our equipment each morning, we must dig out a place to stack the wood between trees so that our piles don't topple over when the snow melts in the spring. This winter, Mother Nature has certainly reminded us of who's in charge. Despite the slow going, we hope to have plenty of firewood available for sale next fall. Here's how you can help out: If you are interested in helping us split firewood this winter, please email Dave Quinn at dave@landssake.org to be put on our volunteer list. We hope to have several volunteer wood splitting Saturdays between now and mid-April. |
Farm report
by Melanie Hardy, Farm Manager
Just three hours ago, I was boiling off maple sap in a t-shirt. After the winter we've had, there's nothing like a 65 degree day two-thirds of the way through February to remind you that spring is around the corner. As silly as it may sound, I am pretty sure that the best part of my day, aside from the most excellent smells of sugar and steam and firewood in the sugar shack, was that on my drive into Weston, the roads felt wide and generous as the snow melted into small rivers before my eyes. I am not under any illusion that winter is over. I can be hopeful, though, can't I?
Another farmer told me that it is at this time of the year she begins to hold her breath a little bit, and sleep a little less soundly as the anticipation of what is to come is almost just too much to bear! Now, just two years later, with a couple of seasons of managing under my belt, I laugh at a less experienced me for being surprised by what she said. I had worked on farms for many years, but attempting to orchestrate a whole farm season is an entirely different ball game. The busyness that will soon arrive contrasts greatly with our (still busy, but admittedly much mellower) winters. So, with the joyful return of springtime, we say a bittersweet goodbye to the cozier aspects of winter.
Stephanie Andrews, our assistant farm manager, is running the sugar shack this year. As we suspected, she is already doing a bang-up job. Thanks in advance, Steph, for all of your hard work!
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Just a reminder that spring is also membership renewal season. Your membership in Land's Sake helps support our programs throughout the year, provides you special benefits such as discounts on our services and reminds us that the Land's Sake family is strong and growing. Please consider becoming a member of Land's Sake or renewing your membership. Please check out our website, www.LandsSake.org, for more information and help spread the word! Many thanks,
the Land's Sake staff |
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