Trust for Working Landscapes

When: January 4, 2009 @ 2pm
Where: Day Road Farms farm stand

Bart Berg will be leading another Farm Walk starting at the Day Road Farms farm stand on Sunday, January 4th at 2pm. The walk will cover seven agricultural properties before returning to the meeting point.

Please bring winter clothes and boots.

Contact Bart Berg at bart@bainbridge.net with questions.

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On Sunday, a group of hardy souls set out on a Farm Walk. The walk, about 2.2 miles in total, covered the farms near Day Road including the Morales, M & E and Crawford properties.

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The group met in the cold and fresh snow to learn about the farms, their history and TWL’s involvement in their future. This historic water tower was moved from Winslow and re-constructed for continued enjoyment by all.

The group made it’s way from the water tower toward Akio Suyematsu’s part of the property flanked to the left by Gerard Bentryn’s Bainbridge Island Vineyards vines braving the cold.

Along the way, Betsey Wittick of Laughing Crow Farm, an Ivy League educated farmer, shared her knowledge of the land and farming — in particular as it related to water given the large undertaking of the irrigation system installed in part by the TWL last winter.

Blueberries are a new addition to the famous raspberries grown on the property.

Betsey farms old school with horses.

Look closely and you can see garlic tops peeking through the snow.

Raspberries.

From the Day Road farms the group walked to the M & E tree farm.

The site of Saturday’s farm work party blanketed in snow.

Traipsing through the snow and woods.

The view south looking down on the Morales farm.

Looking north from the Morales property toward the newly planted vines of Mike Lempriere and Perennial Vintners. In the foreground can be seen the stakes for the greenhouse project.

With some work, time and money this could become some quality housing for farming interns.

From Morales we walked back to the farm stand colder, but significantly more knowledgeable, than when we started.

About 8-10 volunteers turned out for the latest work party on Saturday at the M & E Tree Farm to clear the invasives taking over the property.

The brush was thick scotch broom and other invasives choking out the would-be Christmas trees so we got to work.

Volunteers were busy turning the brush into mulch.

In the end we made a lot of progress and the cleared land looks and feels better.

Stay tuned for more news about future work parties at M & E and elsewhere.

Date: Saturday, December 13

Time: 10AM - 2PM

We have much to do in the coming winter months to get ready for spring. The Morales greenhouse needs to be built and this will take a number of consecutive weekends. At the moment we are getting bids and preparing the ground plane of the site. Next we will pull the metal posts from the existing site and knock off the concrete. We are trying to get the greenhouse up by March so it is ready for starts.

The alder tree at the north end of Crawford must come down before they leaf out again - this will also take several work parties.

At the moment we have a large chipper rented for this coming Saturday so we can begin to remove and chip the invasive trees (small alders, willows, scotch broom) and diseased trees from the M & E Tree farm. This will take a number of work parties. This property needs help to begin to move it towards food production among other ideas.

So drive up Lovgren past the Morales Farm and turn left onto Charles and drive to the end which runs into M & E. Bring sharp saws, gloves and help pull these invasives to the chipper which trained people will run. This is a great opportunity to understand M and E and see its potential.

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