Views from the Drumlin

We're on the move

Views From the Drumlin can now be found at :

http://www.massaudubon.org/blogs/viewsfromthedrumlin/

Come visit the blog on its new platform and share your thoughts!

How do I cook this?

One of the most common questions at the Drumlin Farm admissions window during the months we have our farmstand open is, "How do I cook this?" Since November is a time when many people spend a lot of time in the kitchen, we're offering some of our staff's favorite ideas. If you join us at our February Winter Harvest Dinner, you can continue the discussion over a freshly prepared Drumlin Farm dinner.

The ideas are simple, and leave plenty of room for creativity. Root vegetables are fantastic roasted with salt, pepper, olive oil, and your choice of fresh (or dried) herbs. Drumlin Farm staff members are also a fan of the root mash (boil or roast the veggies before mashing) which can include any combination of potato, turnips, parsnips, kohlrabi, celeriac, parsnips, rutabaga, and carrots. Try it with butter, chicken or vegetable stock, or if you're going for sweetness, try maple syrup, brown sugar and a bit of ginger.

Here’s a family recipe from our preschool director Paula

Nana’s Candied Sweet Potatoes

6 sweet potatoes boiled in skins
Cool slightly, peel, and cut into halves or quarters

In large, deep-sided frying pan melt one stick butter, and add 1 cup chopped walnuts and 1 cup maple syrup. Heat almost to boiling, stirring constantly. Add sweet potatoes, turning gently in low boil for 15 minutes. Transfer to casserole and keep warm until dinner.

Visitors also frequently ask us what to do with the variety of greens we offer at the farmstand. Many of our greens are great raw, even greens that at first glance seem tough. Kale, cut up finely, works well in a salad with a vinegar-based dressing. (Kale also makes delicious chips. Recipes are all over for these quick easy snacks.) The collard greens require a bit longer cooking time, but can be simply boiled and tossed with vinegar as a quick side dish. Cabbage can be used raw or cooked.

From our camp director Becky, a quick tasty raw salad.

Cabbage—any color, shredded

1 head cilantro leaves, chopped

Juice of 2 limes

Sea salt

Combine all together and serve.  Adjust lime juice to own liking

What’s your favorite way to prepare Drumlin Farm veggies? How about our meat?

11/4

Our brand new Crossroads Barn is coming along nicely. The crew working on it are making a lot of progress each day. Just look at these two photos that were taken only two days apart.

The new space is going to be great! We'll keep sharing updates.
After a rather unpleasant start to the week with mostly everyone without power Friday was a beautiful blue sky day. What foliage there is left really shined against the deep blue.

Does this squash kind of look like it was once round but was deflated, or perhaps melted? Really it's just the shape it grew in, but it gave me a chuckle.

And last but not least on this brief Friday round-up, thanks to everyone who joined us last week for Tales of the Night. It was a brisk evening weather wise, but we had a blast! The farm was bustling and folks really seemed to be enjoying the event (and the wonderful carved pumpkins).

Thanks again to all of the volunteers (we had a ton- and from a number of different organizations) who helped the day of the event, and in the week leading up to it carving the pumpkins.

Looks like the Intel volunteers got creative carving those pumpkins!

Thanks again- we hope to see everyone again next year!

Watch for our November e-newsletter next week. If you don't receive it but would like to sign up here.

Halloween is today (at least on the farm)!

Well, what can I say? It snowed BEFORE HALLOWEEN! Good news is that the snow is melting as we speak and we're open this evening for Tales of the Night. If you haven't purchased a ticket yet you can still come, just buy one at the window this evening. Doors open at 6:30 pm.

Thanks to the folks at CA Technologies, who are sponsoring Tales of the Night, and who came and helped decorate, we have a ton of fantastic scarecrows this year. In addition to the great scarecrows I shared before we now have this whole bunch (plus another group, seriously they made a ton of scarecrows!). Don't worry they all got heads after I took this photo.

I can't spill all the secrets of the hayride, but here's one shot of the haunted graveyard. Looks like some staff got pretty creative coming up with those tombstones...

And just to round out the photos (and keep your spirits up in the cold), one final beautiful flower from last week. I don't think we'll be seeing much scenery like this until next spring.

Hope to see you tonight! If you see the roving staff person with the camera come say hi, your photo might end up on the blog next week!

Fall Fabulousness...

It's beginning to look a lot like.... HALLOWEEN! Our scarecrows are up all around the farm.

Our staff and volunteers have made all sorts of scarecrows this year. I assume these are the preschool scarecrows.

And the college coed scarecrow.

And what I am guessing must be Grandma scarecrow.

And then there's the fall color. It's not only the leaves, but the grasses and corn stalks too.

This just in from our exciting new department... In case you didn't see the announcement on our Facebook page the new critter we'll be introducing shortly is a fisher! Here's his enclosure, which is just about ready for him. Once he's acclimated we'll have him on display. It should be sometime in early November (shockingly that's only a little more than a week away!).

Last, but not least, check out the adorable new puzzle at the Audubon Shop. Yes, that is one of our very own lambs! If you love to see our adorable spring lambs each year, and you're into puzzles (this one looks pretty hard) this has your name all over it. 

That's the news from the farm this week. We'll be back next week with an update on our Tales of the Night preparations.

Weekly Roundup October 14

It's already mid-October and all I have to show for foliage around the farm is this... One sad wet leaf!

I'll be on the lookout for more color in the coming weeks, though it seems that many of the trees that usually put on a great show have lost a lot of their leaves, or have turned brown already. How's the foliage in your neck of the woods?

The real color is still at our farmstand. The mix of gourds and pumpkins, the deep colors of the last of the hardy greens, and sturdy purple onions.

Here's a quick photo of one of the junior egg mobile residents. I suspect I snapped a photo of a weather check, "hey still raining out there?"

Those of you with kiddos in tow have probably realized that we've begun some construction on the farm. Cool tractors!

We're building a new barn here, to give us a bit more flexibility. Once it goes up you may see calves, lambs, or goats there, and it will be right a the bottom of the big entrance hill. We owe a huge thank you to our donors, Dick and Marian Thornton, The Claneil Foundation, and The Red Acre Foundation.

Our new calves continue to do well. They look like night and day.
Here's calf #2.

And here's calf #1 who looks like she's wearing a wool coat!

Last weekend's fantastically warm weather brought big crowds for our October Harvest Days. This weekend is the last of our October Harvest weekends. We're featuring pick-your-own potatoes. We'll change gears after the weekend, and start preparing for Tales of the Night, our Halloween event!

And as many of you may have seen on our Facebook page we're expecting a new Drumlin Farm resident soon. Here's a photo of the staff prepping the enclosure. Any guesses of what it might be?

And on a final, and very important note, Mass Audubon has just released the State of the Birds report. There's good news and not so good news, but it's all important news, and I'm willing to bet you'll learn a lot. Read the report and explore the data on our website.

Mooove over last week's calf; there's a new baby on the farm!

Born yesterday, a bull calf. Mom (Truffle) and calf are both doing well.

 

The calf was up and walking very quickly. By the time this photo was taken (about an hour later) he appeared to be getting a bit tired. Either that, or he thought he was a camel and this is how one gets up and down. Or maybe he's demonstrating a yoga pose?

Truffle did a great job of cleaning up the calf.  

Truffle's calf from last year (mostly grown up) Tilly, was a very curious onlooker. She's also quite the camera lens licker. Be warned photogs! 

Come visit this weekend. The weather folks claim it's going to be nearly 80 degrees! And in case the calf cuteness isn't enough, this is also one of our October Harvest Weekends. There will be pick-your-own pumpkins, crafts, snacks for sale, and live animal demonstrations.

Know Your Squash

Table after table of gorgeous squash grace every farmer's market this time of year. Squash really is the star of the season, so it's time to get to "Know Your Cucurbit!" Squash and pumpkins are closely related, both being part of the cucurbit (gourd) family. Generally they grow on vines, and have beautiful flowers (that are sometimes eaten before they even produce a fruit). The so-called winter squash varieties also store well and can be enjoyed months after they're harvested.

Drumlin Farm produces several varieties of squash and pumpkin, most of which will keep well into the winter months. Members of our CSA receive squash regularly in their fall shares. You can also purchase many of them at our farmstand, or on Saturdays at our stand at the Union Square Farmer's Market in Somerville.

Delicata is one of the smaller varieties, and is tender enough that you can eat the skin.

 
The Blue Hubbard, know as one of the hardest to break into, is often stuffed as a vegetarian substitute for turkey.

 
Butternut, which is easier to peel than some other varieties, is particularly versatile, featured in sweet or savory dishes. Drumlin Farm grows a variety of butternut squash that was bred in Waltham, Massachusetts (right down the street!). 

 

Our crops team also harvests Red Kuri, Acorn, Sweet Dumpling and Kabocha squash, as well as several varieties of pumpkin (some edible and some for decoration).

 

 

They also grow a wide variety of gourds, all wonderful to look at—but definitely not for eating!

 
These gourds can be dried and turned into birdhouses.

What's your favorite recipe for enjoying squash? 

Exploring the World with Your Little One

Young children are scientists by nature. They are always at work, learning all about the world around them through observation, asking questions, solving problems, collecting information (and things!) and exploring. Studies show that spending time playing outside not only benefits children physically and emotionally, but also can help to build scientific ways of thinking and learning—curiosity, creativity, and inventiveness.

The classes we offer at Drumlin Farm are designed to encourage a child's curiosity, to help them explore their world at their own pace. Our adult and child series programs allow participants to focus on a new theme each week, but to remain in a class unit over a span of several weeks. Parents and children get to interact with others in their group and build a relationship with their teacher. Depending on the program each week may be a new farm chore, or visiting a new area of the sanctuary.

The program offerings are developed so that children can grow and try new things as they mature. The teachers love to watch children grow from a young toddler who watches to cows from a distance to the 5 year old who can't wait to milk the cow and tell everyone what they know about the cows. 

While of course the class is geared towards our smaller visitors, the adults seem to enjoy them just as much. You'd be amazed how much you can learn thanks to our fabulous teachers who are old pros at answering adult questions too!

Click on the links below to learn more about our fall series programs. Don't worry if the program has already started, you can still join us and we'll prorate the cost. 

Fall Family Explorations

Autumn Adventurers

Fall Sense-Sations

Farm Family

And here's the link to all our other great programs>>

 
 
 

Meet our newest cow!

Born today (9/21) at around 2 pm. Louise (the mom) and baby are doing fine. Here are a few photos, more info to come.

Here's the minutes before shot.

 
At some point Louise was thirsty. Farmer Dan kindly fetched her some water.

 
We'll skip the during photos. It was very cool to see, but birthing is messy business!

And here's the after. Louise is a good mother. She immediately went to work cleaning up the calf. The calf is sneezing in this shot.

 

She really is adorable, and very photogenic.