upcoming events
field notes
Walk in the Park Series: An Introduction to the Night Sky Saturday, July 13, 2013 8 p.m. - 10 p.m.
Participants will learn about the formation of the universe, celestial motion, and objects in our solar system. Once you learn the basics, the night sky will come alive as you’ve never seen before, and you’ll delight in learning new constellations as the earth turns through the seasons. Colonial Summer Days
Volume 18 | Number 2 | July 9 & 12, 2013
Ecosystem Farm at Accokeek www.accokeekfoundation.org
Hello CSA Community,
Tuesday, July 16-Thursday, July 18, 2013 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Youth of all ages will enjoy this interactive and fun, self-guided tour while they “Give Ben a Break” with his farm chores. This is an excellent opportunity for youth group and camp leaders, as well as families seeking an outdoor field trip to keep young minds and bodies active this summer! For details on any event, please visit www.accokeekfoundation.org.
Ecosystem Farm Manager Rebecca Cecere Seward Farm Apprentices Alex Binck, Holli Elliott Farm and Garden Coordinator Daniel Michaelson Volunteers Rosemary Zechman, Amanda Truett, Tom Ellwanger, Mary Lynn Davis, Yvonne Brown, Terrance Murphy, Ethan Carton, Cairna Bode
We are underway! The season is gaining momentum, and the fruits of summer are growing and changing color before our eyes. The variety of produce is still high, as we are clearing out the fields of our leftover spring delights. The fields are drying out after our many weeks of rain, but I still look forward to an occasional charged evening of thunderstorms, without which it is not a Maryland summer. I wish you all a happy healthy delicious week! love and caterpillars, Farmer Becky
heat rising vines intertwining summertime
301-283-2113.
Marking Territory By Rebecca Cecere Seward
Today my heart’s a little heavy. Last night we lost several of our home laying flock of chickens, whom we had raised since they were a day old. This included three of their offspring, who were about 3 weeks old and had been raised under the watch of a couple mothering hens. The chickens make up a large part of our menagerie of domestic animals, whom we watch like “farm tv,” observing the breed traits and individual personalities of the mixed breed 15 hen gaggle of ladies, overseen by Luis our rooster. Now we are minus seven hens and three offspring to an intrepid raccoon, breaking up what has been a year of mostly hiccup-free farm life. While this all makes me a little sad, it is also the expected risk of having quite a few large, meaty animals in a coop overnight in an area where we also appreciate being rural. Living on a back road near a national park, my roommates and I take lots of walks in the woods; we spot turkey and deer and beaver, and we appreciate the beings of these woods and swamp in their relatively undisturbed state. This becomes the dilemma of the naturalist-farmer: what to hold precious for its purpose as domesticated creature, and what to respect for its inherent wild hardiness and adaptability. I think raccoons are fascinating creatures. The prehensile hands, the habit of sitting up and showing a little belly fur, the way they cluster in family groups, and their overall problem-solving ability make them relatable and darn cute. But I also feel that hardening of animal protectiveness about our chickens, and would in this case consider the raccoon a threat to my territory, to my farm family. It seems that today, as I pick up commemorative feathers from the coop and bury our girls in the back, it has become necessary to fight the encroaching wild, and declare the raccoon disallowed from our space. Farming life is all about making calls such as this. I cannot think of a way to farm sustainably that does not rely on native ecological elements: soil bacteria, mycorrhizae, pollinating insects and birds, natural sources of water, windbreaks, and wildflowers. The place to draw the line is a matter
of preference and principle. For example, most every farmer I know builds a tall deer fence, because it is clear that they are a large liability in, say, a freshly planted field of lettuce. Conversely, choosing regionally-adapted varieties of vegetables, and incorporating a diverse amount of varieties of a certain type of vegetable are crucial pieces of my farm planning. By mimicking the diversity of nature in our farming system, we create more of a marginal space between wild and cultivated. This should hopefully minimize our risk of developing a large “feeding ground” for any of the herbivores and insects that may be tempted by our food. Taking measures to work with this forested estuarine treasure that is our little pocket by the Potomac are where I begin when undergoing the toil to grow and raise delicious healthy food. But don’t underestimate me, raccoons; I have a wild streak too, and I will protect my flock.