Upcoming Events:

Elderberry Workshop: Join us this Saturday, November 8th at 10AM for an informational workshop hosted by Abbie Sewall that will cover planting, growing, propagating, harvesting, and processing elderberries into syrup for fortified winter immunity. Abbie’s favorite syrup recipes will also be shared. Abbie’s goal is to turn all of us into Maine elderberry growers! Abbie Sewall has grown elderberry trees since 2011. She owned and operated The Bailey Farm Organic Elderberry business for seven years, selling elderberry cuttings and plants, as well as organic elderberries and elderflowers for improved immune health. Please sign up by clicking here and scrolling down to November 8.

Winter Sowing Workshop: Join us on Saturday, January 17 from 10AM-12PM to learn how to start seeds for your garden or hedgerow on your own timeline without any fancy growing equipment! This propagation method uses clear plastic recycled containers (e.g. milk jugs and salad containers) and potting soil to start seeds outdoors during the winter. This workshop will go over the method, which plants are best to winter sow, which plants are more challenging to winter sow, and what to do once your seeds have germinated in the spring. Everyone will leave with at least one winter sown jug and the confidence to sow more for their garden. All materials included. Warm cider, coffee, tea, and a simple snack included. Click here to sign up!

Dear Growing to Give Community,

The rusty, golden, and tawny hues of the woodlands, hedgerows, and meadows, lit up by the gentle slanted autumn light, make the farm feel set in a fairy tale. We weed and haul compost, harvest and tidy the plots as glittering leaves fall all around us – shaken loose by errant gusts of chilly wind. Fall arrives with such suddenness each year that it always takes me a while to adjust to the change of pace. Though there’s still just as much work to do each day on the farm, the to-do list actually has an end in sight. Most of our outdoor crops have been harvested and those remaining are growing slowly in our hoop houses that provide an extra 10F of warmth.
Lettuce and beets going strong in the hoop houses!
The halfway point between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice has come and gone. Mid-autumn has many names and carries many meanings across the beautiful and vast traditions of the world, but as a farmer and worker of the land, I resonate with how this time of year is often associated not just with endings but also with possibilities. In some traditions, this time of year is celebrated as the “Third Harvest” and marks the final harvest of the season: the gathering of the seeds. While most seeds don’t provide immediate nourishment, they hold within them something no less essential: the hope for a bountiful harvest the following year. While we don’t save a lot of seed from our vegetables, there is something deeply grounding about saving seed from the native plants we welcome onto the farm and sharing those native seeds with our community. Our wildflower garden and hedgerows are a bounty of perennial seeds that the students and volunteers alike love harvesting to roll into seed balls or save for later use. If you’re looking to start your own hedgerow please come out and harvest some seeds from the farm. Native plants feed the wildlife, and pollinators and hedgerows offer essential habitat to critters while helping to steward endangered native plants.
Seed balls and seeds in the field. You can find the seed ball recipe at the bottom of the Farm Report.

As we put the farm to sleep, turning off the well pump and tucking any remaining beds under blankets of straw, we will soon also have the opportunity to gather up and look through the symbolic seeds from the season – to process the successes and growth points of the year and begin dreaming of and planning for the season to come. My first year at Growing to Give has been a whirlwind, and over the season I have learned so much and have so many ideas that I can’t wait to mull over more during the sleepy winter months.
A hardy garlic planting crew, star volunteer Jan washing radishes, and Fix-it Crew members John and Craig working on our new shed door.

We are, as ever, so grateful for the support of this community. I am continually blown away that you all trusted me to take over such an impactful project and its beautiful community. It has been an incredible honor to get to know you this season and to get to know the farm – its soil and critters and microclimate. With your help, we have already grown and donated more food this year than we’ve ever grown in a single season, and we still have more to harvest! It’s a huge accomplishment for us, and in times such as these, it feels necessary to be able to offer those additional deliveries of healthful vegetables. As you know, nutrition programs have been more stressed than ever, and your support of our mission allows us to continue to grow, so that we can offer the highest quality organic produce to local families and place-based garden education to students of all ages. If you too are looking for more ways to get involved, keep an eye out for our Fall Newsletter or come spend some hours helping us on the farm – we still have a need of hearty volunteers on these chilly autumn days to complete our final harvests and put the farm to bed for the winter.

Warm wishes to you all in these final weeks of autumn!
With care,
Lindsay Wasko
Farm Director
Recipe for homemade seed balls:

1 part *clay (or heavy clay soil)
1 part compost
Perennial seeds

*you can substitute clay powder but will need to add enough water to make the mixture workable

1. Mix until clay and compost are fully blended and will hold together. Add some more clay or water if needed to get a good consistency.
2. Combine 1 Tbs of soil mixture with 1 tsp of seeds and roll into a ball.
3. Optional: decorate with dried petals or use small bits of mixture or gathered nature items to add creative touches (e.g., Kids might like to add ears and pine needle whiskers to make them into little creatures!)
4. Allow seed balls to dry for a few days in a warm, dry place.
5. Gift them or put them out into the garden immediately! Note: many perennial seeds need to be exposed to a lengthy period of cold/freezing weather (called cold stratification) to be viable to sprout in the spring. So if you don’t put them in the garden in the fall, you can leave them in an indoor location that will freeze (such as a shed) or plop them on top of the snow in the late winter – they will sprout when the conditions are right.