Author: Michael Chase

Last Saturday we had some snow. On Sunday morning we noticed a few interesting tracks. There were the usual rabbit tracks and you now how farmers feel about rabbits. We have meadow voles at the farm and it was quite interesting that we could make out tunnels that they were making in the four to five inches of snow that fell.

If the snow was much deeper, we might not have even noticed them.  These mice construct a labyrinth of tunnels that conceal their movements from predators. The snow acts much like an igloo and insulates their nests from the bitter cold. The voles tend to survive better when winters have more snow.

The tracks here are from a racoon that is seeking refuge in the old barn. The digits are quite distinct and make very interesting patterns in the snow.

On Monday December 28th we heard the scream of a rabbit as a Red Tailed hawk snatched at it in a thicket of sage. It is an unsettling sound and was not easy to explain the scene to my 10 year old daughter, Narineh. The hawk was young and not concerned much about our presence, but the ducks were concerned about the hawk and immediately sought shelter in their coop. The rabbit was too big for the hawk to fly off with, but it did manage to drag it’s prey deeper into the field several yards.
Once Narineh worked through her immediate shock, she began to take some pictures with her camera. The rabbit was too big for the hawk to eat in one sitting, but returned each day until December 30th. There was not much left of it, but on the morning of January 1st, it was entirely gone. Coyote tracks were at the scene. Nature doesn’t waste anything

Belmont Acres Farm is offering a fall CSA with a limited number of shares this season that will run from November 7th through December 12 (six weeks of pick ups). Many Fall CSAs are monthly pickups, but our pickup is weekly. This is to not burden you with an overly large share that may be difficult for you to store (so we will do it for you). We also hope to offer more greens in the beginning before the weather turns too cold. Weather patterns are volatile in late fall and big changes can happen over the course of a month, more frequent pickups will mediate risk of more weather sensitive crops.

We have planted kale, collards, leeks, cauliflower, kohlrabi, brussel sprouts, potatoes, sweet potatoes, lettuce, swiss chard, fennel, garlic, shallots, sage, rosemary, thyme, arugula, turnips, radishes, pumpkins, winters squashes, carrots, popcorn, celeriac and beets. Of course what we plant doesn’t always mean it will end up in the share. Farming is high in risk and this has been a tough year to farm. We expect to provide at least $30 of produce in each share. We also include 1/2 dozen eggs in the share each week. The price for the share is $235. Pickups are at Belmont Acres Farm on Saturdays from 12:30 to 3:30pm

We expect to source cranberries from Plymouth and have partnered with Bascolm Hollow Farm for pork and ground beef. These will be offered at additional cost. We are looking into several other locally sourced items and will keep members informed of other items we may be able to provide.

Contact us if you would like sign up or have additional questions about our CSA.