Tag Archives: drumlin

There’s Still Time: Moon Over Drumlin Live Raffle

Posted on September 18, 2017 by Ryan D.

Mountain top yoga? A pro photography lesson? A trip to Iceland? What’s your Drumlin dream? Tickets to this year’s Moon Over Drumlin gala auction are sold out, but you can still have a chance to win! Buy your raffle tickets or put in a proxy bid before it’s too late to enter to win some truly fabulous prizes, including everything from cooking and yoga classes to weekend getaways and globe-trotting trips.

Here are a few our favorite prizes to get your mouth watering and your travel bug itching for an adventure.

Buy raffle tickets or put in a proxy auction bid today >

Mountaintop Yoga and Wine Retreat at Drumlin

This evening for 12 begins with a nature walk around the sanctuary, leading to an hour-long sunset yoga practice at the top of the drumlin, led by Laura Loewy, founder of Backcountry Yoga. Afterward, adjourn to a fireside wine and cheese reception, hosted by Sanctuary Director Renata Pomponi.

Private Paradise in Portugal

Relax for a week at Casa da Figueira, a private seaside villa in Algarve, Portugal. This traditional Portuguese villa has ample room for eight adults and is well-suited for children and families. The villa is just five minutes’ walk to the beach, cliffs, and excellent restaurants. Numerous golf courses and wineries are within an hour’s drive.

Private Drumlin Soirée

Have the sanctuary all to yourself—and 20 friends—for an evening farm and food extravaganza! Harvest seasonal veggies from our farm fields, then return to our kitchen to create pizzas that feature your harvest. After dinner, enjoy s’mores and a campfire performance by singer-songwriter Katrin Roush. This one-of-kind celebration can be customized for families with children, workplace outings, or groups of friends of any age!

Seafood Lover’s Cooking Class and Dinner Party

Svenfish founder Sven Olson—Drumlin Farm’s charismatic Farm Stand seafood supplier—invites you to an evening of cooking and dining! Sven will demonstrate cooking techniques and prepare a multi-course tasting menu (at his own home, or at yours) that includes locally-sourced seafood and seasonal Drumlin Farm produce. Your dinner for 8 will be accompanied by wine pairings and tasting notes from Eric Broege and Carolyn Kemp of Vintages in Concord, MA.

Don’t delay any longer! Enter your proxy bid or purchase raffle tickets for these fabulous prizes and many others today.

Summer Crops Update: August 16

Posted on August 16, 2016 by Staff

Crops Updates are provided by Drumlin Farm Crops Manager Matt Celona.

MorningHarvest2

We Got Rain. We Need More.
We did get about one inch of rain on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Many crops look revived and happy. However, it’s a good bet that the warm weather will last, since the outlook is for 90s continuing into next week and beyond. That’s not good news for the farmers or the crops. According to Weather Underground, Lincoln received 16 inches below the precipitation average in 2015. To date in 2016, we are 19 inches below average! This drought is at least two years in the making.

How Are the Crops Doing?
The young bean plants that we watered through the driest stretch are now mature and looking good. The second round of eggplant is fairing much better than the first. These are perfect for grilling whole or sautéing. Our last round of sweet corn is beginning to mature, while storage beets, rutabaga, turnips, and radish have finally germinated. Unfortunately, it looks like the seedings of storage carrots are not going to come up. We’re in uncharted territory with the emergency carrot seedings that we tried over the following weeks —we hope that we can still get a good harvest out of these, but it’ll depend on how mild the fall is.

We’re going to have to take very good care of all fall crops in order to maximize yields from plants that are already stressed by the heat and lack of water. We’re hoeing and fertilizing storage crops, stringing the second succession of tomatoes, and preparing fields for fall cover-cropping.

Many Thanks to Our Volunteers and Workers
This morning, teacher-naturalist Sally Farrow brought a group of Lowell City Corps youth to help us harvest onions. The kids apply to the city for summer employment in environmental work, and thanks to Sally’s relationship with Lowell schools, they have come here for the past two years. Additionally, volunteers Anne and Sheila removed crab grass from the Brussels sprouts patch—not an easy job even when the weather is nice!

Last Friday, we said goodbye to fieldworker Maggie as she returns to Colby for her senior year. Thanks, Maggie, and all of our volunteers for your good work and positive energy!

See you in the field,
Your Farmers

Summer Crops Update: July 13

Posted on July 13, 2016 by Staff

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Greetings from Mexico!
The winter squash and pumpkin crop are growing vigorously in the newly opened field we are calling “Mexico” (because it’s south of the field we call “Texas”). One advantage of growing crops in newly worked ground is that there is almost no weed pressure in the first year. Not having to manage weeds in Mexico allows us to devote more time to the harvest and to weed-control in the flower patch, perennial garden, and strawberries.

A Rough Year for Garlic
It looks like our entire garlic crop has failed. We’re not sure what the problem was, though many of the plants burned over two cold nights in April. It’s a big loss for us and for those of you who love garlic.

The Tomato Countdown
On a brighter note, the onion and shallot crops look bountiful, and the tomato patch continues to look excellent! We expect to begin harvesting cherry tomatoes next week. The cucumbers and eggplant harvests are about to reach a size when we can include them at the farm stand, our CSA, and restaurant deliveries.

We hope for rain in the coming days to keep our crops growing strong.

See you in the field,
Your farmers

Meet the Staff: Geoff Nelson, Property Manager

Posted on May 2, 2016 by Staff

“There is no typical day.”

Geoff Nelson, who has worked at Drumlin Farm since 2008, knows just about everything there is to know about the facilities, buildings, and grounds of the wildlife sanctuary and Mass Audubon headquarters, which is located just across the street.

“Our work is very weather dependent,” he said. “On any given day, we may be plowing the driveways or cutting away trees felled by a windstorm.”

In addition to keeping the wildlife sanctuary in top shape for our visitors, Geoff and his team are responsible for coordinating with contractors, overseeing volunteer projects, maintaining the beautiful landscape, or even building a Native American-inspired shelter for Drumlin Farm Community Preschool students.

As a kid, Geoff was an outdoor enthusiast, always exploring or building forts with his childhood friends. Before Geoff became the property manager at the farm, he studied graphic arts and photography at Lyndon State College, and like many of the people who work here, his career path evolved over the years to suit his passions for the environment.

“It came from a concern for the environment and the need to do all I can to integrate this with environmental education, especially for our children,” said Geoff.

His passions led him to work at the Hemlock Overlook Center for Outdoor education, as well as The Discovery Museum, where he was the exhibits director. While there, he put his college studies to work by building interactive exhibits for museum visitors of all ages. And to Geoff, the correlation between science and activities at Drumlin Farm is built in to the landscape and buildings.

“In the past, there was a big disconnect between earth science studied in school and the world of nature,” he said. “Now, the public is beginning to see the interrelatedness of farms to their everyday lives.”

The work Geoff does as property manager is part of a larger system that touches everything and everyone working on the farm.

Geoff’s love for the outdoors hasn’t changed one bit since childhood. Today, he spends weekends and vacations biking and hiking, and even once worked as a ridge runner for the Appalachian Mountain Club.

It’s pretty clear that Geoff’s role at Drumlin Farm suits him perfectly!