Category Archives: Education

Community Preschool Recognized with Excellence Award

Posted on May 21, 2018 by Kelly R.

From Drumlin Farm Sanctuary Director Renata Pomponi:

Earlier last week I had the pleasure of joining Jill Canelli and Lead Teacher Rina Zampieron at a ceremony at the Massachusetts Statehouse, where Jill and the Drumlin Farm Community Preschool were honored with one of the 2018 Secretary’s Awards for Excellence in Energy and Environmental Education, presented by Matthew Beaton, Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

These annual awards recognize achievement in environmental education, which is a testament to the many years of hard work that Jill and the DFCP staff have put into making our preschool a model of how to get kids outside and learning, tapping into their inherent curiosity and enthusiasm and guiding their creativity and passion for our earth. Mass Audubon is excited to see our nature-based preschool receive this statewide recognition, and we thank Jill and all of our teachers for creating such a special and meaningful place for our students to learn. Please join me in congratulating Jill and the Drumlin Farm Community Preschool!

From left to right: Kris Scopinich, Mass Audubon Director of Education; Rina Zampieron,Community Preschool Lead Teacher; Jill Canelli, Community Preschool Director; Renata Pomponi, Sanctuary Director; Mathew Beaton, Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs

Inside the Hive: Congratulations Bee School Graduates!

Posted on May 3, 2018 by Kelly R.

The Drumlin Bee School recently completed its ongoing five week series program and graduated 38 students as new beekeepers. The Drumlin Farm beekeeping series programs teach students everything they need to know about starting and maintaining bee hives at home. Mel Gadd, recently awarded Massachusetts’ Beekeeper Association’s 2017 Beekeeper of the Year, has been leading Drumlin Farm Students and teaching them this rewarding hobby for many years.

Instructor Mel Gadd prepares to open the hive.

The students recently visited some of the hives on the Mass Audubon Headquarters site and practiced installing new bees into two of the hives. Having a healthy population of bees is important for a healthy habitat as they provide many ecological services, most notably in the pollination of flowers and plants. Drumlin Farm, as well as the Mass Audubon Headquarters site across the street, hosts many hives in our fields and forest edges to encourage bee populations and teach program participants about these fascinating insects and their care.

©Cynthia Vogan

Suited up, Mel fills the hives with new bees.

There are many layers and parts within the artificial hives.

Beekeeping for Beginners graduates have the opportunity to advance their skills even further with Intermediate Beekeeping classes but there are many ways visitors can connect with these busy insects and the honey they provide. Children will love our Queen Bee, Honey Bunny, and Apple Honey Harvest programs, as well as the opportunity to focus on the Power of Pollen at Mini Camp. Adults can also have a merry time learning the ancient methods used in making mead, an ancient wine made from honey!

March ELC Progress: Natural Interiors

Posted on April 10, 2018 by Kelly R.

Just over two months to go, and the Environmental Learning Center is starting to come together! It has been an exciting month as we move from the large-scale fabrication to the small-scale details.

As the snows of February kept falling, the most time consuming task inside was polishing our concrete floors. Every inch was ground and buffed by machines large and small.

The result was a beautiful natural gloss on the floor, with an eco-friendly polish on top that will give us many years of wear. We love the rich color that came out in the concrete, and the gradations of tone that add a lot of texture to the space. And it won’t show the dirt of Drumlin from our boots!

FurnCom, our furniture selection committee, spent some quality time inside the building determining the sizes and configurations of all of the desks, worktables, chairs, and other equipment that it will take to run our busy education hub. Tia Pinney loves how the small conference room is larger than any private meeting space we ever had in the old building!

ColorCom, the color selection committee, has also been hard at work. We love the deep gray of the tile they picked for the bathrooms.

To our surprise, the entire set of millwork (wooden cabinetry) arrived in one gigantic shipment from the fabricator. While it’s a bit of a challenge to match each stick of wood to its rightful spot in the interior detailing, it does make an impressive pile in the great room. Office jenga, anyone?

Piece by piece, the millwork has been going up. The birch gives a clean natural look to the doorframes and interior windows.

Thankfully our builder understands that some decisions need to be made in situ, such as the exact placement of the box shelves over each workstation. We know we’re a bit fussy on the details, but after waiting so long for this new space, we want it to be perfect!

We know our teacher-naturalists are going to love their new storage cubbies! More birch details echo throughout the building, including the bookcases, workstation tabletops, and doors.

Look for more updates coming soon. If you would like to learn more about the project, or get involved yourself, we invite you to learn more here.

Renata Pomponi

Sanctuary Director

Inside the Hive with Massachusetts Beekeepers Association’s Beekeeper of the Year: Mel Gadd

Posted on March 27, 2018 by Kelly R.

Have you ever tried Drumlin Farm honey? Our bees work hard to pollinate our crops along with providing us with delicious honey, all under the watchful eye of our beekeeper, Mel Gadd. We’re proud to announce that Mel was recently named the 2017 Beekeeper of the Year by the Massachusetts Beekeepers Association.

Mel Gadd has been keeping bees a little over ten years in Cambridge, MA. He has been involved with the Essex County Beekeepers Association (ECBA) for the past ten years, as Chair of the ECBA Bee School in 2015 and is on his second term as an ECBA Board of Director.

Mel maintains over twenty hives, with three located in his own backyard and three at schools where he works with the 1st and 5th graders as his beekeepers. He started major beekeeping programs at Drumlin Farm, both in the fields, as well as established an educational program on the bees as part of Drumlin’s regular programming. This includes a five-week Bee School where Mel teaches participants everything they need to know about how to keep bees, and maintaining many hives at Drumlin.

The 2018 Drumlin Farm Beekeeping for Beginners held its first class on the last Tuesday of February. The class was full with 38 students who were totally enthralled with the idea of keeping honey bees during the upcoming season. The idea of the class is to prepare students so that at the end of the five weeks in classroom and one day in the field, they will be able to start their beekeeping experience. Intermediate Beekeeping with Mel starts the last Tuesday in April, with registration currently open.

Mel Gadd teaching at a full class of soon-to-be beekeepers

Mel has also been involved with some of the non-traditional types of hives (top bar, Warre & Slovenian hives) and has been teaching about these at a number of forums in the region. At Drumlin, Mel has also been conducting studies using mushroom spores as an organic way to minimize/eliminate varroa mites.

Recently, he was awarded Massachusetts Beekeepers Association’s 2017 Beekeeper of the Year Award. As an integral part of our farm-to-food programming and honey supply, we congratulate Mel and invite our community to learn from the best at one of his upcoming programs. Check back in for periodical “Inside the Hive” updates from Mel and his busy bee’s as they prepare for the upcoming season and learn about this fun hobby and important skill.

Beekeeper checking on their hive.

ELC Progress: Insulation, Design, and Thawing Grounds

Posted on March 12, 2018 by Kelly R.

February has brought more progress to the Environmental Learning Center job site, which has been humming with activity amid the storms and gray skies of winter. With just about three months to go until the grand opening, there is lots happening both inside and out.

The most noticeable progress has been on the outside of the building, with the installation of a beautiful combination of cedar and aluminum siding. Our staff loves the “rustic red” color against the beauty of the wood.

The Chapman Construction/Design crew had some natural challenges to face when we went through a thaw. Got to admire their creativity in finding pathways across the mud!

Indoors, the major milestone of the month was the completion of the insulation. In addition to all the rigid foam that lines the walls, ceiling, and foundation, pounds and pounds of cellulose insulation (made from recycled newspaper) was blown into the ceiling and wall cavities. It took about a week to get all the gaps filled up, but now we’re confident that this building will be our most energy efficient ever!

Evaluating whether the machines have blown in the right amount of cellulose is an interesting business. Too much insulation and the walls might bow from the weight; too little and there would be gaps where cold air could seep through. It turns out that the best method is fairly low tech: Bob the site supervisor built a one-cubic-foot box and filled it with insulation to the specified weight. First you pat the box to get a feel for (literally) how much the right amount should compress…

…then you pat the walls or ceilings to judge whether they match the box. It may seem like an inexact science, but apparently our sense of touch is good enough to be fairly accurate in this case! Mass Audubon’s Capital Projects Manager Stu thinks they got it just right.

Once the insulation was complete, it is time for the walls. Sheetrock is starting to appear along the hallways and rooms, further defining the spaces where so much great educational ideas will take shape.

In parallel, the behind-the-scenes plumbing and electrical work has been finishing up, ready to be walled in but still appreciated for its tidy and functional construction.

Finally, our design team has been busy making decisions on a weekly basis on the colors, textures, and finishes that will give the space the right ambiance. We’ve settled on a very natural color palette that reflects both the landscape of Drumlin Farm and our farm-y roots, with some practical aspects like an entrance mat that kind of matches the dirt that we know will be on our boots from our time in the pastures and fields.

Look for more updates coming soon. If you would like to learn more about the project, or get involved yourself, we invite you to learn more at massaudubon.org/environmental-learning-center.

Best,

Renata Pomponi

Sanctuary Director

2018 New Year’s Resolution: Be a Nature Hero

Posted on December 28, 2017 by Kelly R.

Start 2018 with a resolution that is achievable and benefits yourself and the environment – resolve to be a nature hero! Nature heroes are people who, in big and small ways, make a lasting, positive impact on the natural world. They don’t wear capes and fly, but instead work on making the world a better place by taking responsibility for their actions. As we look to the new year ahead, you’ll find there are many ways you can do your part and join the mighty Mass Audubon nature heroes:

Ride your bike or walk to close locations instead of driving. Added bonus if this helps you meet a health related resolution!
Conserve water by taking shorter showers.
Only run the laundry or dishwasher when the load is full to conserve water.
Use a reusable water bottle. Save money and plastic by not having to buy plastic water bottles frequently. Switching to a reusable thermos will also reduce your waste and save money from your morning caffeine fix.
Bring reusable bags to the grocery store and decline bags when you’re not buying much and don’t need one.
Conserve water by turning off the faucet while brushing your teeth.
Take the bus or train instead of driving to work.
Turn off the lights when you’ll be out of the room for more than 15 minutes.
Look into reusable energy options for your heating and electric bills.
Switch to LED light bulbs.
Unplug chargers when not using them to reduce phantom energy. Even better, unplug entirely and charge your phone with a solar powered phone charger.
Buy local produce. When buying local, the energy it takes to transport food is minimized and food waste is reduced. Drumlin Farm produce is grown using a number of sustainable practices including compost use and focusing on soil health.
Reduce your meat intake to one meal a day, or once a week.
Recycle glass, cans, and plastic whenever you can.
Pick up and throw away any trash that you come across outside.

Can you think of any other achievable nature-based resolutions you can make? More often than not, the driving force behind making these changes comes from within. In 2018, try to get outside more and really engage with the natural elements – resolve to hike more, take a camping trip, or pick up birding. Learn how to forage in the forest, track animals, or ID plants and wildlife. The natural stress relievers of the great outdoors and physical activity of exploration will spark the craving to continue. You’ll start to walk through a simple woods and notice the landscape is not just a blur of green, but each tree, shrub, and sprout has a distinct signature that sets them apart. Inspiration and motivation to make big and small changes will blossom and a nature hero will grow.

From all of us at Drumlin Farm, we wish you a happy and healthy New Year and look forward to a positive 2018!

Building a New Education Center

Posted on September 19, 2017 by Mass Audubon

We’re excited to announce the start of construction of the Environmental Learning Center (ELC), the 3,700-square-foot building that will serve as the home base for all of Drumlin Farm’s environmental education programming.

The ELC will enable Drumlin Farm’s team of 100+ environmental educators to be even more effective and creative in connecting people of all ages with nature, inspiring curiosity, passion, and action. It will provide essential work space for staff and serve as a place to welcome and interact with program participants, teachers, and parents.

Thoughtfully designed to foster collaboration, catalyze innovative ideas, and support efficient administration of our educational programs, this net-zero energy facility will be a model of energy-saving features and green building design. For example, The installation of a major rooftop solar array to fully power the building will also offset power consumption of other Drumlin Farm buildings.

Construction began this month, with the building expected to be ready by May 2018. We are thankful to the many strong Mass Audubon supporters who have made this $2.5 million project possible.

Although we are beginning construction now in order to be ready for our camp season next summer, we still need contributions to complete fundraising for the project. A generous donor is currently matching new donations with $2 for every dollar donated, so please make a gift today. Every dollar counts!

Crops Update Vol. 13

Posted on August 29, 2017 by Staff

Getting Ready for Fall Harvest

Last week, two volunteer groups helped us start the fall harvest process. Volunteers from Ecova weeded strawberries before clipping and crating the spaghetti and orange kabocha squashes—two early varieties that are ready for eating. Volunteers helped us carry the squash into the greenhouse while others picked string beans for Saturday’s market.

Volunteers from the Appalachian Mountain Club helped us weed carrots and summer squash and harvest more beans and squash. The volunteers were so engaged with the weeding that many could not be enticed out of the carrots with the promise of a harvesting job or even with watermelon slices! Thanks AMC for your help this season and for picking all those beautiful beans.

Welcome, Mary and Emily!

This week Mary Eagan and Emily Poma joined the team. Mary will be helping out wherever more hands are needed: such as this past Friday’s market harvest, when she and Andrew loaded most of the watermelons.

Emily is from Italy and first came to the fields during a Saturday open volunteer session. It soon became clear that she had worked on farms before, and we are very happy to have her on the team.

End-of-Summer Crops

The first succession of watermelons and cantaloupes is at an end. We have another round coming, but today and tomorrow at the stand you’ll find the last melons for a little while.

Tomatoes are ripening quickly now, and we should have a good selection available every day from now until first frost. Get the summer favorites while you can—it feels like we’re headed for an early frost.

Your Farmers

Crops Update Vol. 12

Posted on August 9, 2017 by Staff

Hello, Watermelons

At the farm stand you will find the pink-fleshed, thin-skinned Little Baby Flower watermelon. It’s no sugar bomb, but the words I use to describe it are “refreshing,” “tangy,” and “yes.” Also, try biting into the rind just below the flesh; it’s good eating.

Back Off, Crows (And Deer)

We’ve taken serious measures to protect the watermelons. An electric fence keeps out coyotes and Mylar flash tape wards off crows. They’ve taken to attacking our radicchio (some of which look more like chopped lettuce than the typical mini cabbage). I can’t imagine what the crows are getting out of the radicchio except the satisfaction of knowing most people don’t like it.

On another farm, I saw crows dig up and peck apart freshly-planted garlic cloves; this in response to placing orchard netting over tomatoes to keep them out. So, crows—tricksters or vengeance-minded gangsters? It’s clear why a group of crows is called a murder! The deer are also starting to eat carrots and take bites out of spaghetti squash. At least that makes some sense. We just wish the deer would eat all of one squash instead of taking small bites out of several.

Weeding and Volunteer Shoutouts

Last Tuesday was the last of the summer’s Weed-outs. The groups cleared weeds from the main leek and potato patches. We are so grateful to Drumlin Farm Camp for making Weed-out a part of each session.

Last week, another volunteer group from Global Atlantic Financial weeded and harvested potatoes and over 75 pounds of string beans. Because of their work, we were able to offer string beans to all CSA members the following day—a first!

The public relations firm Denterlein Worldwide brought their whole staff of twenty people to the fields. They weeded carrots and fennel, and picked beans and carrots for market. Thank you, Denterlein volunteers.

Bye, Jill!

This is Jill Banach’s last week as part of the Crops Team. She needs to get ready for her senior year at UMass. Jill is even-keeled and reliable, and we’ll miss her in the fields and at the wash station where she proved herself to be equal to all we asked her to do. Thanks, Jill, and best wishes for the year ahead!

Your Farmers

Crops Updates are by Drumlin Farm Crops Manager Matt Celona

Crops Update Vol. 11

Posted on August 1, 2017 by Staff

by Drumlin Farm Crops Manager Matt Celona

More Volunteers, More Helping Hands

Volunteers from Global Atlantic Financial Group came eager to work. The oat straw mulch in our tomatoes, advertised as clean and seed-free, has been sprouting oats that limit air flow and compete with our plants for nutrients and light. The Global Atlantic volunteers pulled up all the green oats and laid it down as more mulch, they then harvested and helped lay out the entire Bridger onion crop currently curing in the greenhouse, they then weeded carrots before harvesting over 500 pounds of potatoes—all in a little over two hours! Thanks so much for the great help.

Interested in Volunteering?

Sign up for one of three weekly volunteer sessions—Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday afternoons from 1:30–4. We have been getting great help during these open sessions—many high school students completing their community service requirements and even some master gardeners. If none of these times work for you, email Matt at [email protected].

Two Fridays ago the team was pleased to have the help of Sanctuary Director Renata Pomponi during the market harvest. Renata picked corn, bunched and topped carrots, and helped out in the wash station cleaning and packing veggies. Thanks, Renata!

Your Farmers