Miracle of Miracles....working internet

Today we tapped about 100 sugar maples. This was a very simple process of drilling a 7/8 inch hole about 2 inches in and then hammering in a spout. Finally, a bucket is hung on the spout to collect the maple sap. Tomorrow we are going to set up the holding tanks for the sap and then we have enough sap we will boil it into delicious Vermont gold.
Today I feel much more settled into the farm and my apprenticeship.

Since this is my first in-depth entry about the farm I will describe the place. On this farm we have about 2 acres cultivated with mixed annual crops which feed: a small school, residents of the farm, a 20 family CSA, and some donations to local food banks. I would love to tell you how much food goes to each place but I cannot (more later). Along the plant line, we have the 5-acre sugar bush mentioned before.

As far as locomotion is concerned, we have 4 Jersey bulls and 2 calves being raised for meat. Any day now we are going to be picking up 2 more calves. These calves hail from Butterworks Farm, a dairy. We get the calves for free because they are male and of no use to a dairy, hence Jerseys for meat. In about a month we will be acquiring 3 piglets to raise for meat. Lastly but not leasty, we have about 30 laying hens of 5 varieties. They have been producing between 25-30 eggs.

And let us not forget our friends form Kingdom Insecta! We are going to be welcoming between 2-4 nucs (nuclei) of bees in April sometime. These are small sized complete hives, I will write more about this closer to arrival time.

This was the basic overview, however, tomorrow I will be going into town so I can write more about my experience with the farm then.