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2023

Processing Chestnuts on a Small Farm

12/29/2023

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Picture
​Late last November, (2023) I spent three fruitful and enjoyable days in Pennsylvania at a silvopasture workshop.  As it happened, one of our stops was at a chestnut farm, Castanea, doing much that we’re also hoping to do: growing chestnuts in their silvopasture to take advantage of multiple sheep-chestnut benefits; and processing their nuts in a small-farm facility.  I thought what they are doing is a great example of a simple, low-cost way to process chestnuts at the small-farm scale, so here is a description of what they do – to the extent that I understood it.   Digging back into my notes I found some gaps, which were filled with some Internet research, so this write-up includes some examples from other farms as well. 


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Taming the wild bittersweet

12/26/2023

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One of the plants we love to hate is the pretty Oriental bittersweet (we’re also not fond of Multiflora rose, also pretty).  It grows everywhere - in the pasture clogging up the grass; among the asparagus; up the trees; over the bushes; choking up whole forest parts – and is a noxious invasive.  When I first saw it in my garden in Needham, I cringed at the thought of the damage it might inflict.   My mother used to love the stuff and go looking for it to make decorative holiday wreaths with it.  She did know to stop short of suggesting I plant some though. 


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Silvopasture - all about it in slides and pictures

11/4/2023

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Picture
Big Foot Food Forest went to the Fiber Festival of the Northeast in Springfield!  Since we had sold most of our roving throughout the summer, we decided to make a presentation about silvopasture - that's grazing sheep under and with trees, like we do here.  You can look at the mini-posters here, or download them from Google using this link.

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A simple egg job, well done

9/27/2023

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Picture
​I like to think and write about simple jobs.  Raking leaves made me think about the appropriate technology for tasks – leaf blowers or rakes?  Dethatching led to musings about achieving multiple goals with one activity.  Shoveling stones turned into multiple conversations and one blog post about why and how one might engage with hard labor.   When one is performing a simple job, it’s easy to let the mind wander and ponder.   These are some thoughts about cleaning eggs, improved process, and focus.

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    Author

    Babette is an experimental permaculture farmer in Western Mass.  

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  • Home
  • Big Foot Letters
    • Newbie Farmer
    • Chicken Letters
    • Building
    • Mushrooms
    • Heritage sheep
    • Instructionals
    • 2025
    • 2024
    • 2023
    • 2022
    • 2021
    • 2020
    • 2019
    • 2018
    • 2017
  • About
    • What we do
    • Who We Are
    • Our Local Partners
    • Past newsletters
    • Contact
  • Shop
    • Lambs for sale
    • Rainbow Egg CSA
    • Mushroom CSA
    • Food Scrap Exchange
    • Straw Bale House Workshop >
      • Register for Workshop
  • Visit
    • Community work days
  • Untitled