Hearthfire Hill

A Stone Soup Collaborative Farm growing fresh local natural produce
West Corinth, Maine

The 2010 Season has begun!

We always "rush the season" a bit, after all WE get hungry for fresh local produce too! Even though the freezer has yet to be emptied and the cupboards depleted from last year's canning, we excitedly watch the growth of the seedlings on our growing rack.

These "baby" lettuces (started Feburary 8) are beginning to look like salad to us!

We also have leeks, parsley, cabbages and a second planting of lettuce on the growing racks at present, with more to join them soon!

Taking a lesson from my grandfather (and lacking the materials at present for a high- or low tunnel) I threw an old fashioned cold frame together last week. A few left-over 2x8s and some recycled aluminum windows are now the home for some transplanted lettuce and the first outdoor planting of lettuce and spinach seed.

To the left, our home made seed tape (yes, that is toilet paper) keeps the spinach seed evenly spaced. And below, you can see the lettuce transplants on the right in the cold frame. The windows slide open from the left to regulate the temperature, which was a good thing during the week of March 14.

2010 Plans

This year has already brought changes, first and foremost the acquisition of a tiller to help prepare beds and more importantly to help keep the weeds at bay. Added to our existing weed arsenal -- mulching and the flamethrower -- we hope for more production and an increase in useful fields.

In addition to our vegetable and herb crops, we will focus a little more intently on more perennial herbs, dye plants and flowering "everlastings" for wreaths and arrangements. We expect to grow some broom corn, both for broom making and to add to arrangements, and some wheat for wheat weaving.

On the vegetable side, we like to grow artisan vegetables -- special, unique and different varieties than commonly found either in the grocer's vegetable bins or other farm markets. New for 2010: Lincoln Baby Bunching LEEKS, Over The Rainbow and Purple Rain CARROTS of a different color and the new Sugarsnax variety with a higher beta carotene level. Returning again this year: Waverex Petit Pois gourmet baby PEAS.

Hearthfire Hill as it appeared in mid-2008, when moved in.

Hearthfire Hill sits on a rise, overlooking a side road in West Corinth, Maine. It is also the home of Vision IPD, Internet and Print Design and Dutch Hex Sign, two non-farm businesses which Ms. Starwalker moved to Maine from their birthplaces in coastal North Carolina.

Even before the move-in date was set, Jj began ordering and acquiring perennials plants and before the boxes were unloaded, spade hit earth for the first plantings of American Bittersweet (Celastrus scandens), blueberries and cane fruits. Shortly there after, both sides of the front "lawn" met the blades of a tractor-drawn tiller and the transition from home to homestead began.

The back acreage had been let go, so taming it began with scythe (generating much straw for the compost piles) as we plotted, planned and listened to the land. That first summer waned, then fall and winter passed as seeds were ordered, and started with many plans for spring.

As anyone who has ever started a new garden knows, "first year gardens" are a challenge, as the grasses and weeds that were plowed or tilled under do not want to give up! And one part-time farmer, working only with hand tools (not even a rototiller!) can only do so much... However our hilltop location produced magnificently starting early in the season with lettuces and spinach for our table and for market and continued on with peas and beans which we shared at the Downtown Bangor Market throughout June and July.