Tag: agriculture

Working Oxen Demonstration

August 2, 2024 / FoL

On an overcast late-June morning, trailers of all sizes began pulling into the field behind the barn at the Bassett Road Homestead. Teamsters quietly unloaded their working steers and oxen to settle in from their trips. Many drove two or more hours to join in Fabric of Life’s Working Oxen Demonstration on Saturday, June 29^th. As the clouds threatened, the oxen were paired up and began to make the walk toward the tents where they were welcomed by an enthusiastic group of attendees.

Participants waiting to be introduced at the Fabric of Life working oxen demonstration

Melanie Brundage of Douglas, MA began the day with an engaging presentation about the history of working oxen in agriculture. She shared some specifics of what makes an animal an ox. While many folks think Oxen are a distinct breed of cattle, they can actually be any type of bovine. In fact, there are many breeds of cattle trained for draft power, such as the tall Brown Swiss, the black and white Lineback, the fuzzy Highland, the red and white Milking Shorthorn, the red American Milking Devon, the aptly named Red and White, the Normande of Viking heritage, and red Hereford with their white faces.

Informational display by Isaac Riendeau at the Fabric of Life working oxen demonstration

One of the participants shared an informative poster outlining cattle terminology. A heifer is a female who has not yet had a baby; a cow has had a baby and thus produces milk; a bull is a reproductively intact male; a steer is a castrated male who is unable to reproduce; an ox is a steer who has reached at least four years of age; oxen is the term for a pair of castrated males, often trained for draft purposes.

Melanie Brundage introducing the participants at the Fabric of Life Working Oxen Demonstration

The crowd heard many interesting facts about working oxen, including that they don’t sweat, are generally slow and steady, and the wooden yoke around each pair’s neck is specially sized for each team. Oxen have horns to help keep the yoke in place when a load is pushing forward on the team, and their horns can be shaped with the use of weights.

Participants heading to the woods to pull out logs with their teams at the Fabric of Life working oxen demonstration

Nine teams of steers and oxen joined in the fun, along with a single-hitch ox. As the animals waited patiently for their turn to work, Melanie introduced each set with their handler, sharing distinctive features of the animals in each turnout, such as the mature weight, coloration, and temperament of each breed or mix of breeds. Handlers included a mix of youth and adults who expertly guided their obedient animals into the woods to pull out logs. The young folks enjoyed a bit of friendly competition as they navigated their teams through an obstacle course, often directing their steers and oxen very precisely to move one step at a time.

Belgian draft horses, Mike & Ryker, at the Fabric of Life working oxen demonstration. Mike and Ryker are owned by Faith & Donnie Bisbee

In addition to the working steers and oxen, Faith and Donnie Bisbee of Clay Hill Farm brought a beautiful team of Belgian draft horses named Mike & Ryker. These impressive horses drew lots of attention in their fancy harnesses and really shined as they made their first foray into pulling a plow look effortless. After the event, a small group worked together to plant broom corn and wheat in the freshly plowed garden, mulching with mowed grass to help suppress weeds and retain moisture.

Spectator talking with Scott Brundage about his 2,100lb single hitch ox, Buck at the Fabric of Life working oxen demonstration

Attendees were able to meet these beautiful animals up close and many seized the opportunity to try their hand at guiding a plow as it sliced through the ground in the lower garden. Each was given a brief set of instructions and then did their best to create a straight line as the powerful animals pulled the plow forward.

Spectators visiting with Isaac Riendeau and his steers, Timmy & Tyler, at the Fabric of Life working oxen demonstration

Once the animals were settled back at their trailers, everyone came together for a shared meal and plenty of talk about oxen, farm life, and family. We couldn’t have asked for a better group of teamsters and appreciate the time they all took out of their busy lives to share these amazing animals with us. We look forward to hosting a similar event next year and hope to see many new faces when we welcome these dedicated folks back to Fabric of Life in 2025!

Thank you to the participants in our working oxen demonstration!

Fabric of Life Working Oxen Demonstration participants (pictured left to right): Justin Riendeau with Pete & Gil, Isaac Riendeau with Timmy & Tyler, Brooke Bisbee with Harvey & Lewis, Carson Bisbee with Taco & Loki, Earl Grey with Wayne & Garth, Owen Laurenzo with Aries & Zeus, Bailey Turnbull Grout & Rocket, Autumn Turnbull with Tonka & Truck, Sandy Eggers with Red & Rusty, and Scott Brundage with Buck. Not pictured: Melanie Brundage, Faith & Donnie Bisbee with Mike & Ryker.

Country Folks did a nice writeup about the event, which you can read on their website.

To learn more about working oxen, reach out to the Hilltown Misfits 4-H Club or your local 4-H club, the All Things Oxen facebook group, the Draft Animal Power Network, or the New England Ox Teamsters.

June 14, 2024: Planning a Dye Garden

Do you want to learn how to dye yarn or fabric with plants you have planted, tended and harvested? Growing your own dye plants allows you to be connected to the colors you use in an intimate and thoughtful way.

During the first part of this two hour workshop, natural dyer, weaver, and spinner, Michelle Parrish will introduce a variety of plants we can grow to produce natural dyes. She will discuss the annual and perennial plants commonly used in natural dyeing, the colors produced, and what is needed to successfully grow your own natural dyes. This program will offer an understanding of how to successfully start a dye garden, including planning, plant selection, starting plants from seed, planting starts, and nurturing healthy plants throughout the season. The second portion of the workshop will be a hands-on planting party, complete with seeds, starts, and a freshly prepared garden bed.

June 29, 2024: Working Oxen Demonstration

Join us for a family-friendly day of working steer and oxen demonstrations. We will have teamsters working with steers and oxen of various ages. Bring your family and learn about this traditional form of draft power, meet some amazing animals, and find out why working oxen are making a comeback in New England. We will be serving lunch, so please let us know how many people to expect when you register for the demo.

This program is offered at no charge and donations are greatly appreciated.

Working Oxen Demo

***THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER***

Join us for a family-friendly day of working steer and oxen demonstrations. Bring your family and learn about this traditional form of draft power, meet some amazing animals, and find out why working oxen are making a comeback in New England.

Our day will start at 10am with an engaging talk from Melanie Brundage who travels around the region with her family demonstrating working oxen and sharing her passion with others. Stay for the day for live demonstrations of teamsters and their oxen pulling a stone boat, logging, and plowing a field to be planted with wheat. You’ll also have a chance to meet these impressive animals and their handlers up close.

A Late Swarm of Honeybees

March 7, 2022 / FoL

The Making of a Perfect Swarm

During our 2021 program season, Fabric of Life partnered with Ang Roell (they/them/their) of They Keep Bees to teach two in person workshops on Beekeeping. Those programs were well attended and participants had the opportunity to both learn about bees in an academic setting as well as dive into a variety of hives. These first two sessions were based on building a relationship with honeybees and understanding what is involved in the planning and care of a honeybee hive. Participants were able to explore a variety of thriving colonies of bees and gain an understanding of what goes into keeping colonies healthy and strong. In addition to these two live sessions, Ang put together 9 hours of written and video instruction that is available on demand for our online program: They Keep Bees: Virtual Bee School.

Fabric of Life Marketing Agent, Sara Davis (she/her/hers) owns and operates Oak Hollow Livestock, a diversified small farm in Shelburne. She raises a variety of livestock and poultry and had been considering adding a small number of honeybee hives sometime in the future. Although unable to attend the first session of our summer 2021 beekeeping program, she helped capture pictures and video of the second session.

Serendipitously, about a month later, a swarm of honeybees made a stop in Sara’s garden. Having enough confidence from observing Ang’s second beekeeping session, and not quite enough wisdom to realize she was embarking on a doomed journey, Sara carefully transferred the swarm to an empty hive and hoped they would decide to stick around… And they did!

What’s the Big Deal?

Folks who aren’t honeybee savvy might not realize the challenges of a late fall swarm. In general, bees swarm because they become too crowded in their hive. The majority of the colony remains in the original hive to grow a new queen and continue their life cycle. The old queen and a portion of the original colony set off on a journey to find a suitable new home. This usually happens in the spring when bee populations expand rapidly and there is plenty of food to build up stores of honey and pollen before cold weather arrives. Fall swarms are generally small and do not have the luxury of ample time to build new comb or abundant pollen and nectar to gather enough stores in their new home. Because of this, fall swarms generally do not survive the winter, especially in our cold northern climate.

In an effort to give this late swarm their best chance at seeing the spring, Sara spent hours researching and consulting experienced beekeepers. Sara continuously fed the swarm sugar syrup to encourage them to draw comb, and the bees dutifully brought in as much nectar and pollen as possible before winter hit. Though we are still approaching the late winter stretch, when beekeepers suffer most of their colony losses, Sara is hoping to provide enough support to bring her swarm through to the first dandelion flower of spring.

At last check, the hive was still buzzing and thriving!

Want to Expand Your Bee Knowledge?

They Keep Bees: Virtual Bee School is available to individuals with some honeybee experience. This online program includes three in-depth classes: Hive Anatomy & Expansion, All the Mite-y Details, and Preparing for Winter. In addition to a wealth of easily accessible information, participants will be provided with a copy of Ang Roell’s Apiary Action Plan Guide, as well as direct access to their Slack channel to ask questions and search relevant discussion topics. Ang’s book Radicalize the Hive is also available at no cost.

How Barbara Revitalized Her Garden

November 16, 2021 / FoL

Barbara’s prolific flowers amidst the tomatoes and basil

Over the summer, Fabric of Life was excited to partner with ML Altobelli (she/her) to offer a season long Understanding Your Garden program series. One participant, Barbara Blumenthal, gives us a first-hand account of her experience, and how she directly used her newly learned skills to revitalize her garden.

Barbara says, “This year’s Fabric of Life gardening sessions with ML really transformed my approach to gardening! Even without implementing every bit of advice – which I hope to do more of in 2022 – my yields and the quality of my produce increased enormously.”

Quite a bountiful harvest from just one day in August, all from Barbara’s garden

She has been a home gardener for about 40 years and has been reasonably satisfied with her vegetable harvests. In 2021, she said she decided to make some changes. She began in early spring by laying down cardboard and mulch hay to both nourish her garden and keep down the weeds. She then joined us for our season-long gardening series, which took place both in-person and virtually.

“The most fun sessions, not surprisingly, were the two in-person ones at the Farmhouse in Shelburne, in May and October. ML’s enthusiasm, breadth of knowledge and experience, and commonsense approach to gardening were so helpful and inspiring.”

Early November view of Barbara’s garden, all tucked in for the winter

And inspiration is something Barbara has certainly found through this program! “This fall, I’ve completely redesigned my small garden, digging paths which I filled with wood chips.” Barbara has also changed the structure of her growing area, “establishing slightly raised garden beds, applying mineral mix, wood chips, and grass clippings, leaves, and straw for my garden to winter over.” In her excitement to build her garden soils, Barbara says she “bought a cordless, electric lawn mower with a collection bag so I can use more grass clippings to feed my garden. In my husband’s words: I’m obsessed!”

Barbara also shares that she had to work a bit to incorporate the information from our garden series, confiding that “the wealth of knowledge presented was a bit overwhelming at times, but always logical and precise, and the ability to review the videos of all sessions was very helpful. This program has really enriched my gardening life and enabled me to preserve more food for the winter. It’s also been fun to see how the Fabric of Life garden has improved and truly blossomed during the virtual sessions throughout the growing season.”

Watch our Understanding Your Garden series videos

Growing Great Food and Fiber with Fabric of Life!

April 27, 2021 / FoL

Abundant vegetables growing in the Fabric of Life garden

Every living entity needs to eat – and eat well in order to thrive. This includes you, your family, your community – and the plants and animals that feed you and provide fiber for your textile needs! And you can do something about that… This year, Fabric of Life is introducing the essential skills needed to grow great veggies (and other plants for those pesky pollinators that are so essential) to our community – and you’re invited to come along with us on the journey. For those of you more interested in fiber than food – the quality of any natural fiber you work with is also based on the health of the plants or animals that provide that fiber. It’s a fascinating world under your feet!!

Almost everyone who’s run a home garden has had problems with insects and diseases – ever heard of powdery mildew, blossom end-rot and potato beetles? Did you know that super healthy plants don’t attract insects or diseases? Even marginally healthier plants are resistant to quite a lot! Heck of a concept but true for all living beings. However, just like you can keep your own immune system up with care, you can do the same for all of the plants and animals in your charge. The question is – how to do it!!!!!

Understand Your Garden

Cherry tomatoes in the Fabric of Life Garden

We’re going to start with a learning opportunity with the garden here at Fabric of Life (80 Bassett Road) on May 1st at 9:00AM. We’ll learn the strengths and weaknesses of the site we’ve chosen to work with, learn its history, find out what we need to do to increase its capacity to produce great food and start the work of the growing season. This work will continue throughout the season with virtual program hours at the critical points in garden management. The four virtual sessions will take place from 7 – 8PM EST on June 2nd, July 7th, August 4th, and September 1st, 2021. And as a final hurrah for the year we will offer a fantastic program on October 23rd from 9:30AM – 12:30PM EST, where we can all build the basics of our soil reserves for the following year!

Join Our Gardening Community

Planting potatoes in the Fabric of Life garden

We’re inviting all of our community members to join us in creating an on-going garden story, even if you are not able to join us in-person or virtually, that includes the home farm garden and every other garden in our network. Your home gardens have a story to tell and we want to hear those stories – your triumphs, your challenges – and the food you create with what you can grow. Add your story to our brand new Facebook group or post your garden on Instagram and use #GardenWithFOL so we can all share the fun and frustration of learning something new! Join us as we all learn to master a new skill set – Growing Great Food and Fiber!!

Goat Milk Soap at JuJuBee Farm

March 19, 2021 / FoL

Elliston Bingham lives with his wife, Kaydee, in Shelburne, Massachusetts. And among his many interests and passions, he maintains a herd of goats in order to produce goat milk soap. You’ll find him as a regular at the Greenfield Farmers market with his wares, with a variety of plain, almond, lavender, tea tree varieties, just to name a few. He also maintains a vegetable garden, and sells his produce alongside of his goat soap at the farmers market.

Elliston is originally from Jamaica, having traveled here in the early 1990’s and became a citizen of the United States in 2020. And it is clear that he has a deep joy in the life he has built here in Western Massachusetts – always ready to help others and always with a good story to bring laughter to those around him. He has installed solar panels to support his soap-making operations and often creates opportunities for college students and children to learn from his depth and width of knowledge as it relates to goats and soap.

We’re fortunate to have Elliston as a neighbor in Shelburne, and to be able to enjoy his contributions to the community, the local agriculture economy, and his stories and knowledge so directly and easily. It’s a guarantee that wherever you cross paths with Elliston, there will be plenty of space for connection and learning. We hope that you’ll take some time to connect with him as you find him in our community or online, and we also look forward to learning how we can continue to support small businesses such as his, that are extending these traditions forward for future generations to learn from.

Elliston can be reached by email about his goat milk soap, produce, or goats.

Buildings as Craft

January 29, 2021 / FoL

Jeremy Topitzer of Lyonsville Carpenters

Jeremy Topitzer of Lyonsville Carpenters sources material for and builds structures within his community. Timber framing, by design and nature of weight and substance, provides a deep sense of connection to place. Two years ago, Jeremy worked with Fabric of Life to host a workshop on building a timber frame structure at the Bassett Road property. He took the time before that workshop to share why he does what he does. Gratitude to Jennifer Martin, our former Program and Partnership Coordinator for capturing this conversation back then.

“I’ve been thinking how old barns sequester carbon” – keeping old buildings and their timbers functional, dry, and solid means that new materials are not needed to sustain the structure far into the future. And when they are damaged, restoring them continues to sequester carbon. And if a building does need to come down, then intact timbers can be saved and repurposed in another structure, ideally nearby. By striving to use original material, we can almost guarantee that it is local. Buildings in this region were built with what was available locally.

“As craftspeople, we have the opportunity, and the responsibility, to continue this methodology and mindset. I see the importance of recognizing the global picture of the craft we practice — whatever that may be.” Local timbers of spruce, pine, hemlock, oak, birch – they all have function and purpose in buildings meant to stand the test of time. Jeremy says that for him, studying the impact of his choices adds to a mindful business practice. What matters beyond me? Where does what I do fit in?”

The Big Picture.

Timber frames are rooted in age-old techniques, where each structure is designed according to need and site constraints. In contrast, most modern builders are using carpentry tools and building techniques which were developed from manufacturing processes of the 1950’s.

“I’m using tools and techniques that few other carpenters do. On a daily basis, I pull out a handsaw, plane, and chisel. It’s as important to preserve craft as it is to preserve buildings – the healthiest part of our culture is hand-craft – that which is passed down from human to human. While this may not be the most lucrative and is not often seen as saving the world, it is in the sense that you are humbling yourself to something. Lack of humility is the reason were in the mess we are in globally. Confining yourself to craft curtails egoism and in that way, through the practice of craft, you are helping to save the world.”

“Through restoration, I witness the craft of the framers before me. I am duplicating and imitating what other builders, whose buildings have stood the test of time, have done before me. I may be 200 years too late, but I’m still learning from them.”

Ashfield Barn, Hand hewn spruce, 1830ish. The East and South walls are getting extensive reconstruction.

The 2×6 stud framing that was added 60 years ago is now gone and the original horizontal wall girts will be reproduced. Scarf joint connects existing structure to new.

We achieved lift off and the rotten substructure was removed.

Tag: agriculture

Working Oxen Demonstration

Thank you to the participants in our working oxen demonstration!

June 14, 2024: Planning a Dye Garden

June 29, 2024: Working Oxen Demonstration

Working Oxen Demo

A Late Swarm of Honeybees

The Making of a Perfect Swarm

What’s the Big Deal?

Want to Expand Your Bee Knowledge?

How Barbara Revitalized Her Garden

Growing Great Food and Fiber with Fabric of Life!

Understand Your Garden

Join Our Gardening Community

Goat Milk Soap at JuJuBee Farm

Buildings as Craft

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