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The Ashfield N
AN ALL-VOLUNTEER, NON-PROFIT MONTHLY NEWSPAPER SINCE
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AUGUST 2OI 3 VOL. XXXVII NO. 8 }
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A Steady Flow Of Good Fresh Things At Spring Water Farm
The Ashfield News paid a visit to Will and
Donna Elwell's Spring Water Farm on Baptist
Corner Road to see how things were growing.
The new facility, now operating in its second
season, houses Will's timber-frame construc-
tion business in back, and Donna's farm stand
in front. Actually, the term "farm stand" is a
little too quaint for such a marvel. The build-
ing, which should still be operational 500 years
from now, is a model of self sustenance. The
solar array generates enough power to sell off
surplus electricity, and the underground spring
provides plenty of water to keep everything
hydrated (and washed).
The farm stand is open Wednesday
through Saturday from 1 to 6 p.m. Donna's
fresh produce is also available at the Farmer's
Market, but do yourself a favor and see Spring
Water Farm for yourself. But be warned: there's
so much to see you might forget to buy the
tomatoes you came for!
There will most definitely be tomatoes this year:
Donna makes her Way through the multiple
rieties in the greenhouse.
More to come: blueberries, raspberries, string
beans, and some squash were available.
O
7:
Washing, weighing, and wrapping take place at
this commercial grade sink and table. Water is
supplied by the spring.
Excess spring water is collected in this '30s era
500 gallon stainless steel tank salvaged from a
brewery. If needed, this water can be pumped into
the fields.
Locally made honey, maple syrup--even artwork
and furniture are available inside the stand.
Donna discusses weed control by the onion field.
Of Timberdoodles And Clear Cuts
By Kate Kerivan
De tN TnZ winter nights of 2010, I watched
the glow of fires and spirals of smoke arise
from what were acres of my beloved woodlands
on Bug Hill Road. That spring, I questioned the
decision to cut ten acres of them.
The decision was based on a combination
of my own knowledge of why our even, mostly
middle-aged woods lack biological diversity
and the federal government's money: the
timber quality was so poor, I would have had
to pay a logger to cut it. The Wildlife Habitat
Incentive Program (WHIP) grant funded by
the USDA and administered by the National
Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) paid
a local logger to do it. I excludedtwo acres so
that I could also stump and plant native elder-
berries, which is not funded by the grant.
In the aftermath of my decision, walking
between burn piles and slash that spring of
2011, I thought I had made a horrible mistake.
I was sure most of my neighbors thought so,
too. I continued to believe so throughout that
summer and fall--trails through the woods
to the pond were mostly obliterated, stumps
of swamp maple sprouted and the blackened
limbs of decades old native high bush blueber-
ries stared accusingly. That winter, many of
the old paper birches I had flagged to leave
standing, lacking the cover of their fellow trees,
"Ihe Elderberry Allee Trail at Bug Hill Farm
predictably blew over. Thankfully, the few
red oaks I had selected as seed trees remained
standing.
In the second spring as the increased sun-
light and lack of competition encouraged hun-
dreds of native blueberries and early "pioneer"
species like cherry and poplar, to succeed, it felt
as if I were being regenerated. Early succession-
al habitat, which many native insect pollinators
and migratory birds like American woodcock
depend upon looks "messy" to the human eye
but disturbance is not always negative. What I
had learned is that mid-level disturbance is an
essential component ofbiodiversity; prescribed
burns and patch clear cuts are an established
management tool used in enhancing wildlife
habitat. But those were practices, abstract con-
cepts I had studied or gone on field trips to see,
a far cry from actually doing it on my own land,
to my own woods; woods I had walked through
for years. In cutting a portion of them down, I
had to trust the results would be as I had hoped
and that time (oh, patience!) is required.
This summer, the third since the cut,
when my year-old dog flushed out more tim-
berdoodle than I had ever seen among the
young, shoulder high poplar, the winter of
doubt seemed distant and I remembered the
importance of different ages (not just different
species) in healthy ecosystems. Last month,
visitors walked down "Elderberry Allee" to the
pond during Bug Hill Farm's first open house
and farm tour, the same area I had despaired
over ever seeing restored after the cutting and
stumping. Then we led a walk to the nearby
experimental planting of mostly native ber-
ries, part of a national grant we received in
exploring the use of "marginal" lands and early
successional habitat for perennial crops using a
permaculture technique called "hugelkultur."
They had to dodge bear scat on the new trails
between thickly regenerating low and high
bush native blueberries, dewberries and not yet
ripe native blackberries. We are sharing with
the birds and the bears and the bumblebees.
*to learn more about timberdoodle
(American woodcock) and their habitat see:
timberdoodle.org
Kate Kerivan is ownergrower of Bug Hill Farm
