The F&W Farm
A Sustainable, Functional and Beautiful Farm.
Our farm is a typical Vermont hillside farm, a diverse landscape that is appealing to not only the eye but to the stomach as well. Here we grow as much of our own meat and produce as the land can healthfully sustain.
We raise milk cows, pigs, sheep, goats, laying hens, meat chickens, and ducks. All F&W animals are lovingly cared for throughout their lives, and all but the chickens and ducks are given names. Each animal plays a role in keeping our fields fertilized and our gardens weed-free. The goats are used in places where one could use a weedwacker. The sheep and cows change pastures frequently or are "rotationally grazed." This maximizes food for animals and the soil health and fertility of the pastures. We pasteurize our own cow mik in a state-approved facility right on the Tamarack Farm campus, so that our program participants can experience the full cycle of a dairy.
We have acres of gardens planted by our year-round and seasonal staff and cared for by our campers during the summer. The produce that can be eaten fresh is used in our kitchens throughout the growing season, the rest is stored for the long winter through canning, drying or freezing. We are a certified organic farm, which means that we do not use chemicals that would be hazardous to the plants, the soil, our animals, or ourselves. We practice organic techniques such as cover crops for green manure, crop rotation, raised beds, nutrient recycling/composting, and spending the time to weed by hand.
In addition to the gardens, we also have a variety of berries and fruit trees, including apples, pears and plums. We do a fair amount of wild harvesting, including fiddleheads, leeks, and harvesting some of our weeds as forage for our dinning room tables. The final product that adds great fun and a bit of sweetness to our farm is our sugar bush. In the beginning of March we tap about 350 trees and boil the sap to make maple syrup. We use a single "health spout" per tree. These make a smaller wound in the tree while letting us get almost as much sap as the regular spouts.
We try to buy from organic farms and local businesses the things that we cannot grow ourselves. We try to make enough hay to feed our animals year-round without having to buy tractor trailer loads on top of that. We also maximize our grain storage so that we make as few trips to pick up grain as possible.
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