WINTER AT STRATFORD
January 15, 2025
Life has not slowed down at Stratford Ecological Center on Liberty Road in the last month. The extensive on-line farm camp registration resulted in, yet another year of every spot filled and a waiting list. Planning continued to schedule maple sugar tours for our 5th grade science program re-named Connections, our winter farm school, and school children, in the narrow 4-week window of maple sugaring.
Farmhands, Agriculture Interns, and twelve AmeriCorps members tapped 225 trees on January 28. Once again sugaring season is starting earlier than the norm, due to warmer days encouraging sap flow; we expect to finish cooking during the last week of February. Production has been good, totaling nearly 1,000 gallons to date.
A room full of Maple Sugar cookers and guides attended training on February 1. The morning emphasized hands-on learning for the small groups making their way through the woods to the Sugar Shack. Here visitors will have a chance to see the old-fashioned ways of cooking sap, then they will move inside to view the modern evaporator. Finally, they will enjoy a sample, and recognize how the sugar was first formed in the trees and raise their cup to give thanks.
A new Story Book Trail has been set up on the Sugar Bush Trail. The book by Marcie Flinchum Atkins titled “Wait, Rest, Pause, dormancy in nature” shares by words and photos the many kinds of dormancy and the animals who spend time in the winter in this manner.
A lamb born on January 16 surprised us! The ewe and our ram found each other much earlier than the rest of the flock, most due to give birth this month! The ewes now have access to oats, in new wooden boxes attached to the pen rails; this is known as flushing to increase their nutrition before giving birth.
Our Education and Land Steward, Mariah, together with Brendan and Ethan, our Agriculture Interns, deserve credit for preparing the individual lambing pens with golden straw, and keeping the animal pens well bedded. Our cattle numbers now stand at five cows and four year-old calves. We have yet to have a new calf, as last month’s cow, whom we babied in anticipation of delivery, did not drop one!
We purchased 80 day-old chicks on January 22. We plan to build up our flock and introduce a regular culling system and buying-in chick program, as the older hens egg production declines. The pedigree breeds include Buff Orpington, Americana, Silver Lace, Barred Plymouth Rock, New Hampshire, Rhode Island Reds and a French breed called ISA Brown.
Initially the chicks were housed in the classroom in two large oval tin tubs, each with an upright heating board and a heat lamp. The chicks were tiny and hard to catch. It was not long before they outgrew the tubs, so a waterproof mat was laid down surrounded by a wire fence. This week they moved to the Paw Paw coop to mature; they will start laying eggs at six months. Their perfume lingers!
Farmer Jeff found a good source of forage feed to supplement our own hay bales. The delivery in late January included thirteen round bales of corn fodder baled before it matured, four feet wide and four feet high, ten round bales of mixed grasses and legumes, four feet by five feet, and 127 alfalfa-mix square bales. We are now in good shape for whatever nature throws at us.
The Jostaberry bushes next to the Straw Bale Shed in the Children’s Garden have been removed. Unfortunately, their taste appealed to very few children or grownups, and fall-ripening raspberries have replaced them.
We invite you to register for our annual Maple Sugar Festival on Saturday, February 22 from 10-2 pm. and enjoy a time of family fun on the farm and at the Sugar Shack. Registration is also open for Winter Farm School for ages 4-K, and 1-5th grade. As well as Vernal Pool Monitoring on March 14 and 22 from 6-8 pm. Spring programing starts in April with signing up available for the Bee Keeping 4-H SPIN (Special Interest) Club ages 12-18 and Family Farm Chores held monthly on a Saturday. Please consider chasing away the winter blues and venturing out. We would be glad to see you!
Pauline Scott is a farm and nature guide at Stratford Ecological Center, 3083 Liberty Road, Delaware. She can be reached on 740-363-2548. Stratford’s web site is www.stratfordecologicalcenter.org
