|
|
|
 |
|
In This Issue of The
Wood Prairie Seed Piece:
|
This edition of the Seed
Piece may be
found in our Wood Prairie
Seed Piece Archives.
|
Winter's Fury.

Caleb Clearing
Snow from High Tunnel.
With a near record
warm January across northern Maine, all of our
recent storms have brought us heavy, wet snow.
News reports indicate that recently in central and
southern Maine at least one barn and two inflatable
stadiums have collapsed thanks to the heavy weight of
snow accumulation.
In the photo above, Caleb
carefully finesses our old-timer monster diesel
Michigan Payloader near enough to our ‘High Tunnel’
greenhouse to remove drifts of snow which will
allow the remaining snow to slide off from the taut
double-poly roof. But not so close as to risk
grabbing and mangling a metal support bow. The
rich, loamy garden soil beneath Caleb’s machine is
only frozen down to an inch or two thanks to the
effective insulating blanket of snow which had been
covering it.
In this issue of the Seed
Piece we share with you in our Farm
Photos section some wonderful stories
about the creative and entrepaneurial talents of some
Wood Prairie co-workers. Plus, find great deals
on Organic
Sweet Potato Slips and sage wisdom in a Notable
Quote from Chief Seattle.
Also, scroll down to How-To
Garden Resources and discover great
gardening advice in an excellent Beginner’s
Garden – Journey with Jill video in which
Jill McSheehy offers a primer on growing great Organic
Potatoes.
We’ve been farming
organically for 47 years. For the last 35 years
we’ve run our Farm-Direct Mail Order business.
From the very start, EVERYTHING we
grow and EVERYTHING we sell has ALWAYS
been Certified Organic. We are your
Organic Experts! Organic
Seed Potatoes, Organic
Sweet Potato Slips, Organic
Vegetable Seed, Organic
Herb Seed, Organic
Flower Seed, Organic
Cover Crop Seed, Organic
Fertilizer, Tools
and Supplies and Organic
Kitchen Potatoes.
We appreciate your business and your support of our
Organic family farm!
Please, Stay Safe & Stay Warm!

Caleb,
Jim & Megan Gerritsen & Family
Wood Prairie Family Farm
Bridgewater,
Maine
|
Maine Tales.
Winter Hot Spot. Bridgewater,
Maine. Circa 1910.
Milliken’s
General Store, Bridgewater, Maine. This
classic photo was taken in 1954 by renouned
photographer Berenice Abbott, towards the end of her
trip motoring along all of U.S. Route 1 from Florida
to Maine. She stopped to document with her camera
small town America. Though long ago closed as a
General Store, the building known as the Milliken
Store exists to this day on Main Street (U.S. Route 1)
in our quiet potato farming town of Bridgewater (Pop.
532) here in Northern Maine. Wood Prairie Family Farm
is located to the west, four miles from the Milliken
Store, on the edge of the North Maine Woods.
If
you somehow imagined that no one would ever aspire to
plan and spend their leisure time in our in our
quiet little Maine farming town during Winter, you’d be
wrong.
No Rattlesnakes
Not that we’re anything like
Florida. Being as how northern Maine has a lot more
trees and a lot less people than they do down in
the Alligator State. Plus, we don’t have Rattlesnakes.
Customary in all farm country,
it is a given that a lot of time here in northern Maine
is spent thinking and talking about the past. That past
might not have been too awful astounding. But after all,
we did get through it, and who knows what the future may
bring? Truth be told, we have very little hard
experience to go by about the future. As an
unknown, the future can be a might bit scary to just
about anyone, most especially a Mainer. Mainers know the
past well and we endlessly continue making our peace
with it.
Connoisseurs of
Bygone Eras
Farmers’ particular fixation on
the past is well-known and has made our people the
butt of the occasional joke. “How many farmers
does it take to screw in a light bulb? Three. One to do
the the work, and two to talk over about how good the
old light bulb was.” It’s not that we’re chained to the
past. No, we’re just happy being connoisseurs of bygone
eras.
Now one observation about
the past is that it has an unwavering tendency to get
better with age. The pains of hardship and
humiliation just seem to melt away with the
passage of time. The collective mind dulls and glosses
over events that some participants would just as soon
have everybody forget. Like that time one wet Fall
when during Digging, that young feller just barely
missed the McKinnon Farm bridge and drove that truck
full of potatoes clear into Whitney Brook. On account
of ratcheted-up community excitement during harvest,
that mishap could have happened to anybody. But most
especially, if that anybody was young and
inexperienced and in too big a hurry.
Recalling the Past
Sometimes, the past is
chockfull of goodness through and through. One of
the popular features in the local weekly paper, the
Houlton Pioneer Times (“The Only Newspaper in the World
Interested in Houlton, Maine”) is “From Our Files – News
From 100 Years Ago.” Here, stories are lifted verbatim
from an issue exactly one century prior, and accurately
brought to the attention of us modern-day readers. News
which is raw, cutting and untainted by any rewriters of
history.
Bridgewater (Pop. 532) today no
longer has a railroad station, no more a jewelry store,
general store or gas station. No hotel, like “The
Central House” of yesteryear, aptly named because
by fate of history it was the halfway point on the
primitive and rough ‘State Road’ (now US Route 1)
between Houlton twenty-one miles to the south, and
Presque Isle twenty-one miles to the north.
But one little nugget reprinted
a few years back originated from the HPT
issue of January 7, 1910. Succinctly hinting that
Bridgewater was the rare pearl possessing the allure,
fun and excitement evoked by utterance of the word
‘vacation.’ Offering prima facie evidence that despite
occurring during the depths of a snowy, subzero Maine
Winter, our humble little frontier potato town
was once considered a Winter destination hot spot for
light-hearted frivolity by at least one young adoring
Houlton school marm.
“Miss Adelle Burpee, teacher at the
grammar school returned from a week of
vacation in Bridgewater.” |
Bridgewater may well have a future, but for now forgive
us if we just keep on being pleased with savoring our
past.
Caleb, Jim & Megan

|
Megan's Kitchen
Recipes:
Chocolate Cake with Beets.
Servings: Makes a 9-inch cake
Batter:
* 1 cup firmly
packed light or dark brown sugar
* 1/4
cup vegetable oil
* 2 large
eggs
* 3 ounces
semisweet or bittersweet chocolate , melted and cooled
* 1/2 cup beet
puree, about 4 medium Red
Bliss
Beets (roasted or boiled and pureed in food
processor)
* 1/2 cup
buttermilk
* 1 teaspoon pure
vanilla extract
* 2 cups
all-purpose Whole Wheat Flour
* 1 teaspoon
baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon Sea
Salt
Cream Cheese Frosting:
* 1 package (8
ounces) reduced-fat cream cheese
* 3/4 cup
confectioners' sugar
* 1/2 cup
unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1 tablespoon
pure vanilla extract
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter a 9-inch baking pan.
In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer,
beat the brown sugar with the oil until creamy. Add the eggs
and beat well. Beat in the melted chocolate, beet puree,
buttermilk and vanilla.
Add the flour, baking soda and salt, and beat until smooth.
Pour the batter into the pan and bake until a toothpick
comes out clean when inserted into the center, 35 to 40
minutes. Let the cake cool 5 minutes in pan before turning
out onto a rack to cool completely.
Meanwhile, make the frosting. Beat the cream cheese with the
confectioners' sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla until smooth.
Slice the cake in half horizontally. Spread the frosting
over the top and between layers of the cooled cake.
Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
Megan |

|

|
How-To
Gardening Resources.
|
Wood Prairie
Family Farm Photos.

Wood
Prairie Family Farm Wins Top Feefo ‘Platinum Award
for Third-Year-in-a-Row! Thanks
to twelve month's worth of your kind and generous Reviews
- submitted by many hundreds of Wood Prairie customers –
you have propelled our family farm to once again receive
the industry's highest accolade, the Feefo 2023
Platinum Trusted Service Award. Based in the
United Kingdom, Feefo is one of the world’s largest and
most-highly-respected independent Review platforms. Feefo
requires that a Review only be submitted by a
living-and-breathing-customer who actually has made a
verified purchase. The forthright Feefo platform
operates in stark contrast to the web’s wild-west-epidemic
of fraudulent Reviews often disconnected from purchase
transactions. Fake Reviews have become a big-business-scam
and are churned out by bogus bots and 'Click Farms.' When
we began our farm-based then mail order organic seed
business 35 years ago, we were determined to treat our
customers honestly and fairly, the same way we ourselves
expect to be treated when we buy from others. In this
modern age of cynicism, we’re happy to report that after
decades of doing good business, honesty remains the best
policy. Grateful for your support and thanks to you for
everything!

Breaking News!
Walking With Werewolves Published This
Week! Chelsea Green
McGinley is one of our longest-serving Wood Prairie
co-workers. And she is the first among our Wood Prairie
family to ever get a book published. Chelsea began
working for us years ago as a teenager. Her mother,
Mary, was Megan’s right-hand-woman for years. Over the
years, Chelsea reeled in seven of her siblings and
cousins to also work for us. She met her husband,
Justin, when they were both working on our farm the
first time around, before marrying and moving south.
After a stint of living and working in Southern Maine –
seven miles from LL Bean in Freeport - and with a new
baby, Jack, in tow, last year they moved back to her
family’s small farm in neighboring Monticello and once
again began working with us. Walking With
Werewolves is Chelsea’s debut book and is in
the Young Adult Fantasy genre. Buy
a copy from our Wood Prairie webstore and we’ll ask
Chelsea to sign your copy! In this photo,
following in her mother’s footsteps, Chelsea helps Megan
organize Organic
Seed Potato orders in the office.
Rounding out the office crew is Chelsea and Justin’s
twenty-month old son, happy camper Jack.
About the Book: Walking With
Werewolves
Eighteen-year-old Amane has just two things
to focus on, her senior finals and keeping her
best friend, Elias, from finding out she’s in
love with him. That is until her family’s
secrets come pouring out after one horrifying
night. The two set out on a journey to find
their place in the world, discovering more
about themselves than they ever thought
possible. Will they make it out together or
will their differences tear them apart? |

Old Bear's Bottom
Website Now Up & Running!
Frank Allen, another longtime Wood Prairie
co-worker, and his wife, Sari, are gifted with an
entrepreneurial ability. The Allen clan have been
stalwart Aroostook County residents - and some potato
farmers mixed in as well - for 160 years. Even before
Covid, Frank best friend in high school of Caleb’s older
brother, Peter, worked remote from home. Frank is our
tech expert and keeps the Wood Prairie website and
networks humming. After patiently waiting for her
emigration papers to come through, Frank’s wife, Sari,
was finally allowed to move from Finland to the USA in
2021. Sari was raised on a Reindeer Farm in far northern
Finland. Frank & Sari bought a home in the snowy
forest an hour north of our farm. They settled in the
Town of Stockholm, one of five Townships which make up
Maine’s Swedish Colony and was settled by Swedes
beginning in the 1870s. With Frank’s help, Sari’s
new website, Old Bear’s Bottom,
has just gone live and is now open for business.
Pictured above are some of Sari’s creations and she has
them for sale on her website. You can also follow Sari
on Facebook
and Instagram.
In Sari’s own words:
You have heard about Maine, right? How
about the tiny town called Stockholm in
Northern Maine? Well, here I’m living now, the
only Finn in town. I was born and raised in
Northern Finland, one of the Northern most
countries. That thing called love brought me
here, thanks to my husband. Since I changed
climates, I no longer need to hibernate, so I
might as well do handcrafts
and art,
because that is what I love to do. I’m
self-learned, to do warm socks, mittens, hats,
knives, traditional items and so on. So, it
took years to get patterns nice and good.
Proud to say, my stuff is handmade with love
in the USA. I’m also selling secondhand items
and collectables to keep it interesting. Read
between the lines, I’m The Old Bear and my
name is Sari. And Old Bear’s Bottom, in
Stockholm, Northern Maine, is my home. Thank
you for reading, I wish you will find
something nice from this tiny shop. |

Wood Prairie Dogs
Enjoying Aftermath of Latest Snowstorm.
In recent weeks, multiple storms have been making
up for lost ground and have been hitting Maine in rapid
succession. The previous storm was heavy, dense snow
topped with 2+ inches of freezing rain pellets. That was
hard plowing and took Caleb most of twelve hours to
finish the farm’s big snowplowing job. During this most
recent snowstorm we told the crew to stay home and stay
safe. Shipping Organic
Seed Potatoes could wait for another
day. As was forecast, the storm ended abruptly, and
humans and dogs were only too happy to venture outside
again, even as a stiff north wind blew strong and cold.
Here, all three dogs are having fun chewing on
packed-snow-clods left behind by Caleb’s snowplowing.
From left to right, Caleb and Lizzi’s gentle hulk
20-month-old Rottweiller, ‘Ralph,’ weighing in at 150
pounds; Amy’s energetic Australian Shepherd, ‘Oakley’;
and Sarah & Megan’s middle-aged Great Pyrenees,
“Halle.” In the background, our snow-encased 132-foot
long ‘High Tunnel’ before Caleb took at its snow with
the monstrous Michigan Payloader. Just three more months
of Winter, then the snowpack melts and we’ll be farming
again!

|
Notable Quotes:
Seattle on Purpose.
|
Quick Links to
Popular Products.
Caleb & Jim & Megan Gerritsen
Wood Prairie Family Farm
49 Kinney Road
Bridgewater, Maine 04735
(207) 429 - 9765 / 207
(429) - 9682
Certified Organic From Farm to Mailbox
www.woodprairie.com
|
|
|
|