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In This Issue of The
Wood Prairie Seed Piece:
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This edition of the Seed
Piece may be
found in our Wood Prairie
Seed Piece Archives.
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Mild Days Ahead.

Haying Time.
Houlton Maine. Circa 1944.
This colorized black &
white photo, shared by Tom Rock, depicts an earlier time
when haying involved a lot of hand work. In those years
virtually every Aroostook County farm grew some amount
of Potatoes
as a cash crop. Because many farmers still
farmed with horses, they needed both Timothy
Hay and Oats,
which it turns out are great rotation crops for
Potatoes. This farm’s Potato House is located behind
that Elm tree and has had earthen banks built up against
concrete walls to help moderate temperature and humidity
more to a Potato’s liking.
It
may not seem like it some Springs, but our snow does
eventually melt. This week’s Wood
Prairie Seed Piece features a new
Maine Tales entitled “Great Expectations” and tells the
tale when a couple of years our snowmelt happened way
too fast. Also, we have a Special Limited Time
Offer for a FREE 1# Sack of Wood
Prairie Organic Maine Certified Elba Seed Potatoes,
one of our real Bomb-Proof workhorse Potato
varieties. Plus a tasty Recipe
from Megan for Buttery Potato Gnocchi and
a Notable Quote from Friedrich
Nietzsche on Perception.
Thanks very much for your loyalty and support of our
Family Farm!

Caleb,
Jim & Megan Gerritsen & Family
Wood Prairie Family Farm
Bridgewater,
Maine
Special
Offer! FREE
Organic Seed
Potatoes!
Place a New
Order and Receive a FREE
1 lb. Sack of
Organic Maine Certified Elba Seed Potatoes
($14.99 Value) with a Minimum $65 Order. FREE Elba must
ship with order and no later than 5/15/23.
Please
use Coupon Code WPFF244.
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Maine Tales. Great
Expectations.
Perth-Andover, New Bunswick, Canada. Circa
1987.
Hopper
Rail Cars on Railroad Bridge. Each
Hopper Rail Car holds well over 100 tons of a dense
material like gravel, somewhat less for wood chips or
grain. A single Covered Hopper Rail Car that was
carrying Wheat would hold enough to grain make 258,000
loaves of bread, according to Union Pacific Railroad.
There
are heroes. And then there are those among us who aim to
be heroes should circumstances go their way.
The Mighty St. John
In its own way, locally as
prominent and iconic as Katahdin, the mighty St. John
River, known by the Maliseets as “Wolastoq,” runs 418
miles in length, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean’s
Bay of Fundy. For eighty miles the St. John forms the
International border between Maine and Canada. Virtually
all of Aroostook County, Maine lies within the St.
John watershed which amounts to 21,000 square
miles, one of the largest watersheds on the East
Coast. Slightly over one-third of the St. John
watershed happens to be in the State of Maine. So, if
a snowflake or raindrop falls anywhere in Aroostook it
will eventually make its way into the Atlantic
courtesy of the St. John River.
At our farm’s latitude the
International boundary lies to the west of the St John
as the river begins to flow towards the southeast. The
St. John then remains entirely inside Canada until
it flows into the Bay of Fundy. For thousands of
years, the St. John and its tributaries have served as
primary travel routes for its human inhabitants.
Early European settlers, both
the Acadian French and the English/Scotch/Irish, used
the navigable St. John, and its tributaries including
the Aroostook River, as the primary means to extend
their settlements into the roadless forested
wilderness. As the new settlers spread into the St.
John’s upper reaches, in short order trees began to be
cut down, stumps pulled and the new fields planted
to Potatoes on both sides of the border.
North Country Ice
Jams
Now of course, the
phenomenon of flooding is well known most everywhere,
and our St. John River is no exception. Flood
records, in fact, have been kept for the lower basin
of the St. John River ever since 1696. It is
noteworthy that in the Upper and Middle reaches of the
St John River, in addition to those common components
usually behind flooding – excessive rainfall and snow
melt – is a powerful additional complicating element
known in the north country as “ice jams.”
This time of year during
Spring, rapid snowmelt waters snake their way into the
St. John and power along huge floating chunks of
ice, often each the size of automobiles. Packed
shoulder-to-shoulder from shore to shore, the ice
blocks grind against one another as they steadily make
their way en masse down stream powered by high water.
River obstructions such as
river narrows, islands or bridge abutments can quickly
form massively problematic ice jams should the ice
begin to pile up and in doing so obstruct the free
flow of river water. Most years the annual ice
flow makes its way down river with minimal harm.
The occasional momentary ice jam normally quickly
corrects itself, forced on downstream by the colossal
weight of ice upstream pushing Atlantic-bound.
Record Floods
However, under certain
conditions, severe ice jams may form quickly and cause
extensive flooding and sometimes massive destruction.
On April 1, 1976, a major ice jam formed on the St
John River on the uphill side of the Canadian-Pacific
Railroad Bridge in the town of Perth-Andover, New
Brunswick, just across the line from Fort Fairfield,
Maine. The ice jam caused water and ice to quickly
back up. As the situation became dire, one
quick-thinking official took decisive action. He
ordered seventeen railroad hopper cars, idled on
nearby tracks and full of thousands of tons of wood
chips, to be rolled onto the CP bridge to provide
additional anchoring weight against the stupendous
combined forces of ice and water. His outlandish
gamble worked. The reinforced bridge held until the
ice jam broke up on its own. The ice then proceeded
downstream allowing the backed-up flood waters to
lower and flow downriver once again. That decisive
steel-nerved official instantly became a local hero
and a local legend.
Eleven years and one day
later, there was another massive ice jam piled up
against the very same Canadian-Pacific Railroad Bridge
in Perth-Andover. High water was causing extensive
flooding and property damage. Nineteen hundred
people endangered by the flooding St. John river
required evacuation. That Winter, we’d had a
deep snowpack. Moderate snow-melting rains beginning
towards the end of March made for high water levels on
all local rivers. The result was rapid ‘thermal decay’
of the river ice which caused the ice pack to break up
and flow fast and furious with the rambunctious flood
waters.
Good Plan Gone
Awry
At 6am on the morning of
April 2, 1987, the river of ice quickly began to
accumulate into an ice jam against the bottom chord
of the CP bridge spanning the St. John River. This
time, another official well-versed in the
local-ice-jam-lore issued the order. Again,
seventeen rail cars – this time around filled with
chemical fertilizer, wood poles and wrapping paper
were rushed into place on top of the CP bridge.
However and unfortunately at 9am, three hours after
the ice jam first formed, the metal members of the
bridge finally succumbed to weary fatigue and
catastrophically collapsed into the St. John River
taking along with it all seventeen rail cars and
their caustic contents. As an illustration of the
breathtaking forces involved, one awol rail car -
carried by the ice and surging water - was found
nearly a mile downstream after having passed without
incident under a highway bridge.
The 1987 St. John river
flood established the as yet unmatched record and
was eventually designated a 500-Year event. Flood
level in 1987 was measured as being a full three-feet
higher than during the earlier damaging
flood of 1976.
When dealing with Mother Nature there is often no
certainty. Decisions must be made, routinely
in a big hurry and necessarily before the ultimate
wisdom of those decisions can be determined.
You do the best you can
with the hand you are dealt. Becoming a hero
is anything but a sure bet.
Caleb, Jim & Megan

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Megan's Kitchen
Recipes:
Buttery Potato Gnocchi.
You can use either waxy or floury/mealy potatoes. Click here
for our Potato
Texture Chart. Waxy potatoes don't need an egg
yolk when mixed with the flour, but mealy potatoes will.
- 2 Potatoes (about 1 lb), unpeeled (I used Elba)
- Pinch of Sea Salt
- 1 Egg Yolk (optional)
- 3/4 c Organic Whole Wheat Flour
- 2 tsp Olive Oil
- 4 T Unsalted Butter
- Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper, to taste
- Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese, for garnish
- Fresh Broadleaf
Sage, for garnish
1. Place the potatoes in a saucepan, cover with cold water
and add a pinch of salt. Bring the water to a boil reduce
the heat, and simmer until the potatoes are tender, 30 - 40
minutes.
2. Drain the potatoes and return them to the pan. Shake the
pan gently over low heat to dry the potatoes. Let stand just
until the potatoes are cool enough to handle.
3. Peel the potatoes and cut them in chunks. Pass them
through a ricer or food mill. Transfer to a lightly floured
surface. If using an egg yolk, make a well in the center of
the potatoes and put the yolk in the well.
4. Sprinkle the potatoes with some of the flour and slowly
work in. Repeat until all the flour has been added and the
mixture forms a smooth, slightly sticky, dough.
5. Divide the dough into fourths, and roll each piece into a
15" long rope about 3/4" in diameter. Using a floured knife,
cut each rope into thirty pieces. The gnocchi can be cooked
as is; or to make decorative ridges, flour a dinner fork and
roll the gnocchi under the tines.
6. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the olive oil,
and then drop the gnocchi gently into the boiling water.
7. When gnocchi rise to the surface, cook 30 seconds more.
Drain in a colander.
8. Melt the butter in a large skillet along with the sage
and add the gnocchi. Toss gently and season with salt,
pepper, and a generous grating of Parmesan cheese.
Megan |

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Notable Quotes:
Nietzsche on Perception.
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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
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