Delphinium Blue Farm in Ashland is one of those slim-profit-margin, make-do-or-do-without farms discussed in last week’s article. In point of fact, profit margin is a misnomer. Black ink thus far remains a future goal. However, there is a certain perverse pride in reducing the hemorrhage of red ink to a small stream using a tourniquet of cost-cutting measures.
Bedding for the animals comes from generous donors of shredded office paper from UMPI. Polychromatic patches on knees and elbows of barn clothes lean toward sturdy rather than unobtrusive. The farm buildings are all the result of “girl-power” and a how-to book. Hive parts for the apiary are constructed on site and used for multiple purposes to avoid unnecessary purchases.
Thus far, the government has not figured out how to wring taxes from bartered items (boxes of eggs for bales of hay; pick-up loads of composted manure for canning jars; chicken pot pies and dog treats for firewood). It is less of a shoestring budget and more like keeping worn-out boots cobbled together with hay-bind and duct tape.
Purchases that must be made are weighed carefully, since most funding still comes from a day job that supports the farming habit. Reducing the heat and turning off power demands in the house may or may not offset the expense of a reliable fencer, but it is a necessary item. Without it, cattle go on walk-about to the neighbors while local foxes walk in to visit their own personal KFC.
A recent break from both farm-work and work-work included a trip to a movie matinee, a bit of campy fun with a dinosaur plot but little respect for the sciences of paleontology or even physics. The net result was a whole sidewalk full of Little People stomping about growling and showing their teeth, their fingers curled into claws. Good for them … kids are still kids! The ticket price was generously provided by a less-economically-challenged sibling, fortunate as even the matinee price is steep. Picture a wall of 750 egg boxes; the profit margin for eggs is less than a dime per dozen.
Back on Delphinium Blue Farm, pullets scheduled for the freezer in the fall channel their inner T-Rex ancestry. Herbivorous cattle lumber like pint-sized Diplococus. Nobody tries to do chores while tottering on heels (the corollary to “Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight” has to be “Don’t try to fight meat-eating dinosaurs in stilettos”)! With an injection of imagination, farming remains fun.
Farming should remain fun for customers of the Presque Isle Farmers’ Market as well. Stop by the parking lot of the Aroostook Centre Mall on Saturdays between 8:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. to find out what products (paleo and otherwise) are available and what adventures are associated with producing them. Grrrrrrrr.
The PI Farmers’ Market contact person is Gail Maynard of Orchard Hill Farm in Woodland. Her number is 498-8541 and their email is orchhill@gmail.com.
