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| WILD
FARM is an old, old hill farm in southern Vermont
on the lower slopes of Mount Equinox, chopped out
of the wilderness at the end of the 18th century. |
| THE
FARM grew and prospered through the 19th century.
Some of the forest was replaced by stone-walled
pastures and fields for sheep, cows, hay, potatoes,
and apple trees, while some was reserved as woodlot
and maple groves.
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Hard
times came in the 1920s and the farm began to grow
back into unmanaged forest, the house used only
as a summer place. By the time we came in 1964,
it was overgrown and wild (hence the name). We brought
5 children and a goal of being self-sufficient,
raising our food naturally, and slowly restoring
as much of the farm as we could. |
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WE
BRACED the barn, shored up the old milkhouse, took
63 big pine trees out of the orchard (which turned
out to have a variety of heirloom apples), put up
fences, acquired some sheep, then goats, eventually
milk cows and calves. Over time we added many more
sheep, geese, ducks, and chickens. |
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TWO
MORE CHILDREN arrived as the older ones went off
to college. As we raised them we also raised our
own vegetables and meat, as well as raspberries
and rhubarb, and occasionally strawberries. We
never used chemicals or poisons, so when the youngest
son started a commercial vegetable operation some
20 years later, there was no waiting period for
organic certification. |
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WE
STARTED MAKING MAPLE SYRUP in 1972. We bought an
ancient hydraulic press to make cider and we also
learned to make good hard cider. We bought a bright
red cub tractor with a mower and the boys mowed
while the rest of us made hay by hand at first,
then with a dump rake and a hay loader, lifting
it up into the barn with a rope-operated hay fork.
Later we cleared an old hayfield of pine trees and
honeysuckle bushes and helped a neighbor bale hay
on it. |
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| AS
TIME WENT ON, the original old buildings needed
repairs: a new roof for the spring house, new underpinnings
for the corn house, a new goat barn, a new chicken
house. The old pig house became a woodshed, new
fences and gates replaced old ones, and we added
new apple trees. |
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The
old sugar house (1880)—which we still use
to make our syrup—got a new wood-fired evaporator,
a few windows, and a lean-to woodshed. But we still
use buckets for collecting maple sap—old-fashioned
but
effective and easy to keep clean. |
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MOST OF THE FAMILY is scattered around Vermont
now but they all come back whenever they can to
help with sugaring (several children and grandchildren
have become the chief sugarmakers), for picking
apples and making cider, and to share the fresh
eggs and vegetables we grow.
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—
The Clay Family |
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