Latest News

A Harrowing Update from the East Side Pasture Project

By Cullen McGough on August 25, 2018

With the dog days of summer behind us, it’s time to check in on our east-side pasture restoration project! At our last check, the restored pasture area was in the middle of a dramatic subsoiling process. Since then, the pasture has been seeded with a cover crop of jerry oats, and is now greening up nicely. …

Timelapse Tomatoes

By Cullen McGough on August 10, 2018

Two months ago, we set up a time-lapse camera in the high tunnel on Chewonki’s farm to catch the amazing growth of our tomatoes! It’s remarkable to see plant life, so often thought of as “unmoving,” visibly flex, turn and grow in rhythm with the passage of days.

Sugar Snap Super Shack

By Cullen McGough on July 20, 2018

Morning pea-picking is good work. The farmers move down rows of emerald tendrils “dripping with peas,” as Assistant Farm Manager Hilary Crowell puts it, pinching off round, ripe pods and dropping them into buckets. With this bumper crop, harvesting goes quickly. And there are plenty of sweet snap peas for snacking. “Take a few for…

Equine Elegance

By Cullen McGough on June 22, 2018

Thanks to generous Chewonki friends, our beloved American Belgian chestnut mare, Sal, now has a run-in at one of her favorite pasture hangouts. The new structure gives Sal, who will turn 22 on July 19, the option of shelter from wind, rain, snow, and sun. Howard and Nancy Alter, whose daughter, Dina, is an alumna…

Eastside Pasture Restoration Project Update: Subsoiling

By Cullen McGough on June 6, 2018

With the trees fully cleared from the eastside pasture restoration project site, the last few weeks have been a busy (and noisy) period of subsoiling and stump removal. Farm Manager Megan Philips and Cullen McGough check in to see how the subsoiling process works: More of the subsoiler in action: Learn more about the Eastside…

March + Maine = Maple Madness

By Anne Leslie on March 17, 2018

Mainers who love maple syrup look forward to March all year long. It’s an end-of-winter celebration infused with the smell of sap boiling in the open air. March + Maine = Maple Madness Every March, Chewonki students and teachers tap maple trees on the Neck to gather the sap that cold nights and warm days…

Meyer Lemons

By Susan Bauer on March 13, 2018

Have you ever had a Meyer lemon? They are a favorite thing, A Meyer Lemon is a perfect cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange. They are smaller than a lemon and have the benefit of a thinner skin. They were brought to the U.S. from China in 1908 by Frank Meyer, an agricultural…

In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb-cam

By Cullen McGough on March 13, 2018

March! A month of dramatic changes at Chewonki! Three back-to-back nor’easters (including today’s wild storm) have dumped fresh snow on the Neck with the promise of more to come: March is also the season for sheep-shearing: Not only does the annual shearing provide wool for the fiber arts center, it helps to prepare the pregnant…

Yum Yum

By Susan Bauer on February 27, 2018

Sometimes in my job it is difficult to remember that I am at work. Yesterday, for example, after I got all of the various components of lunch service up to the counter, I felt exactly as though I had been getting ready for a dinner party. When I am getting ready for guests, I like…

Local Food – Local Medicine

By Cullen McGough on February 23, 2018

Wiscasset, Maine. On Saturday, March 3rd, Chewonki and the Morris Farm will play co-hosts to the 4th annual Food Security Forum, a daylong gathering of policy makers, hunger relief agencies, restaurant owners, farmers, neighbors and students engaged in improving Maine’s food systems, and securing healthy nutritious food for everyone. This year’s theme “Food is Medicine:…