Pickings from Sanborn Mills Farm

Farm Pickings

News and Updates from Sanborn Mills Farm

— October 17, 2022 —

Available Workshops: November

The 2022 workshop season at Sanborn Mills Farm is winding down, but there is still an available workshop in November. Click on the workshop title to learn more and to register. Please note that workshops often fill early. (Workshops that are already full are not listed. Full workshops can be wait-listed.)

Sew Your Own Quilt Coat: Nov. 5 (1 spot left)

A Blue Ribbon Day for Dominica and the Farm

Dominica Pechan, who coordinates the Farm’s CSA program and works on the garden crew, admits a love for bovines. “I love their big eyes and squishy cheeks,” she says. “I love being close to them.” While she isn’t on the Farm’s teamster crew, this past summer Dominica sat in on one of Farm Manager Ray Ramsey’s oxen workshops and has done “little things here and there” with teamster Tyler Allen. “She has a natural talent,” says Ray, who was assisted by Dominica during the oxen workshops at the recent Draft Animal Power Network (DAPNet) gathering held at the Farm. 

She had never been on her own with an oxen team, however, much less compete with a team. At this fall’s Sandwich Fair in New Hampshire, not only did Dominica try her hand at competing in the scoot-pull obstacle event, she won first place over seven other contestants. “Ray talked me into it,” she laughs. “I thought, I can’t do this, I’m gonna mess up!” But, competing in the Class III category for oxen weighing up to 3,600 pounds, she navigated the obstacle course, featuring tight turns, cone gates representing trees and a set of cones with a bar representing a loading dock, perfectly. Her team, Rough and Tough, didn’t knock over or even nudge a single cone. Competing in Class I for younger oxen, Ray also brought home a blue ribbon. 

Did the experience whet her appetite for more oxen competitions? “Definitely!” Dominica enthuses. “I’d love to have my own team, that’s my dream.”

Dominca Pechan puts Rough and Tough through the paces in the obstacle course at this year’s Sandwich Fair.

Peak Fall Color Arrives

Trying to pinpoint exactly when New Hampshire’s hardwood trees will wear their brightest fall colors can be like trying to predict the first snow. Colors can change by the day, sometimes the hour. The week of October 10 at Sanborn Mills Farm proved to be Peak Week for the Farm’s red and sugar maples, with Friday the 14th being the peak of the peak. The trees were so vivid they glowed; walking along the Farm’s roads and paths was like being inside a Van Gogh painting.

Photo Credits

Photos of Dominica Pechan by Ray Ramsey

All other photos by Steve Bjerklie.