Pickings from Sanborn Mills Farm

Farm Pickings

News and Updates from Sanborn Mills Farm

— August 22, 2022 —

Available Workshops: September

The list of available workshops that continue the 2022 season at Sanborn Mills Farm in September appears below. 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.) Click here for a month-by-month calendar of 2022 workshops at the Farm. Full workshops can be wait-listed.

Botanical Printing and Eco-Dyeing on Paper with Book Binding Basics and the Coptic Stitch:September 3-4

Explorations in Vessel Making with Fiber:September 8-9

Blacksmithing Door Hardware: September 9-11

Rib Style Willow Basketry: September 10-11

Dyeing Yarns with Mordant Dyes and Indigo:September 14-16

Blacksmithing Basics: September 23-25

Adirondack Pack Basket:September 24-25

Foraging For Color:September 29- October 1

A Delicious Success!

Our first annual Farm to Table Dinner, held on Saturday afternoon/evening, August 20, was a grand success. In the courtyard while the sun was still up, guests gnoshed on flatbread from our outdoor pizza/bread oven, topped with ingredients from our gardens, and delicious Greek-style meatballs, as well as vegetable hors d’oeuvres. Later, up in the beautifully decorated Sanborn Barn, a total 75 guests enjoyed a full three course meal, again featuring ingredients grown here on the Farm, including pork and chicken. Locally made wine, cider, and ale were available to accompany the delicious foods. And the entire evening was serenaded by a jazz band led by Jeremy Morse, one of the Farm’s carpenters.

A silent auction gave guests the opportunity to bid on hand-dyed textiles, handmade baskets, gift certificates, and other items. 

All proceeds from the event benefit our new Scholarship Program, which helps qualified individuals cover the cost for workshops at the Farm. 

The Farm to Table Dinner is sure to be an annual event on the Sanborn Mills Farm calendar. If you missed this year’s Dinner, keep watch on the Farm’s website and this newsletter for announcements regarding next year’s event. See you then!

More Dates Added for Pop-Up Community Lunches

Several more dates have been added to our summer schedule of Pop-Up Community Lunches. If you’ve not attended one of these casual, fun lunches, make a plan to do so!

Chef Kelly Fahey will be laying out delicious lunches for neighbors and friends of the Farm on August 24 and September 7, 14, 21, and 28. These casual lunches in the Dining Hall are a great way to see the Farm up close on a quiet afternoon, and the food is guaranteed to be ultra-fresh and tasty!

Space for the Pop-Up Lunches is very limited, so don’t wait to register. Pick your date and click here to register.

All proceeds from the Lunches will support the Sanborn Mills Farm Scholarship Program.

What We’re Reading in August

“A Truce with the Trees” by Rebecca Solnit

You’ve heard the phrase “farm to table” and perhaps “flax to linen” or “stump to stick.” These words describe an arc from agricultural or forest origin to finished product. Here’s a new one for you: “tree to Tchaikovsky.” 

In this beautifully written piece by essayist Rebecca Solnit, published earlier this summer in The Guardian, she considers how a particular 300-year-old violin still harbors its origin in a forest. “Mostly, a violin is trees,” she writes. “Like all plants, all forests, the trees from which [this] violin was made had been pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and sequestering it in their wood and in the Earth. The fossil fuel we burn now is an end-product of carbon sequestered by plants eons ago. The violin is a tiny carbon sink, a reserve of carbon that didn’t go back into the air, but stayed here and sang.”

Read the full essay here.