SHARE:
Farm Pickings
News and Updates from Sanborn Mills Farm
— June 4, 2024 —
I wonder what it would be like to live in a world
where it was always June.
— L.M. Montgomery
 |
 |
Visit Us on Open Farm Day, June 16
Our popular Open Farm Day event at Sanborn Mills Farm will be held this year on June 16 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. During the day you and your family and friends can tour our extensive grounds, take garden tours, watch sawmill and grist mill demonstrations, and meet our friendly draft animals up close. Meet members of our workshop faculty and Farm staff, learn about the Farm’s fascinating history and how our historic buildings function, and see some of our newer additions, including our state-of-the-art woodshop. A variety of demonstrations of traditional craft and skills will be held throughout the day.
Open Farm Day is a great introduction to the Farm and all we do here. More information here.
 |
|
Sunday Suppers at
Sanborn Mills Farm
New this year, plan to join us this summer for a Sunday Supper prepared by Head Chef Kelly Fahey and Sous Chef Taylor George from ingredients grown or raised on the Farm. These special events will give you the opportunity to enjoy the Farm in the magic of evening. Several dates are available; click here for more information and to choose a Sunday for your supper at the Farm.
And don’t forget our popular Farm to Table Lunches held on Thursdays in June. Click here for more information.
The Alpine Garden Blooms in Fragile Beauty
Our Alpine Garden recreates the delicate and fragile beauty of an alpine (above treeline) region. These plants, which tend to be ground-hugging while incredibly tenacious in an extreme environment, are an inspiration. How can such beauty survive in such harsh conditions? But it does, even thrives, as our Alpine Garden shows. The garden is its peak right now with Gentiana acaulis, Saxifraga paniculata, and Androsace sarmentosa putting on a big show.
Colin Cabot’s father, Francis H. Cabot, was a versatile gardener with a passion for Alpine plants, even leading a trip collecting seeds from the Himalayan mountains in China. The alpine beds in the Sanborn Mills Farm garden are a tribute to his legacy as a former president of NARGS (North American Rock Garden Society). He even wrote a song celebrating alpine rock plant gardening.:
“Have you ever tried gardening with alpine plants?
They’re sessile and sweet,
Procumbent and neat,
And conveniently located down by your feet.”
To save your back when looking closely at the alpines, we built the beds at counter top height.
Upcoming Workshops of Interest
Sanborn Mills Farm’s 2024 Workshop Program is now underway, but it’s never too early to register for a favorite workshop later in the schedule. Many of our workshops fill quickly, so if there’s a workshop or two that catches your interest, make a point to register soon. The full schedule of 2024 workshops is posted on our website here.
Here are three upcoming workshops that may be of particular interest to you. Click on the workshop title for more information and to register.
 |
|
June 22-23
Instructor: Garry Kalajian
Just one spot left!
Participants in this workshop will learn how to make a hatchet using traditional processes: first shaping the head from a heavy strip of soft iron, folding it over to form the poll and eye, welding the section of the eye just behind the eye, inserting and forge-welding a piece of hardenable steel, then drawing out the blade. Teamwork will hasten the heavy bar hammering, so plan to work with another or come with a friend.
| |
 |
Tools for the Hearth — Broom Making and the Iron Parts
July 12-14
Instructors: Garry Kalajian and Larry Antonuk
In this multi-disciplinary workshop students will divide their time between the broom shop, making a brush with Sanborn Mills Farm broom-maker Larry Antonuk, and the smithy, designing and forging the ironwork to complete a tool set: an iron handle for the broom, a shovel end and handle, and a poker. The parts will be joined by drilling and tapping holes for threaded fasteners and rivets. If time permits students can make hooks, a rack, or a stand for the set. Experience using a coal forge and basic metal working skill are recommended.
 |
|
From the Fields and Rows: Hand Paper Making for Personal Use
June 24-28
Instructor: Catherine Cross Tsintzos
In keeping with the mission and values of Sanborn Mills Farm participants in this workshop will be immersed in a creative natural environment that includes gardens, fields, rows, and forest resources to explore traditional methods that can be integrated into modern life. During the five days of learning about hand paper making, participants learn how to make their own paper using regenerative sustainable practices. By working with seasonal agricultural fibers, we will connect to the natural flow of the garden. Participants will cook and process materials for pounding, pulp creation and sheet formations with two and three dimensional options. Learn seed-to-paper methods for working with harvested materials to design for a variety of end uses. Leave this five day workshop with an expanded vocabulary, broader understanding of tool use, sizings, and how to dry and press. Depart with a variety of papers from different pulps that connect you with Sanborn Mills Farm and the knowledge to continue the hand paper making process at home.
Photo Credits
Top photo by Lea Rossignol.
Sunday Supper photo by Steve Bjerklie.
Alpine Garden photo by Helen Westergren.
Workshop photos courtesy the instructors.
Sanborn Mills Inc. | (603) 435-7314 | info@sanbornmills.org | www.sanbornmills.org
Hands-on education in traditional craft and farming: Inspiring the future with tools from the past.
Sanborn Mills Farm | 7097 Sanborn Road | Loudon, NH 03307 US