Autumn at Windswept Maples is often a time for thankless jobs like cleaning and storing equipment, doing maintenance on buildings, and getting barns ready for the animals returning from pasture. These jobs aren’t flashy but they’re critical tasks for ensuring our equipment and structures stay in good working order and function as needed in the coming year. Doing these types of jobs now enables us to maximize our time on other more visible things that make the farm go the rest of the year. Amidst these thankless jobs this fall, Jeff took home a highly visible recognition of all the hard work that goes into running a diversified family farm.
At the recent NH Farm Bureau Annual Meeting, Jeff received NH’s Young Farmer Achievement Award. He was nominated by Merrimack County Farm Bureau, interviewed in September with a panel of three judges, and submitted an application highlighting his work on conservation practices and being a spokesman for agriculture and sustainability. In January, Jeff will travel to Nashville, Tennessee as the NH representative of the award for the American Farm Bureau Annual Convention. A full press release can be viewed on the NH Farm Bureau News Blog.
As autumn shifts to winter we also start looking ahead to sugaring season. This fall has had a few especially strong wind storms which means lots of limbs and trees came down on our tubing lines. Before the snow really starts to fly we’ll be walking all of the lines, clearing debris and making repairs. Downed trees will be cut and piled for future fuel wood and the tubing systems will be readied for the 2018 season. The last few years have seen early January thaws which is when we generally start tapping, so believe it or not, another season of syrup making isn’t more than a couple months away!