From Seed to Sanctuary: Celebrating Runamuk's 7-Year Farmiversary
Recapping the journey and exploring what's next at Runamuk Acres
If I live to be a hundred, I hope I never forget how it felt the day I bought this farm.
After a 9-year struggle, growing my farm-business even as a landless farmer— overcoming divorce, the death of both parents, financial instability and a grueling grind—against all odds, this piece of trailer park trash managed to buy a farm of her very own. Farm-ownership changed my life, bringing new meaning to my existence.
Join me as we celebrate our 7-year farmiversary this week at the Runamuk Acres Conservation Farm!!!
Welcome to the latest Updates From the Farm! If you are new here, I invite you to check out my About page to learn what this is, who I am and why I am doing this. Or just dive right in! At “Runamuk Acres” you’ll find the recantings of one lady-farmer and tree-hugging activist from the western mountains of Maine. #foodieswanted
In This Post:
Working With the USDA
Recap
So—What’s Next?
From Seed to Sanctuary
Working With the USDA
It still chokes me up to think about that day…
The Farm Service Agency defines a beginning farmer as “someone who has not operated a farm or ranch for more than 10 years.”
I was on my 9th year when I finally submitted my application.
The months that followed were an agonizingly suspenseful emotional roller coaster ride. Each step of the FSA’s loan process is contingent upon the one before it, so that nothing is assured and at any given moment the whole deal could fall through.
On June 27th, 2018, I took myself off to our county USDA office in Skowhegan, Maine, car laden with as many of my possessions as would fit—along with Murphy in the front seat. Even as I signed and initialed my way through the interminable stack of papers that made up the mortgage contract, I still worried the rug might somehow be pulled out from under me.
When I emerged from the USDA building with keys in hand, I could scarcely believe it!
Since then, I’ve established Runamuk Acres at it’s forever-farm location in New Portland, Maine. For better or worse, I’ve committed myself to this scrappy patch of earth—the dutiful steward of the greatest gift a girl could ever get: a farm of her very own.
➡️For more about working with the USDA Farm Service Agency to fund or purchase your farm, check out my ebook or join my upcoming workshop to learn How to Buy a Farm With NO Money.
Recap
We have many new followers since I’ve moved my farm-blog to Substack a year and a half ago. Before we delve into “What’s Next” for Runamuk, let’s recap the last 15 years of my farm-journey for all of our new readers and refresh our memories for those who’ve been with me for the long-haul.
Here’s my rudimentary attempt at an animated slideshow for you…feel free to pause the video to read each slide.
So—What’s Next?
Over the course of the last 10-months within the public school kitchen, it’s become painfully clear to me that I just don’t have it in me to give up on farming.
I also don’t have it in me to suffer or waste my life away in some insufferable job for the sake of the almighty dollar. Whatever I do, I need to do it on my own—as an independent and self-employed individual.
SUBBING
That’s both joyously freeing and utterly terrifying at the same time, so I’ve decided to retain the option to serve the local schools as a substitute—cook, teacher or custodian. This will be my safety-net during the winter when the cost of heating this big old farmhouse puts additional strain on my budget. Of course, I hope I won’t need it—but subbing allows me to retain control over my schedule and my own autonomy.
GARDENING GIGS
School Garden Coaching: While I’m no longer the “Head Cook” at Kingfield Elementary, I am still their School Garden Coach employed by the Greater Franklin Food Council as an independent contractor through this fall. Currently the GFFC is uncertain if they will have the funds next year to keep me on beyond that. However—the idea of adding 2 other schools (in Rangeley and Phillips, Maine) to my list and having me serve as the “Northern Franklin County School Garden Coach” has come up.
Garden & Homestead Coaching: Running with the garden-coaching concept, I’ve decided to start offering Garden & Homestead Consultations for newbies seeking guidance. Recently updating the Runamuk website with new product listings, local and Maine residents can now recruit your friendly neighborhood Farmer Sam to come to your home or homestead for personalized planning and support.
➡️Mainers interested in those services can check that out here.
Gardening Services: Offering my skills to the surrounding local communities, I’ve taken on a couple residential properties where I am reclaiming overgrown gardens. Typically I take BraeTek along for these jobs and we work as a mother-son team, weeding, thinning, pruning, mulching and more. I tell folks—I’m a gardener, not a landscaper. I don’t mow, lol. This service is limited to the immediate area: Kingfield and Carrabasset Valley.
➡️Email: runamukacres@gmail.com to schedule a free consultation.
WORKSHOPS
Once upon a time I hosted bee-schools and workshops about pollinator conservation, soap-making, and chicken processing. After I bought the farm, however, those workshops dried up due to the farm’s remote location. Now I’ve decided to bring them back via Zoom! Beginning in July, I’ll be hosting one workshop a month on a variety of topics (which you can review here). July’s workshop is a topic that’s near and dear to my heart: “How to Make Your Own Dog-Food”. You do not have to be a paid subscriber to participate in these, but there is a $50 fee.
➡️Click here to review details or enroll.
FARMSTAND
Through our farmstand-on-the-porch, Runamuk continues to offer whatever we have that is surplus to the needs of our own household. Currently we have plenty of farm-fresh eggs available and I’m toying with the idea of bringing back bread. I can’t say right now if we’ll have any vegetables to share, as being at school has significantly impacted my garden this season, but there will be lamb available in the fall. Farmstand hours are Friday through Sunday 8am to 4 or 6pm (depending on when I decide to bring the flag in).
WRITING
Just as I cannot walk away from farming, neither can I give up on writing—it’s part of who I am and if I’m not writing, I’m not happy. Therefore, writing has to be the thing that supports my farming endeavors.
Wild Hearts & Harvests: I’m back to pecking away at my serialized farm-themed romance novel: On Blackstone Mountain—with the intention of publishing Chapter 12 soon. When I can steal a moment, I’m researching Maine history for my first-ever historical romance novel, which I’ll launch once OBM has been completed.
Runamuk’s Farm-Blog: I’ve picked up where I left off with my Homesteading series, and added the monthly Harvest Hub for paid subscribers. Stay tuned for more great articles coming soon!
From Seed to Sanctuary
If you’ve been following for very long, likely you’ve heard me talk about how our homesteads and farms should evolve over time. Certainly, Runamuk has grown along with me and neither of us are the same as when we started back in 2010.
Back then, my kids were still very young—BraeTek was just 3. William 7.
I was younger then, too. With seemingly unlimited amounts of energy and a more spritely body.
Now—my boys are grown. The amount of energy I have on any given day is finite, and my body belies my age with numerous aches and pains.
At some point we have to prioritize where our time, energy and money are going. We have to make choices along our farming-journey—about which path to uphold and which to let go of.
I've chosen to prioritize my work in conservation.
With so much in the news about the decline of the Monarch population—about how we might be the last generation to see fireflies—I want the Runamuk Acres Conservation Farm be an oasis for wildlife.
The “conservation” in our title isn’t just an honorary badge—I’m serious as a heart attack about wildlife conservation. I can’t stand idly by waiting for the government to take action on the environmental issues plaguing our planet. And I don’t trust the politicians to get the job done, either.
My 53-acres might not be much, and I might be just one woman, but I’m doing my part to sequester carbon and build soil health to protect nature in my local community. Cultivating strong and healthy populations of wildlife here at Runamuk benefits the larger regional ecosystem, which in turn impacts the global ecosystem.
It’s working, too…
By employing regenerative methods of agriculture like rotational grazing with my sheep, we’ve seen the field become a veritable jungle. Not only does the sheep-poop and urine feed the microorganisms in the soil, the grazing activity stimulates plant growth. The grasses and forbes have responded with increased vigor, and the once sparse forage has spread into a thick thatch.
Insects, birds and animals here are thriving. I’ve seen more snakes this year than I care to. I’ve seen mamma grouse and turkey with their tiny chicks. Bluebirds, foxes, and countless others—all claiming sanctuary at Runamuk Acres.
So committed to this idea am I, that I took a contract with the government to keep my acreage in conservation for the next 50-years. That means there are certain usage restrictions I have to abide by (ie - no timber harvesting, etc.), but it won me $100,000 off my mortgage—significantly reducing my monthly payment.
The point of all this is to say that feeding my human-community is no longer my primary goal as a farmer—it’s a by-product. I’ll never be able to grow enough as a solo-farmer to feed large numbers of people—and I’m at a place in my life where I'm okay with that.
I’m okay with just growing more of my own food—something that had been sacrificed in the hustle to produce for others.
My vision for Runamuk is for it to become a nature-center that people will visit to reconnect with nature and learn more about wildlife. With benches and birdhouses, informational plaques and community events focused on environmental issues, I want Runamuk Acres to be a beacon of hope in a world where corporate greed is fast condemning our most-treasured assets: our public lands and national parks.
I’m farming not for the people of my community so much as for the microbes and insects who give life to this small patch of Earth. For they are the keystone organisms upon which all other life is dependent.
The vegetables, eggs and lamb I produce are merely a by-product of our efforts to cultivate a healthy ecosystem here for wildlife.
And none of this would have ever come to be if I hadn’t persisted—if I hadn’t made it to Closing Day 7 years ago in spite of the many—many—obstacles. That’s why I’ll never regret or lament the hardships of my past, because—ultimately, those hardships made me who I am and led me here to do this work.
Not a days goes by that I don’t give thanks for this farm. It has consumed my heart and soul and become my reason for existing.
No matter how you subscribe, I thank you for reading.
Sending love and good juju to you and yours.
Your friendly neighborhood farmer,
Sam
Thank you for following along with the story of this lady-farmer! It is truly a privilege to live this life serving my family and community, and protecting wildlife through agricultural conservation. If you found this valuable, please consider Restacking so more people can see it!
This is so awesome Sam! I think I detected a hint of new energy in your words and I hope that transfers into your work and the community. You're doing great things!!
Congratulations on your anniversary, and all you’ve accomplished!