Dear Outside World, Despite the snow today, on April 26th, flowers have finally started to bloom! Since our last foray into blog writing, Peggy Sue gave an outstanding performance delivering her piglets between the hours of 7pm and 7am. We apprentices had the novel experience of collecting the piglets as they were born, cleaning and …
Dear Outside World, Winter has finally arrived! Here at the Lodge, in April… Fun fact: snow panels are 3.14% less effective under two inches of snow. Sarah has learned that she now pays careful attention to the cloud cover. Alessia has learned that she is far too lax about eating food that has been left …
Today felt like the first day of school here at Merck Forest, at least that’s what Christine Hubbard, education director, said to the visiting fifth grade students from Dorset School. It was, in fact, the first day of the new pilot program: the Merck Forest and Farmland Center / Next Generation Science Standards School Partnership Program, …
What happened to Peggy Sue’s piglets? This is a question we often get when a set of piglets moves away. Usually, the piglets are raised on our farm until they are old enough and big enough to be sent to Eagle Bridge Custom Meats and Smokehouse. The pigs that we care for and raise onsite become …
If any of you have visited the farm in the past ten years, you’ve probably heard the more or less consistent swish, swish, swish of the wind turbine as the blades rotate in the breeze. The structure has supplied a small percentage of the power here at Merck since it was erected. There were days …
It may seem early to be posting about the Sheep Dog Trials and Farm Festival, it is seven weeks away after all. From the staff end of things here at Merck, the end of those seven weeks, the weekend of July 18 and 19, seems closer than you might think. The Sheep Dog Trials …
The garden is going to be in a new place this year. It will still be just up the road from the wind turbine, but a little closer to the blueberry patch. Moving the garden yearly serves a few purposes: it keeps the soil in good health, and it also allows the apprentices to …
The Ladies of the Gold Lamé, a group of wonderful women that comes annually to Ned’s Cabin, were here just a few weeks ago. We know that they have arrived when we see several cars from various states up and down the eastern seaboard, and if the license plates don’t give them away, their golden …
We got a new children’s book in the Visitor Center the other week (which was posted yesterday on our facebook page). “Over and Under the Snow” by Kate Messner, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal, is a delightful book that I picked up off the shelf, intending to leaf through. I ended up sitting down to …
We were very fortunate to have University of Vermont graduate student, Kat Deely, work at Merck Forest this past summer. Kat came in May to work on mapping natural communities found across our 3,160 acres of land. After months of gathering data and compiling her information into a report, she presented to the MFFC …
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Merck Forest & Farmland Center is a 501(C3) non-profit organization. We are not affiliated with, nor do we receive support from Merck & Company, Inc., nor are we part of any government agency.
All donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law and are greatly appreciated!
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We are not affiliated with, nor do we receive annual support from Merck & Co. Inc.
We are not part of any government agency. • All donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law and are greatly appreciated!