Cranberry Ridge Farm And Apothecary

I finally got around to getting my farm plan onto a rough map of the property. Its a poor picture but its my rough draft for the plan. All the small little unlabeled parcels are approx. 1/4 acre coppice where we will each year cut almost all the trees for fire wood and poles etc. for projects on the farm. We will choose several nurse trees to leave standing then we will replant a number of species of fast growing trees, as well as leaving the stumps of the trees cut, to r...egrow. having an established root system of the large tree the plan is theses stumps will send up new shoots that will actually grow very quickly. In this plan I have 21 coppice sections so that would give us 21 years of regrowth. Several species will have fire wood size growth within 12-16 years. we will also be utilizing the coppices for vary controlled grazing, medicinal plant growing, poultry grazing, food plant growing, as well as carefully harvesting tree hay for our goats. The remaining land will be pasture, forage crop land, vegetable gardens and medicinal plant gardens. My goal is to demonstrate the capacity of even a small 10 acre property in a cold climate can provide all the fuel for heating and possibly cooking, as well as 80% of the food for a family of 7. Its a very high goal! but I think it can be done. I choose 80% of our food production for two reasons. one: that we like fruits and food that are often not grown in our climate so we will likely always buy those foods. Two: in a serious crisis we could reduce our consumption of food by likely 25% and still remain healthy, meaning we would actually be able to survive 100% on the food we produce.......it would be a little boring maybe, but we could survive! we are still clearing land and cleaning up the mess left by the previous owners but we are excited about the journey! hope you all enjoy following our progress and my infrequent posts......... I really am trying to post more consistently!

Cranberry Ridge Farm is excited to announce we will be expanding our Medicinal Herb Growing. Up to this fall we have been growing primarily for our family and a few friends and neighbors. Starting this fall we have begun planting and planning for our expansion. Also our website is currently going through a major overhaul and reworking to reflect our expansion. Our offerings are likely to be limited at first however we are committed to growing as fast as we can maintain our quality of production. We are committed to the long term and high quality medicinal herbs. feel free to email us at [email protected] for any questions or suggestions of herbs you would be interested in.

Planted the bed of Solomon seal rhizomes today blustery windy and 29 degrees..... but they are tucked away in the relative warmth of the soil under a blanket o...f leaves. Looking forward to a nice bed of Solomon’s seal this spring and in 3 years we can start harvesting and selling I’m excited that we are finally getting these medicinal herb beds started...... I’ve been wanting to for so long! It’s great to be bringing these marginal woodland areas of the farm into production also!