Crooked Door Farm and Ridge Pond Herbals

If you're local to the Whitefield, Maine area, consider signing up for a weekly vegetable CSA (community supported agriculture) share with my cousins at Crooked Door Farm. As a Crooked Door Farm CSA member you'll pick up a weekly share of beautiful, organic vegetables, with the option to add shares of eggs, milk, and/or cheese from Crooked Door Farm and their partners. Crooked Door Farm CSA members also get to sign up for a monthly CSH (community supported herbalism) box from Ridge Pond Herbals at a special price!

The monthly Ridge Pond Herbals CSH box will contain between 4-6 products, chosen by me, Cari (aka chief potion maker), and will be seasonally appropriate, handcrafted, natural, herbal products. Possible items in a CSH box may include skin cream, salve, lip balm, bug spray, tea, room spray, tincture, infused-vinegar, scrub, foraged or cultivated herbs from Ridge Pond Farm, as well as recipes and ideas for how to use your box of goodies! Many CSH box items will be limited edition, custom formulations, not available through Ridge Pond Herbals’ Etsy shop. The cost for the CSH box is $125 for Crooked Door Farm CSA members, which works out to $25/month although the value of each month's products will be at least $40.

Whether you’re already an herbal enthusiast or you like the idea of exploring various artisanal, healthy herbal products made locally with care, sign up for a Crooked Door Farm share today and add on a monthly Ridge Pond Herbals CSH box!

What: Monthly Ridge Pond Herbals CSH (community supported herbalism) box 

When: At the first Crooked Door Farm CSA pick-up each month (5 months, June-October)

How much: $125 for five monthly CSH boxes containing 4-6 items each (a $200 value)

Ridge Pond Herbals happenings

Another busy weekend ahead! I'll be bringing Ridge Pond Herbals to Whitefield Friday evening for Sheepscot General's Holiday Bazaar (5-8). It's also pizza night at the Sheepscot if you needed another reason to stop in!

Saturday I'll be in Yarmouth at 317 Main for their Holiday Open House Bazaar from 11-2. Yarmouth is having a town-wide craft fair that day so you're sure to find lots of local, handmade gifts for everyone on your list (and maybe something for yourself too)!

You can also find select Ridge Pond Herbals products at the following local shops:

Branch Pond Flowers & Gifts, China

Just a hop skip and a jump from Ridge Pond Farm is the little village of Branch Mills, half in Palermo, half in China. Branch Pond Flowers & Gifts is a lovely shop and florist in a beautiful historic building there. They'll be carrying several of my products for the holiday season and beyond. Time spent browsing their collection of unique items is well worth it. 

If you're in Hallowell you can find a few Ridge Pond Herbals products at the eclectic holiday pop-up shop, With the Flow. Located in the distinctive red building at 100 Water Street, with another pop-up upstairs, The Holiday Pottery Shop, you're guaranteed to enjoy the many Maine-made gifts filling the building! 

If you're in Portland, I have some of my products at the fabulous shop, Ferdinand. If you haven't stopped in for Diane's gorgeous, creative letterpress cards and other creations you are in for a treat!

Finally, if you can't make it to any of these events or shops but you want to try some of my small-batch herbal skincare products and teas, the Ridge Pond Herbals Etsy shop is always open. Happy holidays!

Announcing: Ridge Pond Herbals Etsy Shop!

At long last, Ridge Pond Herbals has an Etsy shop! Click on over and see the collection of herbal lotions, potions, and tea (oh my!). Thank you for your interest!

Where to find Ridge Pond Herbals in November

More November events to announce soon but for now here's where I'll be selling herbal-based bodycare and tea products this month. 

11/7: China Maine Craft Show, China Middle School, 9-2

11/20: Handmade Holiday Pop-Up Shop, 204 Brunswick Ave., Gardiner, 2-9

11/21: Palermo School Craft Fair, 9-3

11/27: Branch Pond Flowers & Gifts Christmas Open House, 145 Branch Mills Rd., South China, 10-5

11/28 & 29: Maple Lane Pottery Holiday Show & Sale, 36 Greeley Rd., Windsor, 10-4

The flock so far

We've had the pleasure of a lot of chickenvision entertainment over the summer into the fall. In addition to the ten laying hens we've had since April, we now have one rooster (party-crashing Mr. Perkins), and five chicks who will be four weeks old today. Our primary purpose in having chickens has been to have our own source of backyard protein in the form of eggs (and, someday, old chickens and ornery roosters) and to flex our livestock-raising muscles to prepare for pigs, goats, and other animals we plan to raise in the not-too distant future. I'm enjoying having chickens more than I thought I might (I'm partial to animals that don't run away from me) and in the coming weeks we'll be expanding the coop and adding another outdoor run to prepare for even more chickens in the future. 

Mr. Perkins has settled in nicely. Seems rather solicitous to the ladies and they seem less inclined to flee frantically from him. 

The big excitement over the past few weeks has been the arrival of the chicks, hatched by our broody hen. She had been broody all summer and wouldn't you know that Mr. Perkins would show up just as soon as we bought some fertile eggs from my cousins to put under her. We were doubtful she would successfully hatch any babies as she tended to leave the nest box for particularly long stretches but she showed us by hatching five chicks. My cousins have several breeds of chickens so we have no idea exactly how these peeps will look once they've grown up.

Momma hen (we just call her 'Broody') took the babies outside at three days old.

 So wee. 

We have two covered runs which open onto fenced-in pasture for daytime grazing. Broody and babies spent a lot of time in the covered run during their first couple of weeks but she took them out to range in the grass right away as well.   

Two weeks old (and Broody has dirt on her face). 

Three weeks old.

There's another waterer around the corner that would be easier for the chicks to reach but I think they like using the big kid waterer. 

This was taken last Saturday. I don't have favorites but this little bub was first born. 

And this was taken Tuesday. They look bigger every day. Considering their growth, I feel confident that they're getting good nutrition from their all-day foraging and what we give them.

Teaching the pipsqueaks the finer points of dust bathing and PHOTOBOMB! 

A day shy of four weeks old. 

 The chicks are going to enter their awkward 'teenage' phase soon. Glad I took about a million baby chick pics over the past month to relive the cuteness.  

Love their diverse coloring.  

I recently heard someone refer to chickens as gateway livestock. Sounds about right. Our plans for pigs have been postponed to spring (goats too) but the pleasure we've had from raising our own backyard protein and being entertained by the flock guarantees we'll be getting more farm critters soon.