Author Archives: Laura Parker Roerden

by Laura Parker Roerden It’s that time again, when the hens become broody and build hidden nests that make morning egg collection a treasure hunt rivaling the White House Easter Egg Roll. Last spring we found this nest in our calf barn. Naturally, we left the eggs so that the mother hen could tend toContinue reading “Signs of Spring on the Farm”

(July 5, 2014) by Laura Parker Roerden It was a dark and stormy night. . .and we were celebrating the 4th of July and our dear friend Janice Kimball’s birthday at the farm with the Yankee Independence Day tradition of salmon and peas, a gaggle of children, board games, and soggy fireworks and poppers. We tookContinue reading “A Stitch in Time”

by Laura Parker Roerden Growing up, I knew exactly one other dairy farmer in town who had a daughter my age. The other family I knew with a daughter a year younger had moved away to upstate New York before we were teens. Her father had been able to trade his 100 acre farm in Massachusetts forContinue reading “Farm Kids”

(April 14, 2014) by Laura Parker Roerden I spent a fair amount of time in farmhouse kitchens growing up. My dad and uncle would often lend a hand to other farmers and they in turn would reciprocate here. There were the trips to help out old Miss Green and her daughter Miss Green, farmers inContinue reading “Carrying the Water”

by Laura Parker Roerden Someone recently asked me over a glass of wine in a busy bar why I had gotten peafowl. I fumbled to answer, as the response was not neat or tidy. It was all somehow entangled with grief, a long drought, and my place in a decisive turn of the wheel of time. AsContinue reading “Peafowl: Reflections on Love, Rain and Separation”

Reflections on a Farm Thanksgiving by Laura Parker Roerden A few things we are grateful for: The long shadows of late fall, which ask us to look at things differently. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We sometimes come home to find handmade gifts from customers—from Richard McCaffrey’s delicious cookies, to home dried sea salt, to preserves and the apron Brenda Marshall made forContinue reading “A Grateful Heart(h)”

7 Random Farm Happenings by Laura Parker Roerden Juliette and Juniper have added a lot of excitement to our lives here at Jo-Erl Farm. We’ve been busy getting a winter paddock ready for them, one that will be safe from predators and close enough to the farmhouse for us to keep an eye on them. This isContinue reading “Yes, Sir. Yes, Sir. Two Bags Full!”

by Zach and Ben Roerden (ages 10 and 8) (Sung to the tune of 12 days of Christmas) On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a chicken in a haystack. On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me two Ford tractors and a chicken in aContinue reading “12 Days of Christmas at Jo-Erl Farm”

by Laura Parker Roerden We’ve had a couple challenging weeks here at the farm. A weasel has been getting into the chicken coop and biting heads off of our newly-raised heritage breed Delawares. Mornings I’ll enter the coop and cringe—another headless chicken lying on the ground, already stiff. At first, I could joke about it.Continue reading “A Farm Family”