Author Archives: Laura Parker Roerden

(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 (September 24, 2015) Fall 2014 the young people (ages 8-15) of our Farm Camp raised enough money at our annual Farm Camp Friendraiser to purchase two lambs to begin a fiber arts project. The idea of raising wool at Jo-Erl Farm is a symbolic nod to our beloved Blackstone Valley’s storied pastContinue reading “Awaiting Lambs”

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)”

by Laura Parker Roerden When we first brought our lambs home, our plan was to pasture them with the cows. Cows and sheep have different foraging appetites, making their co-habitation in the pasture more efficient. Cattle are also great predator protection for sheep, aggressively attacking coyote and bonding with sheep within a two week period ofContinue reading “Everywhere That Mary Went. . .”

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 Evan Maietta, age 14 For those of you who follow farm camp, or anything Jo Erl Farm related for that matter, you have most likely heard of our beloved Jersey Mezzie. For those of you who have not heard of our farm favorite, Mezzie is our four year old Jersey dairy cow. She wasContinue reading “Moo-ving Miss Mezzie Into the Big Red Barn”

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 had an entire blessed week of quiet here on the weasel front. I no longer braced myself before I walked into the coop. We had stopped leaving the lights on all night. I had turned off the baby monitor. I had stopped walking the perimeter. But this morning, after IContinue reading “And the Weasel Strikes Again”

by Laura Parker Roerden Most games have a buzzer that goes off, signaling its end. Victory is declared for whomever is ahead at that moment. Life is not quite like that. Though, as my good friend and comedian Dana Gould once quipped, “What hasn’t killed you, isn’t finished with you yet.” So, it’s with greatContinue reading “Goodbye, Weasels!”