What happens here in winter?

"What happens at Gould Farm in the winter? Does everything slow way down?"

Prospective guests and family members often wonder if life at Gould Farm slows down in winter. Is there anything to do when it's so cold outside? Most people know that New England winters can be harsh and tend to picture spring, summer, or fall as our more active seasons – so it’s a fair question. We’re here to show you some of what we get up to in the colder months, staying just as active with our work program and activities as we do during the other three seasons! 

To give you a sense of what winter looks like here, a few staff have shared photos and short reports of what they’ve been up to.

Work and play at Gould Farm in winter

According to Mel Hochstetler, garden team manager, last week’s tasks included:

• Making a new garden map,

• growing microgreens for our salads in the dining room,

• repairing and painting garden signs,

• various small construction projects,

• equipment maintenance,

• soap making,

• cleaning and organizing, and

• tool repair!

Cold weather activities also includes cidering in the fall, planning and buying seeds for spring in the middle of winter, and maple syruping in late winter and early spring in collaboration with campus crew. On any given winter weekday, you can find garden team members cozy on the first floor of the Harvest Barn, busy with one of these many chores!

And how about campus crew, (formerly forestry and grounds)?

According to Zoe Garderet, co-manager of campus crew:

“This winter, campus crew is continuing to work in the woodshed: making kindling as well as chopping, stacking, and delivering firewood to keep all of the farmhouses warm. We are also prepping for sap season by sanitizing equipment and getting people trained on the sap boiling process. We’re also working on a project to insulate our sap house by putting plywood on the walls and ceiling.”

And on most weekdays in winter, you can find our campus crew in the woods, hauling wood out of the back of a pickup, or inside of Main House, keeping common spaces tidy and clean.

And that’s a live report from just two of our seven work teams! As you can see, we have plenty happening even in the colder months.

We also have Roadside Store & Cafe, serving meals to the public four days a week, the farm team, taking care of our dairy and beef herds year-round, the maintenance team, keeping up with renovation projects and repairs on our 60 buildings, the kitchen team, feeding our community three times a day, 365 days a year, and the bakery team, making big batches of bread, bagels, desserts, and other tasty items year-round!   

What about free time?

Thanks to a submission from residential team member Tamsin Trelawny-Cassity, we know that sledding, snowshoeing, igloo-building, and finding bear prints are some recent winter highlights.

Most recently, farm neighbors Virgil and Lis Stucker led a star-making craft night in Rhinelander. 

We also have the long-standing Gould Farm Winter Olympics in February, which you can read more about here. 

Later this month is the annual “Dinner in the Houses,” when staff open their homes and host guests for a change in how we share hospitality and communal meals. 

We also have our REACH program happening year-round, twice a week, offering guests opportunities to join activities such as yoga, group exercise, meditation, art groups, and outdoor hiking, to name just a few!

And of course, year-round we have regular evening activity offerings, such as movie screenings, philosophy club, reading and singing groups, game nights, and saunas by the brook.

What about our community programs?

Here’s a report from Jo Venditelli, Program Director at Fellside in Boston:

“For MLK Day, rather than having the day “off” from structure, Fellside staff, residents, and extended community members joined Cambridge’s annual MLK Day of Service for a community gathering followed by service projects for the greater Boston area. This has become a yearly tradition, and we had full-house involvement this year."

Jo continues:

• "When the city shut down this past Monday due to the storm, everyone stayed home and pitched in to shovel and salt walkways, followed by hot chocolate, card games, and a creative dinner using ingredients we found in the house since we couldn’t go grocery shopping.

  
  

• In observance of the national shutdown, rather than requiring typical structured hours, we held a letter-writing campaign to send handwritten letters to senators and congressional representatives. Residents were encouraged to use their voices to share their values and beliefs in whatever way felt empowering to them.

  
  

• We’ll be having our annual Super Bowl party next weekend, with snacks galore. While the game plays in the living room, we offer a different craft each year for those who prefer. The extended community, alumni, family, and friends typically join.

  
  

• Despite below-freezing temperatures and heavy snow and ice this season, community members continue to volunteer, attend work, go to classes, and join local Boston activities. (Side note: many folks have just gotten jobs or are on second-round interviews!)”

Sunset in the backyard of Fellside, our Boston-area community program, in winter.

We hope this gives you a picture of what winter looks like at Gould Farm and in our community programs. We may bundle up, but we don’t slow down - we keep showing up and staying engaged!