Little Ark Farm

Holtzerwood is subdivided into 11 paddocks.

Each paddock measures about 5600 sq ft, for a total of 1.35 acres. The trees planted here are spaced 30’ on center, allowing for 6 trees in each paddock, though owing to the odd shape of the pasture, some can accommodate 7 and some only 5. At present, we have:

• 52 black locust trees
• 12 chestnut trees
• 7 honey locust trees
• 6 silver maple trees
• 7 mulberry trees
• 10 persimmon trees

We’ve also planted 8 Korean stone pines, 4 Burr oaks, and 2 Antonovka apple trees, but they are all a long way from bearing.

Part arboretum, part barnyard, this is Paul’s and Nina’s favorite part of the farm. In the spring, when the Colmonton fields are devoid of crops and we are tarping down cover crops and broadforking, bud break on the trees here remind us that summer is coming. Once summer arrives, we can always grab some mulberries and retreat under the black locusts here for a snack in the shade. In the fall, when the leaves have dropped, the persimmons are still colorful and feed us, our customers, and our birds.

At the center of Holtzerwood is a hoophouse barn that is the winter and nighttime home of our flock of 50-150 ducks and 15-45 geese, depending on the season. We raise Silver Appleyards (a heritage breed from England), white Muscovies (a tropical duck species domesticated by indigenous peoples of the Americas), and a mixed flock of Toulouse and Embden geese. We sell the meat and eggs of all three species.

All winter, the birds wander where they please. In mid-March, we start constraining their movement. They spend four days in each 1/10 acre paddock before we move their fence, making the pasture circuit last 44 days. In spring, regrowth is slow, so we move them to Colmonton to graze off winter rye for 36 more days, by which time there is plenty more lush grass for them to eat. They make two back-to-back tours of duty in the summer before heading off to Colmonton again to clean up weeds.