“A thing is right only when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the community, and the community includes the soil, water, fauna and flora, as well as the people.”
~Aldo Leopold
Welcome to the Runamuk Acres Conservation Farm!
Here you will find the recantings of one lady-farmer and tree-hugging activist from Western Maine. I write about self-reliance and sustainability, agriculture and the local food movement, sharing solutions for other homesteaders and farmers.
Throughout my writings, you’ll find anecdotes from my life as a farmer and conservationist, essays on nature and nature-connectedness. Paid subscribers also receive exclusive access to The Homesteaders’ Handbook with how-to articles, recipes and training videos designed to help you become more self-sufficient.
Sam I Am
My Farm-Journey
When I was 16, I could not have imagined that my life’s journey would take me to the place I am today. Yet, somehow, I have been farming in one form or another for 28 of my 44 years. Nature was a healing and inspiring force, always beckoning, and I was (and still am) powerless to resist Her. That affinity for nature combined with a mother’s desire to feed her family quality, nutritious foods, led me down the proverbial rabbit hole into scratch cooking, gardening, homesteading, homeschooling, community activism and farming.
Education
Along my journey into an agrarian lifestyle, I studied with the University of Maine’s Cooperative Extension as a Master Gardener. Serving 6 years as the president of the Somerset Beekeepers’ group, I taught beekeeping classes locally and gave many presentations throughout the region. For my hometowns’ Madison Farmers’ Market, I gave 6 years to the community as market manager.
Career
For years I operated as a landless farmer, working full or part-time and growing my income from agriculture on the side. After apprenticing at Medicine Hill, an organic farm in Starks, Maine, I went on to spend 5 years at Johnny’s Selected Seeds. In 2018, I was finally able to buy my own farm as a beginning farmer through the USDA’s Farm Service Agency. Since then I’ve worked doggedly to establish the Runamuk Acres Conservation Farm in New Portland, Maine.
Check out my farm-website to learn more about Runamuk’s mission!
Conservation Efforts
Together with my 18 year-old son, I am raising chickens, sheep, honeybees and vegetables. While we maintain a farmstand providing farm-fresh food to our local community, the real work I am doing here is in conservation.
Utilizing methods of conservation agriculture, it is my mission to promote the health and well-being of beneficial insects and soil microbial life on this farm. I believe that by focusing my conservation efforts on these keystone organisms, it will have a ripple effect on the habitat as a whole.
Through the Runamuk Acres Conservation Farm, I strive to expose people to farm-life, real food, and to connect them with nature. That connection fosters understanding, compassion and tolerance for wildlife, which inspires people to make earth-friendly choices.
It is my hope that this Substack does the same.
Fundraising
When you subscribe to the Runamuk blog, you’re supporting a single-mom and solo-farmer. You’re supporting local agriculture and helping to increase access to locally produced food in the western region of Maine. Most importantly, you are directly supporting conservation efforts at Runamuk Acres. My writing is an extension of my work as farmer and steward of this ecological reserve in Maine, and it is my intention to use these word-smithing skills to aid in fundraising to benefit my conservation efforts.
Funds generated by my writing go to things like:
Materials to build: trail signage, campsites, birdhouses, bat houses, and a native bee “hotels”.
Fencing to improve our rotational grazing regimen.
Feed and care of our organic lawnmowers (our super-friendly sheep!)
Community outreach programs like: Big Night (citizen science project for amphibian monitoring).
What to Expect
FOR FREE SUBSCRIBERS
Updates from the Farm: A weekly debriefing on some of the highlights of the past week at the Runamuk Acres Conservation Farm. These will forever remain free to the public as part of my commitment to the local community this farm serves.
Love-Notes: I’ll often share a Note to Substack for readers. This might be 1 or 2 big wins from the day, a photo or thought I want to share. Also found at Instagram. Free to all.
Community: It is my intention to cultivate a community of like-minded members: farmers, gardeners, homesteaders, fellow-environmentalists, and those who want to be any of those things. All actively engaged in growing and learning from each other.
Sincere Love & Gratitude: My subscribers are special to me. When you follow along with Runamuk Acres, you are forever tied to my farm-journey and to the Runamuk Acres Conservation Farm. That’s a special bond that I cherish greatly.
EXCLUSIVE PRODUCTS FOR PAID SUBSCRIBERS
Beginning with the 2025 New Year, paid subscribers to the Runamuk-blog receive access to exclusive products that will help them along their own farmish-journey. Whether you’re a backyard gardener, a newbie homesteader or a wannabe-farmer—I can solve your problems and help you become more self-reliant at whatever stage of the journey you are at.
Become a paid subscriber today to access:
The Homesteader’s Handbook: Debuting my first online course throughout 2025, this program is designed to equip participants with the knowledge and confidence to start their homesteading journey.
A combination of written posts and video demonstrations, with downloadble guides and checklists, a community Q + A (either via comments or in live sessions), and optional assignments to practice skills.
Topics covered will include:
Planning your homestead.
Scratch cooking + building up your homestead pantry.
Gardening basics.
Raising livestock.
Preserving your harvest.
DIY skills for homesteaders.
Managing finances.
Planning for the future & building community.
Advanced bonus modules to cover:
Accessing land.
Beekeeping
Herbal medicine
Including the entire family.
Farmer Sam’s Recipe Box
This is an interactive Google classroom where paid subscribers can find Farmer Sam’s favorite recipes all in one place. Sometimes I share links to recipes in my blog-posts, or I’ll share my own personal recipes for readers to download. For your convenience this recipe box is an easy way to find that obscure reference I made 3 months ago.
Gifts From the Farm
Paid subscribers have the option of receiving a special holiday gift from this farm sent directly to their home. It’s small token of appreciation for your support.
FOUNDING MEMBERS
Along with the knowledge that you are supporting this farm and its mission in the most meaningful way possible, founding members receive all of the benefits listed above. Then, to show our appreciation for your generous commitment to Runamuk, we also offer the following:
Adopt a Sheep!
At the Runamuk Acres Conservation Farm, our sheep are an integral part of our conservation efforts, allowing us to remediate our 10-acre pasture to create a wildlife sanctuary that benefits the entire ecosystem. When you become a founding member, those funds allow us to feed one of our sheep through the long Maine winter. In exchange, you get to symbolically adopt one of our sheep! We’ll send an adoption package to you in the mail, and you’ll receive twice-yearly updates on your sheep via email.
1-Hour Shop-Talk
With a wide range of skills, I can offer insight into aspects of farming, gardening, beekeeping, animal husbandry, scratch cooking and budget-stretching. My business plan was reportedly “one of the best they’d ever seen”, when I submitted it to the USDA for consideration in buying my farm and I’m happy to help beginning farmers follow their own farm-journeys.
Proceeds generated go directly to the care and cultivation of the Runamuk Acres Conservation Farm. When you support my writing, you’re supporting local food access and wildlife conservation simultaneously.
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Support this Small Farm
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Thank you for reading and following along with the story of this lady-farmer!
