Beyond the South End

Saving our Farms

   

The Hilton Homestead is a salt-water farm. You can see

 the Medomak River at the top of the hill from the perspective of the lower fields.

The video of The Well project which is included in this month’s blog, takes place at the Hilton Homestead in Bremen where I spent many a summer day basking in the sun and even helping out on the farm from time to time. I have so many happy memories of those days with my two cousins Mary Sue and Diane and my sister, Sara. Usually Sara and I took turns staying at the farm.

Uncle Carl didn’t have sons on the farm to help him, so some chores naturally fell to the two girls. I helped too when I was around. I remember helping Diane plant squash and pumpkin seeds; pick strawberries; rake blueberries; hunt for eggs wherever the free-range chickens had left them; and the most fun of all, tramping hay. Here’s a picture of hay tramping in progress in years past when it involved a horse and wagon. Diane and I did our tramping by tractor and wagon. We often went with Uncle Carl to tramp hay at other farms where he helped with the haying.

I was also fascinated when Uncle Carl used the milk separator to get it ready for market. The farm cats always found their way to the shed next to the house where the separator was. Aunt Freda used to take some of the milk, throw some bread slices in it and feed it to the cats.

All was not work, however. We sometimes got to go swimming over at Biscay Lake. There were also plenty of places to discover on the 100-acre farm, which extended on both sides of Waldoboro Road. The property also includes woodland and a field behind the homestead and up a dirt road where Uncle Carl sometimes had a blueberry field. We often got our own Christmas tree in this area.

The Hilton Homestead has been farmed for generations. Mary Sue Hilton Weeks is the present owner and she is in collaboration with farmers who are leasing the land to actually farm it again. Please support their well project which is trying to raise money for a much needed well on the land so they won’t have to hand water crops in the summertime.

It is vitally important that we support our farms so that the generations to come can be as proud of their places as the Hilton family is. Farms are important for obvious reasons, hay, crops, eggs, milk, and meat. Please support your local Farmers’ Market. See The Well site for ways you can contribute to keeping the farm in Bremen going.

A storm on the farm many years ago.

 This dog was in most every picture of the farm. 

The shed on the right is no longer there.

 The farm probably looks much like this after the recent storm.

You can see many more old pictures of the farm on The Well site. I will bring them to you a few at a time as we continue to explore present-day plans and happenings on the Hilton Homestead. Stay tuned to this space for much more information and historical facts and photos.

Thanks for listening.

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Join Us! Homemade chicken soup, ginger carrot soup and bread with ingredients from our farm. Best chicken you'll ever taste! Also, a screening of our video and guest speaker!