Hope Springs Eternal

As the world emerges from the cold winds of a Cape Cod winter, it does so at first with a steady and slow stretch that quickens to a frenzy as the burgeoning buds and blossoms burst forth to ensure another season of life. At Olde Homestead Farm in Marstons Mills the longer days, filled with sunlight and steadily climbing temperatures, the farm clock ticks an established sequence of events and clues, setting expectations of what comes next. Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn. — Lewis Grizzard Life on a farm is full of clues and as owners Joan Spiegel and Russell Giammarco explain, an awareness of any slight change can reveal life-affirming wonders. “Oh, it is a busy time of year for sure,” Spiegel asserts. “We are in full blown seedling production, but also it is the time of year for babies!” Those babies she references come in all shapes and sizes, literally. The farm’s collection of fowl—guinea hens, chickens, and turkeys—will be on the rise as new hatchlings will join the flocks. One of the alpacas will be welcoming a cria (a baby alpaca) in late June, and the small herd is preparing for shearing as their fiber is almost three-quarters fully grown. And then there is the untamed world. Birds’ nests appear as if overnight, in some of the most unexpected places, hidden so well that only those within earshot are alerted to the cries of hungry fledglings hoping for nourishment. Nature’s efforts to ensure a continued existence are sometimes sublime and overlooked, unless of course your days are closely connected to the natural world. Giammarco, who tends to the farm daily (and solely when Spiegel is attending to her patients in her practice as a physician) is continually discovering species, both…