I have some bad news for those who have been following our attempts at Native Earth Teaching Farm to promote the rare and beautiful Cayuga duck breed. On a recent moonlit evening, while farmers and their dogs slept, a large raccoon and her family broke into the duck yard and killed more than they could eat. The scene in the morning was enough to make a hardened farmer cry, or curse, or both. Five ducks and two drakes were dead. Our carefully chosen breeding flock, nurtured all through the hard winter, was gone.

One duck survived, and a neighbor will provide a drake for her. I have another pair that was living elsewhere. In addition, the Edgartown school kindergarten and first grade classes have been hatching Cayuga eggs under the direction of Melinda DeFeo. Grants from Slow Food and the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society helped toward her purchase of special humidity controlled incubators capable of hatching duck eggs. I will put the remainder of the eggs I had saved under other breeds of ducks and try to hatch them that way too. So the project continues — barely.

This gruesome incident demonstrates why anything of value needs to be spread around in lots of different situations. It takes an entire farming community to save a rare breed, or a set of skills, or a way of life. My heartfelt appreciation goes out to the student hatchers and to everyone who is helping to support this gorgeous breed of ducks.

Rebecca Gilbert
Chilmark