"If the world were to end tomorrow, I would still plant an apple tree today."
- Martin Luther
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Support MOFGA's Maine Heritage Orchard
Sales of our beautiful 2014 Heritage Orchard Calendar will help support MOFGA and the orchard. Full-color photos of apples originating in Maine were taken by widely acclaimed Portland photographer Russell French and include Black Oxford, Gray Pearmain and others. $15. Available at MOFGA's Country Store.
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Governor LePage Signs Maine's GMO Labeling Bill!
Thanks so much to everyone who worked so hard to help Maine become the second state in the country to require labeling of GMO foods!
Read the full press release.
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PO Box 170
Unity, ME 04988
Phone: 207-568-4142
Fax: 207-568-4141
Email: mofga@mofga.org
Physical Address:
294 Crosby Brook Road, Unity, ME
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MOFGA's Organic Farming Short Course
Organic Farming: Principles and Practice
March 27 & April 3
10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. both days
Augusta
Our two-day course, Organic Farming: Principles and Practice, is designed to provide farmers with a strong background in soils, weeds and pest management, enabling them to make good management decisions. Instructor: Eric Sideman, MOFGA's Vegetable Specialist. Guest lecturers, including Cheryl Wixson, Diane Schivera and Ben Marcus, will also speak and join the discussion.
$75 individual; $30 additional person; $30 apprentice/student; FREE journeypersons; $45 per single-day registration
Course registration.
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Organic and Sustainable Agriculture News
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Super duper?
Portland Press Herald - 7/8/2009. By Meredith Goad – Remember when pomegranates seemed really exotic? Now, thanks to their purported health benefits, they are in everything from iced coffee to martinis. And there are scores of other fruits – some familiar, some unpronounceable – joining pomegranate on the shelves. Acai is everywhere, as are goji berries [see photo], noni, mangosteen, blueberries, cranberries and other so-called "super fruits" that contain compounds called antioxidants that may help fight against heart disease, cancer, arthritis and other diseases. |
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Monsanto’s man Taylor returns to FDA in food-czar role
Grist - 7/8/2009.By Tom Philpott – In a Tuesday afternoon press release, the FDA announced that Michael Taylor, a former Monsanto executive, had joined the agency as “senior advisor to the commissioner.” If the title is vague, the portfolio (pasted from the press release) is substantial – a kind of food czar of the Food and Drug Administration. |
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From farm to pharma: how animals ended up living confinement feedlots guzzling antibiotics
Alternet - 7/6/2009.By Will Allen – We are now living in a post fast-food-awareness reality, riding on the wake of Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser's books (who rode on the wake of Wendell Berry), films like Food, Inc., renegade farmer heros like Joel Salatin and Eliot Coleman, and the ever-increasing popularity of urban gardening and locavores. But awareness, like anything, has its dark side. Perhaps the hardest thing we post fast-food-aware people face now, is actually doing something – apart from reading the book and watching the movie, that is. |
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Field-to-plate: Vt. college students try farming
Boston Globe - 7/6/2009. By Lisa Rathke, Associated Press – POULTNEY, Vt.—Devin Lyons typically starts his days this summer cooking breakfast with fresh eggs from the farm's chicken coop. Then, depending on the weather, he and a dozen other college students might cut hay in the field using a team of oxen, turn compost or weed vegetable beds. While other college students are in stuffy classrooms, about a dozen are earning credit tending a Vermont farm. For 13 weeks, 12 credits and about $12,500, the Green Mountain College students plow fields with oxen or horses, milk cows, weed crops and grow and make their own food, part of an intensive course in sustainable agriculture using the least amount of fossil fuels. |
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Check out MOFGA's
online community!
Create your own profile website
List products and services that you offer
Post classified ads
Join forum discussions |
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Hedgerow Medicine by avenabotanicals: "The Herbal Classroom, a non-profit organization, is pleased to present Hedgerow Medicine as part of its "Our Living Earth, Li..." |
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CHASE TAVERN FARM ~ BOWDOIN ~ 135 ACRES by Midcoast Farm Properties: "Chase Tavern Farm (www.ChaseTavernFarm.net) is an exceptional property on 135 acres--it is truly a rare find. In addition to..." |
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March 8 - MOFGA’s Organic Orcharding Workshop: Pruning Fruit Trees
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10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Three locations: Blue Hill with Phillip Norris; Durham with Dave Colson and C.J. Walke; MOFGA Education Center in Unity with John Bunker. Learn to prune fruit trees to encourage vigorous growth, heavy fruit set and quality fruit yield. Collection of scion wood and storage will also be discussed. Please bring a bag lunch. Details, fees and registration. |
March 12 - Open Discussion on Pig Management |
Free. Wednesday, 5:30 to 8 pm *with potluck supper* at MOFGA Common Ground Education Center in Unity. Come with questions, concerns, or topics to discuss. RSVP to Diane Schivera - dianes@mofga.org
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March 22 - MOFGA's Spring Growth Conference: Weed Control
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(Snow date March 23) Saturday, Common Ground Education Center, Unity. Registration.
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March 23 - MOFGA’s Organic Orcharding Workshop: Renovating Old Apple Trees
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10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Palermo. Pruning and feeding very old non-productive fruit trees in order to bring them back into fruitfulness. Taught by Phil Norris and John Bunker. Details, fees and registration.
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March 25 - Grow Your Own Organic Garden Workshop in Belfast
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6:00 to 8:00 p.m., Belfast Free Library, High St. (Abbot Room). Information: 207-338-3884. Instructor: C.J. Walke, MOFGA educator. Co-sponsors: MOFGA, Belfast Free Library and the Belfast Co-op. Free. More information.
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March 25 - MOFGA's Grow Your Own Organic Garden Class in Blue Hill
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Free. 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., Blue Hill Public Library, 5 Parker Point Road, Blue Hill (Howard Room). Everything you want to know about growing your own organic garden. Presenters are seasoned MOFGA farmers and gardeners. Held in partnership with Maine's Adult & Community Education program and community sponsors. Details.
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March 26 - Open Discussion on Sheep & Goat Management
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Free. Wednesday, 5:30 to 8 pm *with potluck supper* at MOFGA Common Ground Education Center in Unity. Come with questions, concerns, or topics to discuss. RSVP to Diane Schivera – dianes@mofga.org
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March 27 and April 3 - Organic Farming: Principles and Practice
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Two-part course held from 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. both days. Viles Arboretum, Viles Room, 153 Hospital Street, Augusta. Lectures by Eric Sideman, MOFGA’s Vegetable Specialist. Designed to provide farmers with a strong background in soils, weeds and pest management, enabling them to make good management decisions. Course details, fees and registration.
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March 29 - Rural Living Day
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8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Mt. View High School, 577 Mt. View Rd. (Rt. 220), Thorndike, Maine. Choose from 21 classes on gardening, forestry and rural life. Preregistration required by March 21. $20 donation requested. Information: Email billiejo.pendleton@maine.edu or call 1-800-287-1426. Details and registration.
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March 30 - Seed Swap and Scionwood Exchange
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Sunday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Common Ground Education Center, Unity, Maine. Free. Details. |
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See the full calendar ... |
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