"The biggest problem in the world could have been solved when it was small."
- Lao-tzu
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MOFGA
PO Box 170, Unity, Maine 04988
Phone: 207-568-4142
Fax: 207-568-4141
Email: mofga@mofga.org
Physical Address:
294 Crosby Brook Road
Unity, Maine
MOFGA is an Equal Opportunity organization, provider, and employer.
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Maine Apple Camp
August 18-20, 2017
Camp NEOFA, Liberty, Maine
Price:
$165 for MOFGA members
$215 for non-members
For family registrations, please contact us.
This first-ever event will bring together folks who are excited about the future of heirloom fruit varieties: How to save them, what to do with them, how to make great cider, and who to work with. Held at a traditional Maine lakeside camp in Liberty, participants will check in for 2-1/2 days and 2 nights of immersive learning and community building.
Experts on heirloom fruit conservation in Maine and beyond will discuss how to bring back our lost fruit. We’ll cover efforts to preserve Maine apples, pears and other fruit as well as how those efforts connect (or might connect) to national and international projects. Some of New England’s most innovative hard-cider makers will cover the ins and outs of making our traditional beverage of choice. Others will cover organic orchard techniques and care, and creating community orchards. We will also explore how these forgotten fruits can return to prominence in restaurants, stores and bars as part of Maine’s food renaissance. For more information, click on the registration link.
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Organic and Sustainable Agriculture News
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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. |
Doctor’s Rx at AMA: Eat local, organic
Huffington Post - 7/8/2009.By Samuel Fromartz – A couple of weeks ago, the New Yorker had a fascinating article on McAllen, Texas, a county that ranks among the highest in the nation in health-care costs. Funny thing is, the outcomes of the patients in the system weren't any better than places that spent far less. The moral of the story, by physician and writer Atul Gawande, was that you must control the culture of spending (and earning) to contain out-of-control health care costs. |
Field-to-plate: Vt. college students try farming
The 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. |
Phil Howard's Seed Industry Structure
Philip H. Howard - 7/6/2009.Philip H. Howard, Michigan State University – Howard is the author of "Consolidation in the North American Organic Food Processing Sector, 1997 to 2007," printed in the International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food (Volume 16, issue 1, 2009) |
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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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Whole Animal Butchery by Maine Street Meats: "Maine Street Meats is a full service butcher shop and specialty food market located in the Midcoast. We are growing our butch..." |
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Turkey by Hamilton Farm LLC - Barred Owl Creamery & Catering: "Looking to trade one white or bronze turkey poult (or however big there are right now) for 3 heritage turkey chicks. I usual..." |
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CIG Field Day in Aroostook by Angela Wotton: "The Southern Aroostook SWCD will be holding a "CIG Field Day" Wednesday, August 16 from 9am to 2:30pm at Donald Fitzpatrick's..." |
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KIVA LOANS FOR FARMERS
MOFGA has teamed up with Collective Commitments, a new social enterprise working in Maine, to help you access 0% interest loans from Kiva.org for any business purpose.
READ MORE
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August 15 - Explore a Fiber Farm |
MOFGA Gather & Grow event; 5:30 p.m., Friends' Folly Farm, Monmouth. Join us for an evening at a fiber focused farm. Meet the Angora goats, tour the fiber processing mill, visit our yurt which includes fiber products and vintage treasures. Then sample a light meal featuring goat meat chili and homemade bread & cheese. For directions go to: friendsfollyfarm.com. Just off Route 202 in Monmouth. Entrance is by donation. For information, contact Anna Libby at alibby@mofga.org |
August 16 - Farming with Horses |
MOFGA Farm Training Project workshop: Wednesday, 5 p.m., New Beat Farm, Knox. Using animals for draft power has a number of economic, environmental and social benefits; but it is not easy. Sandy Meadow Farm relies on draft power for all aspects of their operation – from tillage to haying to woods work. Come learn the basics of this genuinely solar-based system of farming. Potluck to follow. Schedule of 2017 FTP workshops. |
August 18-20 - Maine Apple Camp |
Camp NEOFA, Liberty, Maine. Join a gathering of heirloom fruit experts, advocates, and farmers to share knowledge and build networks that can facilitate the rescue and conservation our horticultural heritage. $165 for MOFGA members; $215 for non-members. For family registrations, please contact the MOFGA office. Information and registration |
August 19 - Maine Axe & Saw Day |
10am to 3pm ~ gates open 9:30, MOFGA's Common Ground Education Center, 294 Crosby Brook Rd., Unity, Maine. $5 admission, free for children. Information |
August 21 - Soil Health Field Day at Bumbleroot Farm |
MOFGA Farmer to Farmer in the Field event: Monday, 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Bumbleroot Organic Farm, 196 Highland Cliff Rd., Windham. Join the UMaine Extension Soil Health team, MOFGA staff, and various seed and equipment dealers at this Soil Health Field Day. Events include: touring summer cover crop and cover crop mix demo plots; demonstrations of implements for cover crop management and cultivation that are designed for improving soil health; measuring soil health. We will look at methods for testing your soil health and determining what the results tell you. |
August 23 - Seed Saving and Production on a Diversified Farm |
MOFGA Farm Training Project workshop: 5 p.m., Seven Tree Farm, Vassalboro. Roberta Bailey of Fedco Seeds operates Seven Tree Farm, 18 acres with three field plots, an orchard and grape arbor and many fruit and berry plantings. The farm also includes a solar house, root cellar, and many post and beam buildings, including a new barn and woodworking shop. The focus of their operation is to grow much of our food and to raise commercial seed crops on a small farm scale. Seed crops can work well with the home garden or the field production gardens, further diversifying a farm operation's income and securing seed supply in some situations. The talk will focus on interplanting seed crops in your gardens or field plots, using the by-products of the crop for food production or value added products to sell, and on basic seed saving and plant genetics, crop nutrition, rotations, isolations, and how to harvest and dry seed. The talk will cover biennials such as beets and carrots as well. Potluck to follow. |
August 30 - Farm Woodlot Management |
MOFGA Farm Training Project workshop: Weds., 5 p.m., Hidden Valley Nature Center, Jefferson. Woodlots are a ubiquitous, and essential part of farms in Maine. Whether the forest provides a heat source for your home and greenhouse, vital habitat for pollinators, foraging potential for livestock, maple syrup, or lumber for your buildings it must be managed with skill and vision. Hidden Valley Nature Center manages 1,000+ acres of forest for diverse purposes and you're invited to tour a portion of their activity with HVNC Director Andy Bezon. This workshop will emphasize the need for creativity at the intersection of field and forest, as well as a look at innovative tools, equipment, and processes. HVNC works in collaboration with MOFGA's Low Impact Forestry Project and aims to promote the thoughtful and sustainable inclusion of forests into the future of farms in Maine. HVNC was named the 2014 Outstanding Tree Farm in Maine. Potluck to follow. Schedule of 2017 FTP workshops. |
August 31 - Introduction to Low Impact Forestry |
Thursday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Law Farm, Dover-Foxcroft. (Rain date September 1) MOFGA's popular Introduction to Low Impact Forestry is coming to Piscataquis County! Join us for a comprehensive overview of low impact forestry techniques and hands-on learning. The workshop will be led by a team of foresters, loggers and natural resource experts, and will act as a prerequisite to MOFGA's Low Impact Forestry workshop, which is scheduled for November. $50; $45 for MOFGA members. To register contact the Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District, 207-564-2321 ext. 3, info@piscataquisswcd.org. |
August 31 - Tour a Homestead As It Begins |
MOFGA Gather & Grow event; 6:00 p.m., Steve Rodrigue's Homestead, 20 Hunt Rd, Windsor. You've purchased your unimproved land with dreams of a homestead or farm. Now what? Join Steve Rodrigue for a tour of his land and see his progress of establishing a homestead after two seasons of work on an unimproved woodlot parcel. He will discuss his overall vision and process for the project and provide a guided tour to the off-grid small house he designed and built. The address is 20 Hunt Road, Windsor (the second driveway on the right). For information, contact Anna Libby at alibby@mofga.org |
September 5 - Orchard Tour with John Bunker and Cammy Watts |
MOFGA Gather & Grow event; 5:30 p.m., Super Chilly Farm, Palermo. Join famed apple expert John Bunker and Cammy Watts at their homestead in Palermo to explore their orchards and learn more about Maine's apple heritage. Entrance is by donation. For information, contact Anna Libby at alibby@mofga.org |
September 6 - Diverse Dairy |
MOFGA Farm Training Project workshop: 5 p.m., Toddy Pond Farm, Monroe. In recent decades, many small dairy farms have had to 'get big or get out' as the rising cost of operating a small scale, pasture based dairy has grown beyond economic sustainability. In order to become profitable, many producers have gotten creative—by diversification, value-added production, and innovative marketing strategies. Toddy Pond Farm is a small, diversified, family-run dairy operation of grass-fed Jersey and Guernsey cows in Monroe. Come see how farmers Greg and Heidi Purinton-Brown have designed the business model of the farm to ensure long term economic sustainability. They produce yogurt, kefir, cheese, and ice cream, along with honey, sheep, guinea hogs, meat chickens and eggs. Learn about their marketing strategies for this diversified operation and how the different aspects of the farm compliment each other. Potluck to follow. |
September 13 - Next Steps: Apprentice to Journeyperson |
MOFGA Farm Training Project workshop: Weds., 5 p.m., Old Wells Farm, Limington. MOFGA estimates that Maine needs about 150 new farmers each year just to maintain the infrastructure required to support our local food system – so every new farm operation in Maine is a reason to celebrate! But, it's becoming increasingly difficult to get started in farming. Join Dylan and Alaena, along with several of MOFGA's current Journeypersons, as they share their insights and enthusiasm about how they are managing their first few years farming independently. Several key service providers will also discuss how their programs can help. If you are considering farming for a living, please come and contribute to this important discussion. Potluck to follow. |
September 22-24 - COMMON GROUND COUNTRY FAIR |
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