EBT card grant applications too farmer-unfriendly
Kennebec Journal - 7/5/2009.Farmers are very busy people. They're usually up before dawn and spend their long days in backbreaking physical work to sow, tend and harvest crops or manage livestock. They must foil attacks by pests or diseases, they have to be geniuses at repairing ancient and cranky equipment, and their skill with pesky and potentially destructive creatures must also be applied in relationships to the bankers who underwrite their operations. |
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CSA farms seen reaching ‘critical mass’
Portland Press Herald - 7/4/2009. By Ann S. Kim – Juniper Edge Farm in Brunswick is a one-woman operation. Jeannie Johnson grows a variety of vegetables, without the benefit of farming equipment, on less than an acre of land. In terms of selling her vegetables, farmers markets aren't a good fit for Johnson because they would take her away from farming. And although she sells to restaurants, she also wants to bring people to the farm. "I would much rather be here, connecting with people one-on-one, with them experiencing the farm, meeting the farmer," she said. |
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Plant patrol
Bangor Daily News - 7/4/2009. By Reeser C. Manley – Since my recent gardening column on slugs, the mailbox has overflowed with readers’ comments and advice on how to win the war. Gardeners need all the help they can get in this slug summer. Wesley gardener Carola Nickerson wrote that she had tried all of my suggestions for controlling slugs with small results, but has her own method that really works. “I take an empty can, put a little salt in the bottom, and using a plastic teaspoon, go around and pick them up the first thing in the morning. When I get done, I sprinkle some more salt on them and they are out of commission. |
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Governors heed call to ‘eat by example’
Portland Press Herald - 7/3/2009. By Clarke Canfield – PORTLAND — On the day Americans celebrate the land of the free, a Maine man wants governors to feel free to live off the land. An advocate for sustainable foods who campaigned for the Obamas to plant a garden at the White House now has pledges that several governor's offices will feature local foods on their Fourth of July menus, from Maine lobster to South Dakota pheasant jerky to milkshakes made with Montana huckleberries. |
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