1988: Jean English with daughter Saima. From “Fertile Ground: Celebrating 40 Years of MOFGA.” Jean English in 2006 By Heather Spalding Another big MOFGA transition is upon us and we’ll all feel it in a big way. After 31 years editing MOFGA’s renowned newspaper, The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener (The MOF&G), Jean English is
Barbara Murphy with her dog, Marley, in the pollinator garden. Photo courtesy of Barbara Murphy Visitors enjoy the garden during the 30th anniversary celebration of Mahoosuc Land Trust. Photo courtesy of Barbara Murphy Liatris (blazing star) attracts monarch butterflies. Photo by Mike Murphy By Joyce White We’ve all heard of the decline of honeybees, one
Regina Grabrovac and four young missionary volunteers from the Church of the Latter Day Saints harvest blueberries. Photo courtesy of Regina Grabrovac Volunteers glean what’s left of the tomato crop at Blue-Zee Farm in Penobscot. From left to right: Elise Teixido, Anna Wind and Justine Appel. Photo by Rachel Emus Lydia Brown and he dad, Buster,
Walker School fifth graders weed spinach – just one aspect of a model school garden program. Abby, one of the most eager garden helpers, with a bag of garden produce to take home. By Jean English Photos by Carolyn Wason “Fun! Friends! Games! And don’t forget planting!” Those are a few benefits of the
Raised beds built and filled by Gardeners Growing Healthy Communities in South Paris. Photo by Anne Stuer By Joyce White On a sunny Thursday afternoon in mid-September, about 15 volunteers are engrossed in a variety of garden-related activities – harvesting kale and cabbage, dividing a big bowl of ‘Sungold’ cherry tomatoes into separate baggies, weighing
Toki Oshima drawing By Teresa L. Johnson Just like those creepy talking trees in “The Wizard of Oz,” the plants in your garden are talking to each other. Scientists have now identified ways that plants communicate with each other and with other species. “Plants have sensory systems. They perceive a lot of things, they process
Toki Oshima illustration You know what really matters when mention of the ECB in the mainstream media makes you think, first and foremost, “European corn borer!” and not the far less important – to our community – European Central Bank. What matters to us is growing food, flowers, trees, herbs and fibers in quality,
Toki Oshima illustration By Joyce White In her 1987 book “The Chalice and the Blade,” Riane Eisler shows us a culture that existed for thousands of years, in which the inhabitants enjoyed peace, prosperity, cooperation, and equality between men and women. She calls that a partnership model of society, represented by the chalice; its opposite
Dennis Carter and Anneli Carter-Sundqvist at their Deer Isle Hostel. Photo by Noah Kalina Spiritual, political and philosophical reasons to homestead in the 21st century By Anneli Carter-Sundqvist Living in self-reliance and simplicity is something many dream about and some fulfill by living as homesteaders. My husband, Dennis, and I do that on Deer Isle,
The author with her husband, Charlie Allen. Photo by Myles Allen By Lynn Hower Allen In 1975, the year we met, my then husband-to-be, Charlie, bought a derelict house and 10 acres of land in Union, Maine. The long, rectangular property stretched across a south facing slope at an elevation of 600 feet and had
