Toki Oshima illustration. By Céline Caron “Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.” – John Muir (Printed on Merve Wilkinson’s in
Toki Oshima illustration. By Grace Oedel Last month I had the privilege of attending the Hazon Food Conference in Falls Village, Connecticut, an annual gathering of people involved in the “New Jewish Food Movement” interested in growing a resilient food system rooted in religious ethics. Although many farmers might not share my voracious appetite for
Milkweed seeds. English photo. By Jean English, Editor, The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener Every fall when our children were young, my husband would collect milkweed pods from a thousand-square-foot patch of Asclepias syriaca that grows on our land and store the seedpods in a paper bag over winter. In spring, when the swallows returned,
Carla Emery, author of The Encyclopedia of Country Living, has been on the road spreading her message about self-sufficiency and community sufficiency for four years. Jane Lamb photo. By Jane Lamb As MOFGA members know, dedication to the environment and a sustainable lifestyle can sometimes take one in bizarre directions, but seldom on a journey
Sean, Toki and Jamie. Toki is a mother, artist and musician with a great love for life in the country. Her cheerful illustrations enliven The MOF&G. Pranio Photographics photo. By Lynn Allen For regular readers of The MOF&G, the scratchboard art of Toki Oshima has come to embody the very look of MOFGA. Her
By Jane Lamb Debbie Deal had just completed the monumental task of converting a collapsing lobster-trap shed into a trim little shop. She’d had a contractor jack up the derelict outbuilding, resill it and skid it up to the roadside. Then she’d tackled the restoration herself – reframing, reboarding, setting in windows, shingling. “I’d never
Robert Shetterly unveiled the latest in his “Americans Who Tell the Truth” series of paintings at a November 1, 2012, celebration of Russell Libby’s tenure as MOFGA’s executive director. Russell’s truth quoted in this painting: “We have to challenge the idea that contamination is just the price of living in the modern world. Our bodies
Steve Cook in his booth at the Common Ground Country Fair in 2011. Betsy Garrold photo. By Betsy Garrold “Salt is born of the purest of parents: the sun and the sea.” – Pythagoras (580 BCE to 500 BCE) Founded in 1998, when Steve Cook closed his restaurant in Florida and moved back home, Maine
Jack London’s Pig Palace. Photo courtesy of Jack London State Historic Park, https://jacklondonpark.com/. By John Koster Superstitious windjammer sailors once believed that mentioning the word “pigs” was bad luck, but for some Duroc Jerseys at Glen Ellen, California, one old-time windjammer sailor was very good luck indeed. Jack London’s “Pig Palace” was one of the
Permanent Site Planning Committee 1998 Fair Plan. Kent Associates, Planning & Design, Gardiner, Maine. By Brian Kent Planning the layout of MOFGA’s new site in Unity began in late 1996, when members brainstormed some rough plans, and began to define what the flat, featureless, 35-acre field and its surrounds would have to accommodate. The Permanent Site
