Andy and Julia McLeod at their wedding. Photo courtesy of Sarah Moore. By Julia McLeod I can imagine some future brides poring over wedding magazines – delighting in dresses, shoes and flowers. I pored over seed catalogs – oohing and aahing over heirloom tomatoes and watermelon varieties. My husband, Andy, and I decided to grow
Most MOFGA members are familiar with the Sagadahoc MOFGA chapter through its booth at the Common Ground Country Fair, shown here being erected by Jeremy Blaiklock and George Sergeant. Photo courtesy of George Sergeant. Thirty-Five Years, Thirty-Five Fairs, Seven Community Gardens and Abundant Good Energy By Jean English The Sagadahoc chapter of MOFGA celebrated its
Leigh Hayes shows a bear skull to participants on a walk at Kezar River Reserve, part of the Greater Lovell Land Trust. Photo courtesy of Greater Lovell Land Trust. Enjoying and understanding the natural world is the foundation for lasting environmental stewardship By Joyce White What is man without the beasts?… For whatever happens to
Kenneth Copp prepares his horse Melody and his buggy – more time-consuming than turning a key and stepping on the gas pedal, but also less polluting. English photos. By Kenneth Copp Late one winter morning in March, I pulled in to the Belfast Co-op parking lot with our faithful horse Melody and one of our
Finn Burnett. By John Koster The final round of treaties that the United States signed with the Indian tribes of the West in 1868 provided the tribes with government farmers to help them learn the white man’s agricultural techniques. The treaties also provided frontiersman and former Missouri farm boy Finn Burnett with a job that
John Eastman’s “Guarding the Cornfields” shows Indian women scaring birds away from the crop. The Dream That Might Have Been By John Koster American Mythology 101 holds that the Plains Indians had to be subdued and constrained to reservations because they were too proud or too lazy to take up farming. The myth permeates Hollywood
John Bunker finds and saves heirloom varieties of apples in Maine; his dog, Tessa, keeps deer away from the orchard. Jane Lamb photo. “To Be of Value While I’m Here” By Jane Lamb “Core and slice thickly, with skin. Fry in pork fat. Add water as necessary till soft. Then add ‘a few dollops’ of
Louise Payson She is considered a pioneer of American landscape architecture. Her prominence in the “Golden Age of American gardens” was acknowledged in some of the leading publications of her time. As a woman practicing in what historically had been a male-dominated field, she helped redefine the character and qualities that established the distinctiveness of
Dr. Brian Donahue. English photo. By Jean English Brian Donahue enjoyed the Common Ground Fair last summer. “The type of activities seen at the Fair should be part of our daily lives,” he said. For many of us who live in rural Maine, they are; but Donahue goes a step further: “We should do them
By Jean English Mike and Margie Shannon are happier living off-the-grid in Knox and raising most of their vegetables than they’ve been any other place they’ve lived. Jean English photos. Margie Shannon’s father would approve of the life that his daughter and son-in-law, Mike Shannon, have built on the north side of Frye Mountain, at
