by Joyce White Many people first visit Hedgehog Hill Farm for the widely advertised, free “Sundays in the Garden at 2.” Every Sunday afternoon from mid-June through August, the public is invited to stroll through the lush gardens and hear a lecture about some aspect of gardening at the 200-acre farm in the small, western
Michael (and Grace) Phillips (center, on bench) discuss apples after lunch at Francis Fenton’s farm. This was the last of five orcharding classes offered by MOFGA last summer. Photo by Russell Libby. John Bunker talks apples. Photo by Russell Libby. By Russell Libby MOFGA’s 2004 Organic Orcharding series concluded with a visit to Francis Fenton’s
Verda Barnes, at age 100, heads a four-generation dairy farm in Albion that is now organic and that provides all of the milk for the Common Kitchen at the Common Ground Country Fair. Verda may be the oldest dairy farmer in Maine. Photo by Marvel Hutchins. By Nan Brucker The Common Kitchen staff needs a
Forty-year-old Golden Delicious trees thrive in this 26-acre orchard that sits 1200 feet above the Pacific Ocean, close enough for avid surfer Stuart Beck and his family to make a quick run to the beach. Lamb photo. By Jane Lamb I met Stuart Beck’s apples before I met the grower himself. In the midst of
Mary Ann Haxton holds two handmade pegs in one hand while pointing out the hole where a peg will go. Joyce White photo. By Joyce White Serendipity guided the women at Wrinkle in Thyme Farm in Sumner, Maine, to discover WAgN when they were new farmers and WAgN was a new organization. Marty Elkin and
Beth Schiller’s childhood dreams of becoming a farmer are becoming a reality, thanks in part to her business partnership with experienced grower Ted Sparrow. Photo by Alice Torbert. By Alice Torbert Something is seriously rotten in the state of Maine agriculture. We may fly a flag with a farmer on it, but farmland acreage is
Griffin and Maura sort potatoes. Photo by Seth Kroeck. By Marada Cook Copyright ©2006 by the author The concept of “socializing kids into farming” competes with a process of “externalizing” farm families and communities that has been happening in New England since the 1800s. Crystal Spring Community Farm in Brunswick, Maine, may be inverting these trends. Crystal
From Underground Seed Company to Six All-America Selections by Jean English Copyright ©2006 by the author. LouAnna Perkins, Janika Eckert, Rob Johnston. Photo courtesy of Maine Farmland Trust. Following the progress of Rob Johnston’s life is like watching a seed as it germinates and responds to the sun. Johnston, founder of Johnny’s Selected Seeds in
By Mitch Lansky Some plants, such as tomatoes, peppers, melons or squash, are frost sensitive. Well, I’m sensitive to frost, too. I live in a frost pocket in Wytopitlock, Maine. We have a growing season that averages fewer than 100 days a year, and we can have frosts at any month of the year. Indeed,
Amy Sprague, Tom Harms and their daughter, Delia, amidst a lush crop of broccoli at Wolf Pine Farm in Alfred, Maine. As a CSA farm with apprentices, Wolf Pine not only produces food but educates many people, as well. Christine Hull photo. by Christine Hull © 2005. For information about reproducing this article, please contact
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