Category: Farming

Beautiful Berries Lead to Thriving Business

Dale-Ila Riggs with a bountiful raspberry crop growing in her high tunnel. Photo courtesy of The Berry Patch By Jean English For Dale-Ila Riggs and Don Miles of The Berry Patch in Stephentown, N.Y, about 10 miles from Pittsfield, Mass., berries helped their farm become a thriving, successful business. The Berry Patch is not certified

Read More »

From 1 Acre to 1 Million Scaling Up and Staying Profitable

  Alexander and Fasching have improved their profits and simplified their farm to the point where they can now take family vacations. Photo courtesy of Jericho Settlers Farm By Jean English Christa Alexander and Mark Fasching sell $1 million worth of vegetables, flowers and herbs produced on 30 acres of certified organic land at their

Read More »

Apprentice and Journeyperson Programs Pay Off for Wise Acres Farm

Joy Trueworthy (left) and Brittany Hopkins raise MOFGA-certified organic vegetables on their Wise Acres Farm in Kenduskeag. Photo by Nicholas Navarre via the Maine Federation of Farmers’ Markets The barn and packing area at Wise Acres Hopkins uses a Williams Tool for stale seedbedding (pictured here), cleaning up paths and for some blind cultivation of

Read More »

Aroostook Update

Two generations cultivate Aurora Mills & Farm. From the left and standing in front of some of the new silos: Marcus Flewelling, Sara Williams Flewelling, Matt and Linda Williams. Making things grow at UMPI: from the left, Jim Dwyer, the Dr. Robert Vinton Akeley Chair of the Agricultural Science and Agribusiness program; Jason Johnston, dean

Read More »

Steelbow Farm A Loss for Maine a Gain for Texas

Left to right: Katie Pitre, Finnegan Ferreboeuf and Jason Gold (with Izzy) at Tecolote Farm. The lovely farm house at Tecolote. Seedlings in the greenhouse A field planted to a cover crop By Jaco Schravesande-Gardei, Associate Director of Crops, MOFGA Certification Services, LLC I often say that working for MOFGA Certification Services (MCS) is mostly

Read More »

Growing Community at Natures Circle Farm

Dick York’s love of agriculture inspired him to start Nature’s Circle Farm. Three of Nature’s Circle managers: left to right, Lowell Matthews, Meg York and Nicholas Fitzpatrick. Elliott Mooers (right), Matthews’ best friend since childhood, manages the H-2A workers. By Jean English; photos by the author Nature’s Circle Farm is a 390-acre MOFGA-certified organic vegetable

Read More »

Beau Chemin Preservation Farm

The Soay sheep in the foreground is Jenny, with her twins born this spring; in the background is Juliana, with her single born this spring. Wayne Myers photo A 75 percent Icelandic cashmere dairy goat, the result of an Icelandic upgrading breeding project at Beau Chemin Preservation Farm. Wayne Myers photo By Jo Ann and

Read More »

Songbird Farm: Farmers Find Balance with Flour and Folk Music

Adam Nordell and Johanna Davis grow MOFGA-certified organic vegetables, small grains, flint corn and dry beans in Unity, Maine. Here they stand in a chest-high-by-mid-July field of ‘Abenaki’ flint corn. Cederholm photo Nordell and Davis annually select their ‘Abenaki’ flint corn for seed. They look for eight rows of well-ordered kernels that fill the cob

Read More »

Beyond the Field Edge

Trees need at least 20 percent of their total height to have living foliage to thrive and grow well. English photo Maine district forester Morten Moesswilde discussed different uses for a forest, depending in part on soil characteristics and existing species. English photo. By Katy Green and Jean English Maine’s woodlots can provide income, materials

Read More »

Ripley Farm

Gene and Mary Margaret Ripley, pictured with their daughter, Harriet, are the Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District 2016 Outstanding Cooperators of the Year. The Ripleys rotate four categories or crops – summer crops, salad crops, carrots and fall brassicas – and try to leave at least four years before putting the same block

Read More »
Categories
Scroll to Top