The Dirt on Potting Soil by Craig Idlebrook Copyright 2006 Last year, I tried container gardening after grabbing the first bags of potting soil I found at the local big box store. If the bags had been any more generic looking, they would have said “ACME.” The packaging had almost no information about the content
Raspberry Recipes by Roberta Bailey Copyright 2006 I love berries…all kinds of berries. When I was a child, I knew every berry patch or vine or tree and when they would ripen. My summer was a grazing progression from one fruit or berry to the next, starting with wild strawberries, red and black raspberries, blueberries,
Young Farmers, Creative Beginnings Young Maine farmers Laura Millay, Chris Cavendish and Mark Guzzi entered farming through three distinctly different ways. They shared their successes and a few mistakes at the Farmer to Farmer Conference last November. English photo. Farmland is often too expensive for young farmers to afford. Land that is affordable is
Growing Nursery Stock for Fedco Trees Growing fruit or ornamental trees or shrubs can be a lucrative diversification for a farm, the sole purpose of a farm, or a rewarding hobby. John Bunker, coordinator of Fedco Trees, discussed growing stock for Fedco Trees at the Maine Agricultural Trades Show in January. Fedco is a worker-consumer
Photo: Hope’s Edge Farm Almost 1% of Maine families are getting summer produce from Community Supported Agriculture farms (CSAs). “A lot more would like to but don’t know how to connect,” said Russell Libby at a MOFGA-sponsored talk at the Maine Agricultural Trades Show in January. To inspire others to start such farms, Tom Griffin
By Marada Cook Copyright 2006 Jalko Farm slopes east and north along a windy rise in Madawaska, Maine. The dirt driveway and dark brown barns are home to Northern-Most Feeds, LLC, whose owners make organic chicken, pig, goat and cattle feed from Maine-grown oats and wheat midds (a byproduct of milling wheat for flour) and
By Alice Percy MOFGA’s 2006 Spring Growth Conference, titled “Cover Crop and Rotation Strategies for Organic Fertility and Weed Management,” attracted presenters from all over the Northeast and over 100 audience members. Presenters included Eric and Anne Nordell, who operate a horse-powered, mixed vegetable farm in Beech Grove, Penn., and contribute regularly to the Small
By Jo Anne Bander Copyright 2006 Maine restaurants Fore Street, Primo, Hugo’s, One Ninety Ate and Cole Farms have all been featured in recent articles in The New York Times, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Travel and Leisure and other national publications. Not simply restaurant information for travelers or frolicking Mainers, they attest to Maine’s superb,
By Alice Percy Copyright ©2006 by the author The Problem Walk into the meat department of any natural foods store, and you’ll likely find organic beef and chicken, but rarely organic pork. Why? The conventional hog farmer – the guy with thousands of sows out in Iowa – uses some of the most noxious “agricultural”
By Craig Idlebrook Copyright 2006 by the author When I first spotted it, I thought it was an unlikely place for an organic farmstand: still within Ellsworth city limits, right off a fast stretch of Route 1, across the street from a hotel and in a residential neighborhood. Pulling up, I assumed the Blackstone Gardens
