Summer’s bounty, such as these black walnuts shown in the Waldo Organic Growers’ booth at the Common Ground Fair, and raspberries picked and processed into jam, add local flavor to winter comfort foods. English photos. By Roberta Bailey The winter winds are blowing. The colors on the horizon are deep evergreen and the pale gray
Direct marketing at farmers’ markets and farm stands is the primary way to sell local, seasonal, organic foods in Maine – as Tom Harms of Wolf Pine Farm did at the Common Ground Fair farmers’ market. To further meet the demand for year-round local foods, we need more storage, processing and handling facilities, more transportation
By Diane Schivera, M.A.T. This summer I got many calls from chicken owners about ectoparasites. These pests are rarely problematic in the summer when birds have access to the outside, with sunshine and many places to dust bathe. However, folks in other New England states had the same comments this year. The cause is a
By Eric Sideman, Ph.D. Organic farming is centered on taking care of the soil. You do not need soil to produce crops, as hydroponic farms show. But organic farmers hold tightly to the belief that for sustainable crop production, one needs and expects a lot from one’s soil. Consequently, organic farmers do a lot to
By C.J. Walke Growing organic tree fruit can be a bit of a challenge, considering the various insects and diseases that like to call your fruit tree home and the relatively short efficacy window of organic control materials; so being attentive to stages of fruit development and biological cycles of pests in your orchard is
Barrie Brusila of Mid-Maine Forestry showed Japanese honeysuckle, one of several potentially invasive plants in Maine’s woods, to fairgoers at the Common Ground Country Fair and showed how to remove the plant with a powerful tool. English photos. Invasive plants haven’t taken over Maine’s woodlands yet, so now is the time to control them, said
Drawing by Toki Oshima. By Tom Settlemire, professor emeritus, Bowdoin College, and sheep producer, Brunswick, Maine Dr. Charles Parker, a good friend of many of us in the sheep industry, has a simple but very important guiding concept: We should be breeding sheep that are working for us; we should not be working for the
By Joann S. Grohman “It’s surprising just how often common assumptions – by both scientists and the media – are wrong,” says Howard S. Friedman, distinguished professor of psychology at the University of California-Riverside, in the March 12, 2011, issue of ScienceDaily (www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110311153541.htm). Consider the belief that feeding grain to people, not cattle, means more
White runner beans look and taste like lima beans, but are plumper and grow better in cooler weather. Top photo by Yaicha Cowell. Lower photo by Arika Bready. By Will Bonsall A few decades ago while I was helping an elderly farmer friend, Orlando Small, with his haying, he chanced to comment on his fine
Daniel Price of Freedom Farm in Freedom, Maine, digs ginger. Photo by Polly Shyka. By Polly Shyka As Maine’s farmers’ markets proliferate and more farmers are selling at those markets, consumers seeking local foods have more shopping choices. Markets feature more value-added products and longer availability of produce, thanks to season extension structures. And sometimes,
