From spring spinach to fall kale, Maine’s growing season offers ample opportunities for us to savor every moment. English photo. By Roberta Bailey We all pack a lot into our fleeting Maine summers. Lettuce, spinach and peas intertwine with weddings and graduations, green beans and raspberries bump up against summer camp, melons and blueberries go
Lambsquarters, a common garden weed, is edible. Harvest it before it goes to seed. English photo. By Jean Ann Pollard Lambsquarters! Pigweed! Fat-hen, goosefoot, bacon weed, dirty Dick, Muck Hill weed. Despite numerous, often odoriferous monikers (and this little list is only partial), Chenopodium album is a delicious, nutritious delight for foragers, and a summer
A bulkhead offers great conditions for storing produce over winter – once stairs are removed to make space, and insulation is added. Adam Tomash photo. The stair module, removed for storage outdoors over winter. Adam Tomash photo. The bulkhead with stairs removed and the first layer of insulation applied. Adam Tomash photos. By Adam Tomash
By Will Bonsall When I was a kid, I really loved turnips, even though I had never tasted one. Oh, I thought I had; didn’t we use turnips in that traditional New England Boiled Dinner we had on special occasions, along with corned beef, carrots, beets, potatoes and so on? Sure, turnips were an old
The 2010 Farmer to Farmer Conference at Point Lookout in Northport, Maine, featured a session on managing soils in high tunnels. Speakers were Vern Grubinger, University of Vermont vegetable and berry specialist; Bruce Hoskins of the University of Maine Diagnostic Lab; and Paul Volckhausen, who, with his wife Karen, grows organic tomatoes and other crops
Hoophouses at Peacemeal Farm in Dixmont, Maine, and at MOFGA’s Common Ground Education Center in Unity. English photos. A Tribute to Farmers’ Innovative Instincts Tentative deadline for final year of NRCS funding: July 1, 2011 By Jo Anne Bander As crocuses and wild spring greens emerged in Maine, so did crops in an increasing number
By Marina Schauffler Recent media attention on local foods has raised public awareness about the health benefits and community returns from thriving local agriculture. Often, though, stories portray local “foodies” as purists fixated on 100-mile diets that banish even imported condiments. Eating from local sources comes off looking like an extremist food fad, rather than
By Sam Brown The Low Impact Forestry (LIF) Project was formed in the early 1990s by a small group of central Maine loggers, foresters, scientists and landowners concerned about effects that then-current forest harvesting practices were having on Maine’s soils, waters, plants and humans. The LIF Project was committed to finding examples of excellent forestry,
Beef Made Easy Cut Chart used with permission of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. Talking to Your Butcher By Diane Schivera, M.A.T. When you bring animals to be processed, you need to have a clear understanding with your butcher to get the product you desire. You need to know the terms being used, and you
European apple sawfly larva damage. Photo by C.J. Walke By C.J. Walke As winter draws to a close, the days continue to lengthen and we approach early March, it is time to prune the orchard (see The MOF&G, Dec. 2010-Feb. 2011), collect scionwood for grafting, prepare to plant young trees and patiently await the brilliant
