Quince drawing by Toki Oshima By Roberta Bailey Dating back over 4000 years and originating in Persia and Anatolia, quince was once the most popular fruit grown. In the Middle Ages, quince were so highly esteemed in France that a quince preserve or marmalade called contignac was the gift to visiting royalty. When Joan of
Toki Oshima drawing By Roberta Bailey Summer is winding to a close. Even as the days cool, we scramble to pack in a few more picnics, one last long swim, and another slice of watermelon. In the garden, the race is on to ripen the remaining green tomatoes, pick the late sweet corn, bring in
Epigram to an Aroostook Potatoman By Nicolas Lindholm Seed saving has become a popular pastime and passion for many gardeners and farmers, primarily on a limited or experimental basis, and usually just for their own use. Yet an increasing number of small-scale, diversified farms are growing and marketing vegetable, flower and herb seeds as a
By Eric Sideman, Ph.D., Director of Technical Services for MOFGA I am deeply concerned about a new direction for policy that I see developing behind the scenes at the U. S. Department of Agriculture: A crusade is brewing to eliminate the use of livestock manure on vegetable farms. The forces behind the effort base their
By Diane Shivera The Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association has done a few livestock related workshops in the past two years. This column will recap some of the highlights of these workshops for those who weren’t able to attend. It will also include information that we have become aware of that might help in
By Ellie MacDougall This colorful herb and decorative plant began its journey into our gardens and onto our tables from the land of the Incas – the cool mountains of Peru. Spanish conquerors became acquainted with it in the sixteenth century, and packed its large, wrinkled seeds to bring home with them. In turn, English
Toki Oshima drawing By Roberta Bailey While visiting a friend and touring his high bush blueberry patch, I was taken by the thick understory of shiny leaved plants covered in small red berries. Lingonberries, he informed me, then went on to explain that this cranberry-blueberry relative made a great second crop in an area where
Lingonberry drawing by Toki Oshima By Roberta Bailey Until recently, the only place that I had heard about lingonberries was on the back page ad of the newspaper’s comic section. The ad promised bushels of berries and great fortune in no time at all, and with little labor. I did have to act quickly though,
By Nicolas Lindholm Supported primarily through a grant from the Maine Dept. of Agriculture, this article is the first of five covering some of the most commonly produced and potentially most profitable seed crops being grown by small-scale organic and biodynamic farmers in the Northeast. The information comes from almost 30 farms in New England
… and Lack of IPM and Applicator Training If you suspected that your kids were being exposed to pesticides in their schools, your hunch was probably right. A survey of Maine schools earlier this year showed widespread pesticide use, without notice to parents and kids, often without application by a licensed professional (a violation of
