Archives: Resources

Flower Planting Calendar

If you’d like to grow your own flowers from seed, this basic calendar can help. Below is a list of common flowers that grow well in Maine with dates for sowing seeds indoors and transplanting out seedlings, as well as direct seeding, informed by what is recommended for each flower type. The dates are approximate,

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Climate Mitigation and Adaptation in Your Forest

By Noah Gleason-Hart As a management philosophy, low-impact forestry recognizes that forests have an important role in reducing the effects of climate change and that we have an obligation as thoughtful managers to incorporate climate mitigation into our stewardship decisions. What does this mean, and how could a commitment to carbon forestry impact the way

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Old Pears Gain Ground in the Maine Heritage Orchard

By Lauren Cormier Over the last five years, another pome fruit has been making its way into the Maine Heritage Orchard: the European pear. So far there have been 20 pear trees planted, each a different variety historically grown in Maine. Many of the trees were propagated with scions obtained from the United States Department

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Freezing Food: Recommendations and Recipes

By Roberta Bailey Every food has an optimal way for preserving it. Much of that depends on how you like to eat each food. Berries can be canned as jam or in syrup, made into juice, dried as leather or slices, or frozen in bulk. Greens are better frozen than dried or canned, but maybe

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Pondering the Porcine Predicament

By Jacki Martinez Perkins, MOFGA’s Organic Dairy and Livestock Specialist The production of pork in Maine looks very different from other parts of the country. Being geographically distant from slaughterhouses with high capacity throughput as well as grain sources requires most local producers to manage their hogs creatively. Additionally, raising livestock capable of eating a

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Selecting Seeds for the Garden

By Caleb Goossen, Ph.D., MOFGA Crop Specialist With gardens put to bed for the winter, now is the time when gardeners reflect on the prior season and begin planning for the next. For many, it is the time to evaluate seed supply, and order seeds for the coming year. This is also a great time

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Organic Influences: Maine Ranks High in Recent Survey Results

By Anneliese Abbott Maine organic farmers will be excited to hear that their state came in near the top in a recent survey of organic growers. The survey, sent out through 51 northeastern and midwestern organic and sustainable agriculture organizations in May-June 2021, asked organic farmers to list the authors, people and organizations that influenced

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Plant-Based Compost

By Will Bonsall Suppose you want to improve your garden soil’s tilth by organic means, but for some reason or other animal manure just doesn’t work for you. Maybe you just don’t have access to it since you don’t keep livestock yourself. Maybe you can buy commercial compost mixes (which are largely cow manure), but

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Pest Report – August 13, 2021

August 13, 2021 With the exception of protected growing for season extension, most growers’ seeding thoughts have moved beyond late-season edible crops, and toward squeezing in autumn/winter cover crops before it’s so late they don’t produce much biomass. (I say this now, and who knows, it may be a long, warm autumn … )  

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