By Caleb P. Goossen, Ph.D., MOFGA’s Crop Specialist I have been getting more and more photos sent to me from tomato growers showing symptoms of a foliar disease that never used to be present in Maine. Though the disease was only formally confirmed to be Stemphylium gray leaf spot in the 2024 growing season, I
By Cynthia Flores, Labor-Movement LLC Farming is a labor of love with a never-ending list of things to do. The physical and mental hurdles that farmers and farmworkers experience can be joyful accomplishments or struggles that are survived. Farming is known to be back-breaking work, with a farmer’s primary tool being their body. Often, a
By Sherri Talbot When new to goats, the process of deciding on a breed can be daunting. Various breeds can make good pets, grazers, meat animals, fiber or milk producers. Knowing what is right for your homestead is often based on what use the animals will serve. Let’s look at some of the most common
By Will Bonsall Tomatoes are among the most popular garden vegetables, but most of those eaten raw are not paste types. While paste tomatoes are known for their distinct pear shape, the most important feature of all true paste tomato varieties is their relatively low moisture content, which makes them especially suitable for sauce, ketchup,
Growing your own medicine from seed is an opportunity to enter into deep relationship with our many plant allies. Whether annual or perennial, medicinal herbs create beauty, pollinator habitat, and sacred spaces within a garden while also empowering us to holistically support our health and wellness with the use of these healing plants. Many medicinal
Introduction and photos by Jean English; Recipes by Dusty Dowse On April 13, 2024, the MOFGA-El Salvador Sistering Committee and the Maine Grain Alliance (MGA) held a hands-on workshop at MOFGA about corn and pupusas. Sistering committee member Karen Volckhausen began the event, noting that most sistering relationships pair a city in one country with
By Roberta Bailey Soybeans are an ancient food with many culinary forms. Most commonly used in the West are miso, a fermented soybean paste; edamame, the fresh green soybeans, served steamed and lightly salted; tofu, a curd made from soymilk; tempeh, the cultured ground soybeans and/or okara left over from making soy milk; and soy
By Jacki Martinez Perkins, Organic Dairy and Livestock Specialist There’s no way around it: At some point in Maine’s cyclical seasons, the grass stops growing and goes dormant. The need to feed hay to our herbivorous livestock during this time is crucial, and knowing what your needs are and what you’re buying is essential to
By Ethan Tapper The sky is bright and blue, streaked with clouds as thin as carded wool. I weave between stumps, bent like an elder, planting acorn after acorn. The patch cut is as still as the waters of a new beaver pond. The forest hangs limbo, a brief pause in its perpetual arc of
By C.J. Walke, Orchard Program Manager As summer rolls into fall, we start to see the bulk of the apple and pear varieties in MOFGA’s Maine Heritage Orchard in Unity beginning to ripen during September and October. In the fall, it always feels like such a long time has passed since the trees were blooming
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