Archives: Stories

Summer Garden

Cabbage, tatsoi, peas and kale are among crops that can be started in summer to extend the growing and harvest season into fall. English photos. National Garden Bureau photo. By Roberta Bailey There is a week in late July when I find myself wishing that I could stop time. The garden is perfect. Tomatoes are

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Volunteer Leslie Poole

Leslie Poole Maine’s Own Erin Brokovitch By Marada Cook For Leslie Poole, being a good grandmother goes beyond making cookies and chicken soup for an ailing granddaughter. In 1999, when the spraying of neighboring blueberry barrens either led to or worsened 15-year-old Codey Brown’s chemical sensitivity, her family (including Grandma) began a two-year process with

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Avena Institute

Avena Institute board members Shelly Ubbelohde (left) and Bonnie Rukin-Miller (center) are like good compost for the Institute, helping it grow and flower. The educational Institute grew out of the herb business, Avena Botanicals, started by Deb Soule (right). English photo. Permaculture at Avena By Jean English Bonnie Rukin-Miller, chair of the board of Avena

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Volunteer Profile Betsy Hart

Betsy Hart. English photo. By Marada Cook “Betsy Hart wears many hats,” says Heather Spalding, Director of the Common Ground Country Fair. “She is chair of the Fair Steering Committee, and she was one of the original coordinators of the Social and Political Action Areas. This year she sold tickets and worked in the Children’s

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Mike & Margie Shannon

By Jean English Mike and Margie Shannon are happier living off-the-grid in Knox and raising most of their vegetables than they’ve been any other place they’ve lived. Jean English photos. Margie Shannon’s father would approve of the life that his daughter and son-in-law, Mike Shannon, have built on the north side of Frye Mountain, at

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Volunteer Profile

Wilma Johnson (left) and Wilma Stewart. Photo by Heather Spalding. The Two Wilmas By Holli Cederholm Each year thousands of T-shirts featuring a graphic of the Fair poster are sold at the Common Ground Country Fair. The shirts usually arrive during the week before the Fair opens to the public – in need of folding.

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Family Centered Farming

Toki Oshima drawing Family-Centered Farming By Polly Shyka When little pigtailed Flora started running laps around the slide projector while her parents were speaking, no one at the 2009 Farmer to Farmer session seemed even slightly miffed. Not only was the 3-1/2-year-old an important part of their conference presentation, she is an important part of

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Volunteer Profile Spring 2003

Joe Auciello. English photo. Joe Auciello By Marada Cook For most people, being stuck between a rock and a hard spot can make life pretty rough. Ask Joe Auciello, MOFGA volunteer and professional stone sculptor, and he’ll tell you that rough spots are where the fun begins. “My father was in the Air Force, so

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Evanses Garden

This is the house that Eric Evans built, with bee balm gracing the dooryard. English photo. American Chestnuts, Daylilies, Vegetables and Friends By Jean English Laura and Eric Evans seem to have lived a life comprised of one fascinating project after another. The community garden – or, more accurately, community of friends garden – that

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Clovercrest Farm

Organic dairy farmers Steve and Mia Morrison in their barn. Photo by Kate Morrison. Second Generation Morrison Farmers Profit from Organic Dairy By Rhonda Houston On a clear, crisp day in January, hundreds of dairy farmers convened in Augusta to convince legislators that they cannot keep up their current way of life. They are drowning

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