By Holli Cederholm For painter Katherine Noble Churchill, riding horses is part of the artistic process. While her work is categorized as impressionistic realism — and therefore true to life — Churchill does not paint portraits. “I like to paint things that are moving quite a bit,” she says. A wave washing over a seal,
By Mary Weitzman, Director of Membership and Development I just wanted to grow tomatoes. As a kid growing up in New Jersey, I couldn’t get enough of them. Eating tomato sandwiches on our back porch was a cherished memory of summer. Each September, my mother would include a tomato from our local farm in my
By Kristen Walker, Certification Specialist – Maple Lead MOFGA Certification Services (MCS) has roughly 60 maple producers. Of these producers, 44 are situated along the Canadian border in the Jackman, Maine, area. As MCS’s maple lead, I organize our annual inspection trip and, along with six other inspectors, spend the first two weeks of April
By Holli Cederholm On a given day, Alice Slater wakes, kicks up the fire in the woodstove, sets a kettle to boil, and makes tea. She might play an instrument, sing a new song, or send an email about an upcoming contradance she helps organize. Then, she heads outside to get moving: chopping firewood, cutting
By Jennifer Wilhelm Building community is something farmers Valerie Woodhouse and Eli Hersh of Honey Field Farm in Norwich, Vermont, take seriously. From hosting engaging onsite events to creating a supportive work environment for their farm crew, making their farm a place where people gather to celebrate organic growing is a top priority. And a
By Tim King Nearly a quarter century ago, Jim Hanna, who is now the executive director of the Cumberland County Food Security Council, met with a group of newly arrived Americans to discuss their food security needs. These new community members from Somalia were Muslim and had dietary needs that Hanna was unfamiliar with at
By Sonja Heyck-Merlin Farmers Rhiannon Hampson and Gregg Stiner joined the longstanding agricultural tradition of Thomaston, Maine, in 2018 when they closed on their 80-acre farm off coastal Route 1, close to the St. George River. They were told that the site of what is now their Grace Pond Farm has been farmed since the
By C.J. Walke, MOFGA’s Orchard Program Manager As we move into 2025, the Maine Heritage Orchard, MOFGA’s 10-acre preservation and educational orchard, is well rooted in the reclaimed soils of a former gravel pit. Terraces constructed to hold back steep eroding slopes have stabilized and are home to nearly half the orchard’s apple trees, with
By John Welton, Certification and Quality Specialist with MOFGA Certification Services MOFGA certifies seaweed as organic for human consumption and livestock feed, and we refer to any seaweed intended for human consumption as a “sea vegetable,” or “sea veg.” “Kelp” is a catch-all term that could refer to any of the seaweeds growing in Maine’s
By Jordanna Feely and Rebecca Rundquist Much like food banks, firewood banks are designed to meet a basic human need: in this case, it’s warmth during the cold season. Firewood banks can provide a safety net for people in Maine who rely on heating their homes with wood but find themselves suddenly unable to access
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