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Apprentice and Journeyperson Programs Pay Off for Wise Acres Farm

Joy Trueworthy (left) and Brittany Hopkins raise MOFGA-certified organic vegetables on their Wise Acres Farm in Kenduskeag. Photo by Nicholas Navarre via the Maine Federation of Farmers’ Markets The barn and packing area at Wise Acres Hopkins uses a Williams Tool for stale seedbedding (pictured here), cleaning up paths and for some blind cultivation of

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Aroostook Update

Two generations cultivate Aurora Mills & Farm. From the left and standing in front of some of the new silos: Marcus Flewelling, Sara Williams Flewelling, Matt and Linda Williams. Making things grow at UMPI: from the left, Jim Dwyer, the Dr. Robert Vinton Akeley Chair of the Agricultural Science and Agribusiness program; Jason Johnston, dean

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Gardeners Growing Healthy Communities

Raised beds built and filled by Gardeners Growing Healthy Communities in South Paris. Photo by Anne Stuer By Joyce White On a sunny Thursday afternoon in mid-September, about 15 volunteers are engrossed in a variety of garden-related activities – harvesting kale and cabbage, dividing a big bowl of ‘Sungold’ cherry tomatoes into separate baggies, weighing

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Balfour Farm

Doug and Heather Donahue of Balfour Farm at their booth at the Common Ground Country Fair. Photo courtesy of Balfour Farm By Sonja Heyck-Merlin In Gaelic, Balfour means “from the grazing or pasture land.” Maine organic farmstead cheesemakers Heather and Doug Donahue settled on the name in honor of Doug’s Irish ancestry. The name also

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Growing a Good Life

Wendy Green outside the house she built and next to the mullein plant that just appeared. Photo courtesy of Wendy Green Live simply that others may simply live. – Gandhi By Joyce White Wendy Green, 61, has spent the years since adolescence creating her own life from an underlying philosophy of taking responsibility for herself

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Memories of Fairs Past

Will Bonsall has been sharing his homesteading and seed saving wisdom with fairgoers since the second Common Ground Country Fair. English photo Common Ground favorites Will Bonsall with Martha Gottlieb, co-coordinator of the Exhibition Hall. Nancy Bowker photo Common Ground and the Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad – a wonderful symbiosis. English photo By Will

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North Branch Farm

The North Branch family, left to right: Ada, Anna, Seth, Elwyn, Tyler and Misha Some of the horse-drawn equipment used on the farm, with the fenced (from deer) fruit tree and shrub nursery in the background. A closer look at the irrigated nursery North Branch specializes in vegetable crops grown for its winter CSA Seth

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Farmers Off the Farm

Geoff and Gina Hancock make guitar pedals and straps, respectively. Photo by Holly Hancock Johanna Davis and Adam Nordell travel the country as the two-piece band Sassafras Stomp during the off-season. Photo by Rab Cummings Heather Selin of Earth Dharma works off-farm as a policy expert for tobacco use reduction. Photo by Stowell Watters Abby

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Growing Community at Natures Circle Farm

Dick York’s love of agriculture inspired him to start Nature’s Circle Farm. Three of Nature’s Circle managers: left to right, Lowell Matthews, Meg York and Nicholas Fitzpatrick. Elliott Mooers (right), Matthews’ best friend since childhood, manages the H-2A workers. By Jean English; photos by the author Nature’s Circle Farm is a 390-acre MOFGA-certified organic vegetable

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