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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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Gleaning Healthy Eating for Everyone

Regina Grabrovac and four young missionary volunteers from the Church of the Latter Day Saints harvest blueberries. Photo courtesy of Regina Grabrovac Volunteers glean what’s left of the tomato crop at Blue-Zee Farm in Penobscot. From left to right: Elise Teixido, Anna Wind and Justine Appel. Photo by Rachel Emus Lydia Brown and he dad, Buster,

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Brochu Homestead

Nicholas Butler of the USDA NRCS Soil Science Division discussed forest stand improvement practices, the relationship of tree species in the woodlot to soil profiles, and the Ecological Site Survey (similar to the Web Soil Survey) that USDA is developing. English photo By Katy Green, Kacey Weber and Jean English In 2016, MOFGA cosponsored four

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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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Gil Whitehead

Gil Whitehead with Star and Red – and one of two Aussies on the farm. English photo Whitehead heads into the Christmas tree plantation with his team of oxen. In winter, the oxen haul out Christmas trees that customers select and Whitehead cuts. English photo By Jean English Sixteen-year-old Gil Whitehead of MOFGA-certified organic Winterberry

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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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The Joy of Tasting at the Hayloft Tent

Apple varieties displayed at the Fair. English photo Voice your opinion about apple varieties in the Hayloft Tent at the Fair. English photo By John Bunker In 1993, needing something to spruce up the brand new Fedco Seeds tent at the Common Ground Country Fair, we assembled three modest displays. One featured assorted potatoes; the

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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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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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