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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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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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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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Organic Dairy Industry Growing in Aroostook County

Left to right: Vaughn, Laura and Brooke Chase with a few of their cows, including a newborn calf. The Chase family has been involved in dairy farming in Aroostook County for more than 60 years. Inside the barn at Chase’s. Esch Family Farm is a new, progressive organic dairy farm in Smyrna. The modern, well

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Urban Homestead

The author with her husband, Charlie Allen. Photo by Myles Allen By Lynn Hower Allen In 1975, the year we met, my then husband-to-be, Charlie, bought a derelict house and 10 acres of land in Union, Maine. The long, rectangular property stretched across a south facing slope at an elevation of 600 feet and had

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English Editorial Organic Matters You Matter MOFGA Matters

  Toki Oshima illustration You know what really matters when mention of the ECB in the mainstream media makes you think, first and foremost, “European corn borer!” and not the far less important – to our community – European Central Bank. What matters to us is growing food, flowers, trees, herbs and fibers in quality,

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Earth Mother Goddess of Nature

Toki Oshima illustration By Joyce White In her 1987 book “The Chalice and the Blade,” Riane Eisler shows us a culture that existed for thousands of years, in which the inhabitants enjoyed peace, prosperity, cooperation, and equality between men and women. She calls that a partnership model of society, represented by the chalice; its opposite

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Ron and Melissa Harwood

Ron and Melissa Harwood and Luke. Photo by Michele McCarthy By Ellen S. Gibson Maine AgrAbility staff attends various events throughout the year to further its mission to help farmers, members of farm families and farm workers overcome pain, injury or disability so that they can continue to work safely and productively. In late September

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Paul and Karen Volckhausen

Karen and Paul Volckhausen. Photo courtesy of Happy Town Farm Sheep are an integral part of nutrient cycling at Happy Town Farm. English photo Karen’s cut flower business has grown since she retired from nursing. Photo courtesy of Happy Town Farm Paul and Karen Volckhausen were the “farmers in the spotlight” at MOFGA’s 2017 Farmer

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Family Farmers in a Changing Organic World

Emily Oakley spoke at MOFGA’s Farmer to Farmer Conference about making a living on a small farm and about having input into national organic standards. Left to right: Jim Gerritsen (Wood Prairie Family Farm), Emily Oakley, and Eric Sideman and Dave Colson from MOFGA. English photo As organic foods gain an ever wider audience and

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