Archives: Stories

Vern Grubinger

Vern Grubinger of the University of Vermont said that the principles of organic agriculture can help improve our food system, our environment and our society. Photo courtesy of University of Vermont Review: Food, Farms, and Community: Exploring Food Systems By Lisa Chase and Vern Grubinger Vern Grubinger, keynote speaker at MOFGA’s 2016 Farmer to Farmer

Read More »

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

Read More »

Harpswell Heritage Apples

Toki Oshima drawing By Abbey Verrier Apples have been chasing Robert McIntyre from the time he was a little boy and his father cut down a healthy apple tree. “It didn’t have apples that I was interested in, but it sort of made a mark in my mind,” said McIntyre. Years later, as a professor

Read More »

Volunteer Profile Bri Beecher

Bri Beecher By Betsy Garrold Dressed in an outfit specifically color coordinated with that year’s Common Ground Country Fair volunteer staff Fair T-shirts, Bri Beecher is a super salesperson at the Rose Gate during the Fair. As coordinator for the membership table at that gate, she speaks about MOFGA enthusiastically. She walks the line of

Read More »

Farmall Cub

A 1955 Farmall Cub. Photo by Ben Hoffman By Ben Hoffman To me, the most versatile, useful, practical farm machine ever made was the Farmall Cub. Introduced in 1947 to replace horses and mules on small farms, about 245,000 Cubs were produced from 1947 until 1979. The tractor featured a 4-cylinder, 9.25 horsepower gasoline engine,

Read More »

Farmer Reduces Food Waste in Maine

Dean and Deborah Richmond of Pleasant River Farms collect food waste from nearby Sunday River and Mt. Abram ski resorts and compost it along with their farm manure. Photo by Rachael Guay By Heather Omand MOFGA Organic Marketing and Business Coordinator The tourism industry brings billions of dollars into Maine, but that is not the

Read More »

Notes from the Maine Heritage Orchard

The Heck family – Josh, Natalie, Caroline and Kirsten, left to right – savor apples set out for tasting at the Great Maine Apple Day. English photo By John Bunker In the autumn of 1852, a farmer named N.T. True of Bethel, Maine, packed up and headed for the Oxford County Agricultural Society fall fruit

Read More »

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

Read More »

Maine Heritage Orchard A Fruitful Spring

Only the scions outnumber the people at the Seed Swap and Scion Exchange. John Bunker photo Scion Exchange, Grafting, Planting and New Apple Books By John Bunker The Maine Heritage Orchard at MOFGA is beginning to wake up after a winter of huddling under ice and snow. Meanwhile the heritage orchard crew was out pruning

Read More »

Volunteer Profile Patti Hamilton

Patti Hamilton By Betsy Garrold In 2012, after Patti Hamilton and her husband, Chris, had been living at their current Whitefield farm for a while, they began discussing names for the property and for Patti’s dairy business. That summer as she worked in the garden, a barred owl sat in the trees during daylight hours

Read More »
Categories
Scroll to Top