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Debbie Deal

By Jane Lamb Debbie Deal had just completed the monumental task of converting a collapsing lobster-trap shed into a trim little shop. She’d had a contractor jack up the derelict outbuilding, resill it and skid it up to the roadside. Then she’d tackled the restoration herself – reframing, reboarding, setting in windows, shingling. “I’d never

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Graeger

By Jean English Jamie Graeger leads an amphibious life. For three-week stints, he is at sea with the Merchant Marine; during alternate three-week periods, he is firmly grounded, raising certified-organic garlic, gathering and boiling maple sap, and raising nursery stock for Fedco Trees. You might expect his life to be a see-saw affair, and to

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Hancock Coop

By Russell Libby What do you do when you keep running into the same farmers while you’re delivering to the local restaurant trade? Often, you work hard to try to build better connections with the chef so that you can be sure that your produce is in demand. However, when your competition is mostly your

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Russell Libby

Robert Shetterly unveiled the latest in his “Americans Who Tell the Truth” series of paintings at a November 1, 2012, celebration of Russell Libby’s tenure as MOFGA’s executive director. Russell’s truth quoted in this painting: “We have to challenge the idea that contamination is just the price of living in the modern world. Our bodies

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Volunteer Winter 12 13

Joan Federman. Photo by Emily Horton. By Hannah Kreitzer Joan Federman attended her first Common Ground Country Fair in 1996, when she had just moved to Maine. She spent all three days soaking up information from presenters’ panels and workshops, nourishing a growing passion for sustainable, responsible local and global citizenry. Listening to people she

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Cuba Organica

By Jane Lamb Agricultural challenges in Third World countries, particularly in neighboring Latin America, have long been a special concern of MOFGA members. Usually members work to improve food production for malnourished populations by various means, ranging from university-level research to sister city programs to just plain sharing of organic know-how. Board member Laura Merrick,

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Diversity

1996 Farmer to Farmer Conference Bill Spiller of Spiller Farms in Wells tells beginning farmers to diversify. “Don’t raise too much at first of any one item,” he told his audience at the Farmer to Farmer Conference in November. “This is hard. It takes a lot of expertise to grow many crops, but it seems

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Volunteer Summer 1997

This year Jason Kafka, member-at-large of the MOFGA board of directors, will plant 3,000 pounds of seed potatoes. Last year he harvested three tons of potatoes and 7,000 row feet of alliums – not including the garlic. “Think about that with a hoe in your hand,” he says. When he ponders the growth of his

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The Fine Art of Farming at Old Stage

By Jane Lamb It’s one thing to strive earnestly for self-sufficiency – raising your own food, chopping firewood, reliving the rural New England tradition of thrift. It’s quite another when you add an aesthetic dimension that raises the whole experience to the level of art. Anyone who visits the Old Stage Farmstand on Route 5-A

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Local and Frugal Ideas from Irish Agriculture

1996 Farmer to Farmer Conference University of Maine Cooperative Extension educator Dick Brzozowski spent half of his sabbatical in Ireland last year, and he brought back some green and economical ideas that could be adapted in Maine. He shared these ideas at the Farmer to Farmer Conference in Bar Harbor in November. During Brzozowski’s three-month

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