Archives: Stories

Forest Restoration

Toki Oshima illustration. By Céline Caron “Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.” – John Muir (Printed on Merve Wilkinson’s in

Read More »

Laura Neale

Laura Neale with part of an onion harvest. Photo by Sue Neale. By Stowell Watters Catillus – Latin for “kettle” meaning “a deep vessel.” It is a tool that outshines its various permutations to remain stark and simple. A robust icon forged in black iron, it is a familiar sight, the agrarian symbol heating up

Read More »

COMOC

Leah and Marada Cook of Crown O’ Maine Organic Cooperative. Lily Piel photo, courtesy of COMOC. By Betsy Garrold Hard work and quality are recurring themes when you talk to the crew at Crown O’ Maine Organic Cooperative (COMOC, https://crownofmainecoop.com/). Since the early days, when Jim and Kate Cook delivered local, quality potatoes in their

Read More »

Nichols Family

Jim Nichols with his parents, Lois and Nick, who launched him on a grounded, farm-oriented life. English photo. By Jean English Lois and Mahlon “Nick” Nichols raised five children (one now a MOFGA certified organic grower, Jim Nichols) on a Dewitt, Michigan, farm. During a recent visit to Maine, they talked to The MOF&G about

Read More »

California Detour Wheat Vs Gold

John Augustus Sutter’s once-thriving farming community in California fell victim to the Gold Rush. Portrait of John Sutter by Frank Buchser, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/. The current high price of gold is wreaking environmental destruction in many places around the world, sometimes interfering with local people’s ability to farm and garden. This isn’t a new situation, as John

Read More »

Apple Tasting

John Bunker is a common site – almost always with an apple – at the Common Ground Country Fair. Join him in an apple taste test at the Fair to determine the favorite variety for 2013. English photo. By John Bunker and Cammy Watts ‘Canadian Strawberry’. ‘Chestnut’.  ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’.  ‘Liveland Raspberry’. What do all

Read More »

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

Read More »

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

Read More »

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

Read More »
Categories
Scroll to Top

Keep in touch with MOFGA!

Sign up for our weekly bulletin to receive event announcements, seasonal tips, and more.
Sign up to receive our weekly newsletter of happenings at MOFGA.