By Jennifer Dann For good reason, local is a big part of MOFGA’s vision: supporting local farming can make us healthier and more resilient as families and communities. Buying locally grown food is a great way for people to support local farming systems. Another great way to support your community and the surrounding landscape is
By Tim King In 2024, 82% of American households purchased organic produce, according to an impact report issued by the Transition to Organic Partnership Program last year. The report states that the percentage will continue to increase and that demand has “consistently outpaced domestic production capacity” for organic. TOPP was founded by the U.S. Department
By Sonja Heyck-Merlin A new community garden initiative in Van Buren, Maine, cultivates not just food but also relationships. In a town where residents rarely gathered, fresh vegetables and beehives now bring people together. Luke Dyer, Van Buren’s town manager, and others involved in community revitalization call it placemaking: creating public spaces to grow and
By Holli Cederholm For painter Katherine Noble Churchill, riding horses is part of the artistic process. While her work is categorized as impressionistic realism — and therefore true to life — Churchill does not paint portraits. “I like to paint things that are moving quite a bit,” she says. A wave washing over a seal,
By Mary Weitzman, Director of Membership and Development I just wanted to grow tomatoes. As a kid growing up in New Jersey, I couldn’t get enough of them. Eating tomato sandwiches on our back porch was a cherished memory of summer. Each September, my mother would include a tomato from our local farm in my
By Kristen Walker, Certification Specialist – Maple Lead MOFGA Certification Services (MCS) has roughly 60 maple producers. Of these producers, 44 are situated along the Canadian border in the Jackman, Maine, area. As MCS’s maple lead, I organize our annual inspection trip and, along with six other inspectors, spend the first two weeks of April
By Holli Cederholm On a given day, Alice Slater wakes, kicks up the fire in the woodstove, sets a kettle to boil, and makes tea. She might play an instrument, sing a new song, or send an email about an upcoming contradance she helps organize. Then, she heads outside to get moving: chopping firewood, cutting
By Jennifer Wilhelm Building community is something farmers Valerie Woodhouse and Eli Hersh of Honey Field Farm in Norwich, Vermont, take seriously. From hosting engaging onsite events to creating a supportive work environment for their farm crew, making their farm a place where people gather to celebrate organic growing is a top priority. And a
By Tim King Nearly a quarter century ago, Jim Hanna, who is now the executive director of the Cumberland County Food Security Council, met with a group of newly arrived Americans to discuss their food security needs. These new community members from Somalia were Muslim and had dietary needs that Hanna was unfamiliar with at
By Sonja Heyck-Merlin Farmers Rhiannon Hampson and Gregg Stiner joined the longstanding agricultural tradition of Thomaston, Maine, in 2018 when they closed on their 80-acre farm off coastal Route 1, close to the St. George River. They were told that the site of what is now their Grace Pond Farm has been farmed since the
