By Kami Pendleton Everyone comes to the Common Ground Country Fair for a reason. Whether for the food, the animals, the agriculture or the crafts, you can always learn something new here. The Fair is about education and appreciation. I have been coming to the Fair almost all my life, but I had a chance
Susan Barrett Merrill’s husband, Richard, made the old cedar EarthLoom that stood in the pocket park and dye garden at MOFGA’s Common Ground Education Center for many years. English photo The new granite EarthLoom. English photo Joe Auciello of the Maine Stoneworkers Guild created the new EarthLoom. Merrill designed the EarthLoom and makes Zati masks
Barbara Damrosch Power to the People: Drawing Strength from the Pandemic By Barbara Damrosch Barbara Damrosch is a farmer and co-owner of Four Season Farm in Harborside, Maine; author of “The Garden Primer” and “Theme Gardens” and co-author of “The Four Season Farm Gardener’s Cookbook”; and a past MOFGA president. Her keynote address at the
Leah Penniman By Leah Penniman Leah Penniman is a Black Kreyol farmer, author, mother and food justice activist who has been tending the soil and organizing for an anti-racist food system for over 20 years. Author of “Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land,” she currently serves as founding
Winona LaDuke Relocalizing and Restoring Traditional Food Varieties: Building a Regional Indigenous and Local Food System By Winona LaDuke Winona LaDuke is a rural development economist and author working on issues of Indigenous economics, food, and energy policy. She lives and works on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota and is the executive director
Kathleen Merrigan, deputy secretary of agriculture for USDA, noted the advances the department has made in supporting organic agriculture under the current administration. English photo. Kathleen Merrigan, deputy secretary of USDA, asked MOFGA’s executive director, Russell Libby, if she could come to the 2012 Common Ground Country Fair. “This is something that would not have
A panel of beekeepers (Theresa Gaffney and David Hackenberg, left) and scientists (Kim Stoner and Frank Drummond, right) discussed Colony Collapse Disorder at a Common Ground Country Fair teach-in, moderated by Sharon Tisher, center. English photo. Common Ground Country Fair Teach-In 2012 Ten years ago an average of 15 to 20 percent of commercially managed
Vandana Shiva was enthralled with the diversity of crops, especially of beans, in the Exhibition Hall when she attended Common Ground in 2001. Martha Gottlieb took this wonderful photo of Shiva with an artichoke. By CR Lawn Martha Gottlieb, for 25 years the inspiration of the Common Ground Country Fair’s Exhibition Hall, calls Fair days
Katz told fairgoers to try some fermentation and to think of themselves as agents of fermentation for social change. English photo. Before he wrote Wild Fermentation, published in 2003, Sandor Katz spent the summer of 2001 in Bowdoinham, where he wrote a self-published zine called Wild Fermentation. Gulf of Maine Books bought five of the
Mort Mather, involved in MOFGA since it began 40 years ago, talked about the history of the organization during his keynote speech at the Common Ground Fair. English photo. By Mort Mather Mort Mather was MOFGA’s third president and soon after served as president for two more years. He was among the first certified organic
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