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
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
Russell Libby. English photo. By Russell Libby, MOFGA’s executive director Russell Libby was a keynote speaker at the 2011 Common Ground Country Fair. Following is his speech. Good morning. It’s an honor to be here. For 35 years, since the first Fair in Litchfield, it’s been a pleasure to be with so many of you
Barbara Damrosch. English photo. By Barbara Damrosch, MOFGA president and keynote speaker, 2011 Common Ground Country Fair Since the theme of the Fair this year is climate change, we arranged for the weather to change every 20 minutes on Friday and Saturday and the temperature today to get up to 80, to illustrate the point.
Climate change panelists, from left to right: Stephen Mulkey, John Jemison, Sharon Tisher (moderator), Lou McNally, Dylan Voorhees and Andy Burt. English photo. Maine gardener Beedy Parker notes that we are experiencing generally longer growing seasons, but they are unpredictable and undependable due to extremes of temperature, moisture and storm intensity. Parker was the moving
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