Emily Oakley spoke at MOFGA’s Farmer to Farmer Conference about making a living on a small farm and about having input into national organic standards. Left to right: Jim Gerritsen (Wood Prairie Family Farm), Emily Oakley, and Eric Sideman and Dave Colson from MOFGA. English photo As organic foods gain an ever wider audience and
A banner carried in the Children’s Garden Parade at the Common Ground Country Fair: “We All Belong in the Garden.” English photo By Jean English, Editor, The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener The well known “Powers of Ten” film (available on YouTube) shows the relative scale of the Universe, beginning with a young couple picnicking
By Grace Oedel Earlier this year the Pope published a piece of writing that has come to be known as the “climate change encyclical,” although it rings out more broadly as calling for a radical shift in culture. The treatise, entitled “Laudato Si,” translates to “Praise be to you,” a line from the Canticle of
Toki Oshima drawing By Jean English Editor, “The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener” As MOFGA develops a long-term, forward-looking strategic plan, I looked backward for inspiration – to our late director Russell Libby’s visionary writing. “What would Russell plan?” I wondered. A long list quickly emerged, with four intertwined themes: actions we can take at
Toki Oshima drawing By Grace Oedel Bread occupies a unique and highly sanctified place in many religious traditions. In Judaism, the ritual laws surrounding bread stand apart from all other culinary rituals. A meal is defined by whether or not you consumed bread. If you did, you are mandated to carry out a full set
By Alice Percy, MOFGA President Treble Ridge Farm, Whitefield I can’t count the number of times I’ve had this conversation. Customer: So how big is your farm? Me: Well, we try to grow out about 80 pigs each year, and we’re cropping between 80 and 100 acres. Customer: That’s huge! Actually, that’s not huge. It’s
Toki Oshima drawing By Grace Oedel Lately I have been wrestling with the dynamic tension between patience and action. How are we to balance the urgency that motivates us to do our work with the need for rest and rejuvenation? For farmers, the warm season flies by furiously with chores from before sunrise to after
Toki Oshima drawing By Jean English, Editor, The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener Ben Falk, in his keynote speech at the Common Ground Country Fair, called for a billion new gardeners, because “we have everything we need right here, right now” to re-establish the perennial-based, diverse and integrated food-producing ecosystems that were here for thousands
Toki Oshima drawing. By Hildie J. Lipson The challenges we face, such as peak oil, climate change and economic crises, can be overwhelming to us as individuals. Here in Wayne, a few of us have been meeting to talk about joining the Transition Towns Movement, an initiative that seeks to build community resilience to mitigate
Masanobu (left) and Tomoko Ikemiya cut elderberries at their Peace Farm in Bar Harbor. All photos by the author. By Laurie Schreiber “Well, here we are! This is it!” Masanobu Ikemiya declares in greeting, and then sets out on a tour of Peace Farm, the self-sustaining homestead he’s built with his wife, Tomoko, in Bar
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