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Maine Farm Resilience Program

Are you ready to take your farm business to the next level?

Introducing the Maine Farm Resilience Program!

MOFGA’s Maine Farm Resilience Program provides individualized support to advanced-beginning farmers (5-9 years experience) grappling with critical questions of scaling up, accessing and adapting to new markets, managing risk, innovation and diversification, and re- strategizing business plans to achieve long-term farm viability.
Program benefits include:
  • matching with experienced mentors and service providers
  • 6 session MFRP cohort seminar series to support goals and delve into risk management strategies addressing financial risk, human risk, marketing risk and climate risk
  • development, business analysis and creation of a farm action plan
  • stipends to access advanced educational opportunities, as well as technical, professional, and pivot point services
Apply Here
Our next deadline: January 30, 2021
Email [email protected] or call (207) 568-6017 for more information

Our 2019 Maine Farm Resilience Program Cohort

Rustic Roots Farm

Erica Emery & Dave Allen
Farmington
rusticrootsfarm.org

Turtle Rock Farm

Jennifer Legnini
Brunswick
turtlerockmaine.com

Dharma Farm

Abby Lydon & Jeff Knox
Washington
www.dharma.farm
Instagram: @dharmafarm

Tender Soles Farm

Kate DelVecchio & Richard Lee
Richmond
www.tendersolesfarm.com

Toddy Pond Farm

Greg & Heide Purinton-Brown
Monroe
www.Toddypondfarm.com

Souder Station Farm

Randy Canarr
Winterport
www.souderstationfarm.com
Facebook: SouderStationFarm/

Dickey Hill Farm

Noami Brautigam & James Gagne
Monroe
www.dickeyhillfarm.com

Tender Soles Farm

Kate DelVecchio & Richard Lee
Richmond
www.tendersolesfarm.com

Our 2020 Maine Farm Resilience Program Cohort

Hall Brook Farm

Thorndike, Maine
hallbrookfarm.com

New Beat Farm

Knox, Maine
Newbeatfarm.com

Old Wells Farm

Limington, Maine
oldwellsfarm.com

Songbird Farm

Unity, Maine
songbirdorganicfarm.com

South Paw Farm

Freedom, Maine
southpawfarm.net
southpawfarm on instagram

Stonecipher Farm

Bowdoinham, Maine
stonecipherfarm.blogspot.com

Whatley Farm

Topsham, Maine
whatleyfarm.com

Songbird Farm

Unity, Maine
songbirdorganicfarm.com

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The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association

PO Box 170, Unity, Maine 04988
  • Physical Address: 294 Crosby Brook Road, Unity, Maine, ME 04988

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Erica and Dave started Rustic Roots Farm in 2013. Erica grew up in Farmington and Dave went to college there so when they were looking to transition back to Maine after living in Boston, Franklin County was a natural choice. They grow on about 2 acres of land in Farmington and run a Farm Share (CSA) program. The farm attends one farmers’ market and does a seasonal roadside stand for sweet corn in August and pumpkins in October.
Jennifer Legnini has over 20 years experience in culinary arts and agriculture. Raised on a sheep and vegetable farm in Pennsylvania and working in restaurants from a young age, she has been growing her career in food provisions and agricultural production simultaneously. After graduating from the country’s first Farm to Table culinary program, her career has been diverse in organic fruit and vegetable production, the culinary arts, sustainable ranching education, specialty food development and production, and manufacturing of value-added agricultural goods. Jennifer now runs Turtle Rock Farm, which is comprised of a certified organic vegetable farm in Union, ME and a canning and processing facility in Brunswick, ME. A central location for several agricultural communities, Turtle Rock works with local farmers to develop value added goods as well as produces a specialty food line, a range of grocery items and fresh produce of their own brand. Committed to regenerative agriculture, community health, the local economy, and farmers markets, her focus on the local food chain is employed in her business as well as her personal relationships with the community.
Jeff Knox and Abby Lydon have been farming together since 2012. They operated Woodsholm Farm on leased land in Newcastle before settling in Washington in late 2014 and renaming themselves Dharma Farm in recognition that farming is their path for good and their right way of living in this world. Using bio-intensive and lo-till/no-till methods, they grow two acres of vibrant, nutrient-dense vegetables and medicine for two farmers’ markets and a number of wholesale accounts. Believing in the vital, life-giving force of whole foods and herbs, and knowing them to comprise the roots of personal, community and planetary health and wellness, Jeff and Abby farm with the knowledge that healthy soils grow delicious vegetables, potent and healing medicinals, nourished communities, and contribute to a thriving farm ecosystem. Farming is a livelihood that nourishes their beings, their bellies, the soil with which they work, their land and all the diversity it supports, their customer’s appetites, and their local community’s economic strength and vitality. They cannot think of a more satisfying endeavor.
Kate Del Vecchio and Richard Lee of Tender Soles Farm have owned their 45 acre farm in Richmond for 5 years. Tender Soles is a MOFGA certified organic, horse-powered mixed vegetable, herb, and flower farm. They have a farm stand and offer a summer and winter vegetable and fruit share (CSA), a pork CSA, Senior Farm Shares, organic seedlings as well as selling to several local schools, restaurants and stores. They are also Garden Club advisors to the Richmond School Gardens. Kate is from Whitefield, Maine, where her first job was at Uncas Farm in Whitefield. Rich grew up in Queens, N.Y., and taught at the Cornell Cooperative Extension SOAR program before coming to Maine to learn how to farm. They choose to farm with draft horses in order to tighten their farm nutrient cycle as well as working closer to the pace of the natural soil biology. And although this means that the pace of their tillage is slowed to how much work two horses can do in a day, they much prefer the sound of horses breathing and the smell of manure over the drone of a tractor and smell of diesel!
Toddy Pond Farm is a 500 acre diversified family Farm. We raise dairy cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, bees and a couple of goats to produce 100% grass fed cheese and yogurt, pasture raised meats, honey and wool. We seek to connect people to their food through farmstay vacations, farm camps for kids, farm dinners and our on-farm farm store.
We are a small, diversified family farm. We operate year round, offering locally produced, natural products and services. We strive to produce food and products that are of the highest quality, naturally produced following organic principles, and fairly priced. From our family to yours. Humanely treated animals, land vitality, clean water ways, healthy forests, and long term solutions over the quick fix underline our approach to living with the seasons. Our agricultural, wildlife services, and outdoor pursuits reflect these practices. Come with us as we build a future based on good health, balance and long term sustainability.
Dickey Hill Farm, owned and operated by Noami Brautigam and James Gagne, is a small diversified farm in Monroe, Maine, just 10 miles up the road from downtown Belfast. Dickey Hill Farm utilizes no-till practices to grow just over a half acre of MOFGA Certified Organic vegetables, including fresh, frost-sweetened greens grown throughout the coldest months of the Maine winter in unheated high tunnels. DHF’s holistic farming approach also offers grass fed beef. The small beef heard adds nutrients to 14 acres of rolling pasture as they rotationally graze the hillsides in the spring summer and fall. During the winter months the herd stays close to the barn where manure and bedding is made into nutrient rich compost that feeds the vegetable production. Dickey Hill Farm vegetables and beef are available seasonally at the Rockland Farmers’ Market and year round at the Belfast Farmers’ Market. Dickey Hill Farm is committed to maintaining and enhancing the health of the land while providing nutritious food to the community.
Megan and Pheonix O’Brien started their farm together in 2014, as the MOFGA Farmers in Residence. In 2017 they purchased their own 100-acre farm in Thorndike, and adopted the name Hall Brook Farm. They grow about 10 acres of certified organic vegetables which they sell primarily to grocery stores from the Mid-Coast to Southern Maine.
Adrienne Lee and Ken Lamson own and operate New Beat Farm in Knox, Maine. Every year they raise around 5 acres of MOFGA Certified Organic Produce and flowers for sale primarily through the Belfast Farmers Market and Daybreak Growers Alliance, a farmer lead distribution company they helped to start. Their farming practices reflect their commitment to organic farming principles and environmental stewardship through prioritizing soil building, cover-cropping, utilizing horse-power, reduced tillage, and minimizing farm inputs from outside their bio-region.
Along with building healthy soils they are committed to helping grow a resilient organic farming community here in Maine and are excited to be participating in MOFGA’s Farm Resilience Program. They will utilize this program to help them achieve their aspirations not only of good land stewardship and growing nutritious food for their community, but economically sound farming practices that will ensure their farms viability for the long haul.
Old Wells Farm is made up of Dylan Watters, Alaena Robbins Stowell Watters, Marina Steller and a host of friends, family and animals. Using a closed-system approach, our aim is to grow the highest quality certified organic vegetables, flowers, seedlings, and pork while thoughtfully transforming historic land into an edible landscape, a thriving farm business, and a place for family and community all while preserving the beautiful Maine environment.
Songbird Farm is a wholesale-oriented, certified organic vegetable and grain farm located in Unity, ME. Adam Nordell and Johanna Davis cultivate 20 acres including roughly 4 acres of vegetables and 16 acres of grains and dry beans. The vegetable crops include carrots, sweet potatoes, winter squash, melons, pea tendrils and garlic. The farm has two, hundred-foot long high tunnels which are used primarily to start seedlings and grow tomatoes, peppers and recently winter greens. The grains and row crops include flint corn, winter and spring bread-wheat, rye, oats and heritage dry beans. The vegetables are sold through three coastal Maine food cooperatives, a distributor and a state wide food bank program. The grains are cleaned and processed on-farm, with flour and cornmeal produced with a stone mill. Grain products are sold through food cooperatives, a local bakery, a 70 member home-baker CSA and through online sales.
South Paw Farm grows organic food year-round in Freedom, Maine, and distributes in the State of Maine. Perched high on a ridge, our farmland captures the beauty and diversity of Waldo County’s productive agricultural soils. With grit and tenacity, South Paw Farm grows organic food year-round for the people of Maine. South Paw Farm believes what we need is here, and is committed to the just stewardship of our agricultural resources and to improving the quality of life of the community.
Started in 2009, Stonecipher Farm is a certified organic mixed vegetable farm, dabbling in livestock and fruit, while focusing on storage vegetables, and tropicals such as ginger and turmeric. Year round, and dedicated to their customers; Ian Jerolmack and Emily Goodchild serve many health food stores, but have made a real name for themselves serving all the best restaurants of Portland, as well as mid coast Maine. Due to the coronavirus, the farmers were forced to pivot, and launched a CSA, and now sell a lot to other farms.
With 5 kids in tow, they farm full time, and employ 5 full time folks in summer, and 2 in winter. They have an acre of greenhouse space, and are hoping to work more in there, and really maximize the shoulder seasons, and maybe one day, take it easier in the summer. They started the farm on blank land, and the longer they are there, the more the entire project pleases them, as trees grow, land improves, buildings are finished and employees come back. Ian and Emily feel this place is growing a legacy, and hope to help that carry on to their kids, for the perpetual benefit of the community.
Whatley Farm was founded in 2012 by Nick and Laura Whatley with their son Ben. They produce MOFGA-certified organic produce, seedlings, seed garlic, duck eggs, salsas, pestos and pork, which they market year-round in Brunswick. Nick and Laura also run an employee-owned stone and tile shop and are active with the Topsham Solar Advocates. Ben is a seasonal organic inspector for MOFGA, and his partner Laura Miller is MOFGA’s Development Manager. Together the four plan to expand the farm, write a new five-year business plan, and explore re-branding for expansion into wholesale markets.