The first time Barbara Foust visited the Common Ground Fair, she was in the midst of buying her house and had exactly one hour to spare. She decided to spend it attending a presentation in the Whole Life tent on an unfamiliar kind of dowsing. But the scheduled speaker never showed up and, in some
By Norma Jane Langford If you’ve got a green thumb and a green house, and you’re near a city, and there’s snow on the sidewalk, you’ve got the makings of a profitable small business. Pricey urban restaurants will pay almost anything for fresh green-and-white nasturtium leaves, chocolate mint, and red impatiens, and ethnic restaurants will
Judy Kirk remembers going to the Fleece Tent at the Common Ground Country Fair for the first time six years ago. “It’s pretty exciting when you walk into a tent with 500 fleeces. I was like a child in a candy store.” A fleece producer and spinner herself, she started getting “more and more involved,”
By Jane Lamb Debbie Deal had just completed the monumental task of converting a collapsing lobster-trap shed into a trim little shop. She’d had a contractor jack up the derelict outbuilding, resill it and skid it up to the roadside. Then she’d tackled the restoration herself – reframing, reboarding, setting in windows, shingling. “I’d never
By Jean English Jamie Graeger leads an amphibious life. For three-week stints, he is at sea with the Merchant Marine; during alternate three-week periods, he is firmly grounded, raising certified-organic garlic, gathering and boiling maple sap, and raising nursery stock for Fedco Trees. You might expect his life to be a see-saw affair, and to
Paula Roberts Paula Roberts enjoys helping animals, people and organizations. As a farmer, teacher, MOFGA Board member, and even politician, she helps them grow as healthily as possible. At Meadowsweet Farm in Swanville, she and her husband Sumner purchase young cattle and give them as much freedom and open pasture as they can until they
Sean, Toki and Jamie. Toki is a mother, artist and musician with a great love for life in the country. Her cheerful illustrations enliven The MOF&G. Pranio Photographics photo. By Lynn Allen For regular readers of The MOF&G, the scratchboard art of Toki Oshima has come to embody the very look of MOFGA. Her
Carla Emery, author of The Encyclopedia of Country Living, has been on the road spreading her message about self-sufficiency and community sufficiency for four years. Jane Lamb photo. By Jane Lamb As MOFGA members know, dedication to the environment and a sustainable lifestyle can sometimes take one in bizarre directions, but seldom on a journey
Shaun Keenan and Benji Knisley have been managing Sand Hill Farm in Somerville for seven years. Jane Lamb photo. By Jane Lamb “If you don’t have to buy fertilizer and pesticides, why are organic strawberries more expensive?” ask many first-time customers coming to pick their own at Sand Hill Farm in Somerville. “Just go into
Tom Opper. English photo. Tom Opper came to Maine in 1970 intending to be self-sufficient, but he was so drawn to the small town of Liberty in Waldo County that he changed his plans. “Instead of living off on a dirt road as so many other people did,” he says, “I found myself immersed in the
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