By Sam Schipani Four Season Farm in Harborside has long been a fixture of organic farming in Maine. Owners Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch are continuing the legacy for another generation with a long-term lease to Molly Friedland and Caleb Hawkins, the celebrated cut flower purveyors behind Little Red Flower Truck. Friedland and Hawkins, who
By Sonja Heyck-Merlin “We built a bar right over the manure gutter. It’s still a little mind-blowing. I’m only just now not seeing it as a milking pattern. I still half expect to see cows when I walk in,” says Heide Purinton-Brown of Toddy Pond Farm in the rolling hills of Monroe, Maine. For nearly
By Jessie Dowling Last year I trained for, competed in and completed the longest and toughest horse race in the world: the Mongol Derby. It’s a multi-horse race loosely recreating Chinggis Khan’s ancient postal route, and stretches over 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) of mountains, bogs, rivers, desert and vast steppe in Mongolia. Participants, who navigate
By Lea Camille Smith Hands: any gardener would have trouble arguing that they are not our greatest tool. Test the moisture of the soil; delicately separate the roots of a new planting; place a seed a quarter of an inch below the surface. The tiniest weeds require finger-tip precision. Gardening gloves can sometimes give us
By Tim King Among the stone walls, forests and fields on Oak Hill Road in Litchfield, Maine, a herd of 20 Nubian-Alpine goats turn browse and pasture into fresh milk, which Aaron Grim and Briis Wile turn into award-winning organic cheese. As one might expect of a cheesemaker, Grim loves talking about cheese. MOFGA-certified Cosmic
By Holli Cederholm Which came first: the story or the seed? Bonnetta Adeeb, founder of the Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance, says the two are intimately linked. So much so that when the collective, which is focused on supporting Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) growers, started to sell seeds as a fundraiser, they gathered
By Jennifer Wilhelm Did you know that most flowers found in grocery stores are from outside the country? In fact, according to Floristry and Floriculture Industry Statistics & Trends, the United States is the largest importer of flowers in the world. Most roses are grown in Ecuador. Eighty percent of the world’s tulips are grown
By Larry Dansinger The gathering crisis of the Earth’s warming climate is a wild card like no other. Everything humans have thought and understood about our environment, especially how to grow enough food for billions on this planet, is being questioned. As the weather and growing conditions become more unpredictable, with heavy rains, droughts, extreme heat,
By Tim King Maine has a long history of outdoor markets that serve both local farmers and the larger community. The Portland Farmers’ Market, which has compiled an extensive history on its website (portlandmainefarmersmarket.org/history), has actually been in continuous operation longer than the U.S. Constitution has been the law of the land. “In 1768, the
A new play by Wabanaki REACH and Threadbare Theatre Workshop moves stories of the Maine Indian Land Claims from the head to the heart As part of the Beyond the Claims— Stories from the Land & the Heart project, Wabanaki REACH, a nonprofit that supports the self-determination of Wabanaki people through education, truth-telling, restorative justice
Media Inquiries:
Contact Jennifer Wilhelm [email protected]
