Author: Andrew Mooers

Moving, Relocating To Maine.

Moving, relocating to Maine, what creates the itch needing to be scratched?

And how long does the loving feeling for Maine last? What makes the longing grow stronger, dig itself deeper? Maine tugs hardest on the heart strings of those just not built to shuck and jive in a city. Maine is small town connected, helpful, honest. The cost of living is lower in a small Maine town. Because cars don’t get stolen, gangs don’t roam the streets collecting for chop shops. Less fender benders when population is low like Maine. We look out for those elderly drivers who we know on sight and who’s own has dimmed. Cut ’em some slack. Especially if they are wearing a yellow Fisher snow plow angled your direction on front of that well known pick up truck. Give them a wide berth Chummy.

Coffee Early In The Morning The Old Fashion Way! Get To Maine, Relax, Breathe.

Way way more land around whatever you purchase for real estate in Maine. House and land prices are lower. Slaving to make mortgage payments is not a given. When you fill in the spaces, tear off and send the checks in at the end of the month. Fun is outdoors, no or low cost generated. All four seasons offer something special that touches folks in intimate places they did not know they had. Fear, personal safety is not a drain on the brain of the people who live in rural Maine. No dead bolts and chain locks in the 4th lowest crime state.

Worry about making a certain salary, meeting some imaginary financial goal objective may be a seed planted by parents, educators.

Who live in a small town but longed to see what life was like in the bright lights, big city. Get away, shoo fly.

Travel cures that concern and folks that feel trapped in a small town should move and relocate. Try out what they think is missing. Those who have appreciate Maine even more. Because they have other surroundings to compare it to and the appreciation increases. The local whining and bitching stops.

A Break From The Water, Flying A Kite At The Wells / Moody Beach Seashore.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. And you don’t appreciate something as much as you should until it is removed from your life right? A couple of weeks of therapy living, surviving, struggling in say Boston’s Combat Zone oughta do it.

Living in small rural Maine does not mean retreating to the stone age.

High speed internet, telecommuters are common as you bring your online job with you to Maine. Those with an income that follows them flock to Maine too and they are not all retired, wearing the gold watch for all those years of service somewhere far from Maine.

One Beach Is Not Exactly Like The Next. This One In Maine In Kennebunkport At Dusk.

Maine only has a handful of cities. And the shift of folks living in the ones closer to Boston making the move deeper into the interior, pushing further north. It is happening as I hear in my day job some just don’t feel like they live in the Maine they grew up in because of increased population. All that is lost when the head count number rises.

Maine, why Maine?

The unspoiled beauty, the vast wide open space, fresh air, clean water. The simpler living in Maine. You are needed in small Maine towns, you have a role to do beyond raising your kids, holding down a job. You contribute in lots of little ways so collectively the pride of the small Maine town, your area of one of the sixteen counties swells. You work behind the scenes in the local community events, not just pay for the price of admission in small Maine town productions.

Fire engines send off and receive the sports teams that leave town boundaries lines to defend a title or earn a new one. We cheer on and had a hand in raising our youngsters. We know them by first name, their brothers, sisters too. Our households have hub bub from more than our own and kids grow up feeling a part in their community. And long to come back to it if forced to move but that leave their heart back in Maine. The state up here in the left hand upper corner which by rights should be in Canada. And shares a rich heritage with the land of the waving red maple leaf.

The Pets Socialize As Their Owners Do The Same On A Maine Open Deck. Chill.

Folks moving, relocating to Maine get the unexpected perk of venturing into the Maritimes.

No one told them in the four color brochure pushing Maine tourism how neat it really is to be a two nation vacation destination. And our sports teams drag us to other parts of Maine. We hang around after the game and get to know our Maine small town host by tooling the area, sampling what each has to offer. That is the sparkle on the facets of the jewel dubbed Maine.

Ever been Downeast Maine? This Me In Maine blog post channel tries to highlight the many areas of Maine. Folks that claim to have been to Maine but only the Kittery Trading post and a quick trip back across the big green bridge quick like a bunny like we urged the kids. They missed out on so much! Come back, go deeper, stay a little longer sometime. Make Maine a life long habit.

I love where I live in Maine.

But just as much, exploring and discovering all the special areas of Maine living here is what adds the sizzle to the steak. The ice shacks are slowly leaving the frozen sheets of water, sap houses are in production making the maple syrup. Canoe and kayak race schedules are being circulated around Maine. We are scanning seed catalogs, planning for outdoor remodeling or renovation projects and shopping materials for the DIY updates. Little league, soap box derby registrations are landing in household metal boxes and email inboxes.

Maine Has A Lot Of This… Just Land. No People, No Wind Generators Or Anything Man Made.

Space in an under populated state like Maine creates the sense of relief and then bring in, cue all the wildlife. Everyone longs to see a moose, white tail deer, a whale vacationing in Maine right?

Birds singing, fish jumping, no highway hum of big trucks or all those city sirens. The sunrises, sunsets on a lake, a river, ocean front cause a person to let go completely. To gaze into the outdoor fire pit while friends and family collect to share, bond, to dream. Munching slow cook, locally sourced home made food. Much you raised yourself or others at the social gatherings contributed to the common menu.

Thinking you could benefit from a little Maine time spent wisely to ease back, enjoy life a lot more? Less distractions, more hands on skill building and help from your neighbors who join forces. Who wouldn’t benefit from that? Thought of moving, relocating to Maine?

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

March 28, 2017
Easy Does It, Keep It Simple Living In Maine.

Maine’s magic is all about living simpler without wall to wall people invading your personal space.

And you know how clutter piling up around your home can cause stress? Or the feeling of being perpetually late, pushed hard to be here, there, everywhere can overwhelm? Because you are just being pulled in too many directions. When you take a deep breath, step back and study what’s is causing the what is missing, the causes are plain as day. How you fill your day is still a personal decision right ? And you do have some say in the life you lead or do you?

Families, Outdoor Fun, Maine Fresh Air. Winter Greets Spring. Priceless.

What leaves you out of sorts, feeling deep down dissatisfied is often just too many people pushing and shoving and making demands on you.

Maine is under populated, with vast unspoiled space which helps tremendously to set the stage for the healthier living foundation to build on. Not many people to deal with means much is missing and just does not show up on your radar.

The high cost of city living, all the traffic, noise, expense and worry about personal safety weigh a person down big time. Like heavy cement shoes were slipped on permanently in just your size. Or your pair of arms are pressed tightly against your chest as if a permanent strait jacket was laced up and buckled tightly to cut off your air supply. And who put on these leg irons? Ah, you did.

What can rob a beautiful day of promise shortly after you rise and are suppose to shine?

What brings in the dark clouds that hides the blue sky and makes you a prisoner is not someone else’s fault. The over stuffed bloat and everything just not in its right place around you day in and out takes its toll. Empties a person. Shouldn’t you be able to fill your schedule day and night with some hand picked items and live your own life with some self input in the personal choices?

Maine Is Real, Peaceful, Not Crowded. One Of The Lowest Crime States.

That feeling of not being as ship shape as you want and powerless to change your life’s direction. Virtually out of control weary added to a continuous over booked lifestyle where the clock is your drill sergeant can leave a person drained. Bone weary.

Wondering what’s wrong. It’s what is missing. A person can self medicate to temporarily address the symptoms. But they don’t go away on their own. And clutter is not just what fills your household living space. It spills over beyond the physical square footage you call home and where you stuff whatever you hoard and consider treasure.

A day at a time makes the how do you fix the direction your life has taken easier to accomplish. Causes patience, the sincere effort needed to force the self examination. You can not fix what you don’t address by avoiding making the time for study. The neat thing about blog posts from real people out in the World around us is sharing.

How do the rest of the Earth inhabitants live, and how do you apply new ways of thinking, doing to your own life is easier than ever with the Internet.

Granted, you can spend a lot of time surfing, drilling down into a topic and looking for the rich veins of information that are hidden nuggets to search online.

The Imaginations Working Full Time Outdoors, Lungs Full Of Fresh Maine Air.

The root cause of what is ailing you can make a person feel pretty powerless as the hide and go seek exercise unfolds. If you make the time. Isn’t it time? Come to Maine, open up your mind and heart and run away from all those people that distract.

Simple living in Maine, everything that’s important becomes crystal clear.

Everything that was blurred comes into crystal clear perspective. Ready to find out about Maine, the way life should be? Or don’t. Stay stuck, treading water and just trying to avoid people when they are wall to wall around you that only limits your life. Makes it easily to just pile on more layers of what is not rewarding and lasting but simply a time and money hog. Are you just killing time?

Have you thought about living in Maine?

Trading in the gerbil on the tread wheel existence squeak squeak squeak. What it would be like to live simply in Maine?

How do you get back to simpler living?

Spring is in the air in Maine as winter wanes, Mr Sun gets stronger overhead our small communities.

Spring fever, cabin fever intensifies as warmer days, cooler but not cold nights become the norm. As the season change begins transition. Maple syrup sap is starting to run. The snow is melting and spring skiing, snow sledding is superb. Ice shacks are heading off the frozen sheets of water to prepare for smelts running, other forms of trolling for your fish dinner.

Local Mainers are digging out from winter. Reading seed catalogs. Enjoying natural speed bumps and driving obstacles. While a fresh crop of pot holes are in full bloom as frost heaves release the frozen hold on the ground around us.

Sample Maine on a vacation and consider what if you lived here full time?

If you were involved in your small Maine community and needed, contributing to others who do the same to benefit you in the process. Maine, come for a day, end up staying a lifetime.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

March 19, 2017
Cheap Land In Maine Prices, Less Or No Layers Of Zoning Building Codes.

The marching to Maine to find cheap land.

To run away from all the layers of players whenever you want to build the new dream home. Or add on, do the updates when you are smack dab in the heart of an urban setting. The big attraction, the main reason besides low price tags for Maine land is you get all this space. Wide open surroundings without too many people to spoil the setting. To make it so you can’t hear yourself think.

The Black Horse Horse Buggies, The Walkers And Amish Bikers Hard To See At Dusk At Night In Maine.

Maine, it looks attractive to those wanting to avoid all the strangle hold of zoning, building codes, all the rubber stamps of approval steps. That are costly in time and the green stuff. Permits for this, waiting for another municipal meeting, running everything by a snarky restrictive home owner’s association in a planned development. That sizes you up to see if you are a blue blood and going to fit in or not.

Maine is simpler. Because we have less people, there are way way fewer of the head and horns, big cheese chiefs telling them us what to do that over regulation causes.

Move along people. No more herding them in this or that direction. Because freedom to build slowly, a little today, adding to what you started along the way. As time and your budget allow. It makes whatever you do create way more interesting and thought out practical. Because nothing was rushed, no one had a gun to your head. You had choices in the decision making with the stress of heavy duty pressure.

Soil tests for the septic system is one must when you do build on the cheap land in Maine.

Making sure your water source is a well at least 100 feet from the sewerage disposal operation. More on what’s the heck is a HHE 200 soil test plan tht is pretty important paperwork. You can have a privy, make the trips to the little shack out back. The outhouse which is environmentally the best for the good Earth. And have a gray well disposal area designed for shower and kitchen water.

Still need the soil tester involved in the pretty straight forward paperwork that the licensed soil tester, site evaluator cranks out. That shows the dimensions of the leach field or disposal area. That is bigger or smaller depending on the number of bedrooms in the dwelling. With it designed for pressurized or forget the pump to create designs to handle what you want to dispose of that no one likes to talk about much.

Besides the folks wanting a piece of dirt for low cost vacation use, for the investment side of things, piece of mind is another motivator to buy cheap land in Maine. If the country gets into more hot water, if the quick sand of expensive government red tape causes the city mice to head to the hills where their country brethren roost. Starting over in rural Maine is an attractive notion of an increasing number of people.

Teaming The Horses, Working The Land In Maine Farm Fields. Amish Communities Do It Daily Around The State.

The Amish over the years have found Maine on their real estate radar.

The cheap land prices, easier codes for building and just less all around regulation is appealing to their simple lifestyle. The supply of farm land in Maine is great and the smaller fields that bigger growers don’t mess with are idea for the Amish. Who strive to keep things like their were a few generations back in farming. Horse drawn this, hand done that makes the farming harder. But keeps the Amish industrious and pretty much to themselves.

In many areas of Maine you see new Amish settlements. Hear the clip clop of their horse drawn one color carriages. With the group huddled inside wearing the same shade of black. In over a half dozen communities in Maine, Amish settlements have ignited. Sparked from earlier visits from the Amish scouts to check out their brave new land called Maine, the state by itself in the northern outpost of the country. And bordering Canada where the difference in the dollar to loonie exchange can add to the sizzle and allure. Depending on which way the currency value tips.

The Amish have helped taken up the slack of the shrinkage of original farmer head count in Maine.

The trend nationally of farmers being an average age of 59 is not what is happening in Maine. The Amish, the resurgence of farming with micro agriculture younger operators have made Maine bucking the trend. With more than four times the national average of new farm starts the headline in Maine today.

The Amish home school, pay property taxes and contribute to the local economy with their trade mark storage sheds, leather harnesses, bike sales and repairs, etc. I have used their vertical metal siding to re-side a big family farm barn. And their dark as the inside of a cow general store in Smyrna Maine’s Amish community is stocked to the ceiling with nifty devices and fair prices. The Prairie Princess wood cook stove like the other items they sell are tried and tested by their own Amish communities. They sell what they use in their households on a daily basis.

No Smog, No Gas Guzzling Exhaust Fumes With Maine Amish Transportation Using Horse And Buggies. Over 113 Amish Families In A Half Dozen Communities Are Alive And Well In Maine.

Another Amish settlement in East Hodgdon Maine I was involved with as the broker with the listing on a border farm that looked into Canada made for a perfect setting. Except what do you do when you cattle, sheep, farm animals wander across the US / Canadian border? Disconnection of the power into the home, sudden building of a variety of structures was done quickly as I observed the the migration of new families to this Hodgdon Maine location in Southern Aroostook County.

Industrious, private, family oriented, the Amish element in our Maine landscape has added a tourist attraction.

They Amish group in Smyrna Maine from Tennessee landing here in 1996. The Fort Fairfield Central Aroostook collection arrived in 2007 from Heuvelton, NY and Ohio, Missouri, Iowa. The Unity area Amish population from Missouri, Kentucky and down from Smyrna settled in 2008. The Sherman, East Hodgdon and Patten area groups all showed up between 2011 and 2012.

But the shy but friendly Amish population in Maine tries to tend to the chores, raising their large household of respectful boys and girls. The Amish don’t vote. They take care of their own self funded Amish healthcare. Part of the admiration of the Amish when you live with them as neighbors is the preserving the yesteryear farming lifestyle.

Using old ways to produce the bounty from the farm land. But also observing the way they work together on projects from barn raisings to house construction. On their own spread and hired out like ants at a picnic in time’s a wastin’ country building projects. Relying on the home or barn builder to pick up the Amish crew to and from work. Or hiring others to transport the materials if not handy to their own Amish farmsteads. Check out the video from a recent Maine farm sale that was built from the ground up, along with a barn by the Amish community in Smyrna Maine. See, hear the Amish home building in action at this link.

Space For Everyone, Maine Has Lots Of Cheap Land. To Enjoy The Wildlife Without Traffic, Crime, Pollution. Noise.

On Thursdays, the Amish in our area have “community project day”.

They leave their farm land homesteads to go help another in their group. To round robin do whatever needs attention on the spread down the road. There is a connection and working together manner that is impressive. In a day and age of “me me me” when it used to always be about others. Many are realizing how the get more by giving more really works in small rural Maine. Money is not the end all. The way you treat others with dignity and respect it and kindness wins the day.

How do we adjust to the Amish in Smyrna, East Hodgdon, Fort Fairfield-Easton, Unity-Thorndike, Sherman-Island Falls and Patten?

Well motorists see the horse and buggy signs, slow when a carriage is coming at you or when you come up on one pretty fast on a country highway. The black makes seeing them at dusk or later very hard so I avoid those highways and opt out for the faster Interstate 95 by pass around the communities that do have Amish settlements in Aroostook County. Having a horse hit for a new hood ornament is not a pleasant thought.

Nature’s Circle, a local New Limerick organic farm operation partners with the Amish produce growers for their root crops, the squash, potatoes. With expansion of what is grown and shipped to organic markets planned. I grew up on a convention farm and the introduction to organic crop raising has been enlightening. Thinking more about where did this food come from and how it was handled makes food safety pretty darn important. There is nothing better than farm to table, close to home farming to feed your family the best food available to make them grow tall, strong, happy and healthy.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

March 9, 2017
Sea Cruises To Maine.

Taking a sea cruise to Maine, to anywhere on the planet can be a whole lot of fun.

Sometimes the little boat ride is a short one on a ferry to says Cranberry or Peaks Island Maine for biking, hiking exploring. But other times when you are in Bar Harbor Maine you see a large ocean sea cruise boat. That empty their 3000 to 4000 cruise boat passengers ready to play tourist inland at a Maine town or city. To come ashore, to ply the streets of a deep water port in Maine. Searching for local food or gift items, a t-shirt, souvenir with Maine written across it.

Cruise Ship Vacations, Those Big Boats Come And Park Off Maine Harbor Towns.

What are the cruise ship destinations in Maine?

You want to take a sea cruise to Maine. To shake life up and to see what is missing. Well the ports of Portland, Rockland, Bar Harbor, Eastport, Freeport, Kennebunkport, Portland, Rockland, Bath, Boothbay Harbor, Camden, Belfast, Searsport, Bucksport, and Bangor all get visits from the large cruise ships.

The Canadian member ports of Campobello Island and Saint Andrews by the Sea in Downeast Maine get visits from the huge floating hotels. That are like gigantic, piled high resorts riding the waves around Vacationland.

So what is the magic of a cruise Vacation? I have been on seventeen cruises and can throw in my two cents of the subject. First, travel is never a waste of time or money. To experience how another part of the World lives, how other areas rock and roll broadens your life perspective. The poverty of a third world island community is sobering. But the rich pride in the blue green waters surrounding it, in the often hard fought independence from an Imperial force makes the sand and sun island life shines brightly.

Have had my kids notice something very important from the settings beyond just around the cruise ports on an island. Where the locals put their best foot forward for marketing their goods and tourist services.

From my experience, instead of booking a tour on the boat that are more expensive and involve longer tedious days herding the other cruisers packed in like sardines. It works better to do those excursions from the cruise boat from a different approach.

In a cruise ship stop in say Jamaica, it is better to wait until all the cruise ship passengers on those large excursions crowd the hallways to get to deck zero and exit the boat. Then take your time getting up, eating your breakfast and packing the snorkel gear, sun screen and beach towels for the day in port ahead of you.

Cruise Ships Park In The Harbors Of Many Exotic Locations Around The World.

You get off the cruise ship boat without any pushing or shoving, looking for a taxi van to hire for the day.

Scanning the dashboards to see a well worn bible and then having a chit chat to spell out what you would like to accomplish on the day in paradise that the cabby calls home. You explain you want to go to a beach, the one he would take his family to, not the tourist trap nearest the cruise ship. You want him to come back to the beach in about three hours, and to line up his cousin who has a small boat and will take your family snorkeling where the fish are most colorful and plentiful.

Then on the cab driver’s return to beach, to take a guided tour of the island he knows so well as a local native.

Show us the Fern Gully, take us to Dunn River Falls for the trek up the waterfalls one rock at a time with a hand holding side to side attack up the eight hundred foot course.

Then to take us to a compound protected from the pan handlers to shop in peace. To go from shop to shop and dicker with the merchants. Where your kids learn to walk away from something they want but not at the sticker asking price. So they get a better deal, or two for one in the simple business exchange.

Then before the cruise ship blows the loud low fog horn warning passengers to climb back on before the captain pulls back the gang plank, to wrap it up. With a combination of sun and fun and trinkets from the island visit as you prepare for a day at sea or another island stop tomorrow. And ding ding ding of the dinner bell. It’s time to eat because every twenty minutes you are pretty much grazing on something good to eat all served up by folks from all over the World. Your service providers on the boat can be a cabin steward from the Far East, your waiter from Colombia, his assistant from St Vincent. The cruise director from New Zealand, the drink lady from Latvia or Serbia or another Baltic country.

Cruise Ship Vacations In The Sun And Fun.

The cruise ships are big, efficiently laid out, have lots of entertainment options from live music dancing to piano bar small and intimate settings.

They are floating hotel resorts parked off another West Indies island jewel. The boats float all around the globe and sea cruises to the Alaska, Hawaii, through the Panama Canal or over to Europe and everywhere in between.

The kids in the island stops go to school long days, wear uniforms of bright white to contrast with the wicked tans and bronze skin. Your own kids will see flapping sheet metal roofs peeled back from the last hurricane. The poverty of the inner regions of many island stops that the four color brochure does not display are educational.

The folks with little are happy, connected, need and work with each other. And if they are poor, they don’t know it. They are rich because they are grateful. They appreciate what they have. What a lesson to show your kids while growing up to expand their vision and to know how lucky we really are and the difference of third and first world problems.

Sea Cruises In Maine, Taking A Boat Ride To Three Or More Island Stops.

Taking a cruise on a very big ship. There are lots of boat brands to pick from… I am partial to Carnival Cruise Lines. Heck bought stock that is doing well from the line that owns more than the 25 whale tail boats.

Family oriented, kid friendly and they have the water slides, all the bells and whistles that keep all the ages happy. The kids are on vacation too … the Carnival cruise lines realizes that important factor.

Unless you’re a major drinker or down and dirty gambler, everything is paid for on the boat cruises. The shore excursion are up to you to add to the fun when you are not on the ship and heading inland.

From the live shows to the heavy duty array of all kinds of food to the sleeping staterooms with or without balconies. Sea cruises are one highly efficient way to vacation. Unpack once, leave the driving to the skipper as he tools around the islands on your cruise itinerary.

Cruise Ship Vacations, They Are Not Little Tug Boats. Nothing Small About The Dozen Story High Water Hotel Resorts.

Maine is one pretty state with four seasons to explore and discover the magic of this hidden location.

But moving around the crystal blue green water with palm trees and local fresh fruits and the colorful people of an island can transport you to Margaritaville.

Have you cruised on the open seas, been on a boat ride and to where?

Have you ever stopped in Maine on a cruise ship vacation? You might want to come to Maine by sea and not a highway or touching down on an airport runway.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton ME 04730 USA

March 2, 2017
If A Third Of The World’s Food Is Never Eaten…

Wasted food, when someone goes hungry while another throws away what never gets eaten.

Something wrong with that situation. So for starters, how to avoid wasting food which can make greenhouse gases, methane that does not help the Earth’s environment. It does start at home and food waste reduction. And when you raise what you eat, it can stay in the garden and be drawn on like a food bank. Or stored in your root cellar with sometimes little preparation or a process in canning that is a family tradition.

Fresh Maine Food, Like This Cabbage Organically Grown At Nature’s Circle Farm In Aroostook County.

There is nothing like a trip around supper time during a nippy winter night in Maine and getting an armful of potatoes, bread and butter pickles, stewed beets or whatever the food pantry holds to dine on with a little imagination and a hunger that always improves the taste.

The journey down the cellar steps into the root cellar that yields much for lovingly made produce. For more close to home, farm to table all natural items to feed the Maine family. What you eat, how much is available and knowing you or your community members had a role in the growing and final preparation is a beautiful thing. No worries about what this foodstuff was sprayed with, how it was handled all disappears when the farming is done in your backyard, out in the rear fields.

But think about that staggering amount of food raised but never eaten by anyone. A third of the World’s food goes to waste, unsampled. The nutrition never channeled into someone’s diet and the fuel never put to use. Maine is a place with close to home grown quality food. To think of all that food in other places of the World that ends up on a trash pile or plowed up, in a composting container is truly sad. Starvation is not just having food or going hungry too. Food insecurity is another topic of discussion that

Maine Rutabaga Farm Produce Is Tasty Food From The Field.

everyone in the World can appreciate.

Maine has started a healthy trend to being the top in the country for lower age farmers and is bucking the national average age of hovering around 59 for farmers in the USA.

It used to be about 48 years old for the guy and gal in the overalls, back after World War Two’s cease fire. More on the trend for aging farmers in the USA. In Maine, agriculture’s resurgence is tied to the tourism too. Sometimes the farming is a agricultural festival that creates the buzz and traffic to small Maine communities.

The resurgence of local farming in Maine could help give a shot in the arm for the food pantries too. Maine farms starting up at a rate four times the national average. Close to home surpluses of excess local foodstuffs don’t end up on the rubbish pile. Get channeled where they do the most good at places like the Good Shepherd food pantry and don’t become methane generators or end up hurting the size of the Earth’s carbon food print.

Ways To Slice, Dice, Eat Red Cabbage. Just One Of The Locally Grown Maine Farm Foods Available To Buy, The Fields To Gleen.

Instead of picking up a package of food and not being so sure where it came from, the tendency to gravitate to the farmer’s markets is a healthy habit. To have a rich experience jawing and rubbing shoulders with the local grower who delivers the Maine farm food. Who shares the growing experience and learns what the shoppers prefers for future planning on what seed to buy. Knowing just which field on the Maine farm he will be growing what next year because the customer has spoken.

Eyeball to eyeball and face to face in the exchange between shopper and Maine farmer.

Organic farming in Maine is a growing part of the agriculture landscape too. Fighting for it’s bigger share of the market with conventional farming operations in Maine. There is a reason many Amish settlements have popped up around Maine. Cheap Maine land, fertile soil, not overly regulated with permits and licensing and low crime, no traffic. Lots of love and it makes for an idea backdrop to a farmstead in Maine if that is the lifestyle you want to carve out for yourself, your family.

More on agritourism.

Food, Maine, you and some land around where you live. Because you and no one else either should go hungry. Ever thought of scratching the dirt, planting the seeds and seedlings and tending the crops to get them to the bountiful harvest? Maine is one big state and farming is such an important part of the heritage of every single ones of the communities surrounding the four corners of Vacationland. Ever thought of owning a farmstead you build from the ground up and renting out rooms at your country inn, or scheduling tours for the tourist who decides to wander into your region of Maine? Hold that thought, can help you put together the dream in ownership of your own farming property in Maine.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

February 14, 2017
Food Insecurity, What Does It Mean To Mainers?

Food insecurity, what do the two words mean if you live in Maine?

Well for starters, the first time I heard the expression “food insecurity” I did not think about not having enough or any. But where did the food come from and what was it sprayed with, how was it handled by field workers, in transport from field to my point of purchase, etc. I grew up on a Maine potato and grain farm and we had lean years but always ate well. With big vegetable truck gardens, an endless supply of potatoes and a root cellar stocked from dirt floor to over my head to draw from to make it close to home hands on foodstuffs. For true field to table, fruit orchard, poultry, beef, dairy critters to provide what went into the meal production.

Food insecurity is defined as …

Trimming Beets At Nature’s Circle, A Local Organic Farming Operation In Northern Maine.

“food in·se·cu·ri·ty

noun

the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. 1.”more than 800 million people live every day with hunger or food insecurity as their constant companion”.

They says food insecurity and poverty go hand in hand too.

Not knowing where your next meal or snack is coming from messes up the three meals a day routine, the you can’t have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat.

In a state like Maine where farming is big, agriculture is all around us. Going hungry is harder to fathom. You can always glean fields, there is plenty of food harvested but lots more left behind to just rot into the ground. Help yourself, just ask the farmer and say thanks. Because more mechanized farm operations don’t get everything from the field that could be what’s for your breakfast, lunch, dinner. But it is not economical for the big scale farmer to go back and scour because hundreds of acres to harvest before frost sets in and that’s all she wrote.

But the quality of the food, the nutritive value especially for youngsters with developing brains, growing bodies. Plenty of good food wins the day. Not tons of convenience items with empty nutrition that can be bought cheaply. But rob dietary nutrition of the essential vitamins and trace element ingredients. The eight out of ten folks living in a city where the most jobs are don’t have the same options for free food straight from the field to supply what is on the grocery list. They can’t have a garden because just no space around them in the hustle bustle.

Reduced quality, less variety adds to the food insecurity discussion to broaden the scope as defined by the USDA. Discomfort, weakness, illness with prolonged food insecurity is a cancer of a different type. Than the ones that attack certain organs or that like to spread and travel around the body like wildfire. That claim the lives of loved ones in our families and communities.

Do you worry about food running out and your cupboards being Old Mother Hubbard bare?

In cities, just in time grocery store stocking the shelves would mean havoc if trucking stopped for two or three days. Storms and weather disturbances bear this out as panic happens on the retail level.

Family Farms, Maine Has An Increase And The Average Age Of Farmers Is Dropping!

Like a cold Maine winter challenges the wood pile supply when you have five cords stacked in the shed or filling your cellar but are chewing it up quicker than you planned.

Knowing you may not have enough fuel or food for your family to keep them warm or fed is what keeps a parent awake at night. When money is short, programs to take up the slack get over taxed, reduced or phased out altogether.

Food and shelter, safety are the biggest basic needs a person could have. Providing for your family, the young sprouts is a component of love as a good parent. Which everyone needs to feel important, to feel loved, worthwhile and have hope. Good food, in great supply is a wonderful basic staple. And can the locals in a small Maine community prepare it just so.

Anyone working in education knows the anxiety of kids skipping meals because there is nothing to to feast on.

And what it does to add to the distraction and dull the focus of the student needing the education. But the lack of energy or oomph. Just not feeling up to par because of sheer hunger. The week before a school vacation are happy times for those heading out on a tropical sea cruise or a visit to see Mickey or Minnie in the sunny south. But when your Maine home is cold, there is no food and the atmosphere is stressed because of missing parents or ones that fight, there is nothing to look forward to when a vacation arrives. School is the routine, with food injected to round out the day in the classrooms and roaming the halls in the educational shuffle from the gym to the library and hopefully not detention.

The days heading out of a school vacation back into the three “R’s” in the classroom are hard on educators and students too.

Because the adjustment from a week, a holiday that was not fun with no food, cold and harsh conditions at home. All that follows the unhappy student back into the rows of desks with the black board upfront and the apple on the desk. The hungry child living in poverty conditions did not get a real vacation and has to begin feeding the mind and nourishing the soul to develop skills to be self sufficient outside of the educational bubble.Have you ever run into someone that was poor growing up and did not like it, carries a chip on their shoulder of bitterness and regret? It isn’t fair for a kid to be hungry, to go without food.

The Bees Are Busy Pollinating The Maine Potato Fields In Summer.

Or I know of someone that knew hunger growing up and missed meals, went to bed hungry and who now works at a food pantry because of it. To make sure less kids and older know that same feeling down in your gut of going without food or good nutrition.

Do you support a cause like backpack for kids in your local area?

Who fill up the empty sack to have bus drivers distribute to households that lack much in the cupboards at no fault of the child in those homes.

During the school year, backpacks with non-perishable items are filled up on a Wednesday, taken to the school on Friday, and head home with the children to be returned via the child turning in the empty bags on Monday.

Everything repeated the following Wednesday which is fine as long as the yellow school bus is on its run. Reducing hunger for children is so important to their education, esteem, general well being. Summer away from school’s dinner bell ringing or if the back pack support team needs a break in the food line bucket brigade, kids go hungry of the good stuff, any foodstuff and on their own in fending for themselves.

Low cost or free meals that are nutritious and balanced are provided to over 31 million American students in our country.

The US Census ties poverty levels to the number of reduced or free hot lunches or breakfasts provided to students in an area economically challenged. Hunger is one of the leading obstacles to education in our country.But the argument parents always used about finish your plate and remember all those starving kids halfway around the World.

When you scan a row of kids at a concert or at a sporting event or out in the community and obesity seems to be another dietary problem. Not because of not enough food but poor eating habits of the wrong items or too much that adds the weight and affects the health of the youngster. Who is carrying around the physical weight beyond the design of his or her body along with the self esteem issues for being large.

Seed Potatoes In Maine, The Best Creates Large Yields Of Great Nutritious Produce.

Part of fixing health care and making it more affordable starts in good eating habits as a kid.

Obesity affects genetics, alters the behaviors and attitudes of kids that get less and less exercise the larger they become. A healthy diet, a child physically active is happier and not eating out of boredom or self medicating to band-aid a larger dietary wound.

Good diet, eating habits and nutritious food helps children grow strong, maintain a healthy weight throughout childhood. And leads to less burden on the expensive health care system because a healthier population does not depend on it so greatly.A harmony, a balance of energy goes into activity and calorie consumption. From the right foods and beverages to prevent excess weight gain.

Healthy eating, being physically active helps to prevent chronic diseases that are killers like type 2 diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. Eating balanced meals, combined with exercise improves mental clarity and helps reduced mood swings. To stave off depression because of the poor self image from overeating, under exercising and being out of control with food consumption.

Did you or anyone grow up exposed to Maine farming?

Do you have a garden, is there space to have one where you live or does your community provide space to scratch the dirt, plant seeds to cultivate and nourish to get to the harvest stage?

Maine, lots of space and more are turning to homesteads, farmsteading because what is most important is missing on their dinner tables. Good food and Maine farming tie in with healthier lifestyles and being outdoors, working the land to be in better shape as the secondary gain. Maine farming agriculture numbers are up in more ways than one.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA

February 4, 2017