Farmers Markets in Maine, locally sourced home grown food is a beautiful thing!
Farm to table is nothing new to Maine communities. Home grown garden and farm field food is one of the perks to living in an area with lots of fertile land soil. Vendors that set up displays at local Maine farmer’s markets are not just veggies or produce either. Expect to see everything from cut fresh flowers in floral display, home made arts and crafts, baked goods, oils and home remedies of all types too. Cheeses, poultry and dairy product items too are common at local farmers markets in Maine.
Maine Amish Families Help The Varied Selection Of Local Farmers Market Offerings.
Maine has a lot of Amish settlements and these local farm groups make sure the trip to the weekly farmer’s market worth your while.
Kids, older adults and everyone in between age wise host the farmer’s market tables. In the Houlton Maine area, the Community Farmer’s Market event venue is beautiful historic Market Square.
Here’s a local community farmers market in Maine video from Aroostook County put together from last Saturday.
Do you grow a garden or live on a full time, maybe a hobby farm in Maine?
Lots of the requests for Maine real estate are buyers on the hunt for something with land. The more Maine land the better and if it is not a cut over woodlot and has open pasture fields, all the better. Cultivating soil that is ready to work means more time to spend at the local farmers market in Maine location.
Clearing a woodlot to create a Maine farm pasture field is a lot of work.
Maine Farm Pasture Field Of Red, White Clover And Wild Flowers.
But unless the present Maine land owner has kept the ground in cultivation or hays or bush hogs the property, trees happen. Young brush, vegetation and trees pop up quickly. Fallow worn out land in Maine is not so quickly forested. To farm it means putting back the soil amendments to make the Maine agricultural land productive. Like to own some land in Maine?
Being a good steward of the Maine farm land is key.
To maintaining top production land value and to reduce erosion and anything that hurts the quality of the farming operation. Giving your land in Maine to the next generation of loved ones in better shape, or at least as good as you received it. It is a sacred responsibility for Maine farmers no matter what size of operation they til, tend, weed, water and feed after spring planting.
Agriculture, farming in Maine can mean crops, critters and it is not always just meat and potatoes simple.
Farmer’s Market, Local Community Agriculture Served Up Farm To Table.
Strawberry patches, blueberries that are wild or cultivated along with fresh farm corn, cukes, carrots, squash, onions, lettuce, beans, peas if you please. As the season progresses, the selection of what’s offered up at the Maine farmer’s market increase in variety.
Farmers markets in Maine expand and contract depending on the weather and where you and I are on the calendar.
Canned preserves, dried fruits, pickled vegetables and anything else destined for the root cellar is fair game to peddle at the farmer’s market in Maine.
Farmer’s Market Fresh Flowers. More Than Just Fruits, Vegetables, Baked Goods.Community Market Farmers Market In Houlton Maine.
The bounty from the harvest of the Maine agricultural farm setting. Leaf lettuce, radishes, fresh garlic, scallions, a slew of vegetable and fruit offerings await at your local farmstead manned by family, friends, your local neighbors. There is so much sense of community doing business at a local farmer’s market in Maine venue.
Early on, dry beans, product from last growing season canned and pickled may be what’s for sale early on at the local community farmer’s market.
But as the stronger sunshine overhead works it magic with time, seed, water and fertilizer, more local produce, fruits and vegetables combine with the fresh eggs, baked goods and other items.
What’s For Sale At The Local Maine Farmer’s Market? New Vendors, New Offerings Each Week To Check Out.
Each week, lots of bartering and farmer market exchanges happen within the vendor community too.
Like one farmer’s market vendor in the Maine community video says, he issues lots of personal IOU’s. Has never been burnt or come up short in payment. That’s shows you the quality of the local Maine people who shop the farmer’s market. Or that he is a pretty good judge of character.
More Than Peas And Carrots And Ears Of Farm Fresh Corn. Lots To Check Out At Maine Farmer’s Markets.
Thank you for following our Me In Maine blog posts.
Hope you get a sense of what living in Maine is all about from the entries. Sure am glad I live, work and play in Maine and try to share that simple way of life that happens here day and night. This blog post on Maine farmer’s markets is an easy one requiring less hunt and peck wordage. Images can say a thousand words. The video takes you to the local community farmers market in Maine event.
Thought about taking life to a whole new level and dreaming of farming in Maine? The four letters “FARM” is a pretty big word. This blog post jumps into the topic how to start a farm in Maine. Reach out with questions about Maine farming.
Wide Open Unspoiled Farm Land In Maine. Want Some?
For starters, the farm up in Maine, are you thinking using the land for now on vacations?
With the plan to slowly pull away from expensive city living to trade it all in for wide open space, no locked doors, zip for traffic? Then Maine land, just land where you bring up the travel trailer RV camper and part it for low cost Maine vacations. Eventually, when everything in your life lines up correctly, you pull the trigger and build the house of your dreams. With everything you wanted that you never had in previous houses and a few items you did.
You will never go hungry on a Maine farm.
I did not eat a lot of rice growing up but we sure have a lot of home grown Maine potatoes. There are so many ways to cook and prepare a Maine potato and I know them all. On the family farm, we also grew soldier, yellow eye and Jacob’s cattle dry beans. Unlike potatoes, what you harvest one year can last into the next to sell. You just have to hope and pray it is not a wet fall when you have to harvest the dry beans.
Water is not your friend when dealing with dry rattling beans inside pods that wick the water and start to swell.
You want that process to begin when soaking beans for the Saturday night supper meal. But not out in the field when trying to have a dry harvest.
Here’s over 80 acres of Maine farm land for sale, watch the real estate video.
The three buildings you saw and heard about in this Maine farm video can be worked into an agricultural use.
The pasture farm fields are seeded down, all bush hogged and ready to go. Maine land that is totally wooded means clearing the forest, removing stumps and lots of prep work ahead. Maine farm land that is high test soil and maintained makes the lifestyle change go a lot smoother. Buying a farm in Maine is done for a lot of reason. The land investment gives the owner a piece of mind, security. It is purchased by many as an insurance policy for life. It is the next step and helps a person knowing where they are head. Slowly or quickly if things go south where they live now.
Real estate buyers also purchase farmland in Maine for multi-generational use.
So everyone in the family can have an acre or two to build a camp, home, heck put up a yurt. Gram and Gramp are on the farm up in Maine too. I had one couple who had both sets of in-laws with them when they purchased 115 acres on a river in Oakfield Maine. There was a house and the plan to slowly create more. Lots of auxiliary buildings around the Maine farm house happens. The emphasis is on the Maine farm barn, the machine shed, the chicken house, all the other pens with standing or box stalls.
Where I Grew Up, Your Me In Maine Blogger. On A Farm In Maine.
When you get the itch to start a Maine farm, when there are no buildings, the first one you construct is usually a barn, machine shed.
The emphasis is on the farm, living off the land. Making a paycheck by tilling the soil, managing the wooded sections is priority one. Or staking the pastures with fencing to contain the critters. There are many who start a farm in Maine that bank everything on the plunge into agriculture. But it helps if one person in the couple has a real job with benefits and a steady income. Or if you are retired and going small scale, micro farming, you have a “ticket”. That retirement income helps stabilize and keep the farm dream alive and well.
The big post and beam barns on Maine farms are like dinosaurs.
Slowly going to their knees and dying their last waspy breath due to lack of use and maintenance. Large round bales, not the small square or rectangular ones for hay have taken over. Putting hay up in the loft of a gable or gambrel roof barn is not done so much now. Labor costs are rising and if you can see daylight through holes in the barn roof, it’s whoa. Wet hay molds. Hay cut, conditioned, baled and put into storage with moisture in it can heat up and even cause a barn fire from spontaneous combustion.
Lots Of Full Time New Agriculture Producers Springing Up With Amish Farms in Maine.
Starting a farm in Maine, it’s not all fun and glamor.
Might want to wear your old clothes. Bring an extra set of gloves. Eat a hearty farmhouse breakfast. You are dealing with the weather in Maine that is always changing and unpredictable. Those totally surviving off the Maine farm land have worked a forty hour week by Tuesday noon. Spring planting and fall harvest of crops is never ending. Everything is counting on getting the seeds into the spring time ground and harvested off the land in fall. Frost going in or out is to be avoided at all costs.
Before you farm anything on for animals or crops in your pasture fields, where is your market going to be on the farm in Maine? You invested a lot of time, money, seed, fertilizer, etc for nothing if you can’t sell what you produce. You May be super duper at growing a crop but if no one wants to buy it, that’s no fun. That won’t keep the wolf or the bill collectors from your farmhouse door. Farming in Maine rides on a business chassis.
You have to be an accountant, good at marketing, a master at cruising the farm operation looking for loose ends and an expert at cutting through red tape.
All the time and it never lets up. Farming is a jealous master unless you have a ‘ticket” and keep it a hobby amateur operation.
Local farmers market like this one below create a sales outlet as shown in this Maine community video.
Local sales in the center of a small Maine down town. Thinking small potatoes, know your buyer and they know their local farmer. But something more grand, of growing large scale in mind? Not just selling out of the the Maine farm land or your garden. So now we’re talking about raising something on the farm in Maine that will need storage? To peddle and put up for the trip to some far away food market. For beyond the traditional growing season and not just field run to sell it as fresh as it will ever be. Okay, do you want to grow slow and nice and easy? To avoid a big bank mortgage that keeps you tossing and turning awake nights?
Unfortunately there is a cheap food policy in our country.
Big Barns In Maine. They Fall To Their Knees If Not Maintained.
That is why it helps to live where the cost to do it is lower to the ground. Maine is just such a place and blessed with hi test fertile low cost farm soil. Like most small businesses, is it volume. Getting bigger, watching your costs knowing the profit is in the expenses. That’s why earlier in the blog post on how to start a farm in Maine asked you if you were talking small or jumping in hook, line and sinker.
The most home grown and do as much yourself as you can without hiring out kind of Maine farming is the most enjoyable.
Small, controllable and you are hands on involved in every aspect of the farm in Maine operations. It also makes it new and always something new needing attention. Your kids growing up on a Maine farm learn worth ethic, skills, and healthier living being outdoors. Off the device, off the couch and self absorbed. That’s not the lifestyle when there are chores to do on the Maine farm operation.
No farmer, no food and more folks are realizing how to be self sufficient, independent means learning how to feed yourself.
Thought About Starting A Farm In Maine?
I grew up on the farm in Maine above and here to help with pointers and advice. Like people, Maine farm soils are different. I just happen to know a dependable Maine real estate broker with fire in his belly about farms (blushing ten shades of red). Reach out, let’s talk, learn more about how to start a farm in Maine no matter what size or kind it is! Thank you for stopping by and learning a little more about how to start a farm in Maine.
It’s happening and it’s not a fluke. This blog post is a look at why the former trend of outward migration and population loss is reversing in my small town rural area of Maine. I see it and hear the reasons why every day as a Maine real estate broker. The call of the country and simpler living up in Maine. It’s all causing the relocation to Vacationland pace to pick up speed.
The Village In A Small Maine Town Raises The Kids.
The tug on the heart strings to move back to Maine small towns.
For some it is an easy decision to make.
They remember growing up in small Maine towns and know what they are missing from first hand experience.
Jobs and financial career goals the only reason that forced the move away from small town living in the first place. It was a reluctant but necessary natural progression. Population centers offered the largest variety of good paying jobs. Maine is a great place to live, always has been. But the catch is you have to be able to make a decent wage.
You gotta eat and want more than a hand to mouth existence if what you or your parents did for employment was tied to farming, fishing, mill work or cutting pulp in the Maine woods.
Bustling small Maine towns before the Interstate and Internet were vibrant with flourishing small Maine businesses. Working hard with the owner in the store dedicated to serving your friends, family and neighbors. Performing with fierce pride in your local school sport teams too. Maine rural communities offer a tightly connected small town way of life.
Able to telecommute to work online remotely during COVID was the dress rehearsal.
Folks everywhere across the land and around the globe learned we can do it from the comfort of our own home sweet home. We’re moving. Lower overheard for companies, happier workers not wasting time socializing around the water cooler. No hassles with traffic, crime, carrying a tazer. It all helped fuel the migration to Maine. Packing the Worldly possessions along with the current job and heading North up the pike to to work remotely in Maine. IF that last mile of Internet broadband connection is long and strong in place to make it a viable relocation option.
You are no longer in a city skyscraper corner office when the kids come home after school living in rural Maine.
The kids can now walk home from school because everything is so close in small Maine towns.
Picking Maine Potatoes, My Entry Level Job That Taught Me So Much.
A block to the store, two blocks to school, and kids hoof it rather than parents providing the valet drop and pick up daily dance. Multi generations living together is more efficient and the kids benefit from the wisdom of older family members nearby or sharing the same roof line. You don’t have the giant city salary but your expenses are way way lower to the ground. No worry about a white van kidnapping your kid either. The village watches and raises all the children.
You do more for yourself than hiring it out in small rural Maine towns.
The cost of living is lower in small town rural Maine because insurance is cut in half. No white vans lurking near your home that you worry about snacking your kids in the 4th lowest crime state either.
So so many Maine vacation places overhauled to be way way more than a three day or week long take a break stay.
When the COVID sky started falling and toilet paper was scarce. As the initial wave of adjustment to life as we knew it hit, anyone with a Maine coastal, lake shore, riverfront, woods retreat toyed with the thought.
What if I packed it in and headed up to Maine as my refuge to regroup?
To weather the COVID storm and tough it out for a spell until things settled down. But COVID is the hangover that did not go away. The virus is not a temporary condition and forces everyone to consider where they hang their hat and why for quality of living.
Perkins Cove Maine, Boats Anchored For The Night.
For many close to retirement, the memory of sea gulls and lake loons on Maine vacations is the all natural pure and simple drug. A carryover flashback OF memories of good times enjoyed during time spent here on the fun Maine rest and relaxation stint. For young folks struggling to make ends meet in the city, getting more for less financial overhead in small Maine town living has appeal.
Less people, more down to early friendly folks and all this four seasons outdoor unspoiled natural beauty.
Maine is a place you love her for what she offers and what she does not at the same time. Less traffic, lower crime, cheaper to live in Maine. That coupled with the friendly people and more elbow room. The ability to pitch in and feel you can make a difference as you add your talents to the mix. You are needed in the small Maine town special home grown connection. The village raises the kids and you are closer to the day to day action in smaller circles you travel in small Maine towns.
Older Teach The Younger. Small Maine Rural Towns Are Tight Family Connections.
When COVID’s trapped inside living stress doubled up, the little space with far too many people in the city made urban dwellers hanker low population Maine.
The common sense and pitch in to help out approach to living in small Maine towns looked pretty darn appealing. Small Maine towns are really like large families. You don’t pay to attend events, you are working them behind the scenes year after year.
Kids Helping Area Maine Farmers. Learning Work Ethic, Responsibility Early On To Benefit For Life.
Home grown beats store bought and the hands on to make the next event even better causes others around you to dig in and do more. That’s how small Maine towns work. You don’t just live and work there. Instead, you are the small Maine town and go above and beyond to maintain and increase the quality of life for others.
The polarity and division of the last national election just added fuel to the fire to pick up and move to Maine.
Feeling like buying 40 acres up in Maine might be the answer caused more emails, texts, office visits and phone calls to pour into our small Maine town real estate office. Land big and cheap. To plant a large garden, to cut, split and stack the winter wood. With next year’s stash for heating your home already steadily added to to be boy scout prepared.
Halloween Is Big, Trick Or Treating Is Safe.
Migration back to Maine for locals that had picked up roots and moved.
That’s part of the Maine real estate market activity. Others buying vacation property that could be more if the new owner decides to head to Maine. This market segment hedging their bets and looking for a fun but sensible insurance policy investment. Maine land is way way under valued and boy can you produce a lot of farm to table food if you work it. Enriched living, everyone from the smallest to the oldest family member has a role in the household.
Dangling, Handling The Ball To Advance Up The Maine High School Soccer Field!
Taught how to do it, to develop the right attitude for success. To approach a task carefully and perform it slowly. Easy does it. Like the early on advice to never run with scissors and to avoid getting hurt. But with expertise to plan your work and work that plan learned from past experience growing up in small town Maine.
Everyone is assessing today what exactly “quality of life” really means.
How to achieve it, maintain it, make it last. Maine small towns have far less obstacles and in most cases, money is not the deciding factor on where you live anymore. We Mainers are more hands on, have a skill set and don’t have to wait around for others to do everything for us. Raised in Maine, kids learn work ethic, gain self confidence and are shaped for adulthood. Happier, independent, not blaming others for why their life did not turn out the way it looks around the artificial social media circuits. “If it is to be, it is up to me” and being grateful enriches your life and those of the folks around you.
Any Season, Any Angle, Mount Katahdin Captivates A Person Any Age.
When you live in a city, the options to provide kids with their own hard earned money are not so common. Obstacles to work… that’s part of it. But also parents that don’t push for Jimmy and Jane to do chores and hold down entry level jobs. COVID fear make parents hover even more but also work legislation restrictions threatens skill building and opportunities first jobs.
In Maine small towns, kids mow lawns, deliver newspapers, have odd jobs around the neighborhood and bag groceries, stock shelves. If kids work out in the gardens, stack wood, pitch in with daily chores around a Maine household. Good things are going to happen.
Maine Home Offices, Working Online From Home Sweet Home Up In Maine. No Worried About FOMO Because We Are Grateful.
But if mom and dad hand you $20 bills and Zeke or Pebbles’ cell phone and car are better than their parents have.
If teenagers are not cutting grass, flipping burgers, delivering papers or helping area farmers, small businesses. Oh oh.
When they don’t babysit and are slumped on a couch peering into an eerie blow glow device, a full and rich dynamic life is not automatic. No skills, lazy, depressed and not able to connect the dots why happens.
Kids suffer when adults are hired to do those jobs they need to learn self sufficiency … that’s another part of it.
Outward migration from say Florida with over 400 people per square mile or California at 250 plus or New Jersey with over 1200 head count.
That’s another piece of the labor shortage puzzle. And why employers are paying so much to attract a labor force. That means the cost of goods and services provided will be sky high too.
A kid getting $14 an hour or higher working at a fast food outlet is too much and only going to lead to wanting higher wages than the job warrants.
The raking blueberries, picking potatoes, apples, working on a farm in Maine builds stamina, responsibility, develops a hustle in your step. You earned every cent you made when it is the sweat of your brow manual entry level kind.
My rural Aroostook County area is growing with folks rethinking where they live in a crowded areas with high cost of living, traffic, crime.
Mid Coast Maine Lighthouses. Lots Of Them To Collect Easily From A Boat Ride.
You will never ever see local signs stating “no one wants to work” because lazy is the by far worst label anyone could wear.
We are not lazy. All raised to work hard, pitch in and make a difference. The local Louisiana Pacific plant is expanding, Smith and Wesson employee numbers are going up and small rural areas a
Pitch In, Help Out, Make A Difference. That’s Why Maine Small Towns Quality Of Life Is Rich And Tightly Connected.
Some of the reasons to explain the move to Maine population increase numbers.
A change of pace and getting healthy by hiking, biking, skiing, kayaking and daily exercise. That’s another perk living in big and beautiful wide open Maine. Maine is the way life should be. Life longer, live better up in Maine is the conclusion more folks are drawing these crazy days. Recreation is second to none on your own and the parks and rec programs are extensive. Lakes, rivers, mountains, scenic trails, picnic spots. Our backyard is outdoors everywhere you look out over the land in Maine.
This blog post nails down the reasons for why people moved away and now are returning to small town rural Maine.
Why new to the area folks are picking Maine as their next mailing address. Real estate inventory is being snatched up to meet the demand and the transplants from out of state are so amazed at small town living benefits. Their kids are learning the skills to be successful adults for wherever they end up living from growing up in small Maine town communities.
Large families of over ten children, farm living off the land. They say the average age of an American farmer is 59 years. But with the increase in Maine micro farmers, more Amish families moving into the North Eastern sections of the country, the median age is dropping.
No Rubber Tires, Steel Wheels For These Amish Farm Squash Wagons In The Easton / Fort Fairfield Area.
It’s not easy living on a Maine farm but many hands make light work. Self sufficient, blessed with survival skills, content is the daily goal.
The local Maine Amish farm families are also some of the best patrons of the hometown libraries. Besides growing local vegetables, the Maine Amish create horse harnesses, peddle metal for your building exteriors and roofing. And small sheds and cabins, rustic furniture also are crafted in all kinds by Amish families for local retail sales.
Lots of bikes used for Amish transportation.
Not just buggies used to play the small circles around an Amish settlement. The youth travel to and from other nearby Amish settlements to visit and share news. To find a partner for continuing the Amish lifestyle in Maine. Their blinking bike lights can be hard to see. Dressing in black, with the same color applied to the carriage as dusk approaches makes motorists slow down or decide to take a different route on Maine roadways. No one wants responsibility for a poor visibility caused accident.
Amish Farms In Maine. They Pop Up In New Settlements Around Maine Each Year.
You see their horse drawn Amish carriages tied to light posts at the local Walmart.
During farmer’s markets, the horses unhitched from their produce wagons and taken down to water by a community river. Most Maine towns sprung up around a waterfront feature that was originally used to power the grist or flour mill wheels. To ply the watery highways for transportation and moving logs and product to market. The waterway essential for sustaining life before private wells tapped the H2O beneath the ground at each private homestead. The security and survival of the early settlement in Maine depended on that river in so many ways. Still does for the Amish stepping back into time to preserve what was lost in the hustle bustle.
Red Rules The Day With This Maine Amish Homestead. One Of A Kind Built By Hand And Sweat And Patience On A Patch Of Dirt Up In Maine.
What do you notice when you visit an Amish homestead in Maine?
No one on an electronic device or face lit up by the eerie glowing screen. Industry happens with many hands making light work creating something from thin air. The Amish are present in conversations and distraction chasing down a text or returning a like or poke is not in their repertoire.
Amish Inspecting Their Crops To Prepare For Fall Harvest Time in Northern Maine.
Fields plowed using horses and harvested the same way.
Barns and other agricultural buildings noticed springing up as Amish settlements spark and grow steadily. Re-working abandoned farm machinery that was two row not eight row fancy dancy. The Amish settlements reverse the tide of less small farmers and trend to just a few larger ones.
During a farmstead visit to an Amish household, it is not uncommon to see eight, ten or even thirteen children size families around you.
Warm, friendly, curious. Some guarded but more genuinely unguarded and interested in what you have to say. I know of an Easton Maine family that is growing organic food for my girlfriend Meg’s organic farming operation. She operates the family business called Nature’s Circle. Thank you Meg for helping supply many of these photos taken from the Maine Amish farm landscapes she travels for today’s Me In Maine blog post.
Maine Amish Farm Fields Of Organic Produce For As Far As The Eye Can See.
The Amish settlements in Smyrna and East Hodgdon Maine have phones in their packing sheds.
In Easton Maine, not so much, which makes the settlements a little more removed and communication not so instantaneous.
The last trip to Easton, Fort Fairfield area, Meg treated to pumpkin pecan chocolate chip squares. I know, sounds good and one proud thirteen year old the cook. The youngest and probably most enjoyed of children as the tail end of the family grows up and eventually starts her own Amish family. Very warm and welcoming and you get lots of questions from everyone in the Amish household when you pay them a visit. Eager to learn and good listeners. Not impatient and polite as they open up their Amish homes. The Amish are very trusting, unless you give them reason not to be and that kind of news spreads fast.
The Barns, The Out Buildings Surrounding The Amish House. The Most Important Part Of The Farm Spread Are The Barns, Equipment Sheds, Stock Pens And Paddocks.
The group of Amish in Easton from Pennsylvania, the ones settling in East Hodgdon and Smyrna are a different order.
Some from Ohio, Kentucky, a few from out west. None drive, some don’t even have rubber on tires and use just wood or metal.
The dogs at the farms are even more special because they love attention but are better trained than your average pups today. The dogs have more of a working role and herd the livestock, other farm animals. You don’t hear the dogs barking.
Large Families Mean Bigger Houses, Lots Of Barns, Sheds, To Sustain The Amish Farm Lifestyle.
Children on the Maine Amish farms extremely well behaved.
They all flock around Meg when she visits to discuss farm orders and how to work around crop obstacles. Interested and happy to see a visitor and more sheltered in a good way. Lots of hands on training from building barns to making butter or cheese or how to grow vegetables.
The best farm practices to build up soil amendments. How to do carpentry all taught to every member of the family. Practical skills, work ethic, simple farm living and extremely well read. The Amish are definitely not flying by the seat of their pants or unprepared.
Big Amish Kitchen, Pretty Hardwood Floors, Lots Of Blue Accent Colors.
You get a sense of the simple values and how hospitable the well kept, hand built Maine Amish homes are run.
The Amish lifestyle in Maine. Neat as a pin, there is an order. Everything around you with a structured order to it. The homes are working farmsteads. All are in a circle, taking your coat and providing you over the top lunches and snacks. Sitting down together, all are paying attention and no one is lost somewhere on a device. The Amish are present and glad you are in their household. Happy to have you as a guest.
A Peek At The Back Of This Blogger’s Homestead. Where Sheep Graze On A Fall Afternoon In Northern Maine’s Aroostook County. Lots Of Buildings For Many Purposes.
You step back into time but sense keen awareness of what is going on around you in their hand built not modular manufactured homes.
Maintaining old order Amish living, without electricity. In Fort Fairfield, Easton there are outhouses. In East Hodgdon and Smyrna, there is indoor plumbing with generators. There are different degrees of Amish living in Maine.
Amish Farm On Ridge Road In Smyrna ME. Toiling Under The Maine Sun In The Field. Transplanting, Using Plastic To Control Weeds, To Protect The Seedling.
Not stressed out or frantic and steady she goes rules the day like a ticking metronome that keeps the beat. There is a time in every season to plant this, cultivate that and for harvest. For stacking firewood, stocking the summer kitchen or filling the root cellar. All the Amish do not want any kind of a fight. The Amish individual wants peace amongst themselves and others. Avoiding dissension, staying reasonable and tolerant and always on task to do their share of chores.
There is much to do and idle time is not found in large supply.
Working hard to stay on the farm, to raise a family. To make a living from many means that keeps it interesting and varied. The weather, pests, the market for what they peddle can cause set backs that they prepare for and expect. They are ready for what is ahead and plan for it. Life is not always easy sledding and hills, dips, curves happen to test a person. To define and improve an individual.
Long Days, Healthy Appetites, Plenty Of Exercise. The Maine Amish Lifestyle Is Like That.
The role of women, in East Hodgdon and Smyrna and how they compare to Easton and Fortfield Maine.
Is there a distinction of how they are treated as a whole in the Amish order or depends on the home, the day? All women are dressed to not bring attention to themselves. But the garb stands out like a visit to King’s Landing just over the northern Maine border into Canada. Where the theme of the day is early settlers, what their struggles were as you enter their World for an afternoon or day long visit to remember. Except with the Amish in Maine settlements, it is not pretend or a re-enactment. Where they period costumes are removed and everyone hops in their Subaru or mini van, SUV to hit the Trans Canada highway to head to their modern homes.
Friendly, Riding Bikes, Always Smiling. Amish Share The Road With Mainers In All The Vacationland Counties.
Practical clothing that lasts and not trendy or the latest style and made from scratch is obvious observing the Maine Amish families. Clean, consistent, no Johnny Rebel, Jimmy Rebel or Leader of the Pack stand out as they all stick together for the greater good.
You are walking back in time with family tradition roles and children precious but seen and not heard is the rule.
Respect, maybe a little fear mixed in or consequences. Limits, better defined boundaries. Are the Amish children raised with a stronger rigorous training? More rod, less spoiling? Do kids know their limits? Or is it lack of routine, ritual, or order that causes no structure to some degree in today’s society? Discipline and not a lot of idle time. Small community schooling with the older kids helping the younger ones with a teacher or two in the settlement. Doing the same pass on what you learn as families work together collectively. No time to sit in your room and pout or live singularly when the day ahead has a long list of chores attached to it. Too many kids for one to ever be spoiled might be part of it as you pitch in and do your part in the Amish household.
Starting The Planting Early In Maine. To Get A Jump Out Of The Greenhouse For Earlier Farm Fresh Produce. It’s Always A Gamble With Maine Weather. See The Wind Generators On The Oakfield Maine Foot Hills?
Community day is Thursday at the Smyrna and Fort Fairfield, Easton too.
Work on projects in the area for the Amish community members is very important. Giving back and helping out. It has its own special day reward. Helping the elderly and learning from their success and setbacks in the lifelong process. There is always something given back, that rubs off in the doing a good deed for others.
Everyone Has A Hand In Farming On A Maine Amish Homestead. Time To Transplant, Many Hands Make Light Work In Southern Aroostook County.
In the Fort Fairfield, East Hodgdon, Smyrna Amish communities there are farmer’s markets on premise.
The Amish bring produce, baked goods into the nearby farmer’s markets community gatherings. The Pioneer Store in Smyrna Maine is full of practical devices. From wood stoves to kitchen utensils that are not flashy but work and last. Jars of old fashioned candy you don’t see at Wally World or as impulse items around the digital scanner at Circle K.
The homes in the Easton, Fort Fairfield filled with plenty of hand crafted hardwood flooring.
Lots of blue paint is used in the interiors for a commonality. Red barns and designs like Boston area housing from before 1900 very prevalent. And all built by hand and horse from scratch. Lumber cut, sawed on premise and constructed to last by many, not a few skilled carpenters. Barn raisings where this week it is your turn, next weekend mine. Jack of all trades is definitely the rule of the Amish day. That skill set runs deep and provides the satisfaction knowing that everyone with a strong back, a clean mind and daily work on your faith brings you peace and contentment. Farming is a noble profession.
Learning Early, Young Amish Farmers Get Dirt In Their Veins When Very Young. Because We All Know The Sobering Truth. No Farmer, No Food.
Hope you liked this blog post on Amish in Maine from settlements in my area of the state.
We’ve blogged about Amish farming in Maine before. Stay tuned. A lot more flowing in for another blog post center around Unity, MOFGA headquarters. That’s where many more Amish families settled to build a better life in Maine.
Farming in Maine, it was the first noble profession.
Farming In Maine, Transplanting Or Direct Seeding?
Because feeding yourself and your family is life and death important. No farmer, no food, no more life is the most basic law of the jungle. Farming in Maine started out pretty small potatoes in the beginning. Creating what to serve up for your own meals, using what you could produce only. Long hours, plenty of patience, not much in the way of tools to make the farm chores easier. Taking care of yourself first. Before expanding into feeding others with the extra farm fresh food from the Maine farm pasture fields.
The early Maine farm settlers grew corn, beans, squash and raised oats, barley. Plenty of loose hay for their animals who needed something to eat too.
The apple trees created free food like the wild blueberry, strawberry and raspberry patches. Fishing along the rocky coastline, out on lakes or casting the line into rivers contributed to the what’s for dinner routine.
Team Of Horses For Farming In Farm, Still Used.
Southern Maine small farms began to dot the early map when Vacationland was still technically part of the Massachusetts bay colony. Self sufficient living and pretty much roll and grow your own was the norm.
Maine Farm Tractors. Modern 6 To 8 Row Big Ones, Older Two Row Ones.
Hard life, long hours, no guarantee of reward. Creating more than enough for a food surplus to feed others was slow to happen. Harsh weather, pests and lack of machinery to increase the Maine farm field yield. It made it hard to get ahead of the hand to mouth existence.
And no hustling bustling highways to sail on or an iron railroad to get the Maine farm products to large consuming markets population centers to the south. Lack of transportation options to readily access the Maine farm produce kept agriculture operations pretty Maine home grown small and simple.
Where I live in Northern Maine, family farms dotted the countryside up and down all the country roads in every direction.
That was the norm in rural Maine. Now fewer but larger commercial Maine farm operations create the produce for row crops. The small family beef, dairy and poultry farms too on the same glide path to extinction. Replaced with a handful of larger more efficient operations that can thrive on the economy of scale. Your profit is found in the expenses and no room for loose as a goose or slip shod farming practices.
Despite this national trend, Maine has more micro farmers than ever. The COVID19 pandemic has only accelerated that back to the land agricultural trend.
The size of the farm operation depends how deep you want to go. Whether you plan to mortgage to the hilt, and go big. Or take over a family farm smaller spread and stay manageable. Where everything is paid for and the equipment you use is yesteryear antique but owned lock, stock and barrel.
Early Morning On The Farm In Maine, Nothing Like This Time Of Day To Reflect On Life, Get Centered. Field Grain Just Harvested, Hay With Be Baled From The Chaff Of The Barley Oats Crop Planted On This Field.
Farming profits have always been found in the expenses. How well a Maine farm operation is run is key.
And more than just having a green thumb. Today’s farmer is high tech and savvy across the board on a multitude of disciplines besides planting, cultivating, harvest (repeat). Dairy farming, both my parents came from family farms that grew potatoes but also had milk cows. My mom from a family of eleven who all had jobs on the dairy farm. My dad one of four who had a mile route in town. There were lots of small family dairy farms in Maine that delivered milk products by a wheel cart in summer, sleigh pung with runners in the winter snow.
Got Milk? Maine Dairy Farming Is The Most Intense And Round The Clock Time Consuming.
Cheese can be made to store on shelves, butter and Maine farm milk not so easy to leave around at room temperature.
Refrigeration was needed to advance dairy farming to go beyond just serving product to the producer’s own table. Maine Central Railroad refrigerated train cars delivered dairy products to Bangor, Portland, Boston far away markets. This was long before Thermo King units were bolted on the front of 53′ long reefer trailer units. To create just the right storage conditions during transport from rural Maine to urban produce markets.
Pretty To Look At, Delicious Tasting Too! When The Maine Farm Food Is Close To Home Grown And Raised.
Butter and cream rather than cheese products became the goal of many Maine farm dairies in what they delivered by train to out of state markets.
Silage in silos helped boost production beyond just hay and grain so dairies could increase production to serve beyond just their small Maine town customer base. More on early Maine farming slides and history. In the late 1960’s, the push to get away from a monoculture of agriculture playing just one note in the farm song. Over farming one crop year after year. Because of that age old habit of predominantly planting potatoes in Aroostook County, sugar beet farming was introduced. Grains had been more of a rotation crop only. To give the ground a rotation rest rather than to help pay the farming bills.
Freddie Valshing reintroduced what Maine farmers had already grown along with hops back in the 1880’s.
The return introduced spud farmers to a new sugar beet refinery in Easton Maine. Complete with piggy back rail delivery yards in the Houlton area and other locations in the Aroostook County crown of Maine part of the state. My Dad and Mom planted eighty acres of sugar beets, invested in a harvester and were committed to this extra crop. The one harvested after the potatoes were dug. The foray into sugar beets petered out because of a shift in the audience habits for sweeteners. Also because the one armed Freddy Valshing was not in it for the long haul but the quick buck.
Give Me A Beat… No No, The Other Kind Of Maine Farm Beet.
Why sugar beets did not stick in the Maine farming crop rotation?
There was a resistance to anything interfering with spud production alone which the majority of Maine farmers prescribed to historically. More on sugar beets in Maine and how things went wrong trying to introduce a new farm field staple for agriculture production diversity.
The type of dirt, the condition of the soil all factor into how the Maine farming, living off the land dream is going to turn out for you. Creating wealth and nutrition from the good Earth with hard work, patience and mastering the learning curve. It is not so attractive to many.
Farming in Maine is not for everyone or those dependent on an hourly wage and a secure weekly pay check.
There are many sacrifices and long hours involved with the odds stacked against you as valuable lessons are learned. The longer you can hang on and adapt to change to all the challenging farm condition variables. Then the more experiences you can draw from to stay on your Maine farm property spread.
Working nine to five on a regular job makes hobby farming in Maine possible but restrictive.
That real job is your “ticket” to stay afloat financially if you run a time ship with your saving and spending. With whole hog farming and you are all in or out, the stakes suddenly are much higher. Having an income that keeps coming into the bank account helps your sleep patterns. If one mate in the partnership has a steady income, hopefully hospitalization benefits, that can be a bonus. Or the only way this family farm in Maine is going to get off the ground.
The farm I own in Maine is leased out to an organic grower, Nature’s Circle.
Starting a farm growing lots of initial crops without a market is not going to work from a business perspective. You need to know who the potential customers are and to tailor your farming to their produce requirements.
What will the customer pay, are there local restaurants, farmers markets, the local area audience to buy what you raise from your piece of Maine dirt acreage?
Don’t just grow what you like to consume, learn what your audience will buy. Verify the market before kicking the Maine farm into gear. Farming rides on a business chasis remember?
Winter Snow And Ice Time Spent Planning What To Grow, Which Field To Raise It On At The Maine Farm. To Begin Again Come Spring Time Temperatures And The Farm Soil Warms Up, Drys Out.
What is your Maine farm design?
Map out your farm fields and define how you are putting each area to work in your farm plan. My Dad always preached “you have to have a system”. Plan your work, work your plan kinda thinking. Winter is an excellent time to reflect on the year before, the one ahead and what to plant where and why figured out as snow piles up and farming slows down.
Become friendly and familiar with your local USDA soil and water conservation agency if you plan to have success farming in Maine .
Funding for your small scale farm projects may be available to transform your Maine land into a farming operation. Fields not used can be seeded down with a conservation mix to help them get built up with soil amendments. Tired, over farmed abandoned Maine land needs to be nursed back to health. Winter rye, a ground cover added to a field helps soil health, prevents erosion too.
Cows In Maine Wait For The Flakes Of Hay, Can Of Grain, Fresh Water To Go With The Daily Staples.
Drainage, tiles installed to drain wet soils that are slow to warm up and that make the farming operation mired down.
Delays getting these fields planted and pulling stuck tractors out of them because of poorly drained wet soils is not fun. If you have enough farm ground to rotate your crops you have a leg up on the smaller patch of dirt agriculture operator who does not have their luxury.
Hi. Maine Dairy Cows Itching To Get Turned Out, To Kick Up Their Heels, To Roll In And Eat The New Spring Field Clover.
The conservation seed mix broadcast on the farm field pastures to grow rich and strong. Sometimes on a Maine farm it starts with animals clearing your weeds and brush and bushes first. They can help get farm pasture fields tidy and groomed if you have the time. How fast you need the Maine farm land cleared is part of your consideration. Waist high weeds are not fun. And is your Maine farm organic or convention using chemicals to tackle prepping your soil. Lots of compost hauled in to prepare your soil and get it nutrition balanced is the foundation of anything you do after than on your Maine farm.
Direct seed or hand transplanted in your prepared soil beds on your farming in Maine operation?
No till seeding where the ground is not disturbed and roots already established hold the soil together is one approach. Transplanting seedlings can jump start your farm operation. Building hoop houses, using a greenhouse nursery instead of direct seeded field crops will optimize your agriculture operation. How long is the growing season for whatever you plan to raise comes after who are the people you will serve in your marketing brand.
Do You Know Your Maine ABC’s? Can You, Will You Say Or Sing Them With Me Please?
What is the personality of your Maine farm and who are you going to be catering to with whatever you raise.
Who you are going to attract for a repeat audience to buy what your grow on the Maine farm? Part of what you end up doing is providing what your produce customers want. Educating them to broaden their purchases into other items you introduce them with care.
Spreadsheets, analyzing your Maine farm production data and study of what the market sale data shows. This is not the most fun in your day to day farm operations but the key to a successful sustaining farm business survival plan.
Local produce, meat and dairy and we’re not even talking operations like oyster farming raised from the ocean depths off the Maine coast.
Local farm to table is alive and well in Maine and there is a resurgence in smaller farms like micro breweries.
Where local agriculture production and supporting your area small Maine farm enterprises is healthy for the family and community.
Building out of pocket and pretty much hand to mouth as you go is not a lifestyle well suited for many. With the prevalence of entitlement in today’s society, the working like a dog nip and tuck to survive is not the lifestyle choice of many. Doing what you have to do to stay on your Maine farm. To make it sustainable would be for the birds. For many too soft and just not so gung ho committed to working the Maine land soil to eek out a simple living.
On the small Maine farm, money is replaced with creative resourcefulness and a ton of patience.
To carefully put it all in perspective. To find gratitude in what you do possess and accomplish rather than lament whining about what you lack. Teaching your children work ethic, the responsibility of chores on the Maine farm and developing their skill set prepares them for anything that comes down the pike to deal with in life just fine.
To do more than merely survive and persevere but to come out on top and prosper with the right positive attitude and respect for how best to use your time and money to get ahead of the farming learning curve.
On the small, medium size farm in Maine where it is pretty much work around the clock through all the seasons that play out on the kitchen wall calendar, your focus is meat and potato basic. Down to Earth simple and very disciplined.
Work comes before play and labor is your pleasure offering it’s own reward in the farming in Maine accomplishment.
Making it better than it was. Or just maintaining the status quo in the tough of war with Mother Nature and the market to break even. To monetize on the other end of from what you raise or grow on the Maine family farm. To offset all that sunrise to sundown labor, letting go of hard earned finances, and yes, taking a chance.
Right Out Of The Earth, Freshly Dug Maine Potatoes Just Seeing Daylight After Being Just Harvested From A Farm Field.
The calculated risk involves a little gambling on what is the best course of action for the family farm. Where you are not wearing a tie or pinned to the wall by a corporate World office desk. The steel toe work boots, warm flannel shirt over the long underwear and Car-hart outerwear wardrobe that replaces the sports coat and button down dress shirt and shiny shoes.
Farming in Maine where you are up at the crack of dawn doing the feeding and watering routine and at the same time pondering machinery repairs that lie ahead.
The kind that require you to work with what you have rather than just trot into town to pick up expensive parts you simply can not afford. Welding, brazing, bolting together bits and pieces from saved not thrown away materials that get re-purposed. Farming with broken machinery because it’s the only option teaches you how to squeeze more out of something many would just discard as junk and seemingly worthless.
Being up against it and knowing if it is to be it is up to me does nor hurt a person but challenges them and makes them grateful for the little things that retail therapy does not artificially create.
Awareness of the center of your World focus which is the family farm brings you down to Earth and clears the heart and head. To see clearly what’s what on the agricultural spread where you wear many hats and do several jobs.
Farming in Maine does require total immersion and just not everyone’s cup of tea.
But sadly, there was a time in history when 96% of us were farmers of some sort because it was basic survival and the cornerstone of small rural Maine living for the bulk of the sparse population. Hope this farming in Maine blog post is food for thought and helpful.
With COVID19 pandemic adjustment to day to day living, the desire to find affordable land listings in Maine has increased. Maine was already the number one state in the nation for second home ownership. But the spike headed Coronavirus cell just increased the demand for Maine land for the sheer get away and be safe far from city population clusters.
More Wildlife Than People To Read The Local Small Town Newspaper In Maine.
Another cause of real estate buyers on the hunt for Maine land to build a smaller home on it is due to the shortage of existing housing supply.
Sellers in Maine have re-thought listing and letting go of their real estate due to COVID19 and assessing where they live. Most in Maine would agree why would you want to be anywhere but Vacationland with or without the Coronavirus? More on the Maine real estate market report now that the COVID19 effects can be tracked in listings and property sale statistics.
One more reason land, just Maine land is a big part of the local listing and selling is there is so much of it in Vacationland.
With lower populations in all the small communities dotting the Maine land map in Maine’s sixteen counties, the supply of land stays healthy and undervalued. Large supply, low prices, plenty of selection of Maine land is the perfect combination. COVID19 just increased the focus on Maine as the best scenario financially and for the sheer natural beauty.
Land listings in Maine sales always had a big following.
Cheap outdoor camping vacations on the small land acreages in Maine are fun and popular. Often the lower cost Maine land is bought with owner financing terms. The previous owner seller financed the land buyer and the property does not need to be replaced like a house with a mortgage. Which needs to be paid off to have a real estate closing. Maine land can be easily bought on affordable installments. And the next thing you know, the land is no longer mortgages, free and clear.That’s the best kind.
The Maine land for sale used for vacation fun is also a hedge investment if things get to hairy in the city living. If a land investor, you could use the land full time or at least half the year down the road. When you the owner retires and becomes a snow bird headed to the sunny south where no snow shovel is needed to handle the white stuff.
Camp built on the Maine land beside a lake or river or if you are really lucky the Maine coastal ocean location.
How’s that sound? Maine land becomes used for more than recreational once in a while past-time vacation place. Many camps, cabins, cottages evolve into the house that Jack built. Those study but misfit constructed shacks might be a little rough to undo, redo, make do. They were built on a limited or none existent budget or over simplified but the structure did the trick.
The camp or cabin slowly built and reconstructed over the years. To offer shelter and enjoyment up in Maine away from the city crowds and bumper to bumper traffic is a source of pride and entertainment location. But if not maintained, time and Mother Nature can cause them to go into disrepair and eventually collapse. The local wildlife can take up occupancy and further accelerate the structure’s decline. (more…)
