MeInMaine Blog

Tag: maine farming

  • Up At 5Am And The Maine Farm Cows Waiting.

    Till, Plant, Cultivate And Harvest Using Maine Farm Soil.
    Maine Farms, Wide Open Beautiful And Low Cost.

    Sliding out of bed, throwing on some barn clothes and heading out to feed, water the Maine farm animals.

    Early morning is the best time of day, unless you stayed up too late the night before. The Maine farm critters needing grain, hay and some fresh water because they drink but don’t drive a lot. Thirsty from walking around the farm fields, up and down hill and dale.

    Ever thought of owning your little spread of land, a patch of dirt, some wooded sections in Maine? To have an old Maine farm house. Or to purchase Maine land, a parcel of property and build your own buildings one by one? It’s not crazy.

    At one time not long ago, 96% of us in this great country were farmers.

    Not much money but well fed, exercised and pretty crafty at many trades. Master of none. But still a real Jack willing to roll up your sleeves and try your hand at carpentry, plumbing, electrical, welding or whatever the need was on a Maine farm. Like keeping that old tractor running, plowing and tilling up the fertile soil.

    I am sure glad I was raised on a Maine farm. It made me closer to my parents who worked side by side. I got to know them better. Was taught more from them in lessons learned day in and out. Because they were not off at an office building many miles away. But all of us on the Maine farm. Working to maintain buildings, plant and havest crops. Whatever it took to stay on that Maine farm.

    Farmers markets in Maine on the increase as folks want close to home, fresh produce. That is not genetically altered, not gassed with poisons to make it last the long haul from wherever it came from to be placed on the family dinner table.

    Let’s talk about owning some Maine land, maybe a farm with your name on the title deed.

    Or if you want us to leave you alone, just be able to browse with out any pesky real estate salesperson, agent or broker bother you, wander over in to the Maine farms video aisle. Watch, listen and then ask lots of questions about this new lifestyle you are considering on a Maine farm. I think it is a great idea.

    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
    207.532.6573
    info@mooersrealty.com

  • Buying A Maine Farm, What Resources, Help Is Out There To Make The Purchase?

    Locally Grown Close To Home Maine Farm Food Is A Special Situation.

    As a kid you spent time on your grandfather, grandmother’s Maine farm summers, thought some day this was going to be for you.

    But with the cost of buying that Maine farm, the dream has gotten a little faded. Harder to see, hear on the mental projector playing on the back of the inside of your head.

    Luckily, Maine real estate is lower cost all across, around the board. But for buying a Maine farm specific assistance, the ME Department Of Agriculture offers some helpful guidance for those wanting to plant, cultivate and hoe, harvest crops. Or to raise critters. The Maine Farm Link organization also is a portal designed to help maintain the tradition, transfer of the family farm. When there is no family member stepping up to climb on, and jump off the tractor to make hay while the sunshines so to speak.

    No one would argue that locally grown close to home Maine farm fresh food is best. Beyond nutritional excellence for your family’s health and what you place on the dinner table each day. But to be a farmer in Maine these days it takes more than a love for the soil, the land and plowing, tilling the good earth. The money, resources to take on the job of running a farm of any size is the big stumbler.

    Maine is the 46th lowest for FSSR (foreclosure, short sale, repossession affected property sales) but for good reason.

    Very conservative loans on homes and even more restrictive, narrow standards that are hurdles tough to clear for the privledge of being a Maine farmer, to own land.

    Beginning Maine farm resource information means going back to school for those with a love of the land. Organic Maine farming with no pesticides have trouble with yields to make a profit. And when the economy tightens, the reaching for that organic produce costing more than what is shipped in from farm factories huge spreads stops.

    Maine farming has it’s ups and downs because of the weather and markets, neither of which can be controlled. Constant adjustment, more than one income stream from the family farm in Maine is needed. And usually someone with a “real job” that offers hospitalization benefits and a weekly pay check to help plain out the household farm budgeting process. Maine, wake up, start your dream.

    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
    207.532.6573
    info@mooersrealty.com

  • Maine Weather, Growing Season… Topic Of Conversation But Not Concern.

    Maine Farming Depends On The Weather, Climate, Soil Types, Plenty Of Luck.
    Maine Farming, Growing Seasons Vary Like The Weather.

    Maine weather. It changes quickly.

    Is anything but ho hum, boring. Get asked a lot to describe the weather, how long the growing season in Maine is.

    For current weather in Maine, visit the NOAA site. And another site to check out on Maine weather history on storms, rainfal, snow, drought.

    The Maine growing season, climate conditions vary depending where you are in the big state up here in the right hand corner of the country. The one parked between Quebec on the west, New Brunswick Canada on the east.

    I grew up on a Maine potato farm that also grew grains like orbit oats. Potatoes planted in the the field of the Maine farm were Green Mountain, Katahdins, Russets and new Cobbler spuds to go with the new peas. Vegetables grown for sale at the family farm meant planting corn, cucumbers, squash, green beans, tomatoes, carrots and other vegetables. But corn was the big draw.

    Early King the yellow favorite. Sugar and Gold smaller ears of white and yellow corn also made the cars line up for baker’s dozens of thirteen ears.

    We also grew strawberries which had a four year cycle before being plowed under and start over. You pick was a dangerous invitation as folks tended to eat two boxes and pick one they paid for. Fourth year was the only time you turned the fields loose to the public.

    Also made quick trips across the border in to Woodstock New Brunswick to buy flats, crates of strawberries to resell.

    Being a strawberry broker to meet the demand.

    The soils in Maine are rich, fertile. Varied soil profile and some designed for woods, other row crops. Some pasture land with ledge keeping plows from cutting in to the ground but ideal for dairy and beef cattle. Christmas tree farming another option. To live off the Maine land.

    Ever thought of buying a Maine farm? Making a living, being self sufficient putting locally grown food on the Maine family dinner table? Maine farmers markets are growing in popularity.

    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers
    207.532.6573
    info@mooersrealty.com.

  • Maine, Using Farm Machinery Ready To Break. How To Jerry – Rig Repair.

    Maine Family Farming...Going With Out To Stay On The Farm.
    Maine Family Farming…Going With Out To Stay On The Farm.

    During lean years on a Maine farm, any farm, means cruises of the facility looking for slack happen frequent, daily.

    When the weather is against you, the crop or critter market price low, the expenses can eat you up. And when machinery breaks down, hay wire, bailing twine, duct tape and a welder can patch things together to keep going.

    You might ask if a part on a tractor, plow, planter, harvester, hay bailer goes bad, while not just trot to the farm implement store and replace the broker component. Lack of money, low on time to make hay while the sunshines so to speak cause ingenuity, creativity to kick in. I was at a farm I was listing last week and noticed a pair of vice grips, rusted, holding a broken joint on a potato digger together. The owner smiled, said it worked fine and went on to other areas of the Maine farm crying out for attention, repair. Never got back to weld that joint, or replace the missing bolt and bracket lost in the hurry to get the crop out last fall, or the one before.

    So when I mow a lawn, or in the case of bushing hogging with an old 1953 Super M tractor this past weekend, the same farm boy trained, engrained instincts are alive. My wiring, early childhood training makes me think, Andrew, start in the most critical part of the chore, operation and assume the machine will break. That there will be set backs. Not pessimistic, realistic.

    So if the operation stopped in twenty minutes, what would be the most critical way to spend that 20 minutes while everything was working?

    Survial thinking, practical but prepared for anything is how you stay on the Maine family farm. Make it work, accept the challenges. Learning how to jerry – rig.

    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers
    207.532.6573
    info@mooersrealty.com

  • Watch A Maine Farmer’s Market Video.

    Locally grown Maine food, produce and fruit that comes from an area farm is healthy, economical, a fun social event.

    Watch the Maine farmers market video. Houlton Maine has a downtown Market Square outdoor farmer’s market to make it easy to feed your family the right stuff.

    Local Maine farming is good for families. You see your parents, brothers and sisters all day long during the spring planting, summer cultivating, hoeing, picking process. I grew up on a Maine family farm and like many in my area, it is part of my heritage. childhood.

    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers
    207.532.6573
    info@mooersrealty.com

  • Alcohol Consumption Growing Up On A Maine Farm…Wasn’t Really There.

    Where Author Of MeInMaine Blog Andrew Mooers Grew Up In Houlton Maine.
    Where Author Of MeInMaine Blog Andrew Mooers Grew Up In Houlton Maine.

    As a kid helping out, growing up on a Maine farm, alcohol was not preached as evil. Wasn’t prevalent or part of the childhood.

    Maybe it was because my Dad’s brother, Uncle Bud was a professional alcoholic. Had eight wonderful kids, but only stopped drinking when he stopped breathing, was dead.

    Maybe that is why I do not remember much involving alcohol in Maine on the farm. This is the highlight of what I can recall. On a blistering hot summer day, when it came around to 5 oclock quitting time, my dad might hop in the pickup. Head to Paul Drew’s store on Smyrna Street to pick up 2 16 oz Narragansett bottles of beer. “Nasty Gansett’s” another name for this flavor, octane of beer in Maine. And the kind that had a game in the bottle caps, a brain teaser to figure out as they were opened, put down the hatch I suppose.

    Dad would sit under a lilac with mom, enjoying the sunset, savoring a hard day of work but great sense of accomplishment. Slowly drinking, savoring that one lone beer as the motivating carrot for the day, the reward for all that hard work.

    It’s mate, the other beer twin staying in the refrigerator for months or longer. Beer was not evil, twisted, the ruination of all…just was not present, utilized. Missing from my childhood.

    And once a year, Everett Curry, long gone like both my parents would drop in to the farm around Christmas, the holiday season. Dad would reach under a kitchen cabinet for a little sweetener with that egg nog or ginger ale.

    Gurgle a splash of whiskey in his and the company’s drink. One drink sipped while conversing with the annual visitor.

    No seconds, hollering, brawls, fights, commotion to spoil the Christmas season.

    And that whiskey bottle like the Narragansett in our household lasted a long, long time. Add with a glass of wine once in a while, very very infrequently with Sunday dinner. That’s the small, thin family album of snapshots of alcohol appearances growing up. That’s it. The short list of images of any alcoholic beverage, or use of it in the Maine farm household I grew up in.

    I also as I type, tap, hunt and peck vaguely recall, remember dad saying an Aunt Beatrice was a smart business woman, a peach of a lady who loved kids. But he and mom rented from here on Watson Avenue in Houlton in the early years of their marriage. And when Aunt Bea got a snootful of rum or whatever her spirit of choice was for the “recipe”, she would threaten eviction if my dad did not trot to the liquor store and bring her back a new “jug”. Aunt Bea was to be avoided when she was hoisting multiple glasses of ice and liquor, drinking it seems.

    Oh sure, I think in their 20’s mom and dad would attend and have parties with more than soda, coffee, tea in that glass folks were holding, sampling, refreshing.

    Let their hair down so to speak. Maybe my older brothers have more of a recollection to add to the little I just provided on the subject here in the blog post. But whatever it was, the alcohol usage seemed to run its course. And then they settled down to work on the farm, raising four boys.

    There was not much of a place for the alcohol in the operation of farm life as I knew it on the County Road. Too much to do and sitting still for long knowing the farming operation was not whispering, but hollering your name to do this, this and this. Before those black clouds over head opened up and made that task completion a “wash out” for the day. Or cost a crop being planted, cultivated, hoed, sprayed or harvested if you did not tend to chores, business. That’s survival, not just living day to day and staying on a Maine farm.

    I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers
    207.532.6573
    Email info@mooersrealty.com