Unusually wet conditions and cold temperatures in the first half of May pose issues for Maine farmers who can’t seem to catch a break from a fickle Mother Nature.
Abigail Curtis
Homestead Reporter
How community gardens are helping lower-income Mainers
“They’re developing a relationship with their food. The garden is alive and full of living things, and people are getting to know the garden. It’s an act of engagement.”
Genetically engineered potatoes approved for Maine
These potatoes were created by adding genes from a wild potato plant and are designed to be resistant to late blight, the disease that caused the mid-19th century Irish Potato Famine.
‘Feral’ island in Penobscot Bay will serve as living laboratory
“I think of it as a feral, or rewilded landscape. We can look at what’s emerging, and work at what’s there to make it more productive.”
Maine’s granges are making a comeback
“We have to get together and dance and eat pie and support each other this way. We go forward, but we look back to what makes sense.”
How Maine’s cheesemakers are keeping food safety a top priority
“There are a hundred ways you should be double-checking everything.”
How some Mainers are financing tiny houses and off-grid dreams
The country’s love of unconventional houses is not always shared by its bankers, who have a well-earned reputation for having a deep preference for financing conventional homes. But that may be starting to change in Maine.
Maine Fare reboot to include animal butchery, cider-making workshops
A year after the popular Maine Fare festival was put on ice, it’s being revived and rebooted by its organizers at the Maine Farmland Trust.
Searsport sea captain’s ornate home for sale, ghosts included
“Every night, about 2 in the morning, [my dog] Coop would start growling,” the property’s previous owner said. “He’d just growl until he started full-out barking. It just struck me as really odd that he would do that. It’s just really weird.”
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Maine hospitals are bringing farm-to-table to patients
“Hospitals should be role models. We started seeking out farmers and training our cooks to use local foods.”
Liveaboard life a draw for some hardy Mainers
“We’re not going back to land,” she said. “We want to encourage other people to be boat people, too.”
Lawmaker still wants to regulate foraging but drops support for wild picker law
Sen. Tom Saviello said that after reviewing state laws already on the books and learning that such harvesting already is largely prohibited, he decided that there is no need for another law.
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Bumper crop leads to acorn flour production for Belfast friends
“I love everything that has to do with wild edibles and eating off the land. It feels like it’s timeless, like something that would have happened 10,000 years ago.”
POLL QUESTION
Maine’s wells could be polluted with arsenic, lead
“The major problem is that Maine has a high reliance on wells, but very few people test their wells.”
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As more Mainers covet local food, a longtime seed seller grows
This Maine company has mailed out roughly 24 million seed packets since the 1970s.
Early spring is still the right time to prune fruit trees
It’s still a good time to prune fruit trees, but people should try to finish up pruning their apples and pears before they break bud,” Renae Moran said, adding that stone fruit trees such as plums, peaches and cherries can be pruned anytime in the month of April. “In my opinion, pruning is good for the tree.”
Foragers, landowners at odds in proposed wild picker law
Opponents and supporters of a proposed law that would put restrictions on foraging on private land agree on one thing: An important part of the Maine way of life is at risk.
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Maple syrup isn’t just a business, it’s a way of life
“As February rolls around and we are so eager for spring to come, this is a sign that it’s on its way.”
POLL QUESTION
Mainers can now do yoga with cats
“I love animals, and this was a really cool way to have a new experience.”
Maine family seeks solutions to help child with epilepsy
Even though the family’s path has been hard and at times scary, it has been made a little easier thanks to the love and care from their expanding community. On this path, there is hope.
Man killed in Golden Road logging truck crash identified
Man killed after rear-ending logging truck on Golden Road in ‘whiteout’ conditions