Category: Farming

The Root has interviewed author David Buchanan to get his advice on buying fruit trees.

Which fruit tree is your favorite to grow?
I love apples, particularly for the hard cider they produce, and other trees like cherries, despite the work involved in harvesting and preparing them. But nothing beats a good peach. Peach trees grow very quickly, often yielding substantial crops in their third or fourth years, and varieties like Red Haven and Madison produce excellent fruit in the Portland area.

The Root has published an interview with Phil Gaven, owner of The Honey Exchange on Stevens Ave, about Winter hive maintenance.

I spend many hours a day giving advice to beekeepers on all manner of subjects but the one thing I try to stress more than anything is “worry less.”  Good beekeepers want to do everything we are able to do to help our bees survive.  It’s important to remember bees survived for millions of years without human help.  Admittedly, given the world we live in today most beehives can’t survive more than a year or two without human help so we do what we can, in as natural a way as possible.  With responsible stewardship, most hives will survive.  Some will die, and while that’s sad it is also the natural order of things.

Today’s Press Herald includes an article about Maine’s seaweed industry.

Six years later, Roth and his wife, Kelly, preside over an expanding business. VitaminSea’s offerings now include energy bars studded with blueberries, dark chocolate and kelp, supplements for animals, a seasoning mix, and sea vegetables like alaria, konbu and dulse.

The Root has assembled a list of upcoming beekeeping classes taking place in Cumberland County.

The Maine Sunday Telegram has published an update on the Maine mushroom foraging law.

But eight months later, the law still has not been implemented. The program to certify wild mushroom foragers and brokers has not been put in place. An advisory board established by the law has yet to be formed.

Meanwhile, wild mushrooms are still being peddled to restaurants and retailers — unchecked and unsupervised.

This week’s food Portland Phoenix reports that several farms in Maine are now experimenting with raising ginger which is normally a crop for warmer climates.

Most ginger comes from Asia. Hawaii is the only US state with a real commercial crop. So when I recently relocated from Oregon to Brunswick, I was surprised to find Kennebec Flower Farm selling tropical ginger — and its cousin, fresh turmeric — at my local farmers’ market. But at least half a dozen farmers with that good ol’ Yankee gumption here in Maine, and farther south, down the East Coast through Florida, are warming up to this novelty crop.

Today’s Press Herald reports on a new winter farmers market that has started up in Scarborough.

The owner of Highland Avenue Greenhouse and Farm Market has filled one of his greenhouses – usually empty this time of year – with trays of 30 varieties of winter greens, all bound for local restaurants. In another greenhouse he’s started a winter farmers market. It opened Nov. 4 with six vendors selling beef, goat cheese and milk, preserves and crafts.

The Press Herald has published an article about the upcoming book Taste, Memory and it’s author David Buchanan.

Published by Chelsea Green and due to hit bookstores Nov. 5, the eloquently crafted book is part memoir, part food history and all delicious romp through the modern day renaissance of agricultural creativity and culinary adventurism sweeping the nation. Buchanan takes readers along with him as he searches out a diversity of fruit and vegetable varieties beyond those that dominate supermarket displays. It’s a tale bound to appeal to those with an appetite for alternative food and farming systems.