Category: Farming

The Natural Foodie column in today’s Press Herald has a report on the new Monday Farmers Market in Monument Square. The article includes a full list of the food vendors slated to participate.

Last Monday, there were nine vendors in the square, but as the season progresses, the market will grow to include more than 20 farms.

The market’s expansion to three days comes as a result of the number of farmers who wanted a spot at either the Saturday or Wednesday markets and have been languishing on the waiting list.

Saturday’s Press Herald included an article on the early May frost will impact  this year’s Maine apple crop.

Some Maine apple orchards have lost virtually their entire crops two weeks after being hit by a killer frost.

Although many blossoms and early apples appeared to have survived the freeze that began the morning of May 10, they are now wilting and falling to the ground in huge numbers.

Sparrow Arc Farm and Bar Lola are teaming up to bring a CSA to Portland. Chef Hernandez from Bar Lola and Matthew Linehan from Sparrow Arc announced the CSA tonight when the pair spoke at the Food+Farm showing of the movie Ingredients. The film showcased the partnership between farmers and restaurants, and Bar Lola and Sparrow Arc have worked together for several year.
Now they’re taking that relationship one step further with Bar Lola serving as the in-town pick-up point for the CSA. The CSA will operate weekly starting July 8 and through to Thanksgiving. For more information about CSA shares email Sparrow Arc Farm at sparrowarcfarm@gmail.com or call (207)-948-6105.
For additional reporting see the June 1 article in the Portland Daily Sun.

The Maine Sunday Telegram interviewed several farmers about how the early warm weather is impacting when they plant.

Spring arrived three weeks early this year, and it is driving some farmers a little bit crazy. Bamford and some other adventurous growers are throwing out all the tried and true farming maxims and betting one of the earliest, warmest springs in memory will continue.

They are hoping that they will be able to deliver strawberries, swiss chard and even corn to markets a little bit earlier than the competition.

The Portland Farmers’ Market made it onto the Travel + Leisure list of America’s Best Farmers’ Markets. Steve Corry is quoted in the intro to the article.

“When I plan my restaurant’s menu, it’s not just my choices going into the dishes, it’s the farmers’,” Corry says. “It’s their menu as much as mine.”

Today’s was opening day for the Wednesday market and Delicious Musings was there with camera in hand to capture the start of the season.

I did not realize how much I had been aching for the return of a weekly outdoor farmers’ market until I saw a post this morning on Facebook by the Portland Maine Farmers’ Market it would be returning to Monument Square today. Let the weather be as fickle as it likes, let the wind blow, the temps rise and fall, and rain away (I should add snow since flakes were reported over the weekend)…The farmers are in town with their goods, bees are buzzing about, black flies (ugh) have set up a welcome center at your nearby pond, and summer is imminent.

See additional reporting on the Farmers Market in the April 27 edition of the Portland Daily Sun.

The New York Times has published an article about Backyard Farms, a Maine-based hydroponic tomato farm in Madison that operates a 42-acre greenhouse.

When it was built three years ago, the company’s first 24-acre greenhouse in Madison was already the largest building in Maine. This second connected greenhouse, completed last year, brought the total area under glass to some 42 acres, or roughly the size of 32 football fields. Even in the depths of winter, a million tomatoes ripen indoors to harvest each week, snipped from their vines by workers in T-shirts and shorts.