Category: Farming

Three Days in the Sun

| Posted in Under Construction, Profiles, Farming

There have been several food articles in the Portland Daily Sun this week. On Tuesday the newspaper reported on the collaboration between Sparrow Arc Farm and Bar Lola on a CSA for the central Maine farm in Portland,

This means the impending CSA will include a wide, eclectic sampling of the 300 varieties of veggies grown at Sparrow Arc, including heirloom tomatoes and cornichons, a type of baby pickling cucumber. “We will be able to offer a really mind blowing amount of veggies to our CSA,” said Linehan.

on Wednesday there was a profile/history of Micucci’s.

Miccucci Grocery Company launched in 1949 and was located in the trunk of Leo and Iris Micucci’s car. Licensing and the official launch came a couple of years later in 1951 so the family splits the difference and says the company began in 1950. From Middle Street to Commercial then to its current home, Leo and Iris moved the location but kept the name.

and on Thursday there was a report on the soon-to-open Bayside Bowl,

A draft menu offered a promise of relatively high-end food for $15 and less. Bayside Bowl plans to serve Focaccioa bread pizzas, mini chicken chimichangas, veggie stir fry, garden burgers as well as traditional hamburgers and cheeseburgers, crab and lobster cake dinners, reuben sandwiches, fish, grilled rib eye, roasted lemon chicken, cocoanut curry chicken poppers, grilled wings, fries, hush puppies, and a variety of kids’ dishes and desserts.

Monday Farmers Market

| Posted in 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.

Frost Impacts Apple Crop

| Posted in Farming

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.

Farms, Foraging & Farmers Markets

| Posted in General News, Farming

Stacey Cramp has published photos from her visit to Fishbowl Farm and a wild food foraging field trip with Tom Seymour.

Shopping at the farmers’ market is all well and good, but you will appreciate the produce even more if you witness the planning and hard work that goes into each pea you pop into your mouth. If you get the chance, visit one of your farmers on his/her turf and see exactly what goes into growing and cultivating those gorgeous veggies you are eating. I’m guessing they’d be happy to have you take a look around. We’re very grateful to Chris for generously spending his time educating us about a small piece of organic farming.

The Munjoy Hill News has published a brief report on the new Monday Farmers Market.

Veggies, frozen meats, flowers, cupcakes and much more can now be bought at the new Monday Farmers’ Market on Monument Square – pretty much anything you can purchase at the Wednesday Farmers’ Market you can now buy on Monday if you can’t wait until Wednesday.

Farms, Foraging & Farmers Markets

| Posted in General News, Farming

Stacey Cramp has published photos from her visit to Fishbowl Farm and a wild food foraging field trip with Tom Seymour.

Shopping at the farmers’ market is all well and good, but you will appreciate the produce even more if you witness the planning and hard work that goes into each pea you pop into your mouth. If you get the chance, visit one of your farmers on his/her turf and see exactly what goes into growing and cultivating those gorgeous veggies you are eating. I’m guessing they’d be happy to have you take a look around. We’re very grateful to Chris for generously spending his time educating us about a small piece of organic farming.

The Munjoy Hill News has published a brief report on the new Monday Farmers Market.

Veggies, frozen meats, flowers, cupcakes and much more can now be bought at the new Monday Farmers’ Market on Monument Square – pretty much anything you can purchase at the Wednesday Farmers’ Market you can now buy on Monday if you can’t wait until Wednesday.

Sparrow Arc @ Bar Lola

| Posted in Farming

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.

Maine Farmers Planting Early

| Posted in Farming

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.

America's Best Farmers' Markets

| Posted in Farming

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.

America’s Best Farmers’ Markets

| Posted in Farming

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.

NYT: Backyard Farms in Central Maine

| Posted in Farming

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.