Icelandic Sheep

The morning meeting - click

  There are several farms in Maine that specialize in the fiber from Icelandic Sheep, the product (and the animals) are worth a good look.  The fiber, and resulting yarn, is in three natural colors.  The colors are the same colors as the sheep in a given flock, no dyes are used.  I think those sheep really like it in Maine too.  After two deployments to Iceland while in the Navy, I got a good look at some of the hostile to animals rocky land, other places in Iceland have lush grassy areas, and happier sheep!

In their environment, it's a good day

One of the daddies - click



Yarn from the flock, who had haircuts



Selling the products, the local way

Part of the Farmers Market in Portlands' Deering Oaks Park

  In a lot of Maine towns and cities the Farmers Market is a weekly event, maybe one day a week, often three or four days a week.  The markets, open to Maine grown or raised products, are a great source of food for a lot of us.  We go to the markets or farm stands often, during the warmer months when fresh veggies are available.  The farmers sell, veggies, meat, cheese, fruit, flowers and items that have been preserved like jams and jellies.  Often someone is there to sell fresh baked goods too.  Many farmers take food stamps too.
  Another way farmers sell locally is "Community Supported Gardens"; a person can pay in the spring for goods to be grown during the season.  If a full share is $200, you may be able to buy a half share.  When the crops are harvested you go and pick up your share of each of them.  It helps the farmer to buy supplies, and it "pays" the share holder with good, fresh food. 
  Many of the farms are organic but there are 'regular' farmers too (who use chemical fertilizers and insecticides) it's your choice.

Fresh veggies. Don't they look good?

Flowers are popular items.  This is a farm stand

Celebration at the Bath Farmers Market

Horses and Cashmere

Norwegian Fjord horses at play

    Mandala Farm in coastal Maine specializes in Fjord horses and Cashmere goats, all beautiful animals, they also grow some veggies, and hay for the animals.
   Those horses are either ridden or used for working, very versatile critters, Cashmere goats are raised for their hair, or wool, and are shorn every year.  All in all it's a busy farm, with special attention given to the animals who earn their keep.

A Cashmere goat, he's been rolling around.

A Fjord at work, things are done the old way.

On the way to work in good company. - click to enlarge

Diversified and Organic

A farm stand, this one all organic

  Some farmers are very diversified, they raise and sell vegetables, fruit, meat and cheese; all organically raised or grown.  Farms of this type have increased the number of farms in the State.  Usually small and family operated they seem to give an adequate return on investment.  They remind me of a family farm many years ago that were self-sufficient, the difference being that they are more productive so there is product to sell.

They raise animals for meat.

Animals for meat, fiber or cheese



...and a few fresh eggs, all free range



Alpaca

Unshorn and badly in need of a 'haircut'

Part of the crew

   Guanaco on a picnic?  Llama see, Alpaca lunch!
I know that's an old joke, but it's early, and it's the best I can do.  Alpacas are raised for their wool, it's like mohair, very soft and warm.  There are several farms in Maine that raise alpacas, some like Two Sons Farm, herd shown above, have a large number of animals, others have only a few.
  They are quite hardy and do well in Maine's climate.  Like raising sheep the herd needs to be moved to different pastures to prevent damage to grass roots.




Shearing underway.

Local cows....

Charolais in Hampden - click

  There are many small or medium sized farms all over Maine, some have a few cows either for milk or meat, or both.  Some farms raise vegetables for a farmers market, and of course family run orchards or tree farms.  Today we're going to look at just the few town surrounding where I live here in east-central Maine.

Black Angus in Hermon - click

My personal favorite, the Ayrshire bull in Hermon - click

Holsteins at a medium sized dairy farm in Winterport - beautiful - click

Christmas Wreaths...

A wreath workshop

...believe it or not are a big part of the Maine economy.  There are two large companies and a lot of small operations.  It starts with "tippers" men and women who go tipping are people who take the ends or tips of brances from evergreen trees.  Careful works means not much damage is done to the tree.  It takes maybe a dozen, or more, tips to make a wreath.  Wreaths are assembeled by wireing the tips to a wire frame, then decorations may be added, pine cones, ribbons or berries. 
  Many wreaths are sold in roadside stands, one factory supplies L L Bean, and Worcester Wreath sells a lot the the mail or internet.  That company, Worcester, also supplies and operates Wreaths Across America which decorates Arlington National Cemetary.  Worcester makes and trucks the wreaths, and they are placed by volunteers from many towns and cities, it's a wonderful gesture.

Wreaths at Arlington - click



The finishing touch



Worcester Wreath

 


 

Standardbred Horses

And...they're off and running!

  Standardbred horses are raised for Harness Racing, the only kind of racing in Maine, so there are some farms that raise them.  One of them, near where we lived a short time ago is the source of the photos (other than the above) taken by my lovely wife.
  The animals are beautiful to look at, especially the colts that run, and I believe hard to train.  They must pace or trot (different leg placement) and not run.  The front and back legs on the same side move forward or backward at the same time.  Given that they still are very fast.  The few times I've gone to the races it's always a fun time, but it's been a long time since I've been.

Hanging out with Mom.

Family time (Dad's aren't welcome - yet)

Roadside attraction

Potatoes

Spraying for Potato Bugs

  I didn't think we would leave the farms until we talked about Maines' number one crop, potatoes.  At one time Maine was the largest producer in the country, that was about 50 years ago.  Now it's still the most important crop.  Crops are rotated, so last years field of 'taters is probably going to be canola or oats this year.  Broccoli is also grown but hasn't reached the point of being an "important" crop.
  Every year at picking time, or digging time, that years crop of rocks is piled up, Maines' rocky soil still presents a problem, even as the machinery gets larger those rocks are a problem, there are large piles at the edge of a lot of fields, large piles, small rocks (baseball size).
  Most of the crop from Maine goes to frozen french fries or for potato chips (they're called chippers), and important part of the crop are seed potatoes.  You just can't cut up any old potato for seed, those are grown, sent to Florida (mostly) replanted and then cut for seed.  That is the biggest part of preventing plant diseases - there's a reason for everything I guess.

Seed potato crop in blossom, there are white or purple blossoms.



Off the fryer



A lot of Central Maine farms raise chippers for Frito-Lay

Seafood

A little variety

  Seafood is Maine to some people, and it provides a living for many.  There isn't, yet, a way to farm lobster, Maines' most famous seafood, but believe me it's being developed.  Right now, the products in that header make up the successfully farmed seafood.
  It started with salmon, it was being farmed overseas, mostly in Norway, and researchers got held from there.  Most of the Salmon farming is done in Cobscook Bay and near Eastport.  Oyster and Mussel farming got a start soon after, those are grown on ropes since they don't swim.
  These farms are all protected and use net fences to keep them where they belong, just like livestock on a farm on land, they just look different.  The University of Maine and some private companies are now working on a way to farm Cod, then it's on the Halibut, two very popular fish which could use a little help since natural sources have been over-fished in the past.


Mussels on a rope in Blue Hill Bay



Salmon pens near Eastport



Experiments with Cod farming



Christmas trees were Balsam Fir..

...with natures' decoration

...and the tree of choice at our house when I was a kid.  Today it's not as easy, there are so many choices and so many ways to get a tree.  Most people can't just walk into the woods and cut one, so there are trees for sale, and there are a whole host of ways to buy a tree.  You can buy one at a corner lot run by a vendor for profit, you can cross the street to another lot where trees are sold to raise money for a charity.  A lot of people like to go to a tree farm and cut their own. 
  Whatever choice you make, most people's trees come from a Christmas tree farm, Maine has many tree farms, some of them raise Christmas Trees.  A typical farm in Maine plants Balsam Fir or Spruce, but if you look around you may find Scotch Pine.  Trees and types, or varieties, of tree vary from place to place, but whatever the choice, somewhere there is a farm to supply it.

These seedlings are about a foot tall.

Carefully trimmed and shaped, these are ready.

A visit to the tree farm for a Pick Your Own.

Nothing tastes better...

Springtime in Maine - click

...with a donut than apple cider.  I can almost taste it now, and it's a little early in the year for fresh Maine apples.  Growing an apple crop is a year-round occupation and it requires a lot of time per tree; from some springtime planting of a new variety, summer spraying for insects, picking apples in the fall or pruning the trees in late winter.  Each and every things has a pretty specific time in which it needs to be accomplished.  It's a challenge to raise a special crop, poor weather in the spring and it's too wet for the bees to pollinate, early summer hail could make for a crop, that while good, isn't pretty; a long hot summer with high temperatures and little rain can stress any crop, and an ice storm in winter can tear branches from a tree until it's destroyed.  Weather is a farmers best friend or worst enemy, ask one.

A new row of trees, spring planting.

A good crop, Idared in this case



Pruning in late winter



Sweet stuff

The "old" way, or small scale taps - click

  When you have those pancakes, french toast or waffles, why not top them off with Maine Maple Syrup.  Maine is the second largest producer in the USA, after Vermont.  In early spring, when the days are a bit warmer, but the temperature at night goes below freezing, the sap in trees and woody shrubs begins to flow.  The sap of the "sugar maple" is what the producers tap.  In the photo above are the old kind of taps, a hole is drilled into the tree and a spout is pounded in, the sap is collected in buckets for processing.  The new and efficient way still requires a hole in the tree, but the spouts are of a different shape and are attached to plastic tubing.  The smaller tubes at attached to larger tubes, and the sap is delivered to a holding tank at the processing facility.  The sap is boiled and some of the water is evaporated - until the desired consistency is reached; you have syrup.  If the boiling continues the liquid is reduced to maple sugar, which is sold as is or processed further to make Maple Candy.  There you have it; sweetness and light early in the day!

Trees all connected to the tubing. - click

Boiling sap under a careful eye. - click

Filling jugs and bottles with the Maine Maple Syrup - click