Sweetgrass Farm Distillery

In part two of The Root’s series on Maine craft distilleries blogger Sharon Kitchens and Portland Hunt & Alpine Club co-owner Andrew Volk paid a visit to Sweetgrass Farm Winery & Distillery in Union, Maine.

Keith Bodine, co-owner, winemaker, and distiller for Sweetgrass Farm Winery & Distillery in Union, Maine, is a man with a healthy science background and a passion to create something. Thankfully, one of those things is gin.

“I really like gin,” said Bodine. “Distilling always appealed to me. I took a couple distilling classes at (UC) Davis. It’s not a major part of their curriculum, but I was always intrigued by it.”

Interview with Fluid Farms

MaineToday.com has published an interview with Jackson McLeod and Tyler Gaudet, owners of Fluid Farms (website, facebook) an aquaponics company operating in Falmouth that’s farming basil and tilapia.

How do you explain this process to others?

Jackson- Aquaculture is raising fish in water. Hydroponics is raising plants without soil. In any system, you have to put nutrients in. Our nutrient is fish feed.

Tyler- We feed the fish, they excrete the waste that feeds the plants, the water comes back to the plants clean.

Jackson- The plants are the living filter for the fish. The fish are the nutrients for the plants.

Maine Strawberry Season

Today’s Press Herald reports about this year’s strawberry season.

This year, says David Handley, a small-fruit specialist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension in Monmouth, Maine is “actually having the closest thing to a normal year we’ve had in a while as far as plant development is concerned.”

“The size looks good, the quantity looks very good, and the pest problems were very few this year,” he said. “So I’m thinking we’re looking at a very good crop year.”

The article also includes a list of farms where you can pick your own strawberries, a list of strawberry festivals across the state and a list of strawberry based dishes at Maine restaurants.

Hot Wings, Taste of the Nation, GMO Labeling

Today’s Press Herald includes an article about the 2nd Annual Hot Wing Cook-off taking place on June 22nd,

People love chicken wings. If there were ever any doubt, consider that last year the first Hot Wing Cook-off Challenge, at the Marriott Residence Inn in Portland, sold out 400 tickets on a Thursday night and had to turn away 75 more hungry chicken wing fans at the door.

about the 2013 Taste of the Nation dinner taking place June 23rd (tickets available online),

The issue is childhood hunger. Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation dinners, held in nearly 40 locations across the country, bring chefs, restaurants, sponsors and the public together at over-the-top culinary benefits to raise money and awareness for local groups that make sure no kid has to go to bed hungry.

and about the passage of a bill in the Maine Legislature to require labeling of GMO foods.

A lawsuit from Monsanto likely awaits if the Legislature enacts the bill co-sponsored by 120 lawmakers, including Democrats, independents and Republicans.

Beekeeping & Farming

Today’s Press Herald includes articles on the state of beekeeping in Maine,

A recent federal report has pinpointed some of the causes of rapid die-off of bee populations from colony collapse disorder, but Maine beekeepers say hives here are flourishing.

and the increasing number of young farmers in the state.

“We were looking for a purpose. I wanted to feel good about what I did at the end of the day and wanted to feel like I’ve made some kind of a difference,” Ann Mefferd said.

“I wanted to feel like my whole lifestyle was in line with my thinking about the world, like ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.'”

SoPo Farmers Market

The Press Herald and the Forecaster are reporting that South Portland City Council has voted to allow the farmers market to return to Hinkley Drive in 2013.

City officials had been reluctant to grant the market permission to operate on the site next to Mill Creek Park and a credit union because the busy road would have to be closed for several hours every Thursday.

But after the city’s Planning Board voted last week to give the farmers’ market a special exception permit, councilors voted Wednesday night to allow the road closure.

Fluid Farms

The Bangor Daily News has published an article and video interview with the founders of Fluid Farms.

The nascent two-man company has in two summers outgrown a 500-square-foot greenhouse attached to the craft-brewing Urban Farm Fermentory in Portland’s Bayside neighborhood, which co-founder and fisheries biologist Tyler Gaudet called a “backyard-scale” operation. Now, Fluid Farms is beginning to clear a site in North Yarmouth for a 25,000-square-foot version, a building they believe will be Maine’s first commercial-scale aquaponics facility.

Fluid Farms is running a Kickstarter campaign to fund their new aquaponics greenhouse.

Fluid Farms

The Portland Daily Sun has published an article about Fluid Farms, an aquaponic farm that’s been operating in Bayside for 2 years growing herbs, greens and fish.

“We have outgrown our cramped in-town greenhouse and have decided to expand. Powered by the momentum of the past two years of operation, we have committed to an expansion and purchased a production-scale 2,600-square foot greenhouse. We are building and moving into our new greenhouse this spring.”

Owners Tyler Gaudet and Jackson Mcleod are using Kickstarter to get the capital they need to expand their business. They have met their initial goal of $5,000 and are stretching to $10k which would enable them to increase the length of their growing season.

You can follow their progress on Facebook.

Growing Your Own Garlic

This week’s edition of the Portland Phoenix has an article about growing garlic and the plant diseases that afflict the crop in Maine.

As a garlic connoisseur, you should learn your varieties. Commercial growers favor softneck garlic (Silverskins and Artichokes), which stores better, lends itself to braids, and yields more concentrated — albeit smaller and harder to peel — cloves. Home gardeners and small farmers often plant hardneck (Porcelain, Rocambole, and Purple Stripe) varieties for their marketable scapes and large, meaty cloves. Nate Drummond of Six River Farm in Bowdoinham grows mostly Music and German Extra Hardy garlic, juicy, white-skinned Porcelain breeds.