Category: Farming

Maine Pears & Review of Oun Lido’s

| Posted in Reviews, Farming

Yesterday’s Maine Sunday Telegram included a 4 star review of Oun Lido’s,

With his menu, chef Kim does much the same, borrowing deeply personal food memories and transforming them into sophisticated, yet comforting Cambodian and Cambodian-Chinese dishes. Among the most exciting plates are neorm, a crunchy, herby noodle salad with a bonus egg roll; kathew cha, an umami-bathed, stir-fried noodle dish; and loc lac, a complete meal of rice, sunny-side-up egg, shaved sirloin strips and a chromatic salad of cucumber and heirloom cherry tomatoes.

and a feature article about pears in Maine.

Maine has had a passionate coterie of apple “explorers” for several decades, Bunker foremost among them, who are intent on finding and preserving the state’s heirloom apple trees. Today, Maine’s heirloom pear trees – threatened by age, development, climate change and related pests and disease – are just beginning to get similar attention.

 

Maine Apple and Cider Season

| Posted in Farming, Cider

Sunday is the first day of September and it’s also the start of the Maine apple season. Here are guides to some outstanding apple orchards and a full list of Maine cider producers to help you plan some fun road-trips this Fall.

The Maine Heirloom Apple Guide  is a co-production with the intrepid apple expert Sean Turley at The Righteous Russet (instagram). We hope this provides you with all the information you need to go out for a self-directed exploration of Maine orchards and the many heirloom apples they offer. Use it throughout the fall to go exploring so you can take advantage of the entire season.

The Guide to Maine Cider is a directory to 28 Maine cider producers. They’re located all over the state from Kingfield to Cornish and Portland to Franklin. Stop by cidery tasting rooms like Absolem in Winthrop to or stop in at one of the highlighted retail shops that stock good selections of New England and imported cider.

Other Resources and Events:

Funding for Vertical Harvest

| Posted in Farming

Vertical Harvest, the hydroponic farm under construction in Westbrook, has received $59.5M in funding, reports the Press Herald.

Vertical Harvest Farms, an indoor farming company focused on microgreens, said $59.5 million in financing will advance its work to develop and operate the 51,000-square-foot vertical farm. The Westbrook business is expected employ 47 workers, with half the workforce including people with intellectual and physical disabilities, CEO Nona Yehia said.

An Organic Etrog Orchard

| Posted in Farming

Goronson Farm (website, facebook, instagram) in Scarborough has kicked off a project to farm etrog, a type of citrus which play an important part in celebration of the Jewish festival of Sukkot.

Citrus trees might not seem a natural fit for Maine weather but owner Maureen Goronson has a lot of experience growing rare fruit. She currently grow a variety of fruit trees that include Chinese Honey Peaches (Shui Mi Tao), French apricots (Paviot), apricots from Iran (Shakarpara), and persimmons.

Goronson plans to build out a new greenhouse and to plant an orchard of 30 etrog trees. The fruit will be a certified-organic and certified-kosher crop. She was prompted to take on this project by a customer who knew of her passion for raising rare fruits. If all goes according to schedule the first crop will be available in 2027. When they reach maturity each of the thirty trees will be able to produce 150-250 fruit. Goronson hopes her orchard will address the lack of a source of kosher organic etrogs.

For more information visit the page on the Goronson website about the project, and support the initiative visit the Go Fund Me page for the project.

Maine Heirloom Apple Guide

| Posted in Farming

September has arrived and with it the leading edge of the Maine apple season. Take a look at the updated Maine Heirloom Apple Guide for detailed information on where and when to find dozens of heirloom apple varieties grown at  fifteen outstanding Maine orchards.

The orchard guide is a co-production of Portland Food Map and the intrepid apple expert Sean Turley at The Righteous Russet (instagram). We hope this provides you with all the information you need to go out for a self-directed exploration of Maine orchards and the many heirloom apples they offer. Use it throughout the fall to go exploring so you can take advantage of the entire season.

For those of you who like to consume Maine apples in liquid form also check out our Guide to Maine Cider Producers—a list of the 20+ cideries in Maine. Many have a tasting room that you might visit after a day of apple picking.

Heirloom Apple Lineage

| Posted in Farming

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes a very interesting article about an heirloom apple research project.

Since 2019, Bunker has been working with College of the Atlantic history professor Todd Little-Siebold, Laura Sieger, orchard manager for the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and MOFGA intern Lydia Pendergast to collect samples from hundreds of Maine’s unidentified apple trees. They send the samples clear across the country to their partner in the project, Cameron Peace, a horticulture scientist at the University of Washington who runs tests to reveal the DNA.

“It’s almost like 23andMe, but for apples,” Sieger said, referring to the popular human genetic testing web service, 23andMe.com.

Maine Heirloom Apple Guide

| Posted in Farming, Cider

September has arrived and with it the leading edge of the Maine apple season. Take a look at the updated Maine Heirloom Apple Guide for detailed information on where and when to find dozens of heirloom apple varieties grown at sixteen outstanding Maine orchards.

The orchard guide is a coproduction of Portland Food Map and the intrepid apple expert Sean Turley at The Righteous Russet (instagram). We hope this provides you with all the information you need to go out for a self-directed exploration of Maine orchards and the many heirloom apples they offer. Use it throughout the fall to go exploring so you can take advantage of the entire season.

For those of you who like to consume Maine apples in liquid form also check out our Guide to Maine Cider Producers—a list of the 26 cideries in Maine. Many have a tasting room that you might visit after a day of apple picking.

Investing in the Local Food System

| Posted in Farming

An editorial in today’s paper makes the case for investing in the local food system to balance against risk of future supply chain disruptions.

This vision has Maine supplying half the food to the region by 2060. In another effort, Maine’s diet would be made up of 30% locally sourced foods by 2030.

Both are difficult goals to meet — Maine only consumes about 10% local food now, and that may be high.

But they are worth pursuing in order to make sure food is there when we need it, and to support local producers and their communities, and the wider Maine economy.