Farming in the Estuary: How Agriculture and Conservation are Connected
by Emily Stinneford & Emily Pistell
Our Mission
Maine is the land of the honor system road side farm stand - this time of year you won’t make it more than a couple of miles down the road before seeing a sign for fresh berries or other delicious in season produce. Our service area includes some of the most fertile soil in the midcoast, and with that, some of the most successful farms in the region. Our mission was simple: visit as many farm stands in our service area as possible. We sought to delight in the vast variety of locally grown food while also highlighting the connections between our conservation efforts as a land trust and the work of our friends at local farms. We planned to stop at every handwritten sign, buying produce along the way to build a big salad - full of fresh, local wonders. What started as a classic summer road trip became a meaningful reflection on where our food comes from, how it is grown, and what part we all play in that process.
Our Itinerary
Goranson Farm
Their packed farmstand had so many options, but we built the base with mixed salad greens and cucumber.
Stonecipher Farm
We drove over the Kennebec to Richmond, picking up carrots and a bell pepper from Stonecipher Farm.
Six Rivers Farm
As we continued over the Kennebec River to Bowdoinham, we grabbed our final salad ingredients from Six Rivers Farm - purple cauliflower, green beans, cherry tomatoes, and radicchio.
Fairwinds Farm
The rainbow of produce was ready to be made into lunch, but in mid-August we had to drive just a few more minutes down the road to stop at Fairwinds Farm. We caught the final weeks of raspberry picking season, and the peak of high bush blueberry season, filling containers and tasting straight off the bush.
The Trip Comes Alive
The trip came alive when we stopped at Pleasant Pond Orchard in Richmond. We found that the farmstand was only open on the weekends, but miraculously caught owners Jess and Shane in the midst of baking galettes and tending to the fruit trees. They generously offered to give us a tour through the orchard, providing meaningful insight into their operation. Jess and Shane are deeply dedicated to sustainable farming practices that center the whole ecosystem, not just producing cosmetically perfect fruit that often require chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
They are certainly not afraid to experiment on their 60 varieties of apple trees (and pear trees, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries) to promote natural diversity - in the fruit, but also the pollinators, insects, fungi, and supporting plants around the orchard.
“When you walk through an orchard, listen. You should hear insects, birds, bees…there should be noise.”
We talked about managing an orchard on an ecosystem timescale - and how that doesn't always line up with consumer expectations. This year, for example, the fruit yield is low because of the wet, windy days of May. This year only 2 honeybee fly days were recorded, as opposed to the typical 20.
Farming has always been an unpredictable vocation, but climate change has made it feel more unstable than ever. Similar topics arose in our conversation with Emily Basiden of the Wild Seed Project on our Thorne Head summer walk the day prior…Everything is connected - from our forests to our soil, pollinators to plants.
As a land trust, we don't just work on trails and on land. All of the themes that matter to us - invasive management, shifts in climate, land management, pollinator health - are all mirrored in agriculture. What we can do, as consumers, is to shift our own expectations as creative farmers like Jess and Shane try to change the model away from harsh pest management to a more holistic approach. We can show up to the farmers market, happy for a few blemishes and smaller crop yields and maybe even a totally different fruit, knowing that we are supporting local farms.
As we ate our salad on the banks of the Abbagadassett River that branches out from the Kennebec, we talked about how connected this all is - this estuary, the farmland, our trails, and our favorite preserves. How lucky are we to call this rich place home.