13 Ideas to Steal from Maine's Young DIY Farmers - Gardenista
Maine s newest farmers are doing it all When thirtysomethings Katee Lafleur and Andrew White found a 35 acre property on <a href="https://mainefarmlink.org/">Maine Farm Link</a> it housed a rambling 1835 farmhouse in need of an update...
Photography by Greta Rybus for Gardenista.
...and an early 19th century barn in danger of falling in all at the end of a two mile long dirt road 24 miles from the coast in Maine s wooded midcoast region
At High Ridge Farm the gardens aren’t overly kept. Instead the farmhouse is surrounded by tall meadows.
1. Leave it a little wild.
Woodstoves are the house’s only heat source through the cold Maine winters.
2. Cut and split your own wood.
3. Embrace works in progress.
Since moving in, Lafleur and White have tackled the exterior of the farmhouse piece by piece, as they can, between farming and serving as a popular gathering place for the community.
A major upgrade: the standing-steam metal roof, added last summer.
4. Add a standing-seam metal roof.
5. Use everything.
A bleached jawbone greets visitors at the front door.
In the spirit of using what they grow animal bones and hides throughout the interiors and exteriors are remnants from the couple s own animals a flock of sheep kept during the first year and a half at...
...High Ridge Farm and Lafleur says things raised or found on past ranches and farms I ve worked at Their two dogs Sola and Massimo like to gnaw on the occasional bone once an animal has been butchered
6. Give chickens free rein.
No cages here: The couple’s meat birds are pasture-raised.
Pigs, too, are raised in pastures and in the woods, and spend “365 days a year outside, on the land,” the farmers say.
7. Raise pigs in the woods.
Massimo and Sola have free reign and help to keep the pigs in line.
8. Let the dogs have the run of the place.
In addition to birds and hogs, the couple tends an acre of vegetables, herbs, and flowers “using a permanent bed, low-till system,” they say.
9. Grow what you want to eat.
When Lafleur and White found it, the early-19th-century barn was in bad shape.
10. Restore old barns.
Rather than cart their meats, salumi, and produce to restaurants or farmers’ markets, Lafleur and White believe in serving their food where it’s grown.
11. Serve dinner where it’s grown.
For example: “The taco is the vessel through which we sell everything we grow and raise, process, and put up,” they explain, including the meat (and the braise it’s cooked in), the tomatillos and jalapeños for the salsa verde, the lettuces and scallions, and, soon, the corn for the tortillas.
12. Forage for wild cider.
The couple also serves “foraged, wild-fermented” cider by the glass, made from “wild and heirloom apple varieties” from old orchards they happen upon in the area, which are then pressed in the barn and bottled.
A hammock hung in the loft of the barn, for rare moments of rest.
13. Kick back (occasionally).