Field Trips
Recreation Programs, Church Groups, Camps, and Schools are welcome to come to the farm for a field trip, which includes an educational game, an informative tour with interactive activities, and possible hands-on farm work. Picnic tables are available for lunch. Contact us for more information or to schedule a trip.
Food Pantries
We support the local food pantries in Standish, Baldwin, Buxton, and the Root Cellar in Portland with fresh produce. When feasible we also help Kezar Falls, Limerick, Hollis, and Limington. Farm staff volunteer at Catherine’s Cupboard in Standish on Wednesday evenings. On average, we provide 10,000 pounds of produce annually to the emergency food system.
Composting
By the fall of 2008 our composting facility was completed with the assistance of the Natural Resources Conservation Service. We reach out to the community asking for leaves and produce scraps from institutions. This project is a great success enabling us to add leaves and compost to our fields. You are welcome to bring your composting materials to the farm.
Partnerships
Waban’s Lifeworks Program of Sanford, Maine (www.waban.org/waban-adult-programs.aspx) allows 6-8 challenged adults to join our “Companion Planters” program, learning to grow food sustainably from “seed to seed”, that is from sowing to harvest.
Creative Trails of Portland, Maine (www.creativetrails.org/) a program of Support Solutions, works with us with two of their groups. ‘Cultivate’ help us with all aspects of farming and maintain a small plot, growing food for a Portland food pantry, the Root Cellar. They deliver the food the grow the following day. The other group, Trails, maintains the woods trail and help with large landscaping projects.
The University of Southern Maine (usm.maine.edu/community) partners with us in their service learning component. Some students volunteer for a few hours, getting a brief introduction to sustainable organic gardening, while others are interns developing for us a specific project. Large groups also come from the University to help us achieve our food security goals.
The Cooperative Extension in Cumberland County (http://extension.umaine.edu/cumberland/) supports our grants and some of the Master Gardeners earn their volunteer hours working at the farm. They primarily help us with permaculture design and implementation.
Natural Resources Conservation Service (www.me.nrcs.usda.gov) help us through grants and their expertise to better conserve our land. Their assistance allowed us to improve drainage in a large, wet field; created a grassland waterway to stop erosion on the edge of our large field; created a drainage/culvert directing waterflow into a natural ravine; and built our composting facilty.