The last stretch of our June 2012 road trip took Emily and I through Maine. We planned on arriving in Maine just in time to catch the Restoring Heritage Wheat Seminar in Unity Maine. As it turned out, I thought the event was on a Saturday when it was actually on a Friday. This got us to Maine one day late.
With an unplanned free day. We decided to go on a pilgrimage to Harborside, Maine to see Eliot Coleman’s Four Season Farm and The Good Life Center.
You may have noticed that it’s taken just about a year to get this post up. As such, I’ve gone for more pictures and fewer words today. This is also the first time I use slide shows in a blog post!
Four Seasons Farm
Eliot Coleman grows about $150K of veggies on 1.5 acres and has written a number of books including the New Organic Grower and the Winter Harvest Manual. When I first started farming a number of farmers swore by Eliot Coleman’s books. It took me a couple of years before I did read his works, but when I did I could see what folks like in this approach.
The Good Life Center
Emily introduced me to Helen and Scott Nearing’s book Living the Good Life when we first met. Helen & Scott were proponents of living a simple yet good life. They homesteaded in Vermont and then Maine from the 1930s until their deaths in the 1980s. They built their own home by hand out of stone. They ate a mostly vegan diet. They also practiced four season gardening in their greenhouse.
The Nearing homestead is still maintained by volunteers as the Good Life Center.
From here, we visited a couple more farmers in Maine before heading home. I’m going to try to wrap up these road trip posts shortly!
That’s it on Coleman’s farm?
PLease Dan, give us more. Whas it amazing, great, pretty good, normal, hyped ? What did your farmers eye see ?
JM
Hi Jean-Martin,
I’m going to have to write a follow-up post!
However, it was amazing!
Dan
Oh ! Quel beau voyage ! Je suis heureuse pour de découvrir le blog de Botan Anderson. Peut-être l’année prochaine je pourrai aller dans un workshop au USA. À moins qu’il y ait des instructeurs au Québec et que nous puissions organiser quelque chose ici ? C’est super ! Vraiment tu es une source de belles expériences pour ma recherche ;)) Jolyane Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:23:09 +0000 To: jolyanebd@hotmail.com
Il y a vraiment une grande diversité de workshops au USA sur toute sorte de sujet. Ça vaut la peine d’y aller.
Merci pour l’encouragement!
Dan
Looking forward to hearing more soon too! Saw him at a EcoFarm Day years back and was like a giddy school child. He’s one of my early growing inspirations!