Bowdoinham Farmers' Market
Telephone:
666-5531
2010 Farmers' Market
Saturday May 22 will bring an abundance of flower and vegetable seedlings, mesclun, lettuce, radishes and spinach back to the opening day of the Bowdoinham Farmers' Market.
Fairwinds Farm will have a large selection of in season vegetables, strawberries and raspberries and many fine flower, herb & vegetable seedlings.
Applecreek Farm will have lean, delicious lamb sausage, chops & other lamb cuts.
Phoenix Farm will have organic early spring greens, low sugar jams and salsa, muffins and desserts.
Six Rivers Farm will have organic produce.
Each week Bowdoinham students from Local Sprouts will have either muffins, blueberry pies or huge cookies in their growing enterprises.
Come meet your friends and neighbors, and buy something yummy and healthy to eat at the Merrymeeting Grange, 27 Main St., from 8:30AM to 12:30PM.
2009 Bowdoinham Farmers' Market Information:
Applications from interested farmers welcomed.
Starting End of May. Going till the end of October.
Every Saturday 9am-1pm at the Merrymeeting Grange. Inside and outside spots available.
Contact for interested farmers - Chas Gill, Kennebec Flower Farm
666-3116 kffn@suscom-maine.net
Press Contact: - Tony Cox, Dept of Community and Economic Dev. tcox@bowdoinham.com
2008 Info
The Bowdoinham Farmers' Market is located inside the Merrymeeting Grange located at 27 Main Street in the village of Bowdoinham. Take Exit 37 off I 295 and head east on Rt 125 (Main St). The Grange will be on your left. Contact: Tony at the Bowdoinham Town Office 666-5531 or tcox@bowdoinham.com
Apple Creek Farm, Bowdoinham—Owned by Pete and Janet Galle since 1981, offering raw wool fiber. Will be attending Market on Fridays only.
Fairwinds Farm– Located in Topsham and Browns Point Road, Bowdoinham- Strawberries, raspberries, full range of vegetables throughout the market season. Items from Judy's kitchen including pies and jams. Kathy Karonis and Pete Karonis.
Kennebec Flower Farm—Pork Point Road in Bowdoinham. Chas, Linda, Charlie, and Caroline Gill will be offering cut flowers, bedding plants, herbs and seedlings.
Life Force Farm- Located on the Carlson Cross road in Bowdoinham. Ben Dearnley and Kate Stoner grow a large array of organic vegetables
Little Creek Farm, Brunswick- A first year start-up farming business on 100+ acres in Brunswick, Owner Brenna Chase will offer pastured chickens, turkeys, pigs plus organic cut flowers and vegetables.
Locally Known/Atlantic Organics, Bowdoinham– Organic Artisan salad greens including summer salad greens, mesculin, spinach and other greens. Ben Dobson, David Goldstein and Shimon Horowitz. Attending market as produce is available
New Orbit Farm– Litchfield– A small homestead enterprise at the head of the Tocama lakes in Litchfield offering free range eggs, organic Garden produce, Raspeberries, Organic Sprouts, Natural Pork. Marada Cook
Russell Meats– Located in Bowdoinham will be offering farm raised Kielbasa. Polish sausage, roasted garlic, hot, sweet, cheese and garlic sausages. Brad Russell. Attending the market on Saturdays only.
Ruby Hussey- Main St. Bowdoinham. High end baked good using as many locally produced ingredients as possible. Attending the market on Saturdays only.
Six River Farm– Bowdoinham- Farm located on the shores of Merrymeeting bay specializing in a diverse mix of certified organic vegetables. Gabrielle Gosselin and Nate Drummond
Bowdoinham Sprouts– Led by Kathy Savioe- A Youth Entrepreneur Opportunity with the Bowdoinham Farmers’ Market. The Bowdoinham Farmers’ Market will dedicate one table for Sprouts at the market with a rotating schedule of Sprouts throughout the farmers’ market season. Come see what the budding farmers have to offer. For more information contact Kathy at 666—8182
New farmers market highlights benefits of locally grown
Darcie_Moore@TimesRecord.Com
06/19/2008
BOWDOINHAM — Monday brought the kind of sopping wet weather that doesn't encourage most people to go out to the garden and work. For farmers, rain just means put on the mud boots and hit the fields. There's work to be done.
That's especially true for a group of Bowdoinham farmers who are gearing up for the new Bowdoinham Farmers Market which debuts at 3 p.m. Friday in the Merrymeeting Grange in the heart of the town, and continues Saturday.
Cathy Rackley, who joined forces with farmer Pete Karonis, a retired Marine, to run Fairwinds Farm, said the two probably have 25 years of farming experience between them. A Bowdoinham native who now lives in Topsham, Rackley said that she never attended the town's previous farmers markets that lasted three seasons before ending in 2004. A lot has changed since then.
Rackley said with rising food and fuel prices, she thinks people are looking to buy local.
"I think the people of Bowdoinham are supportive of farming," and that not having a farmers market in town has been a void, Rackley said. "I think it's going to do really well."
Rackley and Karonis acknowledged that the rising costs have been a hardship, doubling the cost of fertilizer, for example. But recognizing that everyone is faced with cost increases, "we're working really hard to keep our prices in line with last year," she said.
Karonis, treasurer of the new Bowdoinham Farmers Market Association, said Fairwinds Farm's philosophy is to make its produce a staple rather than a luxury, whether it's corn or strawberries or any of the 40 or 50 different crops they have planted mostly on about 35 acres on Browns Point Road. About seven years ago Rackley bought from David Prout the famland, which is a destination around this time every year for pick-your-own-strawberries. A bumper crop should be ready for picking next week, she said.
Rackley, who goes to both Brunswick farmers markets, has observed that the larger the variety, the more people the markets draw in. People also will faithfully seek out one farmer often based on a favorite product, so an overlap in produce is not a bad thing.
Farm incubator
Down the road from the Fairwinds crew, Nate Drummond was loading up a van with tomato plants that would be planted momentarily. He and longtime girlfriend Gabrielle Gosselin own Six River Farm, an organic farm they run by subleasing farmland from fellow Bowdoinham farmer George Christopher through a sort of farmer incubator program.
Drummond, vice president of the new farmers market association, and Gosselin, secretary, are in their first year owning their own farming operation. The Six River Farm also is growing a variety of produce, including eggplant, peppers, lettuce, spinach and leeks.
Drummond said he's seen a lot of enthusiasm and interest from people who will be coming to buy locally produced food.
"Bowdoinham really is gifted with having some remarkable farmland, at least for Maine," Drummond said.
Tony Cox, Bowdoinham's economic and community development director, said the market will start with six farmers and probably expand to as many as nine at times. There is a limit of 12 farmers, including a table designated for the Bowdoinham Sprouts program, an entrepreneur opportunity for kids ages 8 to 16 to sell their own products.
Cox said the market represents the town's effort to celebrate and promote its agricultural heritage.
"We thought this made sense as a project the town would assist with because it will allow the farmers to have a local outlet close to the fields and allow our residents to purchase produce food locally without having to drive to Brunswick," he said.
Also linking to the town's agricultural heritage, the farmers market will assist Merrymeeting Grange, founded in 1887 as a support center for local farmers, with funding for maintenance work.
The market will sell a range of fresh local food and farm products including locally raised chicken and pork as well as fruit and vegetables. It will be open Fridays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturdays 8 a.m. to noon, until Nov. 1.
In addition to the Bowdoinham Sprouts, Fairwinds and Six Rivers farms, the Little Creek, New Orbit, Kennebec Flowers and Apple Creek farms are also expected to participate this season. For more information, visit the Web site www.bowdoinham.com.
