Don't miss your chance to participate in the 28th Anniversary of Open Farm Day scheduled on Sunday, July 23rd, 2017! We are looking forward to this opportunity to promote Maine's diverse agricultural community.

Open Farm Day is the perfect way to connect with neighbors, your town, interested visitors and tourists and teach them about how their food and fiber is produced. Many who attend bring children to learn and connect with local farms. If you would like to participate, please sign up online at this link and complete the online form. Please mail or email a copy of your Certificate of Insurance, to:

Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, ATTN: Open Farm Day, 28 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0028 Or Fax:  (207) 287-7548. 

The completed form and certificate of insurance must be received NO LATER than  Friday,  May 19th. If we do not receive your materials by this date, your farm will not be listed in the promotional materials used to showcase this event. Farms that do not provide a Certificate of Insurance are not eligible to participate.

All new participants who meet the requirements and deadline for promotions will receive an official Open Farm Day Participant flag, while supplies last, to help promote your involvement in this annual event. Other promotions for this year's event will include press releases, website promotions, posters and inclusion in a supplemental newsletter listing all the participating farms. The supplement will be distributed to all tourism information centers throughout the State of Maine and will be inserted in daily newspapers throughout the state prior to this event.

Again, please put  Sunday, July 23rd on your calendar and plan to join us for the 28th Anniversary of Open Farm Day! We look forward to working with you on this exciting and worthwhile event. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry at  (207) 287-7620 or  samantha.howard@maine.gov.

Dr. Fred Homeyer from Antelope Creek Ranch in Robert Lee, Texas will be in Maine during the Northeast Livestock Expo.  On Saturday, May 20th at 10:00am he will give an informative lecture on goats.  He has judged and held seminars on Boer Goats worldwide.  He is returning this year as his seminar several years ago had the best attendance ever.  Any goat person, dairy or meat, would benefit from his experience and expertise.  Please pass this information on to your club and any dairy club that you know of.

Dr. Homeyer's seminar will be on feed ratios, proportions and proper structure in goats. He will cover evaluation and selection of goats for production. He plans are to use live goats to emphasis these points. He will also be willing to discuss any other topic the people have questions on. 

This seminar is being held free of charge due to grant assistance from the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.

It's that time again! As harvest approaches, its time to make sure that your farm is ready to provide your customers with the best possible picking experience. Take our annual review below to evaluate your customer readiness.

A friendly, clean, and organized atmosphere will leave a lasting impression on your customers, encouraging them to come back and to recommend your farm to their friends.

Source: Strawberry IPM Newsletter #5, June 17, 2016

Fresh fruits and vegetables start to deteriorate as soon as they are harvested.  They lose weight, texture, flavor, nutritive value, and appeal. Cooling significantly slows the rate of deterioration and will increase the storage life of the produce. 

 

Market gardeners typically sell their fruits and vegetables within a day or two of picking. They can get premium prices for it's "localness" and freshness. Long term storage at very low temperatures is not needed, but fresh produce can deteriorate a lot within a day or two if it is not cooled at all from ambient temperatures, especially during hot summer months.  Produce losses can be significantly reduced by cooling produce as soon after harvest as possible.

A standard window-mount room air conditioner can produce a low-cost cooling source, but if a producer tries to use it to cool below 65o F, the cooling coils will freeze up.  This can be overcome by outfitting the air conditioner with strip heaters, a thermostat, and a timer to create a defrost cycle that alternates power between the strip heaters and the compressor.  At least one manufacturer now offers an off-the-shelf control unit that does the same thing.  The control unit is called a 

CoolBot (TM.)

A cool room (55o to 60o F) can take the field heat off a wide range of fruits and vegetables and significantly improve the produce quality compared to storage in ambient conditions.  Many produce items do best at very cold temperatures, just above freezing, but other produce may get damaged at this low temperature.  Be sure you know how low a temperature  your produce can go. 

A cool room is generally an insulated room constructed from building materials from the hardware store and cooled by a room air conditioner and the CoolBot (TM) control unit from Store It Cold.  The University of Kentucky has a very helpful fact sheet called   "Low-Cost Cold Storage Room for Market Gardeners" AEN - 96 (pdf).