Back to the Land

from Belfast & The Wonders of Waldo County 2021

by Belfast The Bay And Beyond Magazine

Good Eats

THE AGRARIAN TRADITION IS ALIVE AND WELL IN WALDO COUNTY AS A CROP OF YOUNG FARMERS JOINS THOSE WHO HAVE WORKED THE LAND FOR GENERATIONS.

**WILD GRACE FARM, MAINE ALPACA EXPERIENCE**
Wild Grace Farm, Dave Dostie

**UNITED FARMERS MARKET**
Benjamin Williamson

In 2014, Daisy and Angus Beal were living in Utah, juggling their careers and caring for their two young kids, when they fell in love with farming. Angus, a Mainer, was completing his medical school residency. Daisy had studied plant ecology on a PhD track, reading books by organic farming pioneer Eliot Coleman, and longing to put what she'd learned to work in the field.

She planted vegetable garden beds, launched a small Community Supported Agriculture operation, selling shares of what she grew, and started searching for a place to farm in Maine.

The Beals checked out dozens of towns to find a place where they could raise their kids and their parents could thrive too. They instantly fell in love with Belfast’s historic downtown, the vibrant year-round community, and how much locals loved the area.

"We were just so impressed,” she says. “People are such boosters, they’re so community minded, and there’s always something happening in Belfast.”

Six years later, the Beals run Daisy Chain Farm, a thriving organic fruit operation on 64 acres in Belfast, which they operate alongside their parents. They are part of a new generation of young farmers who have flocked to Waldo County in recent years, who are keeping a local farming tradition alive and well, and satisfying appetites for locally grown, sustainably raised, artisanally made food.

In the last decade alone, the operators of Bahner Farm, Toddy Pond Farm, Wild Miller Farm, Dickey Hill Farm, and Wild Grace Farm are among those who have moved here and started farms, selling directly to consumers through farm stands, CSAs, and farmers’ markets. Many of them invite the public to come explore farm life, offering you-pick days, farm dinners, summer camps, and even farm stays.

They are following in the footsteps of aspiring agrarians who have been flocking to the area since the 1950s, many of them inspired by Helen and Scott Nearing’s book Living the Good Life, which described their homesteading experiences in Brooksville. The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) took root in Unity in 1971 and launched its Common Ground Country Fair six years later.

The Belfast Co-op formed in 1976, the Belfast Farmers’ Market started five years later, and Maine Farmland Trust, which works to preserve farmland, formed here in 1999.

Today, Waldo County has three food co-ops, two year-round farmers’ markets, plus nationally feted farm-to-table restaurants like Chase’s Daily, as well as The Lost Kitchen in Freedom, which is the subject of a Magnolia Network show that chronicles owner Erin French’s journey to reinvent the restaurant in the pandemic. French also has a new memoir, Finding Freedom: A Cook’s Story, Remaking a Life From Scratch.

MOFGA offers support on everything from canning to business planning, while Maine Farmland Trust helps match aspiring farmers who are looking for land with retiring farmers who want to sell, among many other things. The Belfast Farmers’ Market celebrated its 40th birthday last year. Its president is Noami Brautigam, who with her partner, James Gagne, launched Dickey Hill Farm in 2015 in Monroe.

"I think it’s quite incredible to see all these young farmers here,” says Penny Chase, who came to the area in 1969 with her husband, Addison, bought land in Freedom, and started farming. They raised beef, chicken, and vegetables, before working with their children Phoebe, Meg and Meg’s partner Freddy LaFage to open Chase’s Daily in 2000 in the historic Odd Fellows Hall in downtown Belfast, a café, bakery, and produce and flower market. Chase is heartened to see the community of small farmers thrive in recent decades. “We have this really vibrant community. The locals and the customers are really supportive of all these different farms and concerns that are trying to make a go of it. They appreciate the products that are being created. You have got to have that kind of support. If we didn’t have it, we wouldn’t be doing it for sure.”

Just as important, the farmers say, has been having such a strong community of fellow farmers, from greenhorns to seasoned veterans. When Beal stopped the you-pick operations last year due to the pandemic, she was able to sell her raspberries, strawberries, and eggs at nearby Bahner Farm. “I really like having those different connections to different people,” she says. “It gives people a reason to be good to each other. It’s part of that small-town accountability. Maybe we don’t have the same political sign in front of our houses, but we can split something like a straw order. We can say, ‘I use straw. You use straw. Let’s be decent to each other.’”

The abundance of farm stands, markets, and CSAs to buy farm-fresh, locally grown food was especially cherished in 2020, as the pandemic took hold and disrupted national supply chains.

“The pandemic reminded a lot of folks how lucky we are in Maine to have small farms all around us,” Beal says. “We’re part of a mutually supportive economy and I hope local food production will continue to provide more of what Mainers eat.”