Welcome to Mary Margaret's Blog

This was a big question for me when I got interested in eating better during college in my early twenties.  I lived in an apartment and couldn't have my own garden.  Then, I learned about local food, and thought, 'Hey, I want to do that!  I want to support local farmers and get fresh, healthy veggies from them.'

But, how? 

Easier said than done in the slow-recovering atmosphere of Lewiston/Auburn, Maine in the early 2000's.  …

We're back at it: another year of harvests!  As we begin our ninth year of harvesting what we grow, it is still amazing to see the beauty and strength of the plants that are our food.  We love what we do and are excited to share it with all of the people who support our farm and eat the produce that grows here.

Lucky for us that we have an aspiring-professional photographer working on the …

"What do you do in the winter since you can’t farm?”  This is the most common question we get as vegetable farmers in Maine.  Sure our growing season is short with a frost-free period between the end of May and the middle of September.  Zone four, I believe it is called.

With highs in the single digits in Dover-Foxcroft in February this week, I wish I could show you pictures of us on the beaches …

What does CSA stand for?  C-ommunity S-upported A-griculture! 

Those three words mean a lot to us at Ripley Farm...

They mean local people coming together from Greenville to Hampden to Lakeview Plantation to Corinth and everywhere in between to support our farm. 

They mean friendship, smiles, warm hugs, and uplifting conversations week after week, year after year. 

They mean sharing good food with people who appreciate the hard work that goes into producing it. 

They …

"We'll be there on Friday at 8am to start setting up," they said.  And they weren't kidding!  Just as our employees got here to start work that morning, several more cars rolled into the farm drive.  Soon after I could hear sounds of persistant banging on metal.  Sounds like they're working on the railroad, I thought to myself.  Clink, clink, clink... and I looked out of the window to see a white party tent being …

I love doing this.  As you know I'm the one who takes most of the photos around the farm.  Its my self-appointed job to take a photo of every farm share that we put together during the Summer CSA.  Every week I whisk around repeating, "I've got to take the share photo," which I usually do admist a rush to get everything ready for the pickups.  I've been doing this since my obsession with photography …

I am ready for spring.  Although it is still a while away, we are immersed in our annual planning process for the spring and summer.  It is during the winter that we make most of the decisions that govern our growing season.  Using lots of spreadsheets, we literally plan out ahead of time where and when each of our vegetables will be planted.  With close to 100 different varieties to go into five acres of …

On Wednesday when we were getting ready for the Winter CSA pickup later that afternoon, I said to Gene offhandedly, "What a nice farm share this week!  Its just how we eat!" 

But, that really IS the essence of it all!  I just love having our CSA because we get to share with our members how we farmers eat.  We rely on the wonderful seasonal abundance of Maine's growing season to nourish us, which means …