The first thing that we farmers do after the growing season ends is... AHHHH! We take a much-needed breath of relief and rack out to reclaim our bodies and minds from the busy, busy summer behind us.
The second is review our progress towards our goals. And we had a very big goal this year: To reclaim one acre of 20-year-old trees that had grown up between our barns and our exisiting fields. Do all …
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Ripley Farm is 'Sharing the Farm's Abundance' with a new GIVEAWAY of a Wednesday CSA farm share!
Everyone's offering Labor Day specials, so we decided we would, too! Ripley Farm style! This week we're giving away a one-week's membership to our popular Community Supported Agriculture summer farm share program for one lucky person who is drawn out of the straw hat!
The winner will learn what the Ripley Farm excitement is all about!
As a …
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If you’re one of our fabulous customers, I’m sure you have noticed that we have lettuce available every week of the season for the CSA shares and our Orono Farmers Market booth. Lettuce is something so basic, so mundane seeming, and so ingrained into our work schedule that I almost take it for granted when we go out to harvest every week.
I figured, what’s mundane to us farmers would be interesting …
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The thing I remember most about the first time we walked on what is now our dream farm at 62 Merrills Mills Road in Dover-Foxcroft is Gene's smile after he pranced through the tall timothy and red clover in the field tucked up out of sight from the road. Hey, this beautiful eight acre field has a ton of space, he said. There's no way we'd be able to sell more veggies than that, we …
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Snow?!? Ugh, who wants to hear about that stuff ever again after this winter? I certainly don't, but don't worry this story isn't about snow. It's about snowLOSS and has a beautiful ending...
On April 1st, Ripley Farm was covered in an ominously deep layer of snow. Planting was looking very far off. Morale was way down. Very low. To be exact, thirty two inches of snow, complete with a thick layer of ice in …
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Are you a visual person? I sure am! The cliche, "a picture says a thousand words," is really true in my book. That's why in 2013 I made a goal of taking a picture of every single week of our summer CSA farm share boxes that we had! I had a lot of fun doing this and made this blog to show you the beautiful colors and diversity that can be had from our local …
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Have you ever noticed that winter in Maine is a very dark time of year? Our vegetable crops have noticed, too! While I'm sure you've also noticed the cold temperatures of Maine winters, the reduction of daylight hours is really what "kills" the growing season. At ten hours or less of daylight, or after the beginning of November every year, the days are too short for the vegetable plants to make any growth at all. …
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Does Ripley Farm have vegetables available for purchase this fall and winter? We've been getting this question a number of times lately so we want to answer it and provide the JUICY details. Yes! The fall is the time of great abundance and we are in the middle of collecting and squirreling away lots of organic produce much of which is available for you to buy now through the fall and into the winter. Here's …
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As farmers we simultaneously prepare all year for the coming of the fall harvest season and dread it at the same time! That's right, fall is a time of great abundance, but is very fleeting and we must find things to do with all of the extra produce! So, we've gotten creative over the years that we've been farming and here are our four favorite ways to use up or preserve the abundance of the …
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Ripley Farm is 'Sharing the Farm' with a new GIVEAWAY of a Friday CSA farm share!
One lucky person will see what it's like to be a Ripley Farm CSA member for a week. As a member-for-the-week, the winner will come to the farm to pick-up your box of super fresh, organic veggies harvested just for you. Read our weekly newsletter with farm happenings, tips on how to use and store your veggies, and recipes! …
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