Welcome to Mary Margaret's Blog

Do the greens at the grocery store this time of year NOT inspire you? I mean between not knowing who's hands have touched them and knowing that they just don't taste fresh... it's hard to really get excited about greens from 2000 miles away. I get you!   You and I both know that veggies fresh from a real garden, any garden, yours or mine, taste so much better than what you find at the grocery store.   Especially this time of year. But in the deepest part of winter, it is much too cold for greens from the garden.   Even our garden!  With a couple of feet of snow on the ground and temps below zero at night, our farm's greens in the hoop house are hibernating until March.   Soon when it is a little milder and there's a little more sunlight, they'll start to grow again and will be harvestable for our Winter… Read More

At Christmas, and anytime of year, I just love the surprise of opening presents. Because, really, who doesn’t?! When it is finally your turn, you just can’t wait to tear open that box and see what is inside… The thrill of the suspense is hard to resist, that’s for sure! With the holidays around the corner, the joy of gifts is upon us! You must have heard of getting a lump of coal in your stocking… Well, when I was a kid, we actually had this little canister of coal that would show up in someone’s stocking every year as a joke. I’ll tell you a little holiday secret… Next week, the Winter CSA is going to get a big lump of KOHL in the Christmas version of their farm fresh “stocking”...     Kohl? Yep, and by that I mean, KOHL-rabi!  (And by stocking, I mean Winter CSA #4!) And… Read More

Ever get overloaded with veggies in your fridge?  But not looking to do a whole lotta cooking?  Maybe you’re a CSA member who has gotten a little behind or have a large garden or just over bought at the grocery store. This happens to me often! And I just love the feeling of cleaning out the fridge. It’s kinda like the feeling of checking off your entire to-do list! But I'm not always in the mood to get this "high" feeling from doing lots of work in the kitchen.  I'm tired sometimes, and maybe you understand?  ;) So if you’re like me and in the market for something EASY and TASTY to help ease a build up of veggies in your fridge, try making a miso soup!         But, what is miso? Miso is a traditional paste made with fermented soybeans and a grain like rice or other… Read More

“I thought it was going to be hard and complicated to make!” Said a participant of my recent class on fermenting vegetables. And I totally understand how she felt! Have you ever said that about new things in general? I know that I certainly have! Sometimes just the thought of doing a new thing can completely overwhelm me.  I become convinced that it must be hard and complicated to do, even if it turns out to be really easy to do! And fermenting your own veggies is exactly like that, as a couple dozen participants found out this weekend at the South Sangerville Grange. Attending the class provided this woman an “ah ha” moment. She went into the class thinking it was going to be hard and complicated, and left feeling like it was the opposite and that she could do it! Actually she DID do it, right there in… Read More

Drum roll….. By eating vegetables for breakfast! Breakfast? "You've got to be kidding me!" Okay, okay, I understand that the idea may be weird to you. Well, it was weird to me, too, about 13 years ago. But here we are today, and we eat vegetables for breakfast all the time and love it! In fact, when we don’t, I seriously miss it! Veg for breakfast? How on earth did you think of that??? Were you raised that way? Nope, maybe like you, I was raised on Frosted Flakes, Fruit Loops, Pop Tarts… Probably I shouldn’t keep going. You get the picture. Closest thing to green in my breakfasts was… the dye color from my favorite brand, Capn' Crunch! Ha!   My journey to vegetables for breakfast Actually, it all started for Gene and me when we apprenticed together at Fisher Farm in Winterport, Maine over a decade ago. There… Read More

Are you looking for creative ways to eat more veggies? Maybe you’ve roasted veggies before? Yeah, yeah of course you have. Boring topic. Now, that’s where you’re wrong, young lady. Oh wait, that’s what my mom used to say to me when I was a kid. But seriously roasting veggies is like magic for so many reasons! And every year when fall rolls around I rediscover my love for roasted veggies. To share my love for it, I hosted a free community food class all about roasting veggies, where I managed to make 7 roasted veggie dishes in a little over 2 hours to prepare! Whooo! Fall is a great time to pick up a roasting habit because the weather is starting to get cool again and a caramelized roasted veggie just can’t be beat!        Why you’ll love roasting more veggies #1 You’ll love roasting because it… Read More

If you’re like us, you’ve been babying those precious tomato plants in the garden for months now. Since Memorial Day to be exact! Seems like forever to wait for a ripe tomato! Then, all of a sudden, your tomatoes start to ripen. And by September, you’re swimming in tomatoes! That’s how we feel on the farm, too! Farmer Gene and the crew harvested well over 1000 pounds this week alone.     No complaining since it is what we’ve all been waiting for, right?  But how to you use them up before they go bad? You don’t like having tomatoes sitting too long in the kitchen collecting fruit flies… Plus, garden fresh tomatoes taste so much better than grocery store tomatoes that it’s hard to let them go to waste. Any of them. In September it seems like putting them on sandwiches and salads isn’t enough to use them all… Read More

Your summer gardens are bursting with fresh veggies, especially cucumbers. Or maybe you’re in our CSA and experiencing our farm’s best cucumber year ever… And that’s no bad thing because in America, a cool, crisp cucumber is just about the definition of summer, right? But, what to do with so many cucumbers?!     There are only so many you can eat raw: whether in a salad, or cut into sticks with dip, or as a sweet and sour pickle… Hardly anyone considers cooking cucumbers! In fact, to most the thought of cooking a cucumber is just plain wrong. Picture this recent conversation with a couple of our CSA members… “Cooked cucumbers? What? Are you kidding me? No! That’s weird!” And I understand where this belief comes from.  I grew up eating my cucumbers raw, too.  But since having a CSA and then becoming a farmer, I realize that having… Read More