Farmers seek to extend the harvest (Maine greenhouse farms)

[jpak]

http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/2687266.shtml

FARMINGTON -- One of the world's foremost experts on the growing and marketing of tomatoes exchanged techniques with an organic farmer from Vienna.

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Van der Giessen is head grower and chief operational officer of U.S. Functional Foods, which has designs on making Madison the "produce capital of New England." Functional Foods will build a 23-acre greenhouse this summer, and begin distributing vine-ripened tomatoes throughout New England in November.

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Blanchard said he has a difficult time keeping up with the demand for the organic mesclin greens and tomatoes he grows in a 25-by-96 foot and 30-by-96 foot greenhouse. From the softwood pine slabs he uses to heat them to right soil temperate to the correct time to plant, he outlined his formula for success.

"There's a huge potential for more local food production," Blanchard said. "There's a huge economic development opportunity here, if we can just figure out a way to capture it.

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"A small amount of heat gets you a pretty big boost in production," he said. "I really don't think the economics is there to do it with propane or oil. But with wood, yeah."

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Note: the Functional Food greenhouse will purchase its electricity from a small local hydroelectric dam...

[mainegreen]

1. Maine is on a very unique path in the country for farming and electricity

With a lot of farmer taking up organic farming as well as starting to realize the benefits of direct to consumer co-ops, alternative farming methods to extend the season, and the state pursuing an alternative energy path, things look very good indeed. Especially if transportation prices rise, more produce production in Maine will bring us back to being the bread basket, so to speak, of New England.

All you have to do is walk in the woods in Maine and see all the old stone boundary walls criss-crossing the forest to realize that at one time Maine was a major farming state. With the opening up of the west many farmers choose to leave for the plains. Our winters are harsh and our soil is poorer than that of other regions, but Maine has great potential. A change in farming methods is extending the growing season here. A loss of farm land in other New England states will make farm land in Maine more valuable. Not, but certainly not least, is the perceived quality of Maine produce. Maine is one of the only states in the country that is nationally perceived as having high quality produce, both fished and farmed which could easily be capitalized on by the industry, if the state doesn't totally drop the ball like they have with Maine shrimp.