Sunday the 27th was Open Farm Day. Farms all over Maine opened their doors to the public. Even though it was rainy, foggy, and cool we decided to check out some of our local farms. Union is a farming town, and we had plenty of options all within a couple miles of the house.
The first farm we went to was Ells Sheep Farm. We saw their dairy flock and toured their barns. They also had stands from Appleton Creamery, an ice cream stand, maple syrup stand, a stand selling meat.
From there we went to Agricola Farm, another sheep farm. They have a regular farm store where they sell veggies, yarn, sheep skin, meat, and crafts. I bought some wool/alpaca yarn. The high school had a display of their heirloom seed project and a spinning demonstration . They also had the rabbit that Karis liked looking at.
We then went to our neighbors farm, Brae Maple Farm. Their organic farm backs up to our property. They have Scottish Highland cattle, sheep, and donkeys. They are also avid gardeners. There were many gardens to walk through, and master gardeners from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension were giving lectures and walking around to answer any questions people may have. They had a lot of interesting foods made from their gardens. Karis really liked the Earl Grey shortbread cookies. A golden retriever decided that he liked Karis and gave her slobbery wet kisses a few times while she was being pushed in her stroller. Another interesting thing we learned was that the house, built around 1789, was originally supposed to be an Inn, but the road between Rockland and Augusta was not run in the place it was supposed to be so it was turned into a farm. Its really amazing that its been a farm for over 200 years. I wonder if our land was originally part of that farm.
Finally, we went to Linita Farm, a dairy farm. They have 80 Holstein and Jersey cows. We saw a calf that had been born at 4:30 that morning. Karis wasn't a huge fan of the cows. The cows were very interested in BJ. One practically wrapped its tongue around his wrist. They seemed to have a taste for his clothes. Every time he tried to show Karis the cows one of them would end up chewing his shoe or shirt or arm. Mr. Hawes, the farmer, thought it was really funny that the only cow Karis showed any real interest in was the wood display cow. We enjoyed free ice cream. By the end of that farm tour Karis could barely keep her eyes open. We decided to scrap the rest of the farm tours, and go home. We spent three hours out and about and never went further than three miles from our house.
