August meeting agenda

1) General Contractor Update

2) Grant(s) update

3) Volunteers? Need help to get “tin panels” to Mike Wallace at Dexter Sandblasting who is restoring them

4) Farm Adventures & meetings
• July 2nd field trip
o Fred Sherburne
o New renovated Grange Hall in Starks
With the help of USDA Rural $199K grant, Alternative Agriculture Association (MA3) turned the 130 year-old former Starks Grange Hall into a beautiful new space for collecting and processing local farm products. “the Beast” is a wood-fired brick oven! Paula Day & her husband Ed Ross received a USDA Grant and has worked on it for the past 2 years. They are continuing the local food movement and creating the Blue Heron Bakery, Catering & Local Foods Connection. They also have Trial Test (2 acre) Wheat Field at their farm, which is only a 1/2 mile or so from the Grange Hall. Crop & Soil Consultant Mark Fulford was on hand to talk about the test field, soil conditions, and LOTS more.

o Riverside Farm Market and Cafe in Oakland (riversidefarmmarket.com)
o Barrel’s Market in Waterville (barrelsmarket.com)
o Fossa General Store

• July 27th equipment hunting at Bubba’s in Newport

• July 28th Open House in Starks
o Made lots of great connections with USDA officials, Mike Michaud’s office and farmers, etc
o Want (need) a wood fired oven (how and if it can be accomplished)

• July 31st Bread Fair at the 2nd Annual Kneading Conference

5) Ideas we got from places visited: need to sell Maine wines & beer, fresh meat from Herring Bros., inexpensive lighting, diversity, wood oven, the need to be a full going kitchen when opening, maybe a restaurant license vs. certified commercial kitchen license

6) Still receiving phone calls from new farmers regularly & leads for futures commercial seeing of our products. i.e.: restaurants, etc.

7) UpNorth Magazine article on stands now featuring our farmers, Sherburne Farm, Leaves & Blooms & Midsummer Night’s Meadow Farm

7) General Discussion

Next meeting: September 6th at 7 PM

Vision Statement: Building our local economy and community with local people, farms and markets.
Mission Statement: Locally Grown, Locally Processed, Locally Marketed.