Life on Maple Meadow Farm featured in film
Photo courtesy of Alan Jepson
MATT GREGG takes a team of horses out to plow the back 40 at Maple Meadows Farm. Plowing is one of the most strenuous types of work horses do. Crown of Maine Productions recently released a film about life on the Greggs’ farm.
By Kathy McCarty
MAPLETON — An hour-long show capturing the challenges and benefits of farming with work horses in Aroostook County has just been released by Crown of Maine Productions, entitled “Maple Meadow Farm: A year with the Greggs and their workhorses.”
The Gregg family harnesses Belgian work horses for a variety of tasks, from twitching out logs in winter to haying in the summer, using centuries-old farming methods on their 400-acre farm in Mapleton.
Filmmaker Brenda Jepson, of New Sweden, said the hour-long documentary took about a year and a half to shoot, covering the four seasons on the farm, from logging in winter to working the fields in the summer.
“They’re so practical. The Greggs make the best of the old and the new,” she said. “When you spend a year and a half with a family, you get to know them.”
Photo courtesy of Alan Jepson
TWITCHING LOGS is a way of life for the Gregg family, who use the wood to heat their homes and apartments they rent. Here, Matt Gregg is pictured with his 10-year-old workhorse, Pat, twitching out a log in winter in the forest of Maple Meadow Farm in Mapleton. The Greggs harvest 50 cords of firewood each year using Pat as a skidder. The family estimates it will save them $28,000 in fuel oil this winter.
“It would be tempting,” said Jepson, “to merely regard the Greggs’ old-fashioned farming as a bit charming, but the Greggs are practical to a fault. When they explain how harvesting firewood with workhorse Pat will save them $28,000 this winter in heating oil, their approach makes perfect sense.”
The Greggs supplement their income by renting out apartments in Presque Isle, heating three apartment buildings, as well as their two farmhouses, with 50 cords of firewood each year. They also cut logs for wood products, as well as sell hay.
Terry Gregg and his wife, Miriam, an instructor at Northern Maine Community College, live in one farmhouse, while their son, Matt, and his wife, Andrea, a special educator for Child Development Services in Aroostook County, live across the field in a second farmhouse with their three young children, Clay, Violet and Olive.
The children have responsibilities on the farm as well.
“They have 13 hens. The children collect eggs each day,” said Jepson.
In addition, farm life comes with added benefits.
“The views from Maple Meadow are stunning – overlooking Mars Hill Mountain, the twin peaks of Quoggy Jo in Aroostook State Park and Arnold Brook Lake,” said Jepson.
Jepson said the Greggs are taking an active role in sharing their lifestyle with others.
“The Greggs share with the community their love of farming life, and their horses, in a number of ways. In June they host the Maple Meadow Farm Festival — this year attracting nearly 2,000 visitors. Participants get to see demonstrations of how six work horses are used on the farm. And on Christmas Eve, the Greggs adorn two horses and a wagon with Christmas lights and take their tenants, as well as friends, on rides through the back streets of Presque Isle to see the brightly-decorated homes,” said Jepson.
For more information or to order a copy of the DVD, visit www.crownofmaineproductions.com
