Putting many eggs in our basket
BUG GUTS & BEAUTY
Locally grown has been a new buzzword for people wanting to simplify their food chain needs. Where Aroostook Grows More was a mantra in The County when Potato was King, today we understand that placing hopes for a better tomorrow on a single crop is a very bad idea.
Market factors have demonstrated this over many years. This does not mean that agriculture is dead. What can be grown on the land?
If you look at the collection of seeds, pots, gadgets and offerings at any of the local retailers the range of things that can be grown in Aroostook soil is only limited by imagination. Last year, 2015, it was notable that the seed packets in local stores included artichoke seeds. There were watermelon, canteloupe, and asparagus seeds. Many people tried growing these and had success on various levels including actually harvesting artichoke blossoms in the fall.
There are an abundance of health food stores selling various legumes, squashes, and herbs for the kitchens of The County. It is far more varied than in times past. Vegetables available in the frozen food section still draw on the basics of broccoli, chopped spinach, peas, and corn. But it is possible to find bags of sweet peppers, carrots, and asparagus in the frozen foods.
Local farms too are beginning to take a more proactive approach to growing items. Instead of planting spuds, harvesting them, then begging the processing companies to buy on a flooded market, most farms are now working a year ahead to sell a crop and they are diversifying. Now it’s possible to buy local strawberries, apples, and other delights.
Yet to be seen are strong messages encouraging people to buy the local product. Broccoli which has been grown for more than 30 years in The County is still not advertised as locally grown. (President H.W. Bush said it best, “No broccoli on Air Force One!” We agree. Others may feel otherwise.)
Yet in the late fall and early winter Aroostook broccoli heads are on the tables of the finest restaurants in the country. Herbs grown in so many kitchen gardens grow well with care. Early hospitals and the basic kitchen garden had herbs because of their healing qualities. Now new knowledge is showing that these are potent stores of life-improving vigor. Not one health care facility in Aroostook has an herb garden, something that can keep people occupied waiting for treatment.
Pineland Farms is working on adding value to the simple spud. Not only does it make potato meals it is adding flavors and materials to those products to make them more appealing to wary consumers in places far removed from Westfield. With luck beef, pork, and chicken will soon be earning their keep in local fields. Pineland Farms and many other meat growers are pushing hard to get the USDA to assign full-time meat inspectors to this area so that local animal products can be sold in stores.
That steak you are enjoying could soon come from pastures in Perham. This is locally grown food at its best. This effort needs our support.
None of the local hardware stores has a test garden to demonstrate how their seeds can grow. It would be nice to see Lowes or Tractor Supply establish a test plot for vegetables and fruits that are sold. Wal-mart will not do this simple task. None of the stores has built a greenhouse with the mission of showing that if you buy their seeds and products they will work. A missed opportunity to increase sales for sure. Of course the thought of free range chickens in Wal-mart can cause laughter.
Waiting for Spring to come, as raindrops mix with snow, ice, ice pellets, drizzle, to keep the gardeners in the house it would be nice to see some proof that Aroostook does Grow More. Hard to believe that all this white stuff will in the end yield some green.
Orpheus Allison is a photojournalist living in The County who graduated from UMPI and earned a master of liberal arts degree from the University of North Carolina. He began his journalism career at WAGM television later working in many different areas of the US. After 20 years of television he changed careers and taught in China and Korea.
