WOODLAND, Maine — The day Andrew Ketch and his wife Meeka purchased his grandfather’s 76 acre farm in Woodland three years ago they began transitioning the operation from conventional farm to an organic one. Later this summer, their farm finally, officially will be certified organic.
“There’s a three year waiting period before you get certified to farm organic. Three years from the last non-approved substance that was applied to the field,” Andrew Ketch said.
Ketch grew up next door to his Swedish grandfather’s farm and comes from a long line of Swedish farmers who settled in northern Maine, so it was only natural for him to continue the legacy, but with his own ambitions to avoid chemicals and genetically modified organisms.
“We’re actually going to be certified organic by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association this year. Business has already been booming — we’ve delivered all the way to Portland,” Ketch said.
On the Ketch Organics farm customers will find an array of vegetables, including eight varieties of potatoes, corn and popping corn, beets and lettuce greens. The Ketchs also offer eggs and wildflowers, and sell their own blend of coffee.
“On our business card it says ‘Growing produce and raising livestock the way Mother Nature intended,'” Ketch said. “We’re trying to have less of a footprint and not use any of the chemical fertilizers or pesticides that are harmful to you, and there’s no GMO anything because you couldn’t be certified organic if you did plant that stuff.”
Their produce leaves Woodland every weekend and ends up in the St. John Valley, Caribou, Presque Isle, Houlton, Bangor and Portland.
Ellavie Indigo Ketch, 2, keeps her dad Andrew Ketch company as he cuts organic seed potatoes from Wood Prairie Farm in Bridewater on his Ketch Organics farm in Woodland.
(Contributed/Meeka Ketch)
“My wife is actually doing the deliveries on the weekends and I’m doing all the farming,” Ketch said. “We’re definitely busy. It’s just the two of us and we have two daughters that will eventually help out when they’re older.”
There are approved pesticides for organic farms, but Ketch Organics would rather make their own.
“I actually make my own (pesticide) just using organic lemon balm tea,” Ketch said. “It’s right from our cupboard, it’s stuff that we drink, I brew that up and I go right out there and I’ll spray the pumpkin plants, squash plants, cucumber plants, anything in that family and it doesn’t kill anything, it’s just not palatable to the squash bugs, they take off and you’re not actually killing a hundred different species just to get one.”
Ketch Organics also is the Aroostook County shipping depot for Fedco Seeds, a co-op seed packer.
“Basically anyone who orders from (Fedcoseeds.com) in Aroostook County can have their order placed on a pallet and sent to my farm to save dramatically on shipping,” Ketch said.
After they purchased the farm in 2014, the Ketchs started selling vegetables out of coolers by the side of the road.
“Now we’re actually three years in the wholesale market and delivering all the way to Portland,” Ketch said.
Ketch Organics looks forward to more organic farms popping up in the area to help get the public more interested in eating organic.
“I think it’s going to take more for all of us to actually work together. The public will eventually respond to that. I have all kinds of customers that start out telling me that a potato is a potato and an egg is an egg, and then when they crack one of our eggs open it’s totally different,” Ketch said.
For more information visit ketchorganics.com.
