Pioneer Times photo/Gloria Austin
TAKING A LOOK — Jerry Doxtader of Bark-Eater Farm in East Hodgdon checks out the plants being grown in seed boxes in a warm, nurturing environment before transplanting them into the ground.
By Gloria Austin
Staff Writer
EAST HODGDON — Many people find themselves too busy to grow a vegetable garden or they do not have adequate space for one. Then there are people who are becoming more careful of what is in their food and how it is grown. Jerry Doxtader and his family of Bark-Eater Farm in East Hodgdon are hoping that their business will fill the growing niche.
Today’s supermarkets say they have access to home grown food, but sometimes, that produce is grown 1,500 miles away and trucked in.
“Markets may advertise home grown tomatoes, but they are from Baltimore,” said Doxtader. “That is not my idea of locally grown.”
Bark-Eater Farm is introducing a new marketing system that originated in Switzerland called Community Supported Agriculture or CSA. CSA arrived in the United States in the mid-1980s and Doxtader is hoping it catches on locally.
“It is buying local to sustain local communities,” he said. “As a consumer you know your farmers and you have confidence in the person you are buying from. Small farmers have found that the best way to market their carefully tended crops is through a limited group of loyal customers.”
Doxtader is accepting customers to invest in his harvest share for the 2015 season. Doxtader’s CSA program will provide customers with locally, chemically free grown produce each week June through October.
“It is a mutually beneficial relationship,” he said. “The consumer receives a season’s worth of fresh, locally grown vegetables for an annual fee. The fee is usually paid before the seeds are planted, guaranteeing the farmer a market for his crops so he can concentrate on growing them. The consumer knows exactly where their food is coming from and the first name of the farmer.”
A full share or 18 weeks of produce costs $395 and a half share or nine weeks is $200. Those who buy harvest shares will receive a box/bag full of mixed vegetables that will be ready for pick up each Tuesday from 4-6 p.m. at Northern Maine Realty’s parking lot on the Bangor Road in Union Square. A typical bag/box share would include: lettuce, carrots, spinach, beets, cucumbers, tomatoes, summer squash, peas, beans, broccoli, garlic, onions, chard, basil, peppers, leaks, melons, celery and other surprises.
Doxtader’s goal in his first year is 20 families.
“We are a long way from hitting my goal,” he said.
Doxtader, who lived in Dexter and relocated to Hodgdon, has been farming full time for about nine years. Before that, he worked as a mason. Bark-Eater Farm has 15 acres of tillable ground.
Pioneer Times photo/Gloria Austin
COVERAGE — Jerry Doxtader of Bark-Eater Farm in East Hodgdon grows vegetables in the ground, while it is yet snow covered. Doxtader uses a rolling greenhouse to protect the soil.
Bark-Eater Farm will use only two acres of farmland for short rotation and succession planting. With early signup before the planting season, Doxtader can plant and harvest just what is needed for his customers each week with very little waste.
“There is potential for CSA here,” said Doxtader. “We will grow on just two acres that we can take care of really well. Every week we are planting more vegetables. We can with confidence handle the plan to have vegetables each week for folks. We use and endorse a farming system that encourages the natural biological systems that create living soil to grow healthy vegetables. I am not trying to boast, but I have the knowledge and experience in most crops, even rare or unusual vegetable crops.”
Doxtader has six greenhouses set up, with four of the smaller greenhouses set on wheels.
“It is an old, old European concept that has not been popular until recent years,” he explained.
The rolling greenhouses protect a plot of cultivated natural soil. For example, Doxtader is planting tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and eggplants in the ground just like it is in an outside garden. But, it is a microclimate since the plants are protected from the weather. Even on a cloudy day, enough rays of sun get through and the temperature is about 10 degrees warmer than the outside air.
“It gives you an edge in this climate,” Doxtader added.
By using rolling greenhouses, Doxtader can also prevent an increase of disease and insect activity. When Doxtader rotates his crops coverage, the cleansing effects of the weather on the used ground neutralizes the ground and makes it fresh again, so to speak.
“From an organic standpoint, we do not use any synthetic pesticides, herbicides or fungicides, it is a benefit to an organic grower to move the greenhouses,” said Doxtader.
Doxtader is starting small and would like to see his CSA program bloom.
“We want to slowly expand,” he said. “Starting out, we like the scale we are at. By selling retail, our customers can come out and visit to see what we are doing. I love people who are interested in what I am interested in and I can give them a wonderful tour of the farm to show our enthusiasm for what we do.”
Doxtader, who has been in the area about a year, sold his vegetables at Houlton’s Farmers Market this summer, so some people are acquainted with him.
“We have been attracted to the CSA model and it has been popular in other parts of the country,” he said. “It is a labor of love and a wonderful occupation for our family. We have seven children. This way, we can all work together as a family. There is something for everybody; even the 9 year old can help the day before market, as we are picking and the girls are washing vegetables and packaging them.”
If someone may not want to buy a harvest share, Bark-Eater Farm will also sell at the Houlton Farmers Market this summer and will take orders for a large volume of produce for pickling. For more information on Bark-Eater Farm or Doxtader’s harvest shares, call 532-6450 or write to Jerry Doxtader, 55 Community Circle, Hodgdon, ME. 04730.
