Author Mary Quinn Doyle documents the changes in Maine's farms and their economic importance

Walking amid the Holstein cows at Benson Farm in Gorham, writer and photographer Mary Quinn Doyle seems at home, petting a calf while scoping out the dairy and composting operations. And it's no wonder. The former English and social studies teacher just published “Unique Maine Farms,” a book in which she profiles 178 Maine farms, highlighting their diversity and specialties. She's continuing the project — largely a sweat equity effort with some outside funding that took her on a 30,000-mile-plus sojourn throughout the state over 28 months — on her website, uniquemainefarms.com, and may eventually publish a follow-on book.

Doyle's purpose goes further than publishing an educational book with pretty photographs. She hopes to raise enough money to donate a copy to every library in the state. And, she hopes to promote the farms, through the book, on her website, with a traveling photo show and through public talks.

This book is based on the theme of farming for everyone, so she kept the definition of farming broad, including aquaculture, research, tree and preservation farms.

“One benefit I had because I chose the self-publishing route for this project was I could interpret 'farms' very liberally,” she said in a recent interview with Mainebiz in the Benson farmhouse's kitchen and on its wraparound porch. “I was very grateful that I was able to include historical, social services and other farms. It's something you might not find in a conventional agricultural book. So I think that probably sets it apart.”

Following is an edited transcript of the discussion with Doyle, with comments on the challenges farmers face from Becky Benson, co-owner of Benson Farm.

Mainebiz: Describe the origins of the 'Unique Maine Farms” project.

Mary Quinn Doyle: I've done many things in my life. I'm a certified English and social studies teacher for grades seven through 12. I also wrote for the Sanford News for many years ... predominantly nature stories and history.

When I was in the school system and then at a social service agency, I stayed in touch with farmers and the [University of Maine] Cooperative Extension system. I was covering some farms for the food they donated for those in need. I went to the Spiller Farm in Wells. I was motivated because of their generosity. This past year they donated over 23,000 pounds of food to the hungry in Maine. So I wrote that story and realized there were so many farms doing good things that I continued profiling farms that were helping people or that were unique.

Also, our family bartered its way through Ireland by doing web pages and taking photographs of over 120 hostels. I thought I'd like to take that concept of getting to know a country and people and apply that to my home state. I originally thought I'd write about 100 farms, but ended up doing 178. I still have 12 farms that I haven't had time to put on the website. This [Benson Farm] will be my 13th. So the book is completed with 178 farms, but the website is continuing. That's my focus now.

MB: How did you fund the project? Did you get any grants?

MQD: Yes, I did for the book. I made a commitment in the beginning to have the book published in Maine on Maine paper, although it was more expensive. Penmor Lithographers in Lewiston did the printing and the paper was from Sappi Fine Paper. There were grants from Northeast Agricultural Education Foundation. And when I was just short of being able to get it published, Sappi Fine Paper came through with a paper donation.

Time & Tide is my fiscal sponsor. I couldn't have applied for any grants being an individual unless I had an affiliation with a 501(c)3 nonprofit. So they handle any grant money. The Leonard C. and Mildred F. Ferguson Foundation gave a generous donation. Other donations came from the Hudson Foundation, Northeast Agricultural Education Foundation, Farm Credit Northeast AgEnhancement and the Agricultural Council of Maine. The Slow Money Maine organization helped facilitate getting the word out. Publishing the book came to $22,147 for 2,000 copies.

MB: What about traveling and other expenses?

MQD: I've done it for free. From a business perspective, this is a project that promotes farm businesses in Maine, but is based on a volunteer effort. I'm going to be raising money to donate a book to every library in the state of Maine. There are 323 public and college libraries.

MB: Will there be a second book?

MQD: I would consider it. If I can't find the funding, I'll just continue with the website, because that's not very expensive to run.

MB: How many different types of farms are there in Maine?

MQD: There is a section that gives them by category. [The book lists 15 different types, including native, dairy, tree, animal, preservation, vegetable, research and fiber farms]. There are many organic as well as traditional farms.

I think probably the most unique aspect of the book and where it is really different compared to other books is the focus on “farming for everyone,” which includes farms for people who are mentally or physically handicapped. Most agricultural publications are often talking about profit and loss or are geared toward very young students.

MB: Was there any one farm that particularly that touched you?

MQD: Well, the Spiller Farm was the catalyst for the project. But there wasn't a farm that I didn't go away from without thinking they work so hard and people should know about that.

The Morrison Center in Scarborough touched me greatly. I was so impressed with how they paid the people who come to their program with mental and physical challenges. Each plant had a label, and whoever grew that plant and tended it received a percentage of the profits. So not only were they given the responsibility of tending the greenhouse plants, they also shared in some of the profits. And that doesn't always happen in situations like that.

I was very touched by Cultivating Community [New American Sustainable Agriculture Project]. The Packard Littlefield Farm in Lisbon [which leases 30 acres of its 402 acres of land to Cultivating Community] is owned by two retired teachers. They open up their large acreage to, I believe, 30 refugee families that each have their “farm,” what we might call a garden because it might be an acre. Cultivating Community has set up a program where they are teaching language and business skills and they're having the farmers participate in farmers markets and CSA [community supported agriculture] activities. Many of them are growing crops unique to Somalia or Sudan where they came from. I think that cultural exchange is really exciting.

MB: What are some of the challenges you've seen for farmers in Maine?

MQD: One is getting their animals processed. I spoke with farmers who have to travel over two hours to bring their animals to be slaughtered. They feel not only is it expensive, but stressful on the animals. If there is a processing facility nearby, sometimes they have to make an appointment over a year ahead of time because there aren't enough processors and they're so busy, especially with the resurgence of all these small farms in Maine.

Also, the cost of grain has skyrocketed. One reason is that a lot of the corn is being used for ethanol now and a lot of farmers don't have access to that as feed, so they have to pay more money. Becky [of Benson Farm in Gorham] said they had a good crop of corn this year that's going to be their silage. But some of these small farms don't have enough land to raise their food, so they have to lease land that's reasonable.

Transportation definitely is an issue, as are fuel costs. And if they want to be organic, the price of organic grain, just because it's more time-consuming and labor-intensive, is significantly higher. There also are a lot of farmers markets now and more competition. Someone else can be growing exactly what you're growing, and I've heard some of the markets want diversity.

Another challenge is the unpredictability of farming. I read, Becky, about your [90 mile-per-hour] tornado in 2010. How many barns did you lose?

Becky Benson: One five-story barn that was 100 years old. It housed all of our dry cows, all of our babies and our showstring cows. It just happened that our dry cows were out to pasture and our babies were all inside. And we had chickens and a pig. The day before, we had moved our 18 showstring, which are our most valuable animals, out of the basement barn to the heifer barn because we didn't have another show to go to. So we had 10 animals in the barn and we lost two.

So nature is the biggest challenge for us. The second-biggest challenge for a dairy farmer is that our milk is a commodity, so we get what they're paying. We can't say 'our milk is really great so we're going to charge you more for it.' Or you can't say you're willing to take a little less so you don't have to put so much effort into it. On our farm we take excellent care of our cows and we make a very clean product. We ship to Oakhurst and we get bonuses based on how clean [our operation] and our cows are. We pass that on to our employees because we can't afford to pay them what their worth. When milk is $26 per 100 weight [pounds], we're breaking even, and when it's $18 per 100 weight, we're paying to own those animals. You can't tell your employees, 'Sorry we didn't get enough money to pay you.' That's why we started the compost business. Because we love cows and this is our heritage. We're farmers, we are willing to do that. But [the price fluctuations] are as nerve-wracking as the weather.

[The 300-acre Benson farm, in production for more than 100 years, has 150 Holsteins. It sells milk to Oakhurst Dairy and has a composting operation with customers including Portland-based Garbage to Garden].

MQD: One thing that's saved a lot of farmers is diversifying, like you've done with your compost. Also, finding funding is often difficult. There are grants, but farmers are so busy that they often don't have time to do the grant work.

BB: We got grants from the Maine Farms for the Future Program and Coastal Enterprises [CEI]. These programs have been so necessary for farms to stay in business because they came at the right time. They give you the shot in the arm to keep going.

But they do take a lot of work, a lot of brain power. The Maine Small Business Development Centers through the University of Southern Maine in Portland offered a course that was unbelievably cheap in which they taught me how to write a grant.

It's amazing how these people who are giving the grants want to give them to farmers, so if there's something that isn't in-depth enough on the application, they're willing to help. I couldn't have written grants if I didn't have help here on the farm to take my load off. In fact, because of that grant writing, I've had to pull away from the farm work of feeding the babies [calves]. I've been forced to do a lot of the office stuff. That's unfortunate, because my heart is over there [she nodded toward the barnyard across the street]. I'd rather shovel it all day long over there than shovel it in here.

MQD: I think our state's pretty progressive. When I speak to people from out of state — like my brother, who is an apple farmer in New York — he's like, 'Hey, you have a lot of stuff [programs].' So we're lucky for that.

Read more

Feds give $97K to Gorham farm