“Slow Food”

A Local Business Opportunity

by Mary Blackstone

As one of the most basic human needs, food, and a diverse range of associated local businesses, constitute an important component of Hancock County’s economy.  With a population of less than 60,000, Hancock County feeds more than four million visitors annually in an increasingly long tourism season—and an increasingly long growing season.  While most visitors seem to be drawn to our region for its natural beauty and the healthy exercise it offers, the attraction of local seafood, and lobster in particular, is clearly an aspect of that attraction.  Globally, food and culinary tourism is estimated to be growing at a rate of 16% annually or $253 billion by 2029 thanks to things like food festivals and a demand for authentic, eco-friendly experiences such as farm-to-table tours, events and workshops grounded in sustainable, organic growing practices. For entrepreneurs in our region, this demand represents an important opportunity, but it also highlights a vulnerability that came to the fore during the COVID pandemic.  During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Mainers were very capable of growing their own food for year-round consumption—and exporting cash crops. As recently as my childhood growing up in Ellsworth, all of the access routes into the City were lined with farms and homesteads where people grew enough food for themselves and frequently augmented their income by selling excess produce to their neighbors or operated full scale farms which sold cash crops on a larger scale.  During the pandemic, however, as supply chains collapsed, it became clear how far Mainers had moved away from homesteading and growing their own food and how dependent they had become on a global food system that transports what we eat on a daily basis across the country, oceans or continents

I was fortunate to be raised by parents who remained connected to an earlier food system and economy throughout their lives and even more fortunate to inherit our small family homestead.  Located next door to farmland where my mother grew up and on Grant’s Corner, a part of the City which produced and delivered milk and other dairy products for local residents when she was a child, the property was not naturally blessed with prime soil, but it had been managed organically by my parents since they bought the property in the 1940s (at roughly the same time that ‘organic’ terminology was first introduced).  Consequently, I also inherited the most important input for productive agriculture—fertile, healthy soil—and as a long term member of MOFGA (Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association) I have made sure that I have continued and strengthened organic approaches to maintaining soil health.  From a business/foot traffic perspective it also helped that the property I inherited was just a mile from downtown Ellsworth and located at the corner of Rt 1 and the Christian Ridge Road, a connector to Rt 1A. Although I have always been passionate about growing my own food (to the point of growing it in pots on a fire escape while in a city apartment), I was discouraged from following that passion as a career, but as I took more and more responsibility for my family home I decided that I wanted to continue and grow my parents’ roadside sales of produce and extend it to include seedlings, perennials and flowers. So Blackstone Gardens has evolved as an entrepreneurial retirement project grounded in an economy and way of living deeply embedded in the history of our region while also satisfying a renewed gravitational pull for locals and visitors alike towards healthier, more sustainable and locally grown food. 

With just one acre of land, it has been important for me to adjust the scope and scale of the endeavor relative to what I can produce at any given time.  My first goal is to grow a succession of fruit and vegetables that will provide fresh produce (from the garden and cold storage) for our family 12 months a year.  For those who are skeptical that this is possible in Maine I can only say that people have been doing this for more than 200 years and probably a  lot longer and that as long as one returns to eating a seasonal (but healthy) diet vs insisting on boxes of fresh strawberries in January, it is entirely possible—even more so now, given the effects of climate change.  The produce begins with greens, rhubarb and asparagus in April/May and continues with both common summer crops (peas, beans, beets, heirloom tomatoes, cukes, peppers, summer squash, raspberries, etc) and less common ones (fava beans, fennel, eggplant, husk cherries, melons).  The late season and cold storage crops include winter squash, kohlrabi, cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Belgian endive, carrots, apples, potatoes, onions, shallots, garlic, etc.

My second goal is to grow a steady but varied selection of fresh produce, herbs and flowers to sell from May through October with additional sales of seedlings in April/May and perennials April-October.  Because I am located in a high traffic area I quickly moved away from attending fairs or farmers markets, which cost time, labor and money, in favor of serving regular or casual customers who simply stop at my roadside stand.  Getting to know my neighbors while providing them with the makings for their supper—or value-added design work with flowers for weddings or other special occasions—has been one of the most rewarding aspects of this growing project.

I have limited my overhead and direct costs (mostly one staff person with occasional part time help or apprentices, plus seeds, amendments and other planting materials) and made a virtue of the small and self-contained scale of the operation. 

My long-term garden manager, Jay Barnes, is responsible for our organic growing practices—either growing on seedlings in a passive solar green house (with backup heat if essential) or direct seeding.  Growing our own plants from scratch is cost-effective, but it also enhances my level of trust and that of my customers in both the growing process and the product, and it makes it possible for me to offer heirloom and unusual varieties that are otherwise unavailable.  With attention to crop rotation and organic soil management, we can plant intensively for maximum yield in comparatively small growing areas (including raised beds and a hoop house). With produce the major assets that I can offer are freshness, healthy growing conditions and the opportunity to walk into the garden and choose the fruit or vegetable you want to buy.  The vegetable stand is only a few feet from the growing areas and children often accompany us into the garden to choose the particular veggie they want for dinner—and in the process learn that food really comes from plants vs grocery store displays.  While we do pick produce, herbs and flowers that are available on the stand, we do not necessarily display all that we sell in the interest of maximizing freshness and minimizing waste by picking some things only on request.

As advocates of the “slow food movement” we place an importance on preparing traditional foods and preserving what we grow for our own use through cold storage, freezing, canning, drying, pickling, fermentation—even tree tapping for maple syrup. Many of the jams, jellies, pickles, green tomato mincemeat, sauerkraut recipes, etc. that we make up annually are the same recipes that my mother or father would have made, but because I have neither a commercial kitchen nor the time to care for the gardens and prepare value added traditional foods commercially, I have not taken that value-added step.  However, each year we have customers who ask for those items, and the whole area of value-added food and beverage processing using traditional recipes and local produce represents a huge entrepreneurial opportunity that could further ‘feed’ food and culinary tourism in our region—not to mention healthier eating and more sustainable access to local foods for residents.

For me, this retirement ‘growing project’ is first and foremost a return to a way of life that I value and only secondly a business. For anyone to sustain a career in farming in our region, especially on a larger scale than mine, their motivation almost certainly needs to reflect the order of my priorities, but for anyone with innovative ideas and an interest in being involved in the food system the Downeast region presents some real opportunities.

Mary Blackstone was born and raised in Ellsworth she considers herself fortunate to be living in her family home and working the land that her parents managed.  She is a retired professor and academic administrator and apart from managing Blackstone Gardens, she has been actively involved as a long-time volunteer in several non-profit organizations, especially the Ellsworth Garden Club, the City of Ellsworth’s Arbor Commission and Green Ellsworth.  As Community Liaison for the latter organization she was involved in the development of the Ellsworth Green Plan for long term sustainability and since its release in 2021 she has been involved in the implementation of many of its recommendations.

In particular, she has been working for the implementation of recommendations which would making farming a financially viable way of life in the Downeast region.  Currently, there are too few farmers in Downeast Maine and too many of those people are aging out of the business and/or operating below the poverty line.  The reasons for this are multiple, but mostly they have little to do with the viability of farming in the region and more to do with the failure to develop policies and supports—and a robust local food system such as exists in other states like Vermont.  That is why Green Ellsworth, the City of Ellsworth, Healthy Acadia, the Sunrise County Economic Council and GrowSmart Maine are working to develop a local food system plan and a non-profit food hub to implement it.  If you are interested in any aspect of a local, sustainable food system in our Downeast region then learn more about Green Plan recommendations in its Food and Farming chapter and get involved in implementation by visiting Healthy Acadia or contacting Mary by email.