Collaboration + Links
At Broadturn Farm our goal is to incorporate as many elements of the larger community into the farm as feasible. We look for partnerships which complement the activities of the farm. Some of these relationships contribute to our business of selling farm products, and some are less directly business related. In creating an open space for people and organizations to participate, we develop long term relationships which add to the stability of our business and of our community.
Here are a few examples of partnering organizations
Our most significant collaboration is with the Scarborough Land Conservation Trust. Without their dedication and hard work, this land would likely be developed for housing. We strive to become a strong model of conservation for the town and the land trust, and we hope that you will remember the good work of the Trust and the community when it comes to their fundraising efforts!!!
Based in Portland at its urban gardens on Boyd Street, Oxford Street, and now at a new site in Falmouth, Cultivating Community works of the front lines of educating youth about local food systems and providing food security to Portland's marginalized neighborhoods.
With the events and weddings we occasionally host, catering is available through this gourmet caterer in Portland. They have a firm respect for local and organic agriculture, and an amazing skill to create delicious and beautiful meals from the season's bounty.
This new project works "with chefs and growers to evaluate the tastes of heritage foods." With vegetables like the Cape Gooseberry Ground Cherry, Afghan Purple Carrot, or Popping Amaranth, some of our garden space is dedicated to exploring these new ideas (and tastes).
Snell Family Farm
One of our subleases is with this well established farm in Bar Mills. They are a community farm in their own right with their annual Maple Syrup Sunday, apple picking and various open farm days. They are growing vegetables on about 20 acres opposite our gardens.
Other community partnerships include:
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Working with landscapers and homeowners by providing them a place to deposit fall leaves, and chemical free grass trimmings. In exchange, landscaping companies are given coupons which are offered to their customers. They can redeem these coupons for farm products if they make a commitment to decrease or abstain from chemical lawn treatments. Thus we encourage a more sustainable "Suburban Ecosystem" whereby neighbors have a hand in feeding the soil which eventually feeds them
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We show films about sustainable living in our barn with the partnership of various organizations including G.E. Free Maine www.gefreemaine.org (with a presentation of "The Future of Food" by Deborah Koons Garcia), and Portland Post Carbon (we showed "The End of Suburbia" with a great discussion about peak oil awareness.)
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We hosted a regional meeting of the Slow Food USA organization which works to promote heritage food ways and a celebration of good food. What a potluck THAT was!
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Victory Gardens Project and Winter Cache Project are two grassroots food security and political action organizations we have collaborated with in the past.
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And of course we have worked with MOFGA (the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association www.mofga.org) in expanding the educational opportunites of young farmers, and the community in general through Backyard Organic Gardening Workshops, the Apprentice program, and the Twilight Farmer Training Series.
- Thanks to Nathan and Heather's Brushfiremedia.com for hosting the farm site!
What is YOUR idea? Let's collaborate!
