A few days ago, I was biking with friends just outside Prouts Neck and I decided to wander off on my own. I was sooo curious about all of the little vegetable, flower and fruit stands I kept seeing alongside the road between Prouts Neck and Cape Elizabeth. Behind each stand appeared to be small gardens and I was dying to investigate each one. Finally, when I saw a sign for organic greens and an adorable flower stand, I just I had to stop!
Meet Martha, a multi-generational “Mainer” who has created a fantastic local farm where she grows and sells flowers, vegetables and fresh eggs – but that’s just the half of it. She graciously introduced herself to me and welcomed me into her garden. I was amazed at what I discovered.
First of all, consider yourself one of the lucky and exclusive folks if you have made it on to Martha’s fresh egg list. It turns out that several locals who are ‘in the know’ got there before you did. With her 35 or so chickens, she only turns out about 40 eggs a day, which are 100% spoken for. And the word on the street is that they are DELICIOUS!
She has an incredible vegetable garden, especially considering its size. She must have 100 (forgive me Martha if it’s even more) pole beans growing on the wire fencing. What on earth will she do with all of those beans and who is going to pick them all?!?
In addition to her beans, she has shelling peas, snap peas, purple cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, kale, onions, beets, herbs, and I can’t remember what else. The quantity of what she is growing is staggering.
She has a large number of tomato plants in her enclosed garden, as well as her green house and they all look incredibly happy. While they’re not yet producing ripe fruit (it is Maine after all), they are about to provide ripe fruit. The plants look so healthy! She shared a tomato secret with me that a fellow farmer once shared with her. She swears by Tomato-tone – an organic fertilizer. She feeds her tomatoes every Friday, which she calls ‘Feeding Friday’. I can’t wait to try it on my own tomatoes.
I was stunned to discover that I have been trimming my tomato plants improperly. I’ve been pinching the large leaf branches, thinking they were stealing energy from my fruit. She explained that the leaves of the tomato plant are critical for feeding the tomato plant! Chlorophyll, which is a green pigment essential to the process of photosynthesis, is highly concentrated in the leaves – and the tomato plants need the chlorophyll in these leaves to thrive. Brilliant. I am looking forward to returning home to rescue my tomatoes from the damage I have unknowingly inflicted on them… I hope they will be okay… Thanks for explaining this to me, Martha.
She actively cans all excess produce, freezing her green beans (after blanching for about 3 minutes, cooling down quickly in ice water and then freezing in zip lock bags), tomatoes and tomato sauces, to name a few. I need to do more of this myself.
Throughout the garden, Martha has a variety of flowers which she cuts and sells at her flower stand or makes arrangements to order. She seems particularly fond of her Snap Dragons and these flowers, shown above.
When I took Sharon and Helen back to meet Martha the next day, they were equally in awe of all this incredible woman is doing. If you happen to be in the area, stop by to see Martha’s farm, buy some flowers or vegetables, and be sure to take your notebook with you. I guarantee that you that you will learn something new from her!
Footnote: Martha’s friend Mary Elizabeth Fischer sent me some wonderful pictures of her garden later on in the season (September) including this beautiful one that I just had to include in this post. Thanks for sending, Mary!
(This post was originally posted on July 5, 2016)
