Category Archives: New England Farm Weekly

by Laura Rodley
This summer has been full of happy endings for Anna Hanchett and Michael Kalagher, owners of Manda Farm. The two have sold certified naturally grown beef, turkey, eggs, organic vegetables and Gloucester Old Spots since 2006 on Pleasant Street in Plainfield,MA. “Manda” is derived from combining letters of their first names, M and A.
On Friday, Aug. 16, a crowd of 50 looked on as a huge crane lifted a new second story onto the top of their stately 1825 farmhouse that burned in January.
The fire affected only the second story and roof, travelling around the metal of the chimney in an enclosed space, which kept it contained, then going up into the rafters.
No people or animals were hurt, but extensive water and smoke damage made the main house unlivable so the two have been living in an onsite trailer until it is restored.
“So many people invited us to dinner. We didn’t have to cook for weeks,” said Hanchett, who besides running the farm full time, is chairman of Plainfield’s Agricultural Commission. Continue reading→

by Tamara Scully
Living Acres, in Sharon, Maine, is all about “making soil more alive,” and providing plants with the optimal nutrients needed to thrive. Living Acres makes organic-approved compost, growing mediums, foliar seaweed and fish emulsion sprays. Their products are made with local, natural inputs — the farthest comes from about 125 miles away — and serve to add fertility and to enhance the health of nursery plants or field crops, via nature’s own ingredients.
They strive to keep ingredients “as local as we can get, without sacrificing quality,” owner Tony Ramsey said.
Begun in 1980 by retired dairy farmer Stu Mayo, the company has since grown from the flagship product: Mayo’s compost mix. His recipe for the compost came from years of experience, and a belief in the positive effects of healthy soil. Instead of incorporating manure directly into the soil, where the microbial population reacts by going on “a feeding frenzy,” Ramsey explained that Mayo knew there was a better way. So he created Living Acres Kompost. Continue reading→

by Sally Colby
Earl Bennett’s home wasn’t always filled with old milk bottles, dairy signs and other dairy memorabilia. Antiques, especially dairy antiques, always intrigued him, and his hobby-turned-business began innocently enough when Bennett and his father were in the feed and grain business.
“We delivered grain to all of the dairy farms south of Boston; all the way to the tip of the Cape and the islands,” said Bennett, of Holbrooke, MA. “As the dairy farms went out of business, I asked them for a bottle to remember them by. That’s how I started collecting.”
In addition to having some rare and unique bottles in his collection, Bennett has interesting stories that go with bottles from the days of home milk delivery. He tells the story of the Quabbin Reservoir, built in the 1930s to supply the growing city of Boston. To create the reservoir, people from several towns were relocated before the entire area was flooded. One of the towns that was flooded was Prescott, and Bennett has one of the bottles from the Griswold dairy in that town. Another unique bottle in his collection is from the Richard Lamont dairy farm in Vermont, which bottled milk in an exclusive tall, round amber pyro quart bottle. Continue reading→