UNITY, Maine — Thousands of people turned out over the weekend to take in the 36th annual Common Ground Country Fair, enjoying the three-day event that celebrates rural life in Maine.
Events included livestock shows, exhibition hall judging, live music and contradances, workshops, talks and demonstrations on topics in farming, organic gardening and lawn care, seed saving, cooking with local foods, energy-efficient building technologies, and environmental, health and social issues.
Keynote speakers included Shannon Hayes of Sap Bush Hollow Farm in New York, the author of “Radical Homemakers” and “The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook”; Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides; and Sarah Smith of Grassland Farm in Skowhegan.
Events were scheduled through late Sunday afternoon.
why don’t i ever hear of this stuff until its happened 3 days after the fact…
Yea, the 36th Annual Common Ground Fair sort of sneaks up on folks……
It happens every year on the autumn equinox weekend which is about the third weekend of September.
Actually, the Fair is ALWAYS the third weekend after Labor Day!! Mark your calendars for next year ; -)
check out the Event tab in the BDN for upcoming fairs, festivals, etc. (Top of the page, green font).
I agree that the BDN doesn’t publicize good stuff like this much before the fact. Perhaps because organic farmers aren’t among their big advertising clients.
They put two articles/op-eds in on Saturday, the big day at the Fair. Well, by the time most people read the Saturday paper, it’s too late to plan a trip to the Fair.
For next year, my advice is to go early to beat the traffic. I recommend getting there by 8:30am if you possibly can. No traffic to speak of, good parking, first choice of everything, and you will be able to spend a bit of time talking to the organic farmers and craftspeople before the real masses hit the Fair.
Don’t worry Andy, you have not missed anything, just a day for the flatty’s to catch up on the latest back in New York, etc.
What a depressing chore it must be to be you.
I feel bad for you Preston, you are so smart, your head must just hurt all the time.
It’s changed. With all due respect, the last time I was there, 2 years ago, it had turned into yet another money making carnival that has abandoned it’s original raison d’etre for the cash. The photo’s with this story confirm it. Less agriculture, more food, rides, lifestyle accoutrements, politics, booths to sell anything and everything. It is just another fair. Very sad indeed. Just sayin’
I don’t know to which rides you refer. The photos are of kids sliding in the grass on cardboard.
The kids loved it!
Simpler is better!
So it has gotten better?
Completely disagree. All kinds of livestock, only organic food, beautiful art & handcrafts, informational talks, toe-tapping music & a huge farmer’s market.
Rides??? Well, you can ride in a wagon behind an antique tractor, horses or mules. Take your pick!
You must not have ventured very far beyond the commercial zone if that is the impression you have of Common Ground. I’ve attended the Fair for many years and have not noted any decline in agricultural emphasis or the addition of more “rides”(???).
I’m confused as to why you are unhappy with the booths.These small business people have a right to put their items out there,just as you have a right to not buy a thing.I notice our pro-business Gov was nowhere to be seen.
actually, the USDA had a booth; they were doing seed collection demonstrations.
I believe GPBand above may have referring to our Governor.
USDA and ME Ag are big supporters of the “growing” community.
you are so right, of course. I brought up the USDA because some people think there is a government conspiracy going on. Other people think the government is inept.
I think one negates the other.
I was referring to George’s comment about how the fair had become commercialized and that to him that seemed like a bad thing.To that point,it wouldn’t have killed Paulie to be there but I’m not surprised he wasn’t.Glad to see the USDA was there.Farmers need all the help they can get.
this is an interesting conversation, I think we are skirting around a key issue, which is: the difference between big business and small business.
I am very pro business when it comes to entrepreneurism. And you are 100% correct, the Governor seems to think Maine’s salvation lies from outside the State (notice the sign, the demeaning labeling of our towns as business-friendly).
gotta run….i have a small business to tend to!
;)
I wish you and yours all kinds of success.You are the true future of Maine!
thank you!
Real success for a Maine born, small business is selling it to an out of stater when it grows too big; and retiring to a waterfront home or moving on to a new enterprise.
….may it go fat for ya!
thank you!
Small farmers, especially organic farmers, get little to no help from USDA or the Maine Dept. of Agriculture, both of which are tied in so many ways to big, chemical-dependent growers.
They support and encourage the use of poison sprays (pesticides, all of which are toxic) and support genetically-engineered crops, particularly corn and soy, which are changed with toxins so they will accept more pesticides being sprayed on them – – and then in your body when you eat them.
Small farmers are a necessity, especially in Maine, since the big crops – potatoes, blueberries, apples – are primarily grown for export. That doesn’t help us a bit.
I wish that weren’t true but it is.
You couldn’t have been at this fair if you saw rides unless horsedrawn wagon rides are what you’re referring to. All kinds of agricultural displays and demonstrations. Maine small business owners selling. Don’t go if you don’t like it.
Don’t know what you mean. Maine Organic Farmers’ & Gardeners’ Association fair has always had more than just organic farming. I’ve attended most of the 36 Common Ground Fairs and it’s bigger than it was, but that’s a good thing.
In addition to many organic farmers selling their produce so you can take them home and put some up for winter, there are many ways portrayed of how to live simpler, more sustainable lives, such as solar energy, simpler homes, and so on. <
It's always been a place to learn about good, healthy ways to live. I love it.
Is it possible to buy conventionally grown produce there?
You know, the stuff with all the poisons and toxins on them that most people eat, and you rail against at every turn?
And charge three times more for, I might add.
The food and farm produce sold at the Maine ORGANIC Farmers & Gardeners Association fair is all organic, no poisons added.
You can get all of that you want at Hannaford’s, so why would you go to an organic fair and expect to buy poisoned produce?
If you actually check prices, you’ll find that organic isn’t always more. For example, for a long time now at Hannaford’s the organic bananas are only 10 cents more per pound than the pesticided bananas. And the funny thing is, they’re all grown by Dole or Chiquita because they know there’s a large and growing market for organic food.
Time you switched to clean agriculture, isn’t it? Haven’t you poisoned enough groundwater?
Best fair around…Great chance to see all your friends from other years…
Yawn…Moon bat fest…LOL…
Yawn… predictable regressive negativity…LOL…
I’m offended that your offended at that positively negative offensive comment.
:) Well said! I agree! :)
Ask any business person in that area how much of a shot in the arm this is for them.Don’t worry, we didn’t miss you a bit.
every exhibitor there is a small business owner and therefore the backbone of our country.
As one who was overwhelmed with people for three very long days;and talked with fellow vendors, I am positive most of them decry liberals and endorse conservative principals.
The kids who grew up in hippy and new homesteads are the most conservative of all, since they know what poverty and deprivation and saving and scrapping for money are all about.
They are indeed the ‘new republicans’ and backbone of Ron Paul’s movement.—and if you don’t think they aren’t, just ask them to buy something because ‘it’s GREEN’ .
Why do you think hardworking, family oriented people are ‘new republicans’? More likely, these folks are Democrats and you learning for the first time what your fellow GOP say about (us) is generally untrue.
Clearly you weren’t there. It’s actually fun because the people there are having a good time without amusement park rides or disgustingly unhealthy trash “food,” since all food at the Fair is organic and Maine-sourced (except coffee, of course).
Instead of your usual knee-jerk “if somebody liberal is for it, I’m against it” approach, why not think about the implications of encouraging Maine-grown, healthy, unsprayed, non-genetically-altered with toxins, good food?
People who call all others who don’t dress in the latest fashion “hippies” are hopelessly blinded to much good in the world. Farmers, and I’m an organic farmer, do not dress in fancy clothes (except occasionally) because they’re usually not comfortable or suited for good, honest labor, which is what organic farms, especially, are all about.
Very well said!
The Common ground fair AKA the Left wing Fair
Wow, snappy comment Gordie. What a clever little imp you are.
each and every exhibitor there is a business owner.
Hey Gordo – maybe you should develop your own fair for Narrow-Minded Misanthropes. Oh – sorry – you probably don’t understand what that means, do you? Try looking it up in a dictionary. Oh – sorry again – you probably don’t own one of those, either.
Remove all the marxist/communist/socialist/big regulatory govt. agitators in the social action tents and you’re left with a lot of clever Mainers who know the value of conservative principles and religious philosophies.
Well said.
One of the most disgusting displays of anti American bias is on display in their “social issues” area.
Well, Mr. “I spray poisons on my blueberries and proud of it” Yowsa, if you were indeed there, I suggest that next year you actually talk to some of the people in the Political and Social Action tents and find out what they stand for. You might be surprised at the conservative groups which have booths in there every year.
Try it – you’ll like it.
Of course, they’re only a small part of the Fair which is full of joy and celebration of clean, UNSPRAYED food and ways to live sustainably on our only home, Earth. If you’d switch to growing organic blueberries, you’d be happier, too…{~;> And so would the rest of us who live Downeast.
I’ll bet MOFGA people cringe when they see you coming with one of their t-shirts on.
hiccup!
Pray tell, why would that be? I’m rather certain you’re trying to insult me, but I don’t get it so please elucidate. Thanks, Mr. Poison Sprayer.
Schwinggggg…………………..!
(facepalm)
would you enlighten us on what conservative groups were in that tent? i was there and i sure didn’t see any!
Please remember our country was founded by dissenters.
Nothing more American than political dissent.
And nothing more disgusting than left wing liberal moonbattery.
I’d call your comment disgusting, but it gives disgusting too much credit.
How about just plain vacuous? dull? weak? no substance whining like a beach.
This is why the GOP has lost its legs; because people like you act like its mouth piece.
Actually, I like the CGF, and go every year.
But, like everything in life, there is a downside, and in this instance, the left wing, nutjob, one world fantasy preachers are it.
fair enough. and I get your point. (but how are you any different other than being extreme from the right wing?)
one person’s moral outrage is another person’s “one-world fantasy preacher”
How does that help the country?
They don’t.
I wasn’t talking about ‘them’, I was talking about you.
How does your extremism help the country?
Surely you weren’t there. You would have seen families from the entire Northeast Region having good, healthy fun, eating clean, unsprayed food and dancing to Maine musicians, as well as buying Maine crafts, observing sheep dog trials, looking at lots of other livestock, enjoying demonstrations of farming with horses, and so on.
Are these “Left wing” things? If so, count me in.
Hippie fair
Hippie Fair? Some, but not only. I met with a number of crew-cut farmers, who grow the right way, organically.
I was even asked where one could get a Romney button. I couldn’t tell them, because I don’t think Romney was represented there. His loss.
Oh wait, he’s in the pocket of Monsanto. Never mind…
Of course he wasn’t.These aren’t the $50K a plate crowd-more like $50K a year and often a lot less for getting up way too early.
Retracting statement – no need to stir the pot
more like a free enterprise fair.
Is a “hippie fair” bad? Or is it good? Care to clarify? Brevity may be the soul of wit but simply posting “hippie fair” only proves you may be “simple”.
What does that mean? Happy people? People who work hard and try to live lightly on the earth, our only home?
What does the word “hippie” mean to you?
I went for the first time this year. As a strong conservative who believes in simplicity, less chemicals, self sufficiency, and organic foods I thought I should check it out with an open mind. I must say it was a learning experience. I spoke with many of the vendors, many of whom I purchased goods from (and will purchase more when my wallet allows), and learned a lot from many of them. Yeah, it’s a pretty left leaning group but I knew that going in. That’s ok though. You have to respect anyone’s drive and desire to slow down the clock on our crazy society with it’s chemical laden food and products, politics aside. While I admit I was annoyed with the political aspect of it, I was most appreciative of the fact that the “political and social” vendors and booths were pretty much contained in one area, and were plainly marked as such. So for a guy like me that didn’t want to look at percentage stickers, Obama paraphernalia, and anti conservative propaganda, I was given that choice. While I expected that to be the crux of the event, it was not. This tells me that the people running it are not just there to push a political agenda, but to share and educate others on alternatives to everything from heating to eating. For many of you liberals that have bashed me on here for my conservative views and statements, take a lesson. Not everything is about politics. Some of us conservatives do have an open mind and are willing to accept things that are different and alternative. We all have our own beliefs, values and ideals. The world is a lot more than Republican and Democrat. Bunching each other into one or the other is only keeping us from moving forward and fixing our broken country, not to mention that by doing that is playing into ALL politicians hands by keeping us sequestered and on the offensive with each other so they can go about their business of controlling people. Thanks to the organizers, vendors, and volunteers. I had an enjoyable time, and look forward to next year.
Thanks for your balanced comments. I’m an organic grower, and I find it rather amazing that the BDN didn’t see fit to mention the Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association who puts on this Fair every year on their own grounds in Unity.
They run programs for organic farmers and gardeners at that site all year. Check out their website http://www.mofga.org and get on their mailing list if growing your own food sustainably is on your agenda. Lots of interesting stuff going on there.
Our young people need good livelihoods, since good jobs have been shipped to China and other places where corporations can get CHEAP LABOR.
Organic farming is a wonderful way to live with one’s food and home right there, and it’s a great way to teach your children the value of working for one’s livelihood.
I think most people are tired of pesticides and genetically-modified toxins in our foods from the big manufacturers. We need to feed ourselves locally with good, healthy food.
Now is a great time to get into organic farming. Maine needs thousands more small farmers who grow diversified, no-spray crops in order to feed Maine people.
With the price of oil going up and up, the days of the 3,500 mile salad are coming to an end. And with the price of food going up and up, it’s best to grow your own.
Organic gardening is fine for those with the time and the resources but it won’t feed the world. Cleanearth in her biased opinion always fails to point out that reality. Prior to pesticides, seed selection for resistance to disease and weather, commercial fertilizers, and commercial farming in general, a great deal more of the world suffered the horrible death of starvation. The two greatest contributors to long life and good health are the advances in modern agriculture and healthcare. The fact that we live longer and better lives, for good or bad I don’t know, is irrefutably tied to these advances. So fine, grow your organic garden, but don’t disdain that which has sustained humanity over the last 100 years.
Nonsense, watchdogme. You’re speaking for the chemical companies, not for the good of Maine’s people, wildlife, fisheries, woods and waters.
Organic growing is what people have always done, and is still how most people in the world feed themselves. People here in Downeast Maine who grow their own gardens without calling them “organic,” virtually never use pesticides. They don’t have to – they use common sense instead.
When Big Ag deliberately lowers their prices so that local farmers have a difficult time meeting that challenge, that’s one reason local family farms have been put out of business. But we need our local family farms to produce good, clean food for us all.
We are not living longer. All the industrial and agricultural poisons released into our air, water, and the very earth we depend upon for our existence have now shortened the life-spans of Americans. Also, we are no longer the tallest people on earth. Ssomething is happening to us – can you guess what it is?
Pesticides are not necessary to grow food. Period. Pesticides do not dissipate and disappear; they remain in the soil and water for decades, poisoning all life, some for hundreds of years.
DDT is still with us in its final metabolite: DDE, which is, as was DDT, a human hormone disrupter imitating estrogen in males and females alike, causing all manner of disorders and diseases, and n0t just in humans.
Arsenic is in many water supplies in Maine. One reason is that blueberry growers and others used Lead Arsenate as a pesticide before WWII brought many novel poisons as weapons of war. So Lead Arsenate metabolized to Arsenic, and we’re ingesting it much of the time.
WWII poisons are the grandfathers of today’s extreme poisons used against Nature by Big Ag, and the results are not pretty.
Pesticides are in Maine’s shellfish, ground water (our drinking water), coastal waters, food that’s sprayed with the poisons because the plants take up the poisons when they’re washed into the ground by rain, and we have a high rate of cancers and neuro diseases.
And much of the food grown in this country gets exported, so it isn’t even grown for us: “wild” blueberries (heavily sprayed with poisons, go to Japan and Kellog’s cereals, etc.), potatoes (heavily spraued with poisons, shipped away to make potato chipes, etc.), apples (heavily sprayed), etc.
So, no, watchdogme, you’re speaking in the interests of the Wall Street corporations, the chemical companies, and not in the interests of Maine people or our wildlife or fisheries or woods and waters.
We do not want your poisons. Go Organic and you’ll be glad you did. We will thank you instead of reviling your poisoning of our only home, Earth.
!!! why can’t we all be like this commenter?
This is one right winger who likes the CGF as well as our traditional agricultural fairs. I go to the CGF with a different set of expectations than when I go to Fryeburg. MOGFA fills a small but important and growing niche.
There are a lot of smart hard working and well educated people involved and I applaud many of their values. If you have the right attitude you can go there and really learn new things. They do a great job of marketing their fair something that the some of the older fairs should consider.
As for Romney no I didn’t see him there. But guess what I didn’t see Obama there either. (Thankfully) The fact of the matter is Romney has a better understanding of small business than Obama ever will and will do a lot more for small business. Thinking otherwise is simply engaging in fantasy.
Speaking of engaging in fantasy, I’m curious about where you think Mitt got his understanding of small business? Would that have been at Bain Capital? And since you mention facts, here are a few that are pretty widely known but worth repeating: Romney was born rich, and his entire business career has essentially amounted to laying people off at large companies. I suppose that technically makes them smaller, but I’m not convinced that’s the kind of “small business understanding” that would serve the country well.
Lets consider the fact that Obama has no experience with running a business regardless of size. In fact he hasn’t even worked for a business so far as I know. He probably has no education on how to run a business or even a course in economics.
Romney went to the Harvard Business School where people learn how to run a business. The principles to a large degree are the same, only a matter of scale.
Many of the companies Bain developed were small when they started.
I think we need to define “small business”. 10 really well connected guys with Ivy degrees and millions in venture capital doesn’t really fit my understanding of the term. In any event, it’s beside the point as far as the presidency is concerned. Despite much rhetoric to the contrary, running a business is only like running a country if that country is an oligarchy. A democracy is run on different principles and for different purposes. Romney doesn’t seem to get that.
Common ground final numbers…. 3 births,one death,12 conceptions.
But………….no murders.
(If you don’t count the unintended deaths that all of that mainstream poisonous, toxin laden, conventionally grown produce is “supposedly” to blame for).
As usual, a great video from Mr. Bennett!
Behold the hippies!
As an organic grower, and one who has never considered myself a “hippie,” I would like to know exactly what you mean by calling people “hippies.”
come on, you know exactly why people might associate the CGF with hippies.
I don’t. Please tell me.
Outtastatahs! Go look at the foliage of my bum, overly priced everything.
Alas the antique tractor club is to no longer operate as a shuttle there. Two accidents (no injuries), caused the directors of CFG to ask the Maine Antique Tractors Club to cease operations. CFG directors felt that it posed a insurance nightmare.
We the members of the club did comply with the request. Regrettably we will only be able to participate in a static display only now. The CFG was our biggest money maker with the donations to the people movers. The people movers had operated at CFG for 17 years.
Thankyou to all that attended, we had a great time (grin, even when we had to dodge the rain).
Oh, no!!! So sorry to hear this! The tractors were one of the things that made CG so unique. My kids grew up riding them. They’re going to be so disappointed when I tell them.
We have been replaced with busses. So much for the hayride atmosphere.
How much were the cardboard rides?
Don’t talk nonsense. People did that on their own, as they do every year. There are no “rides,” per se, unless you count hayrides………..I think you should get out of your comfort zone and go next year. Go have fun! Loosen up and don’t be so prejudiced at people who might, possibly maybe, perhaps think a bit differently than you.
There may be a lot less organic growers around after the new pesticide notification rules take effect in 2015.
And that will help Maine people how? By getting more pesticides in our drinking water? Or don’t you, Mr. Sprayer, care about that?
http://www.maine.gov/agriculture/pesticides/cert/pagup.htm
New Law Requires More Farmers to Obtain a Pesticide Applicator License
In the spring of 2011, the Maine Legislature passed a law which requires many growers to be licensed by the Maine Board of Pesticides Control (BPC). Growers who annually sell more than $1,000 of plants or plant products intended for human consumption and use any general-use pesticides—those with an EPA registration number on the label—on those crops, must be licensed by April 1, 2015.
I’ll bet that folks will be really surprised to see what is actually being used on the high priced, supposedly residue free, organically grown veggies.
LOL
Do you have any actual knowledge or are you just attempting to slander organic farmers?
I never use any pesticides at all. I watch my crops and use natural methods – inter-planting, hand removal, water spray, garlic juice, etc – to get rid of unwanted insects and plants.
It’s not at all difficult, but one does have to use one’s intelligence and pay attention close up, not spray poisons over all and sundry.
Thanks for your balanced comments. I’m an organic grower, and I find it rather amazing that the BDN didn’t see fit to mention the Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association who puts on this Fair every year on their own grounds in Unity.
They run programs for organic farmers and gardeners at that site all year. Check out their website http://www.mofga.org and get on their mailing list if growing your own food sustainably is on your agenda. Lots of interesting stuff going on there.
Our young people need good livelihoods, since good jobs have been shipped to China and other places where corporations can get CHEAP LABOR.
Organic farming is a wonderful way to live with one’s food and home right there, and it’s a great way to teach your children the value of working for one’s livelihood.
I think most people are tired of pesticides and genetically-modified toxins in our foods from the big manufacturers. We need to feed ourselves locally with good, healthy food.
Now is a great time to get into organic farming. Maine needs thousands more small farmers who grow diversified, no-spray crops in order to feed Maine people.
With the price of oil going up and up, the days of the 3,500 mile salad are coming to an end. And with the price of food going up and up, it’s best to grow your own.
My wife was a rookie vendor this year. She’s a fiber artist. Although there was much more traffic than at other shows she does, the fair was a bust. She barely grossed enough to pay the booth fee. To add insult to injury some people were taking photos to steal her ideas. She won’t be back again.
On the other hand the food vendors seem to have made out well. Long lines could be seen at booths selling over-priced “organic” food. Although I must say some of it was pretty tasty.
A fiber artist like Steven McTowelie?
Food at all fairs is expensive. Vendors must carry all their needs to the site, hook up to their equipment outdoors, have weather-proof shelter, and many other costs along with the cost of the booth itself, and so on.
Still, food there and at other fairs is, I agree, too expensive.
I think the basic laws of supply and demand have more to do with the high price of food at a fair attended by many thousands of people…
My wife was a craft vendor for many years…never at CGCF, but the principles are the same everywhere. I can tell you from bitter experience and from every vendor I ever talked to that it’s the nature of the game…a crap shoot every time. CGCF has lots of traffic, but much more is casual than at a dedicated show. There’s just too much competition, both from other vendors and other activities. The vendors who do really well there are the ones who have been coming for years (or who are already well-known locally) and have been discovered by a handful of the right people who come directly to their booth every time. The first few shows are mostly an investment.
i noticed a anti exxon sticker in the political tent & could not help thinking the prices some of those food vendors were charging would make exxon blush! that said i really enjoyed the low impact forestry and the farming.
I have an awesome meal from the fair, but I can not remember the vendor. It was a chicken/veggie wrap with garlic cheese and basil sauce. does anyone know what i am talking about?
interesting choice for photos representing this fair…….