Happy one-year birthday to the BDN Homestead section of the Bangor Daily News! Launched on Monday, April 20, 2015, Homestead has covered farms, families, food and more.
When we developed the Homestead section, we wanted to share stories of Mainers leading more meaningful lives by being connected to nature and to the land, living more independently and deliberately. Our mission was to show you how others are doing it, and how you can, too, from foods to prepare to energy sources, from transportation to medical care, schooling options, unusual ways to make a living and interesting do-it-yourself projects.
Over the last year, we honed that mission, focusing more on the hows and whys, and we illustrated it with photos, videos and more.
Early on, we explored barn culture in Maine through a series of stories that took readers inside transformed barns all over the state. The series kicked off with a tour of Stone Mountain Arts Center in Brownfield, a music venue. From stylish seaside cottages to bakeries to elegant shops with local flair, old barns all over the state have new lives as thriving businesses. It was interesting to see how old meets new in these purposeful, iconic structures.
But by far, the reader favorite of the barn stories was that of a former dairy barn turned wedding venue that was once owned by Patrick Dempsey. It was truly a McDreamy story to tell.
We also introduced you to Mainers living deliberate, meaningful lives. There was the 37-year-old homesteader in Montville, who builds and sells greenhouses using word-of-mouth advertising, and who values his independence and resiliency above all else. There also was the retired forester living off-the-grid in a log cabin his father built. And the young couple living debt-free on their Knox Farm resonated with a lot of you.
One tale that stood out for us was the young couple who were purchasing Dickey Hill Farm in Monroe and transforming it into the farm of their dreams. At a time when the future of farms is a question mark across the country, Maine has bucked national trends. Here, we have a growing number of younger farmers and an average farmer age below the national average. So the story of Noami Brautigam and James Gagne, who moved from Portland to a rural farm to follow their dreams, was especially important.
When we last wrote about them, they were about half-way through the growing season and working on barn repairs, cooler building and adjusting their plan for the next growing season.
Since then, the couple married and are preparing for the start of their second growing season. Their community-supported agriculture program will return for a second year, and they’re looking forward to having a booth at the Belfast Farmers Market for the first time.
There will be more on their progress soon.
From fiddleheads to pig roasts, maple sugaring to grains, food and farming in Maine was fascinating to explore — and readers agreed. When we told the story of an Amish store in Unity called Charcuterie, we heard from so many readers who headed to the small rural town to try the old-fashioned-made foods (Oh, the cured meats and smoked cheeses!). We followed that story when state regulations put the business’ future in peril, and when an agreement was reached with the state so the store could stay open.
We also tackled food issues such as food insecurity and food sovereignty, and we plan to do more on issues like this in the future.
As we enter Homestead’s second year, I want to take a moment to thank all the readers who’ve called, written and responded to our stories. Your feedback, ideas and advice were instrumental in developing and evolving this fledgling section, and I look forward to hearing from you in the future.
As always, I can be reached at scaron@bangordailynews.com.
And a huge thank you to the Homestead team who have made this section what it is. Over the last year, the team has changed and grown. Staff writer Kathleen Pierce is now joined by Julia Bayly, Abigail Curtis and, sometimes, Shelby Hartin in researching, writing and telling the stories of farms, agriculture and the Maine way. We miss Natalie Feulner’s contributions, but we hear she’s enjoying her semi-crunchy life back in California. Photographer Gabor Degre still shoots a lot of the photos in the section, but our whole visuals team has gotten in on the Homestead action as well, helping us to both tell and show the stories that make Maine great.