A new organic vegetable farm has opened in Blue Hill with the arrival of two young growers from neighboring Mount Desert Island.
Reid Calhoun and Nikki Burtis moved to the peninsula from the island in November and converted an overgrown field into an acre of lettuce, carrots, melons, squash, tomatoes, peppers, sweet potatoes and more. In the next few years, they plan to add a farm-based preschool on-site.
Their land on Route 15, now Moon Beam Farm, is part of a corridor of high-quality agricultural soil that stands out on the rocky coastal peninsula and has been a priority for local farmland conservation efforts for decades.
As several area farmers look to retire and worry their working land will turn into vacation homes in an area that’s attractive to new buyers, Calhoun and Burtis have brought more into use and plan to preserve it for future generations. Their experience also offers some lessons for aspiring farmers in a time when it’s hard to buy coastal land.
Originally from Georgia and Oregon, the two met on a short Peace Corps assignment to Panama before the pandemic sent them home.
By 2021, they were in Maine, where Burtis still works for Friends of Acadia by day and Calhoun has gained experience on different vegetable farms.
“I felt like agriculture is a way that you can tangibly do something positive for a community and promote environmental resiliency [and] community resiliency,” said Calhoun, who also sees it as a way to prepare locally for climate change. “It just seems like a good, honest life.”
He was ready to move up in the growing world within a few years, but there were few options to manage farms in Hancock County, where operations tend to be small. Trying to buy land also felt daunting.
Instead, Calhoun started last year by renting field space from another farm on MDI, where the couple lived at the time. He recommends any aspiring farmer start with renting to learn the business side and experience the long hours.
“It’s easily romanticized, but the reality is, there’s definitely a good degree of long days,” he said. “At the same time, it’s a huge privilege to be able to work outside like this. I wish it was easier for more people to be able to get into this.”
Calhoun knew by the time he was in college that he was drawn to farming, but first spent a few years in a corporate job, which helped finance the farm purchase along with family help. Burtis said she always knew a farm would be in her future in some way, but wasn’t sure how.
For them, it was fairly smooth to find land when the time came — as vegetable growers who didn’t need a lot of space, they looked at properties that might appear residential, rather than large farms — and they were able to do so on the open market instead of relying on networking. The property had been home to back-to-the-landers for years before.
The couple is now in the process of placing a conservation easement on the land through the Maine Farmland Trust and the Blue Hill Heritage Trust, which will preserve it from other uses and provide an initial payment in exchange for the development rights that helps with the steep upfront costs of starting a farm.
But it’s also a philosophical priority for the couple. They have noticed properties on MDI that appeared to have once been working land and were turned into vacation retreats, and want to avoid seeing that happen in areas like theirs with fertile soil.
A cluster of farms along Route 15 between Blue Hill and Orland have been preserved this way. That close grouping creates a regional market that fits the area, according to the Maine Farmland Trust, which has been part of those conservation easements.
Across Maine, sales of organic products grew by 67 percent between 2007 and 2022, according to an economic impact report released last month by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. But the number of organic farms overall went down, and financial stability was listed as a major reason why some of those farms may have closed. The organization predicts small and mid-sized farms will need more support in coming years.
The peninsula is also culturally supportive of local food, according to Calhoun, with both customers willing to pay organic prices and nonprofits working to make that food more accessible so everyone can benefit from it.
“It’s definitely romantic and idealistic, but I would say that’s more true here than in a lot of places,” he said.
As the farm develops, they plan to zero in on profitable crops, continue improving the soil and learn about management in preparation for someday hiring employees. There’s always something new to learn, Calhoun said, and at the end of the day the couple hopes the farm helps the community in some way.