News

Plein Air Painting at Aldermere Farm

Dan Daly, a local artist whose paintings of Belted Galloways and coastal scenes have become very popular at the annual Aldermere Art Show and Sale, will be hosting an afternoon Plein Air painting session on Wednesday September 1st at 3 pm. This outdoor painting activity will help participants learn the proper techniques for painting outside and on the scene of your subject. There are definite techniques for how and where to set up your painting station and how to stay focused on your subject

Attendees of the presentation are welcome to create alongside Daly as he paints that day. If you plan to paint or draw, please bring all of your own materials. Daly enjoys painting the pastoral settings at Aldermere Farm, but may choose any subject that catches his eye that day. Go to www.dalyart.com to learn more about Daly and his love of New England scenes and nature.

Please email spost@mcht.org or call 236-2739 to register for this afternoon workshop, as space is limited. The event date is subject to change if weather and lighting are poor. Donations accepted.

Volunteers Needed at Erickson Preserve to Harvest For Local Food Pantries

Whether you’re looking for a chance to serve your community, help those in need, do something as a family, or simply get some fresh air and physical exercise, you’re invited to join Maine Coast Heritage Trust staff during one of its Volunteer Harvest Days, Mondays and Wednesdays from 2-6 PM, September 13th through October 20th at the Erickson Fields Preserve on Route 90 in Rockport.

This growing season, MCHT has devoted nearly half an acre of garden space to growing food for distribution to food pantries. Four local youth, under the tutelage of MCHT’s Aldermere Farm staff, have been hard at work all season fertilizing, planting, weeding, harvesting , and marketing. The stalwart members of this Teen Ag Crew have capitalized on the excellent growing season to reap a bountiful harvest. To date, the Crew has shipped over 1,600 pounds of fresh produce to those most in need. While of the harvest is delivered directly to local pantries, the Crew has also partnered with the statewide Good Shepherd Food Bank to distribute its vegetables further afield.

These vegetables make “a wonderful contribution to the pantry and the people who access it,” says Pauline Johnstone, director of the Camden Area Christian Food Pantry. Like many food pantries, CACFP lacks decent refrigeration or storage space for perishable items. This means it is difficult to distribute fresh, healthy products. By delivering same-day-picked produce, Teen Crew members and volunteers help to solve this problem for Pauline’s pantry and others like it.

But as the start of the school year nears, the Teen Ag Crew will be shifting its focus away from the gardens. While most crew members will continue to work part time, thousands of pounds of crops remain to be harvested through September and into October. That’s why MCHT is looking for individuals and community groups to help it finish the harvest and clean the fields for the year.

If you are interested in volunteering, please contact to the Aldermere Farm office at 236-2739 or spost@mcht.org, and let the staff know how many in your group will be attending and what their ages are. MCHT asks that all children under 14 years of age be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Aldermere 4-H Club Donates Hair to Gulf Cleanup Effort

The Aldermere Achievers, the 4-H club at Aldermere Farm, donated 50+ pounds of hair to the Hair Boom Program. The hair came from cows that were either clipped completely to cool them off or for practice for the shows. The 4-H club also organized donation bins at the Northeast Livestock Expo where they received cow hair, goat hair and sheep wool. The Hair Boom Program makes booms out of hair for the oil spill in The Gulf of Mexico. The Aldermere Achievers will also continue to collect hair throughout the fair season and any local farms wishing to donate hair can drop it off at the farm. Aldermere Achievers 4-H members are Addie Bragg, Alice Flint, Cailand Sweeting, Courtney Mank, Ellie Pendleton, Erin Rollins, Tyler Leighton, Loren Guptil, and 4-H leader Heidi Baker. Story by Erin Rollins.

Aldermere Achievers 4H Club Looking for Steer Customers

The following is a letter written by Cailand Sweeting, a member of the Aldermere Achievers 4H Club.

To Whom It May Concern,

My name is Cailand Sweeting, I am a 4-Her at Aldermere Farm and I am working with a fellow 4-Her, Alice Flint. Currently we are both involved with steer projects. Our projects entail that we buy a steer from Aldermere Farm, raise it, then sell it at an auction at Windsor Fair. In this process we are learning valuable marketing skills and also learning how to work together towards one unified goal. We are hoping to raise two-thousand to three-thousand dollars per animal. Currently we have had our animals since October of last year and they weigh about seven-hundred pounds. We would like their weight to reach one-thousand pounds before the auction. Part of our challenge is to find companies or individuals to sponsor us and bid on our animals at the auction. If you would be interested in supporting us please contact at us at: csweeting114@gmail.com, 236-3257, oreocookie333@gmail.com , or 236-2738. Thank you so much.

Sincerely,

Cailand Sweeting and Alice Flint

Aldermere Farm Visitor's Center Open for Season; Farm Tours Offered Fridays

Summer is here, and the black-and-white Belted Galloways are grazing the pastures at Aldermere Farm in Rockport. For those passersby who would like to learn about the Farm, the Aldermere visitor’s center near 20 Russell Avenue will be open during the summer months.

The visitor’s center is staffed by knowledgeable and friendly volunteers who can answer questions about the Farm, and orient visitors to its trails and cattle viewing sites. There are also Beltie retail items for sale. Sales of these items support Aldermere Farm and its mission to protect a working landscape in Rockport and conduct farm-based educational programming.

Because it is volunteer-staffed, open hours may vary at the visitor’s center. Currently, it is open Mondays from 2-4, Tuesdays from 2-4 starting July 12th, Wednesdays from 10-4, Thursdays from 10-5, Fridays from 10-2, and Saturdays from 10-2. If you are traveling a long distance, please call the Aldermere office at 236-2739 to confirm the center will be open.

For those that would like an even more in-depth experience at Aldermere Farm, there will be guided farm tours happening every Friday starting at 10 AM. These tours will meet at the farm barn at 20 Russell Avenue. The Aldermere Achievers 4H Club will be on hand showing their cattle haltering and grooming skills during these tours

If you are interested in volunteering at the visitor’s center, please contact Jed Beach, Program Assistant, at 236-2739. Aldermere Farm is a program of Maine Coast Heritage Trust, a statewide land trust.

Study Finds Aldermere's Beltie Beef May Be Healthier for You

For those of you who buy our Belted Galloway beef, you already know that it’s more tender, juicy, and flavorful than a standard grocery store offering. And you know that buying our beef supports our farm and the other local farms that supply us with calves, which helps us to conserve and protect some of Maine’s productive farmlands. You might even know that our cattle graze to their heart’s content on pasture, and that most of the grains we finish them with are grown right here in Maine. And you know that, when you buy beef by the whole quarter and eighth, that you won’t find a better value for such high quality meat than our bulk prices.

Now we’re learning that Beltie beef may be healthier too. New research being conducted by the Belted Galloway Society on our own beef is confirming what we’ve always suspected – that our Beltie beef is leaner and more nutrient dense than average beef. Ribeye steaks from our cattle were found to have less calories and saturated fat compared to the USDA standard for ribeyes, but more protein, calcium, and iron. Moreover, our Beltie beef had much higher levels of “conjugated linoleic acid” than the USDA standards – and CLA is gaining reputation in the medical community as one of the premier “good fatty acids.”

How can Beltie beef be so much leaner, yet still so tender? The secret, it turns out, may be in the enzymes. If you recall from you high school organic chemistry, enzymes are the proteins (mostly) that catalyze activity in living things. They’re the “change agents” of organisms. Beltie beef may have higher concentrations of a calpain, an enzyme implicated in the breakdown of proteins as it’s cooked – turning tough muscle fiber into something so juicy and mouthwatering, it led a New York Times food writer Heidi Julavits, upon biting into a Beltie burger, to proclaim it one of, “…the most sublime hamburgers we’ve ever consumed. We have to eat leaning over our plates to keep the maximally beefy drippings from running down our wrists.”

For more information about purchasing Beltie beef from Aldermere, click here.

Love For Land Resulted In A Gift To Our Community

In 1899 Albert Chatfield Sr. purchased the Aldermere Farm property as a summer destination where his family could enjoy the healthy conditions they realized upon visiting our Maine coast. The next year their son Albert H. Chatfield Jr. was born and thus began a lifelong connection to what has become one of the most beautiful farms in Maine. A studious and thoughtful individual, Albert Jr. was a successful business man who at the age of 50 inherited the farm and made it a focal point for the rest of his long life. First, he reclaimed the fields using pioneering land management practices touted by Louis Bromfield. A few years later he brought the rare but perfectly suited Belted Galloways to the coast of Maine. Soils were tested and amendments applied and rotational grazing of the cattle was implemented to carefully steward his land. His love for the “Belties” led him to develop a world renowned herd respected across several continents and Aldermere Farm began to become not just a treasured oasis for locals but a destination for travelers and even a positive force for our local economy. Not content to rest on his achievements of creating what we now love as Aldermere Farm, in 1976 he sought the assistance of Maine Coast Heritage Trust to begin placing a series of what at the time were also groundbreaking land protection tools called conservation easements. Restricting development on most of the land, while allowing for modest expansion to support sustainable agricultural activities, these easements began to guarantee that his remarkable creation would continue as he planned. Finally in 1999, A.H. Chatfield Jr. culminated nearly a century of love for and protection of Aldermere Farm by bequeathing it to Maine Coast Heritage Trust. It was a gift ten years ago to MCHT but more importantly, a gift to our communities and everyone who visits and enjoys Aldermere whether by enjoying the stunning pastoral vistas or participating in the many MCHT public programs. Like the most special of gifts, it was one that will not only never be forgotten but one that has grown in its significance over the last ten years, and we know it will continue to do so for a long, long time. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to us all!

International Group Learns about Maple Sugaring

On March 8th Aldermere was pleased to host and guide a truly international audience through one of Maine’s oldest traditions. Students from around the world who are attending Harvard’s Kennedy school brought their families to Aldermere to take part in the farm’s Sap to Syrup program. Families from Senegal, Columbia, Japan, China, Israel and the United States brought their curiosity and enthusiasm for learning to the Farm. Led by General Manager Ron Howard, the group learned the history of “sugaring”, tree identification and then each of the youth accompanying the group participated in the tapping of the trees. Being a warm day followed by a cold night all the children and many of the adults were able to indulge themselves with a sip of pure maple sap dripping directly from the trees. With just a hint of sugar in the clear sap their curiosity was peaked and will forever remind them of what we already know and that is that Maine is a pretty sweet place!

Knox County Farmer’s Alliance

Once a month at the Union Town Office, farmers from all over Knox County are joining together to participate in a new collective called the Knox County Farmer’s Alliance. The group had its first meeting in February and was initiated by Aldermere Farm staff. The project has taken off and has sparked new interest in the farming community about working together and generating new ideas. “The goal in starting this group was to have a place where farmers in the area could come together, discuss their ideas, share information and talk about the future of agriculture, especially how it pertains to their own businesses and livelihood,” stated Ron Howard of Aldermere Farm. Since the first meeting, the Knox County Farmer’s Alliance have accomplished quite a bit! The group is working with the Union Fair committee to help start a new farmer’s market at the Fair this summer. Also, the Herald Gazette newspaper has agreed to feature regular articles about local farmers. Most importantly, the Alliance has accomplished the simple act of coming together, allowing needs to be voiced, and sometimes met. Whether it is collaborating to transport livestock, or seeking out labor, this group has really come together!

Apple Tree Pruning Workshop Draws a Crowd

On Saturday April 4th, Brien Davis of Hope Orchards presented apple tree pruning techniques to over 30 people on the Aldermere Farm property. The Farm and The Knox-Lincoln Soil and Water Conservation District collaborated to make this presentation available for the many people in the community who want to care for their own trees. Davis spoke on lots of different topics like when to prune and what are some of the different problems one can have with the trees and fruit from year to year. Davis recommends keeping apple trees pruned in order to get air and light to the tree. He also advises keeping trees from getting too tall because the trees actually grow more fruit if they are more horizontal versus vertical. He also stressed the safety factor of not needing to use a ladder when your tree is shorter. After a brief discussion, attendees were treated to a live pruning demonstration at two apple trees on site. Many different tools were used and discussed and people were able to try their hand at pruning. Davis’ enthusiasm for what he does was infectious and people really learned from his time at the Farm. Visit Hope Orchards in Hope, Maine for your all-natural apples in the fall.