Erickson Farm Preservation Efforts

Long time Rockport residents can still remember the dairy cattle grazing along Route 90 at the Erickson Farm. By selling milk, butter and cream the family kept the land productive and served an important role in the local food chain.

After the property was left to the children and grand children, daughter Mareita Wheaton attempted to keep the farm operating. Sadly,after several years she found (as have many other small local farmers) that it wasn’t practical to make a living on the farm and had to give up the cattle.

“With my family having worked the land and milked cows here for generations, it was a very difficult but necessary decision to stop farming,” according to Wheaton. “But it made it easier when Aldermere Farm started using the fields for grazing their Belties and utilizing the other fields to harvest hay.”

For Aldermere, the partnership has been more than just the use of the land. “With Mareita’s knowledge of the land and cattle, it has been a great relief knowing she has been there watching them for us,” according to Aldermere General Manager, Ron Howard, “and when the family decided it was time to sell the land and move on, we stayed in touch with them through the process as we all shared the desire for it to stay as farmland.”

Recently, Maine Coast Heritage Trust, the Maine Farmland Trust and a host of volunteers, working together with the heirs of the Erickson Farm, worked out a sale agreement for nearly 100 acres of the farm on the south side of Route 90. Maine Farmland Trust has the contract on the property, has secured a Federal grant towards some of the purchase price and plans to transfer the agricultural land to MCHT/Aldermere when the groups involved successfully raise the remainder of the funds necessary to complete the purchase.

“This is critical grass land for our farming operations,” according to Howard, “but with the community’s support for this Erickson Farm preservation project, we anticipate utilizing the land for a variety of public benefits, just like we do with Aldermere.”

Anyone interested in learning more about the Erickson Farm project or participate in the fundraising should contact Ron Howard at (207) 236-2739.