The harvest is over, but there's plenty to do

Multitasking lets this farm operate through the year

October 26, 2005|Jonathan Levitt, Globe Correspondent

TURNER, Maine -- On a windy morning, Nezinscot Farm is humming with the nervous urgency that defines fall on a Maine farm. Fields needed to be cleared, firewood stacked, and the harvest put away in freezers and the root cellar.

On this land just outside Lewiston, those tasks go to Gregg Varney, 51, and his wife, Gloria, 39, who bought the 250-acre place in 1986 from his parents (it was originally owned by Gregg Varney's grandfather G.W. Varney). Today, the challenge for the third-generation Varneys -- for all New England farmers -- is making the land viable year-round, once the harvest is over and there are no more fresh vegetables. To that end, the Nezinscot farm store, housed in an old milking barn, sells all kinds of goods grown or made on this organic farm: yarn from their own sheep, prepared foods, bacon, milk, farmhouse cheddar, goat cheese, feta, and an array of old-fashioned pickles. With milking cows, dairy goats, cattle, sheep, pigs, laying chickens, and turkeys, the Varneys have created a model for what a diversified organic family farm can be.

Framed by ancient sugar maples, the store's front porch is lined with rocking chairs and piled with winter squash and pumpkins. Jack Daniels, the Varney's giant, 12-year-old mutt, is usually napping in a sunny corner. Willie Nelson, a three-year-old border collie, chases his tail. Inside, tall shelves are packed with cookie jars, handmade goat-milk soap, mustard pickles, dilly beans, raspberry jam, pumpkin butter. A countertop holds cooling pies and breads. Behind that is Gloria's rustic kitchen, where everything from French toast to hamburgers is made from scratch and cooked to order in well-seasoned cast iron pans. Gloria grew up a few towns away in Livermore, helping her parents run a farm with a butcher shop; she graduated from the University of Maine at Farmington with a degree in health education. Gregg was raised on the farm and studied agriculture at the University of Maine at Orono.

When they first bought the place, Gregg stepped into his father's old job of milking the cows. Gloria gardened, tended a small flock of sheep, and ran a small yarn store out of their farmhouse. She soon realized that customers who came to buy yarn were just as interested in what she was cooking, so 15 years ago she started selling food from her kitchen. ''I've eaten well all my life," says Gloria, who was raised on fresh food, all made at home. ''In our family there were three boys and seven of us girls. Breakfast was eggs and donuts. Lunch was meat, potatoes, vegetables, soup, and fresh bread. Supper was casseroles and pie for dessert. I opened the farm store to teach people about where their food comes from, and to share some of that good eating and good health."