By Zack Anchors

Staff Writer   

    Stacy Brenner and John Bliss, the couple that for
three years operated a Community Supported Agriculture program and
“Farm Camp” at Turkey Hill Farm in Cape Elizabeth, have moved on. 
But although they have left the farm, they have not dropped their
commitment to agriculture at all. They are leaving behind the rocky
soil and cramped fields of Cape for bigger and better pastures where
they believe their agricultural ambitions are more likely to be
fulfilled. The Scarborough Land Conservation Trust has selected them as
the tenants of the 434-acre, rich-soiled Broadturn Farm near the Buxton
border, and though they say they will miss their Cape friends, they are
excited to at the great potential they see on their new farm.

    John and Stacy and their two children are now moved
into an old farmhouse on the Broadturn farm that they overhauled with
the SCLT’s help. They’ve been busy lately—along with fixing up and
settling into their new home, they’ve had to finish up the harvest at
the Turkey Hill Farm and just recently had their second child. Their
overall goal at their new home, they said in an interview at the farm
last week, is to continue what they have been doing in Cape– promoting
sustainable living in a way that builds community.

     “People have an idea that buying sustainably
and locally is all about buying produce—but that’s only the tip of the
iceberg,” said John.

     At the Broadturn Farm next season, residents
of Scarborough and other towns will be able to buy poultry, lamb, and
pork, as well as fresh produce. But just as importantly, said Stacy,
people will be encouraged to get actively involved on the
farm--volunteering to help weed or harvest, dropping off their children
at Farm Camp to learn where the food they eat comes from, and just
generally coming to think of the farm as a community resource.

     “It’s about finding how we can make this a
viable business and still make it feel like a community,” John said.

     The central focus of the Broadturn Farm will
be the CSA program, which will allow people to sign up for an entire
season’s worth of vegetables from the farm. Since moving to Maine six
years ago, John and Stacy have run two different CSA programs--one at
Turkey Hill Farm and before that, one on Sunrise Acres Farms in
Cumberland.

    A CSA model, said John, makes the business of
running a farm much more practical for the farmer and the customer.

     “Traditionally, a farmer would need all this
capital to invest in seeds and everything,” said John. “It’s a huge
risk.”

     When a farmer invests a substantial sum of
money in their farm each year, John said, they then have to count on
selling enough of their harvest to make investment back. If they can’t,
then the next season they won’t have any money to put back into the
crops.

     “Obviously, from the way small farms have been
disappearing in the last few decades, it’s a model that doesn’t work,”
said John. “We need to figure out alternative business models.”

     The main advantage of a CSA model is that it
allows the farmers to plan out their growing season during the spring,
so they can then focus on growing in the following months.

    “We’ll know how many shares the garden is going to
have to provide for,” said John. “All those costs are apparent in the
early part of the season.”

    At Sunrise Farms, the CSA Stacy and John ran had
about 100 members at one point, while Turkey Hill had around 50.
Eventually they hope the Broadturn Farm CSA will have a comparable size
to Sunrise Farm.

    “There’s a lot to getting the farm off the ground in
the first couple of years--there’s lots of construction,” said John.
“We’re gonna shoot for 50, but within a few years we’d like to hit 100.”

     One reason Stacy and John are optimistic about
Broadturn Farm’s potential, and one reason they left Cape Elizabeth to
move there, is the soil.

    “In Cape Elizabeth we spent a lot of time digging
out stones,” said Stacy. “This soil here is a lot better than in Cape.”


    Only a few years ago, before the SCLT bought the
property, a family that had been farming the land there for generations
occupied the Broadturn Farm.

    “They were a pretty typical old-generation farming
family,” said John. “The young generation didn’t want to continue on
with it. They had done row crops and dairy–most recently they had
poultry. ... When you find an old farm today that’s still in
production, that indicates to me that the soil is pretty good and that
there is still an opportunity there.”

    The high quality of the soil was also what led the
SCTL to come up with the idea of trying to preserve the agricultural
heritage of the land. The original purpose of purchasing the property
was to prevent development and maintain open space with trails, but
after an agricultural expert visited the farm, the SCLT realized the
farm could have a greater potential.

    “This woman told them, ‘This is prime soil--this should be farmed,’” said Stacy.

    The SCLT decided to establish a farming easement,
fix up the old farmhouse for a farm family to live in, and rent the
site out to some committed farmers.

    “They put a call for proposals out last year,” said
Stacy. “We spent all winter making up a business plan and writing up a
proposal.”

    Along with John and Stacy, another family of
farmers, the Snells, were selected by the SCLT to farm on the property,
which they had already been doing for years. The SCLT still has plans
to build trails on the property too, though they may be a few years
away.

    Stacy and John are expecting that some of their old
friends and customers from Cape will come visit them at the Broadturn
Farm, but they have mixed feelings about encouraging them to become
regulars there. Driving a car that far for food isn’t really in line
with the idea of promoting sustainability, John said. Stacy suggested
that some people might come together to establish weekly car pools to
pick up produce. Right now, though, Stacy and John are focusing on
building connections in their new neighborhood, which is much more
rural than Cape Elizabeth.

    “Since we moved in most of our interactions have
been with hunters who have wanted to use the property to hunt on,” said
Stacy. “That’s been nice, because these are people we probably wouldn’t
usually get the chance to meet.”