By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

In the 50s and 60s, Cape Elizabeth farmers were major producers of cabbage and iceberg lettuce.

 “Cabbage was king,” said Penny Jordan, who runs the 120-acre
William H. Jordan farm on Wells Road with her brother and two sisters.
The farm has been in Jordan’s family since 1945, when her father
William H. Jordan, Sr. purchased the land from her mother’s – Ruth
Young – family.

Last week, Jordan could still be found tending to the farm stand, which
is still open and offering greens, squash and other vegetables.

 “Vegetables are alive and well in Cape Elizabeth,” she said.

But when California began taking over the markets in the 70s, local
farmers had to redefine their businesses, she said. The family started
a pick-your-own strawberry operation and began migrating away from
wholesale and into retail, opening a farm stand in the early 90s.

Ensuring the town’s remaining farms stay alive and well is an objective
of the newly formed Cape Elizabeth Farm Committee. During a public
hearing on the town’s newly adopted Comprehensive Plan, Jordan proposed
that rather than commission a formal study, the town create an informal
citizen group to make recommendations about issues facing local
farmers. Jordan is currently serving as committee chairman.

The group invites any residents interested in the health of local farms
to attend a kickoff meeting at 7 p.m. on Nov. 14 at Sprague Hall,
located on the corner of Rte. 77 and Charles E. Jordan Road.

“We’re trying to gather as many people as we can who have an interest
in working toward the long-term vitality of our farms, said Jim Rowe, a
town councilor and committee member.

One of the committee’s first steps will be to create an agricultural
profile of the town and come up with a definition of what constitutes a
farm, Rowe said. The town has three or four produce operations, animal
husbandry outfits, tree farms and several peripheral businesses that
raise plants, which could be considered farm related, he said.

 The committee hopes to submit a report to the town council within
a year. Rowe said the committee also hopes to have some recommendations
at that point.

“Some of those focus areas might be taxation, zoning [and] bringing in
experts from outside the town from federal and state agencies who have
expertise in farm financing,” Rowe said.

In 2003, Jordan and her family sold their development rights to
45-acres of farmland to the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust (CELT) for $1.3
million. With a $400,000 grant from the Land for Maine’s Future (LMF)
Program, a $705,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program (FRPP) and $200,000 in local
funds, CELT has preserved the land for farming in perpetuity.

 “Because much of the value of farmland is in its development
potential, we raise money to essentially compensate the farmer for the
land they’re giving up,” said CELT Executive Director Chris Franklin of
the process. “A farmer who needs to realize some of the value of their
land can sell it on the open market and realize $2 million in
development potential, but then they don’t have a farm anymore.”

 The LMF program is slated to receive $17 million of the $35.5
million bond to invest in land conservation, parks and farmland among
other uses, that as of Wednesday appears to have been approved by
voters. Out of that $17 million, $1.7 million will be used for farmland
protection, said LMF Program Director Tim Glidden.

 The LMF Program and FRPP both work with the Maine Department of
Agriculture to preserve the state’s farmland. Glidden said the
department’s farmland protection program manager helps farmers
interested in selling their development rights complete an application
to submit to the two funding agencies.

 “It is one of the strongest tools that the state has available to
preserve farmland especially in a community like Cape Elizabeth,”
Franklin said. “Cape Elizabeth had 50 farms 50 years ago. The only sure
way to ensure their survival is to preserve the land.”

 Bill Bamford, who owns Maxwell’s Farm on Spurwink Avenue with his
wife, Lois, said selling to developers would have been an easier route.


 “We’ve been approached by developers over the years,” Bamford
said. “We’ve got a long heritage here and you hate to be the ones to
give it up and let the developers come in. We’ve just kind of hung in
there and gritted our teeth.”

 Bamford said his wife is a sixth generation farmer and they have
watched the farm go through several evolutions. After nearly 20 years
of operation, the Maxwell’s Farm Market will be closed this year, due
in part to unfavorable weather in recent years, Bamford said.

 “Part of it was finances,” he added. “It was more than just a road side stand. It was a regular store.”

Maxwell’s continues to grow roughly 12-acres of pick-your-own strawberries and also sells produce wholesale, Bamford said.

Jordan said there is not any one factor contributing to the downsizing
and disappearance of local farms. While development may seem to be the
most pressing, family dynamics can also play a role, Jordan said.

“Transitioning the farm to the next generation is not an easy process,”
she said. “You have to be willing to live a certain lifestyle.”

Today she is a fourth generation farmer, but Jordan initially worked off the farm and spent 20 years at Unum.

 “I think a lot of people choose to go off the farm for a number
of years and they come back and get their hands dirty and think, ‘Wow,
how did I ever leave this,’” Jordan said.