Summer workshops
The 2023 season is approaching fast! Upcoming events include Low Low Tide adventures with algae, the 2nd Annual Alewife Festival, Medicinal Herbs and the Commons, and much more to come!
Celebrating 15 Years!
Greenhorns has reached an important milestone with our 15 year anniversary in 2022! Thanks to many of you, we’ve persisted and evolved as a young agrarian institution, with an outstanding list of achievements, a beautiful archive of films and publications, a large national and international network, and a lovely campus in the historic coastal village of Pembroke, ME. The future ahead looks bright, and as we prepare to greet it, we wanted to tune in with you, our community, to help inform the next steps, themes, investments and the ‘staffing up’ that comes with leadership transition.
The GREENHORNS believe we humans must reform agriculture to survive on this planet. Our mission is to create a welcoming cultural space and a practical professional resource for those new to ecological farming. We make books, films, radio, parties, symposia, workshops, networking and online curriculum. We are based in rural Maine where we farm and host campers, researchers, media producers, artists and collaborators. Our community is the international movement of LA VIA CAMPESINA. Our activism helps us express our solidarity with future generations and the non-human world. Come! We can do it together.
New here? Check out THE BLOG, THE GUIDEBOOKS, THE RESOURCES MAP, and our sister organizations: AGRARIAN TRUST, NATIONAL YOUNG FARMERS COALITION...
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Low Low Tides & Seaweed Symposium
April 20 2023 - April 22 2023
767 Leighton Point Rd, Pembroke, ME 04666April 20-21:
Join the Smithereen Farm team for early-morning harvest and drying of native seaweeds! Bring a wetsuit if you have one. Low tide is around 6:15-6:30am, so early birds are a must if you want to join in. No charge for these two days. People from aways are welcome to book a campsite on HipCamp to be close to the action.
April 22nd:
Harvest overview and guidance by longtime time harvester Kacie Loparto. Join in the water for harvest and drying of wild kelp. RSVP required!
Kanae Tokunaga, a Japanese researcher of artisanal kelp traditions and economies will present about the high value products and supply chains in different regions of Japan. Drawing lessons from her research in Japanese seaweed harvesting, market, and processing, and in Maine’s seafood supply chain, she will cover several topics, including: How different species of seaweeds are harvested, processed, and marketed in Japan, Advantages of co-management and co-marketing in coastal fisheries and aquaculture, Roles of coastal fisheries and aquaculture in coastal ecosystem service values.
A presentation of the new Maine Seaweed Council ‘seaweed wild harvest guidelines’ by longtime industry leader Shep Erhart.
Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdo_lu__x_CHo-ZCmp-YAAB66bGWbBQnidv1a1_Q_d5sBxJJA/viewform
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2nd Annual Pennamaquan Alewife Festival w/ Downeast Salmon Federation
May 19 2023 - May 20 2023
Free!
Meet up // 12 Little Falls Road, Pembroke ME. 9am-3pm, Friday and Saturday.
Fishing, smoking of alewives with Downeast Salmon Federation
With kid’s fish - painting activity, bike rentals and repairs, biologist talks Kristin Underwood and Mike Manning, presentation about MycoBuoys project with Sue Van Hook. Don Blair runs workshop on making and deploying open source water sensors in the Pennamaquan River.
FREE lunch buffet from Smithereen Farm and did we mention free smoked alewifes hot from the DSF smoker!
Live music from the Lamp Lighters band on May 20th.
4-fish masterclass and Washington County culinary networking with Chef Bobby of Salt and Steel restaurant, Bar Harbor - made possible by Maine Coast Fishermen's Association.
Tabling and presentations on resilience and transition. Kids' ‘bike safety rodeo’ hosted by Maine Bicycle Coalition, loaner bikes and helmets will be available; bike rentals and repairs with Mike’s Bikes, bring your bike! And bike like a fish up the Pennamaquan, to visit the spawning grounds and connect with the Downeast Sunrise Trail.
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Low Low Tides
June 5 2023 - June 7 2023
June 5-6th:
Join the Smithereen Farm team for early-morning harvest and drying of native seaweeds! Bring a wetsuit if you have one. Low tide is just after dawn, so early birds are a must if you want to join in. No charge for these two days. People from aways are welcome to book a campsite on HipCamp to be close to the action.
June 7th:
Seaweed harvesting with Kacie Loparto, naturalist walk with Jordan Chalfert of Naturalist’s Notebook and the Maine Natural History Observatory, round table discussion at Reversing Hall with Emily Farr of Manomet, seaweed cuisine prepared by chef Evan Mallett of Black Trumpet.
There will be a two hour intertidal excursion, exploring the diversity of seaweed in this region. Over 300 species of macroalgae can be found on the coast of Maine. Participants will learn the names and identifying characters of common ones, and there will be a discussion of intertidal ecology: how these species interact and create marine communities. Bring a hand lens if you have one!
Jordan Chalfant is a field naturalist and board member at Maine Natural History Observatory. She and MNHO director, Glen Mittelhauser, and Dr. Amanda Savoie of the Canadian Museum of Nature are working on a field guide to the seaweeds of Maine. Jordan’s day job is managing The Naturalist’s Notebook, a nature and science exploratorium and bookstore in Seal Harbor on Mount Desert Island.
A Digital Magazine & Podcast For The Intrepid Young Farmer
Watch the first episode of our new series EARTHLIFE, exploring the landscape, looking upstream, downriver and out to sea to discover the destiny of our home region. Alongside our films, we've created a multimedia learning-experience with audio interviews, articles, out-links, archival and contemporary materials that inform an approach to ecological farming, rural enterprise and coalition building.
THE New Farmers Almanac
Pre-Order Volume VI: Adjustments and Accommodations today!
This latest volume seeks to recognize our own collective agency in the face of sizable uncertainties. The morphing climate, ongoing culture of land dispossession, continuing global pandemic, shifting and intensifying weather patterns, and migrations of all species—spurned by political and environmental upheaval—are considered within. There is adaptability in each bloom of algae; tiny particles of inspiration can enliven lives and farm systems; the natural currents and connected sentience of the living earth moves genetic material. Dynamic flux and rapid change remain possible.
The power of the forces—the river, the wind—are summoned and given thanks, like our ancestors did. Here, we tune to the potential of the commons. Contributors from around the Earth reflect on natural systems, logistics of change, localization, resource sharing, and preservation; we eye new experiments in planting, seed breeding, and composting. The past is contextualized by the present, informing our ideas for the future. Climate grief and cognitive dissonance are examined among imaginations of urban food systems and equitable access. Readers are invited to envision tweaks to the carbon cycle; to see intercropping as a life practice and sharing dinner as an embodied preservation of cultural foodways.
Myco buoys
Mycologist Sue Van Hook is growing alternative flotation devices for oyster cultivation -- from fungi!
Click the link below to read more about this exciting and innovative effort.
seaweed Commons network
Seaweed Friends, Not Frenzy!
Seaweed Commons seeks to form ecological seaweed coalitions, support and inform public discourse, increase algal literacy, and advocate for an appropriately scaled, just seaweed economy. By providing the public with nuanced and accessible information on the politics, ecology, governance, and economy of marine algae, we aim to promote an open and informed public discourse essential to responsible decision-making and resource management.
