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The Maine Campus | The Maine Campus
The Maine Campus | The Maine Campus
This past weekend, the Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association hosted its annual Common Ground Fair in Unity, Maine, where organic farmers, health food vendors and residents from all over New England flocked to see demonstrations of everything from basket making to herb growing.
The fair is the oldest and largest state organic organization in the county and receives thousands of visitors from all across the United States. It originated in 1977 and occurs every third weekend in September.
There are no carousels, merry-go-rounds or cotton candy stands at this fair, though. Instead, MOFGA is about helping organic farmers and gardeners and connecting health food lovers with environmentally friendly farming measures.
Along with farming booths, the fair boasts its fair share of environmentally friendly organizations, including the Natural Resource Council of Maine (NRCM), based in Augusta, which strives to create alternative forms of energy and release America’s use of fossil fuels. The booth, like the fair, was alive with young students.
“I woke up at 6:30 a.m. this morning. I scraped off my car from the frost and headed up here,” said Molly Masterton, who drove two hours from Bowdoin College. An environmental science student, Molly says she interned with NRCM this past summer and was particularly excited for her first visit to the fair.
“I never realized how cool this place is,” said Masterton, who came up with four other Bowdoin students. “And it’s a great place to get our message out here.” While many environmental organizations graced the fair grounds, there were still a large variety of other booths and events offered.
The Common Ground Fair lets fairgoers network with organic farms, browse the numerous vendors and demonstrators and learn about sustainable living. Saturday and Sunday mornings when most attend, people were treated to delicious, organic Maine-grown food, beautiful Maine crafts, agricultural products, lively music and exotic booths.
Among them was Tom Taylor-Lash, who owns Gramps Blueberry Farm in Hancock, Maine.
“I’ve been here since early Friday morning, and I’ll be here until Sunday night, but I really think three days at the fair beats any amount of time at work,” said Taylor-Lash, who normally works at the L.L. Bean outlet store in Bangor. “I’ve been coming to this fair for the past 14 years, and it’s a great chance to meet people and sell our blueberry products.”
In one tent, old-time new England contra dances took place. Fiddle and guitar music intertwined, and scores of people hit the make shift hardwood floor to dance the afternoon away.
Others not interested in dancing could be spotted listening to the fair’s keynote speaker, Will Allen, a small town farmer who managers Ceder Circle Farm in Thetford, Vt., who spoke about getting rid of chemicals in food. He said that often, large scale farmers use genetically engineered organisms and chemicals in their crops in order to make a greater profit. “It’s all in an effort to pad their wallets and control the American farm enterprise,” Allen said.
In another booth, fairgoers sampled Zlaybi, a Lebanese fried dough, homemade falafel and a local granola mix.
The booths all differed greatly. There was one for homeopathy and natural food, and across the way was a massage booth. In the next tent over, the political action committee was adjacent to the pro-life booth.
The hypnosis booth attracted a lot of attention.
“Yes, I suppose it’s a little bit odd to see a hypnosis tent at the Common Ground Fair, but you see a little of everything, don’t you?” said Ernest VanBorssche, who owns and operates a hypnosis office in southern Maine. “People come to us with issues ranging from insomnia or wanting to quit smoking or something like that. We work with them through music and discussion, but they have to want to come to solve their problem.”
VanBorssche said that despite the unusual topic of his booth, he had many fairgoers stop by and even buy several of his CDs. “I think in this day and age, people are trying new opportunities,” he said.
A Native American set up a native healing booth in one corner. He goes by the name Fredda and said his goal in life is to create healing food and herbs for people with any pain.
“Whenever people have a health problem, they come to me and I help them out,“ Fredda said. “I’ve treated just about everything, except lyme disease, but I could probably help that as well.”
Fredda left to burn some incense so he could cleanse the area before giving a speech later in the afternoon. By the late afternoon, people were beginning to slowly file out, except for the volunteers, who work from the early hours of the morning to the late hours of the evening. They help with parking, picking up garbage, working in the kitchen and assisting with booths.
Somewhere between the sheep dog trials, fiddlers and manure throwing contest, fairgoers will realize this is tradition. As the Maine slogan goes, this is “the way life should be.”
Related Posts:- On common ground (September 26, 2005)
- Common Ground Fair booths raise awareness for programs (September 28, 2006)
- A weekend at the Common Ground Fair (September 24, 2007)
- All’s fair in Unity (September 26, 2002)
- Maine farmers speak out against new food safety regulations bills (April 20, 2009)
