Open Farm Day has high stakes for multigenerational Maine farmers

Open Farm Day takes place on Sunday for the 35th year running, inviting the public to visit working farms across the state.

For farmers who have been involved with the event since the 1980s, it’s an opportunity to connect people with where their food comes from. That’s important, they said, to encourage consumers to buy locally and support farms in a challenging economic landscape — and, hopefully, recruit a new generation.

When the annual event began in 1989, its full name was Take Pride in Agriculture Open Farm Day, according to BDN coverage at the time. It was modeled after the popular Maine Maple Sunday and promoted as a way to help Maine farm businesses.

That first year, the Boothby family recalled an eye-wateringly hot afternoon in their working dairy on the property where seven generations have farmed since before the Civil War. People might have expected a more storybook visit then, Denise Boothby said.

“Now, it’s a totally different culture,” she said. “People are looking for experiences.”

The Boothbys sold their cows in the early 2000s, like many Maine dairy farmers have done in recent years from financial pressure or changing family interests. To keep the business sustainable, the farm has diversified. They’ve scaled back the farm’s size, become more public-facing, expanded their apple orchard, added onsite lodging and a market and started hosting weddings alongside selling beef and hay.

The property’s farmers have always been diversifying and trying new things to stay afloat. Denise Boothby said the farm’s records show new equipment and different animals across the years. In one journal from the 1930s, a Boothby wrote about the risk of planting new apples called MacIntoshes and Cortlands to ship down to Portland for the first time.

Farming is largely not a big moneymaker here, but it’s worth it for the way of life it provides, she said.

At Nezinscot Farm in Turner, Greg and Gloria Varney are third-generation dairy farmers. When they bought the farm in 1987, the original dairy had ended through a federal buyout called the Dairy Termination Program, designed to eliminate a surplus of milk. It resulted in 1.5 million dairy cows being exported or sent to slaughter nationwide.

The Varneys rebuilt the herd and became the first certified organic dairy in Maine in 1993. But they’ve also added a store, bakery, creamery and meat.

“The diversity is what’s helping make or break the farm, because we wouldn’t be able to do it otherwise,” Gloria Varney said.

There were 60 other dairy farms in their town raising 40-50 cows each when they started. Today, there are three.

Milk brought to New England from western states undercuts local profit, and production costs more here. Contract troubles with large buyers like Horizon have further strained dairy farmers .

Opening the farm can be difficult. Labor is hard to find, things are busy, and although Open Farm Day attendance has increased over the past 10 years, Varney has found more people expect entertainment. They don’t always follow the signs or respect the farm.

But the farmers will keep doing it.

“The beginning of Open Farm Day was an opportunity for us to look at getting people back on the farm and understanding where food and fiber comes from, and we’re still passionate about that,” Varney said. “We’ve got a lot going on here, and we want people not just to purchase but to understand.”

If she wants them to understand, she can’t close the doors, she said. She believes people need to prioritize regional food and ask the same of their grocery store chains.

She also hopes the experience might reach young visitors and help kids see a future in farming.

Denise Boothby said farm life is a blessing to their family too, and she sees its positive effects on her children.

“Every single day we get up and we’re grateful to be able to do it again,” Boothby said. “And because it’s so intense, we have to reinvent ourselves on a regular basis.”

A list of open farms, maps and sample trip itineraries is available online from Real Maine . Most farms will be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday.