Remembering the Farm-Sea Connection
Vinalhaven Historical Society, 2006. 79 pages
$20.00, vhhissoc@midcoast.com
I was first introduced to the turning of the tides of a saltwater farm through the verse of Robert P. T. Coffin’s work Saltwater Farm, combined with my own personal upbringing on a small New Hampshire sheep farm where we sold lambs, wool, eggs and maple syrup, managed a wood lot, raked rocks, hayed, and labored to plant, weed, harvest, and freeze acres of vegetable gardens. Island Saltwater Farms represented an opportunity to “compare notes,” as it were, with my own experiences.
What is a saltwater farm? Jeannette Lasansky defines the term this way: “A farm situated so that their fields came to the sea, a cove, or inlet, hence the Northeastern term `saltwater farm.’ ”
Island Saltwater Farms consists of six chapters followed by an Epilogue and a Bibliography. I found the map of Vinalhaven located on the inside back cover particularly useful.
The book celebrates the multi-generational saltwater farms on Vinalhaven island, Maine, and the history of these families as they struggled to make ends meet in an increasingly difficult economic environment. Their stories are illustrated with glass plate photographs, engravings and facsimiles. Along the way the author reflects on the farming ethic and the importance of the local Grange towards “continuous improvement” in all aspects of farming.
By its close, the book portrays the inevitable downward spiral of small family farming as a way of life.
An important part of chronicling these stories was the integration of diary entries, letters, personal interviews, images, and the help of approximately 100 named community members. I was especially impressed with the agricultural census and statistical data about crops raised and prices charged, as well as information relating to the number of bushels, gallons, pounds and other products resulting from a particular growing season. Anyone who has been exposed to small New England farming is well aware of the importance of documenting costs, what works, what doesn’t and whether the enterprise profited at the end of the day. In this way, Island Saltwater Farms appears to provide a culturally accurate glimpse of the hard business of farming for a living in the 19th century.
Perhaps it was on Maine’s saltwater farms that the tradition of holding multiple jobs originated. Selling milk, butter, eggs and cream. Selling vegetables, salt marsh hay, or turning to fishing were all options available to these people, many of whom had long connections to the island and its way of life. As noted in the book, in the second half of the 19th century, 80 distinct farms existed on Vinalhaven. By the early 21st century, only 37 farmhouses remain. This story is not unique to Vinalhaven and reflects the fact that these farms could not be run profitably. Lasansky tells a touching story of the closing of a way of life:
“As island dairy farms closed, the cows were sold to Sam Small or back to Peter Edwards in Rockland. Both men bought and sold cows and heifers and had a dairy. Sukeforth sold his herd before Ross Gray purchased Sunny Slope [an island farm]. Peter Edwards came from Rockland to get Miles Sukeforth’s cows and bull. As Geeze recalled, the bull wouldn’t follow the cows onto a landing craft at the ramp for the VINALHAVEN II … with the bull acting up, Sukey suggested that Geeze load it. Geeze talked to the bull and it put its head on his shoulder. He took the opportunity to slip the lead ring on the bull and led it onto the boat and then cried.”
Jeannette Lasansky, with the help of a slice of the Vinalhaven community, is to be heartily commended for writing a book that celebrates the saltwater farm culture on the island. Clearly, this publication has been a labor of love for both the author and the Vinalhaven community involved in its development. The book’s elegance reflects, to my mind, the Vinalhaven community farms in a way for which they (the farmers themselves) would be grateful.
Phil Walz is Director of Development at the Island Institute.
