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Fourth generation family member Andy
currently runs the 2,500-acre broccoli farm known as Emerald Valley
Ranches, but the family history of farming goes back many years before
he took over. Andy’s great grandfather, Forest Page, began farming in
Ashland, Maine in the early 1900’s, growing many acres of potatoes,
oats, barley and hay. Both his paternal grandfather, Paul Ayer, and his
maternal grandfather, Guy Kirk, also farmed for many years. In the mid
1960’s, Andy’s father, Forest “Bud” Ayer, bought his first farm and
began growing potatoes as well as running a potato sales business. Bud
and his children moved to what they now call the “Home Farm” in 1966,
where Andy and his family now live. By the time Andy graduated from
college in 1981, the farm acreage had grown to over a thousand acres of
potatoes. In 1980, the family planted a few experimental acres of
broccoli (the first in Maine) and increased this to about a hundred
acres the next year, when Andy joined the family business. By the
mid-eighties, they phased out of growing potatoes and concentrated on
increasing their broccoli acreage, researching the latest technology and
selecting varieties that thrive in our northern Maine climate.<br/>
We
now proudly have a fifth generation interested in the farming business,
and we hope to keep our farm growing and shipping the highest quality
broccoli for generations to come.
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