Threshold To Maine RC&D Area

Agriculture Incubator

As part of our effort to promote agriculture development in southern and western Maine, the Threshold To Maine Board of Directors has authorized the establishment of a business incubator focused exclusively on agriculture.  For more information, please email us at council@thresholdtomaine.org

From time to time this page will feature businesses or farms that we are assisting to give you an idea of the scope of this effort.  We also belong to a network of business incubators and funders.  For more information visit Incubator.com

With the help of Threshold To Maine, businesses like Sunflower Hill Farm are expanding from part time operations to full time operations through careful business and market planning.  These small enterprises in many ways are the future of agriculture in southern Maine.  Visit their website at Sunflower Hill Farm. 

If you need assistance with agriculture business planning please call or email the office.

(For other projects, please scroll down)

We also have some major initiatives tied to our agriculture business incubator.  They include the development and use of a mobile commercial kitchen and the use of storytelling to convey the importance of agriculture to our communities and heritage.  

Mobile Commercial Kitchen Executive Summary  

“Growing Agriculture In Your Community: Local Farms Have It All”_tm. The tag line for our campaign to expand agriculture in Maine is very ambitious. To meet this challenge, the Threshold To Maine RC&D Area is proposing to develop a mobile kitchen for the processing and promotion of Maine food products. The primary purpose of the kitchen is to offer a convenient and effective way to prepare and distribute Maine food products during selected times in participating communities and other venues. This purpose highlights local food products and easy ways of preparation in a fun and attractive activity for the overall display, promotion and development of agriculture businesses in the local area.    

The secondary purpose for the Mobile Kitchen is to provide Threshold To Maine and its agriculture business partners a mobile commercial kitchen facility to supply food for Threshold’s Café, which will be used at trade shows, conventions, and other locations. This part of the project is used to generate revenues for the council and farm businesses to support their agriculture development activities.  We will also use it at participating agriculture fairs who are promoting agriculture development.  

Our concept is to use the mobile kitchen two fold. As a way to visually promote local food projects by appealing to all of people’s senses, sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste. A static display just does not appeal to all senses. The kitchen also serves as a “hook” to bring people to the display area and interactively participate in the preparation and tasting of local food products. How many times have you been attracted to a BBQ by the sound of sizzling burgers, or to a party by the pop of a champagne bottle? It will also be used as an incubator kitchen for micro businesses needing a bridge from a home kitchen to their own commercial processing unit.

Ag Story Project Executive Summary  

Farming and agriculture have long been important parts of United States and Maine history. Indeed, Thomas Jefferson believed that farmers were “the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interest by the most lasting bonds” (letter from Jefferson to John Jay, 1785).

In spite of this importance, however, farmers’ agricultural prosperity has been threatened on numerous occasions throughout our history. Think of the ‘dustbowls’ of the Great Depression-era 1930s. This was a time when extreme weather conditions and falling crop and livestock prices drove farmers off the farms that had been in their families for generations. Today, many families engaged in agriculture also find themselves facing the challenges of a new era. Weather conditions and falling agricultural prices threaten once again to force many families to sell off their land and take jobs elsewhere.  

Because of these trends, the current generation of Maine families is rapidly losing touch with societies agrarian roots. With less than 3% of the state’s population directly engaged in agriculture, children and adults today have limited access to farming as an economic part of our society or as a way of life. The access they do have, through retail food outlets and media promotions, offers a very limited perspective on the vitality and importance of food and fiber production.

Another part of our collective history and culture is storytelling. Storytelling is the art of using language, vocalization, and physical movement to convey the elements and images of a story to others. Before the written word, stories were the main venue for passing family and cultural history from generation to generation. Today, storytelling of actual or fictitious events is delivered through the popular culture medium of television, music, and now the Internet. As an art form, storytelling in the traditional sense is much less used. However, as delivered by storytellers like Jay O’Callahan, a story can deliver a more powerful message than even the best technology. A great story resonates with people. It challenges them to get involved and think. Most importantly, it creates a lasting image of the issue or idea being told.

 The concept of this project is to develop a story about Maine ’s agriculture community that is both compelling to listen too and capable of facilitating a change in attitude. People need to hear about agriculture and its future through a link to its past. By commissioning Jay O’Callahan to develop a story about Maine agriculture, we hope to heighten people’s understanding of agriculture issues, and through other projects encourage them to take action to preserve our agriculture heritage.

For more information about these projects, or to receive a copy of the project proposals, please contact email us at council@thresholdtomaine.org

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