Mandala Farm Location: Gouldsboro, Maine Owners: Eugenio Bertin ’97 and Sarah Faull ’98 Years in farming: 10; 8 on Mandala Farm Production: Vegetables, flowers, berries, meat birds, laying hens, goats, one dairy cow, beef cattle, pork. Acres in vegetables: 3.5 Why farming? I was heading toward land planning or law; Sarah was doing research at Harvard. We came to Maine to work at H.O.M.E. Co-op for two weeks and stayed two years. We thought it was our responsibility to effect change; being at H.O.M.E. changed our perspective. We wanted to begin with stewardship of the land. Biggest struggle: The weather. Economics. Greatest joys: Nurturing and tending to the animals, seeing things grow—that magic and wonder. And seeing how people grow when they’re exposed to what we do. Is farming a mission? If it were, we’d have given up by now. It’s our life’s work to try to improve the soil and provide food for the local community, to be available to our neighbor for a dozen eggs or a scoop of manure.
Left: Genio Bertin and Sarah Faull. Below: Farmhand Saras Yerlig ’11 picks heirloom tomatoes.
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