WHO WE ARE                                                                                                                                      

Cider Hill Farm is a small, diversified, organic farm located on North Haven Island in Penobscot Bay, Maine.    

OUR PHILOSOPHY                                                                                                                                     

Our aim is to provide premium products while improving our beautiful island ecosystem. CHF is a sanctuary for bees, insects, and birds due to our mowing and weeding practices; providing flowers and seed heads for their subsistence and increasing native species in our fields and woodlands are among our priorities. We do not use any pesticides or GMOs. Much of what we do is human or solar powered, only using tractors when absolutely necessary. Our chickens wander where they please, and our sheep and pigs enjoy a mobile lifestyle, rotationally grazing from pasture to pasture, which improves soil and carbon uptake, causing least harm. Our honey bees, along with many native bee species, help pollinate our garden and trees. Our compost includes local spent grains from North Haven Brewery, food scraps from Nebo Lodge and Calderwood Hall, and coffee grounds from Waterman’s Community Center on island.                                                                                                                    

PRODUCTS                                                                                                                                      

We specialize in woolen and wooden goods, organic meat and eggs, herbs, flowers, and vegetables.

Our organic vegetables and flowers are sold at our self-serve farmstand at the farm on Wednesdays and Saturdays during the summer months.

Natural colored yarns, naturally dyed yarns, pelts, scarves are produced with wool from our organically-raised herd of Coopworth and Border-Leicester sheep. Our fleece has won several blue ribbons at local fairs. We also sell registered Coopworth sheep and lambs for breeding or custom processing.                                                                                                                                   

OUR ANIMALS

We raise a flock of Coopworth and Coopworth x Border-Leicester cross sheep which we rotationally graze through fresh pastures daily. Our ram Dragon joins the group during the breeding season and provides us with adorable lambs in the spring and spends the rest of his time in the company of our wether, Apollo. Our fleeces have consistently won blue ribbons at the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association’s annual Common Ground Fair.

We raise feeder pigs for the dual purpose of meat and clearing the invasive species Glossy Buckthorn. We selected a mix of heritage breeds (Tamworth, Red Wattle, and Berkshire) that have a strong rooting instinct in order to uproot the buckthorn. They have successfully helped to combat the buckthorn in a section of our woodlands and we continue to pasture pigs through the woods in an attempt to slow the spread of buckthorn. We fortunately have a mobile slaughterer come to the island to slaughter the pigs on the farm, and we then process them on the island. It is incredibly special to have the entire process kept on the island and be able to eliminate the added stress of transportation to the animals.

We keep a number of honeybee hives which provide pollination to our flowers, vegetables, shrubs, and trees, as well as providing hours of entertainment watching them congregate in the poppies. We harvest and bottle our honey to be sold in the farmstand as well as process the wax for use in salves.

We have a small flock of laying hens with a large beautiful rooster watching over the ladies. In addition to providing us with entertainment, these chickens keep the tick population low around the yard and forage worms and bugs leading to delicious eggs.

INVASIVE SPECIES ERADICATION                                                                                                                                      

Glossy Buckthorn is perhaps the most aggressive invasive species spreading across North Haven. We are making a consistent effort to cut back the Buckthorn that is growing on our property (pulling it up whenever possible, but cutting it back to hinder new growth at the very least) while planting more native species, some of which we start on farm. Over the past several years we have been rotationally grazing pigs on paddocks through the woodlands and following through pulling roots and planting cover crop, native bushes, and tress on the cleared land. This has been a very successful practice in order to replant our woodlands and slow the spread of the Buckthorn.

We are continuously combatting other invasive plant species including Tansy Ragwort, Oriental Bittersweet, and barberry that are prevalent on the property. We hope to have a biologically diverse habitat that becomes increasingly vibrant as time goes on that also preserves the health of our water resource.