The Collinson Family
The Collinson Family has two locations - the Bakery & Orchard in Farmington, Maine, run by Jonathan and Margaret Collinson, and the Farm with Veggies & Meat in Litchfield, Maine, run by Davyd, his wife Jenny, and their children Guinevere and Noah Collinson.
Farmington, Maine - Beehive Bakery & Orchards
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In Farmington, Jonathan and Margaret have a plentiful organic garden and an orchard, which brings in the basis of the jams. They have over fifteen different varieties with many of the recipes coming straight from Jonathan’s Cornish and Devonshire childhood, and Margaret’s Irish–American heritage. They also gather wild fruits and apples from the nearby countryside. These fruits were once used but are now abandoned. It is beautiful to bring these fruits back into production. Wild grapes, autumn berries, and russet apples are among these special finds. Margaret has devoted her summer and autumn to mostly jam and jelly aid. She helps pick the fruit for Jonathan's delectable creations, often wading up river for the delicious fox grapes, which go into the wild grape jellies.
Margaret offers from her home kitchen different selections of breads. These are Irish Soda Bread, Farmer’s Loaf, & Baguettes. Margaret comes from the Fisher/Wright families of Youghal and Cork, Ireland, whose Pilltown Mills of Killeagh were among the thriving family businesses. On her Yankee side, her Pennsylvania grandfather was a miller, grinding many grains that found markets in Philadelphia. |
Margaret's herb garden looking in from the grape vines to the fruit orchard beyond
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Litchfield, maine - Farm with veggies & Meat
Collinson Farm in Litchfield, Maine is currently a small-scale 'just getting started' farm. Davyd and Jenny purchased 20 acres of mixed forest and pasture land, along with two barns and house, in June of 2012. They have, since then, worked on planning and developing a diversified, sustainable farm that produces for the family's needs with the long-term goal of producing vegetable and animal produce for a regional market.
Their emphasis is on slowly and rationally scaling up their enterprises as they adjust with the learning curves that inevitably come with any new effort. Collinson Farm include a 2,500 square foot vegetable garden, an herb garden, fruit trees, honeybees, a flock of free range laying hens, wood harvesting, cut flowers, and small fruit production (blackberries, black raspberries, raspberries, and blueberries). They welcomed five Katahdin lamb/ewes in the fall of 2014 that will become breeding stock for forage/pasture-raised lamb in the coming years.
Their emphasis is on slowly and rationally scaling up their enterprises as they adjust with the learning curves that inevitably come with any new effort. Collinson Farm include a 2,500 square foot vegetable garden, an herb garden, fruit trees, honeybees, a flock of free range laying hens, wood harvesting, cut flowers, and small fruit production (blackberries, black raspberries, raspberries, and blueberries). They welcomed five Katahdin lamb/ewes in the fall of 2014 that will become breeding stock for forage/pasture-raised lamb in the coming years.
Davyd & Jenny
Davyd and Jenny with their cat Max
Davyd was born on a sixty acre farm in southeastern Pennsylvania and has since his early years loved farming and the work that goes with it. One of his earliest memories is standing on the back of a hay wagon with the summer heat on his back, sweat on his brow, helping, as best he could, stack the bales as they were thrown up from the field. He was hooked. His family comes from a long line of people either involved in, or with a direct interest in agriculture for as far back as one can go. His life has brought him to places around the world. But since moving to New Sharon at age ten, Maine has been home. He loves the independence this state offers as well as, what he believes, is a vast and largely untapped potential for this state to grow and thrive in its own unique way. He loves nature, hard work, sports, and his wife and family (not necessarily in that order).
Davyd has a master's degree in International Relations from the University of Bristol with a concentration on agriculture systems and production in the 21st century. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Maine at Farmington, where he majored in History and Political Science.
Jenny is a Farmington, Maine native, and as is Davyd, is a Mt. Blue High School class of 1999 graduate. She received her undergraduate degree from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts where she majored in Studio Art and minored in German. A lover of food, she became interested in food production systems after reading Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food and Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. She has her master's degree in Brand Development from Bath Spa University's School of Art and Design in Bath, England, and by coincidence, now works in Bath, Maine as the Marketing and Communications Director at the Hyde School. For her branding degree she studied branding locally produced food to sell to local markets. She has ten years of experience doing web development and graphic design. If you are familiar with the Western Mountains Alliance or Maine Alternative Agricultural Association, you might recognize her artwork on a poster she entered into “The Art of Eating Well” contest in Farmington to create an image that became the face of a program to create a vital and viable local food system. (See page 3 of their 2006 Advocate.) The new love of her life is her daughter Guinevere.
Davyd and Jenny both have a love for farming and hope to concentrate their skills and education into a long-term, viable and sustainable farm.
Davyd has a master's degree in International Relations from the University of Bristol with a concentration on agriculture systems and production in the 21st century. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Maine at Farmington, where he majored in History and Political Science.
Jenny is a Farmington, Maine native, and as is Davyd, is a Mt. Blue High School class of 1999 graduate. She received her undergraduate degree from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts where she majored in Studio Art and minored in German. A lover of food, she became interested in food production systems after reading Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food and Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. She has her master's degree in Brand Development from Bath Spa University's School of Art and Design in Bath, England, and by coincidence, now works in Bath, Maine as the Marketing and Communications Director at the Hyde School. For her branding degree she studied branding locally produced food to sell to local markets. She has ten years of experience doing web development and graphic design. If you are familiar with the Western Mountains Alliance or Maine Alternative Agricultural Association, you might recognize her artwork on a poster she entered into “The Art of Eating Well” contest in Farmington to create an image that became the face of a program to create a vital and viable local food system. (See page 3 of their 2006 Advocate.) The new love of her life is her daughter Guinevere.
Davyd and Jenny both have a love for farming and hope to concentrate their skills and education into a long-term, viable and sustainable farm.
