About
We’re a certified organic farm located all the way Downeast in Pembroke, Maine. A group of young farmers dedicated to the land, the sea, our local community, and the future of agriculture in Washington County and beyond.
Where we are
The farm is arranged along the crest of the hill overlooking what is now known as Cobscook Bay in Pembroke, Maine, on Passamoquoddy homeland.
Most of the farm is forested with spruce, balsam fir, larch, maple, birch, and some queenly white pines. We invite you to visit and stay on the farm and enjoy the stars, the breezes, the sea mist, migrating birds, mossy trails, and quiet beaches in every direction. The farm is protected by a conservation easement from Maine Coast Heritage Trust and adjoins conserved lands in many directions.
This farmstead was established around 1820, during a settlement boom in the coastal fishing and farming community.
Cobscook Bay is an extremely productive marine ecosystem. In 1850, there were 27 canneries and near-daily steamships straight to Boston.
The farm is here because of the abundant wild-growing seaweed, herbs, flowers, mushrooms, algae, and fish.
We are delighted to eat from a highly-charged ecological food commons shared with wild creatures: whales, moose, coyotes, foxes, grouse, bobcats, owls, and porcupines. The gardens are fertilized with seaweed and organic cow manure from nearby Tide Mill Farm.
What we grow
2025 is our eighth growing season!
Our plantings are arranged “on contour” in the agro-forestry style with vegetable gardens in between. Some of the best soil is lower down on the land. We graze the pastures along the road and the lower meadow that leads to Cobscook Bay.
Our orchard includes apples, cherries, plums, persimmon, quince, pears, apricots, chestnuts, and various other nuts.
We grow cranberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants, honey-berries, service berries, chokecherries, and aronia. In addition, we grow asparagus, rhubarb, horseradish, valerian, hops, and big gardens of veggies and herbs, native flowers, and potted plants.
We wild harvest St. John’s wort, red clover, blueberries, sweet fern, balsam fir boughs, hawthorn berries, spruce tips, hypericum, yarrow, goldenrod, rose petals, chokecherries, high bush cranberries, feral apples, and red raspberry tips from the land. We harvest seaweed in Cobscook Bay and on the Cutler coast, and we raise oysters and kelp via our LPAs (Limited Purpose Aquaculture Licenses) in Schooner Cover.
We are certified organic by MOFGA (Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association) and the Real Organic Project. We are also Better Bee Certified by the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.
Smithereen Farmstore
The Smithereen Farm Store is closed for the winter. We will reopen May 1, 2025, 7 days a week from 9am–5pm.
Come see us at 12 Little Falls Road in Pembroke, and learn more about the Farmstore here.
The webshop is open all year! Shop our products online, and stock your shelves with the tastes of Downeast Maine.
Farm Team
We’re a family farm dedicated to the land, the sea, and our local community.
Learn more about our Farm Team here.
Our Products
We produce value-added products, including vinegars, teas, jams, salves, salt blends, seaweed broth, seaweed bath salts, and our 2023 Good Food Award-winning Seaweed Sprinkle.
Our signature product is Organic Wild Blueberry Topping, not too sweet! We wild-harvest and dry seaweeds to bring the tastes of Downeast Maine to your pantry.
We make everything in our certified commercial kitchen, which we call The Minke.
Find our products in our webshop, or wholesale them for YOUR shop! If you’re in town during the summer season, shop the Smithereen Farm Store.
Stockists
Find our products on shelves near you! See our stockists here. Or reach out to your local co-op, CSA, neighborhood grocery or specialty store to see if they’d like to stock the tastes and treats of Downeast Maine!
Our Facilities
MycoLab
We’re proud to partner with mycologist Sue Van Hook on the research and development of MycoBuoys™ growing mushroom buoys for various mariculture uses. Learn more about Mycobuoys™ here. In 2024, the project has outgrown the little outbuilding where it started, but it continues in full momentum in a bigger space.
The Minke: Our Cooperative Commercial Kitchen
To support our vision for a “value added farm economy,” we have created a processing facility that we call the Minke Kitchen. This facility is a state-certified, commercial kitchen and warehouse space located across the street from the Smithereen Farmstore. We share this space with others as part of our USDA Local Food Promotion Program (LFPP) grant. The Minke hosts blueberry winnowing and jam making; seaweed and herb drying, grinding, and packing; and other lower tech approaches to food preservation.
Farm Hack Studio
Out behind the Farmstore there are some outbuildings that were previously used for assaying rock cores by mining companies. We’ve refurbished them with linseed and pine tar clapboards to make space for Farm Hack to have a headquarters and interpretive space.
Greenhorns
Smithereen Farm is the home base for our sister organization, Greenhorns. Since 2008 Greenhorns has operated as a cultural organization and small non-profit publisher working to enliven the lives of young farmers, welcoming them into organic agriculture. Now in their 16th year, Greenhorns hosts cultural programming and produces the New Farmers Almanac. The work of Greenhorns explores the context in which new farmers face the world.
In partnership with Greenhorns, Smithereen Farm hosts lectures, workshops, networking events, outings, and artist residencies here at the Smithereen Farm campus.
Visit us
Join us for a public event: we host workshops, festivals, spa days, farm dinners, other family-friendly experiences. Find our event calendar here.
Come U-pick our certified-organic berries: blueberries in July/August and cranberries in September/October.
Shop the Farmstore, open daily May 1–October 1.
Visit the Agrarian Library at Reversing Hall, open Fridays and Sundays, May 1–October 1.
Contact us to organize a field trip for your school or homeschool group. ([email protected])