Bill LaFleur

We are best described as "gardeners". We have about an acre in front of our house where we used to grow vegetables and now have fruit and nut trees. We have full time jobs and two teenagers and at this point in our lives true farming would take up too much time.

No business plan but here is our vision. First, I grew up in Maine, in Rumford, so I love this state and all it has to offer. My wife and I also love the farming that is done here and we want to preserve it as much as possible. At this time we have careers and teenagers but hope to eventually move to our own homestead. In the meantime we want to buy some farmland, as much acreage as we can get. We would set aside as much of it as possible in a conservation easement, keeping it a farm forever. We would then find someone who is looking for farmland but can't afford to buy and lease the farming portion of the land to them. Our preference is for organic farming. At some point in the future we'll build a house for ourselves and a neighborhood of sorts on a small portion of the acreage. People in the neighborhood will have the option of working on the farm as well.

As we said above we'd like to buy a farm and then lease it to young/starting farmers.