Janelle Plummer

Janelle and Ross have co-owned and operated New Spoke Farm since 2022.  Janelle has been working on & managing organic vegetable operations since 2012 across New England.  Ross has experience on vegetable and livestock farms, and extensive experience managing equipment, building and maintaining infrastructure, woodworking and boatbuilding.

New Spoke Farm is a MOFGA-certified organic vegetable farm in its fourth year of business in 2025.  We grow veg for our 100-member CSA, two farmers markets, and some wholesale on 2 acres cultivated field space.  We host CSA pick ups in South Portland, Yarmouth, and western Maine near our current leased farmland.

We are looking for long-term, permanent land tenure that enables us to build equity in our business, continue to make necessary investments in our farming operation, and provide stability to our lives as business owners and people.

You can see more about our business here: www.newspokefarm.com

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We are currently in operation and would be happy to share specific details around our developed business plan, financials & goals with a landowner seriously interested in a tenure arrangement with New Spoke after meeting and serious discussion together.

We have grown our business each year since beginning in 2022 - we started on 1/4 acre of rented land in Gray, where we grew for one market and a 30-member CSA, and have since expanded to 2 acres in production in West Paris, and a 100-member CSA, two markets, and wholesale.  We have a demonstrated history of successful business and farm management, as well as an established customer base and market outlets.  We are both full-time on the farm.

In our next five years, we hope to secure long term land tenure in order to increase investments in the business by building more infrastructure including additional production high tunnels, a year-round wash/pack and vegetable storage space, housing for ourselves, and more.  Additionally, we are preparing to onboard our first employees in the next few seasons in order to fully realize our operational capacity and bring more work/life balance to our business.  We hope to reach a total production acreage of 5 acres cropped.

We plan to maintain our CSA at/around 100-125 households per season, and hope to extend our distribution season from 20 weeks to 30 with the inclusion of additional acreage (up to 5 in production) and the infrastructure investments outlined above.  We plan to maintain a presence at 1 to 2 weekly farmers markets, and continue to strengthen our wholesale relationships in a meaningful and sustainable way.

We are MOFGA certified organic and intend to remain so for the duration of our business.  These growing practices and the accountability to MOFGA and our customers is important to us and a value we hold highly.  

As we have always operated on leased land, we own our own infrastructure and equipment in full and are looking for a farm property where we can move all of our operational assets to.  We would be happy to share a complete list with serious landowners, but a brief overview includes: several farm vehicles, an 8x8' walk-in cooler, three 30' wide high tunnels, a tractor and implements, and all related field supplies.

We are most interested in tenure arrangements that prioritize longevity and stability.  We are interested in long-term leases (10 year minimum), short-term lease w/ purchase option (appraisal required, with purchase option in first 3-5 years), standard sale with the understanding we will be working with agricultural lenders (aka, longer timeline), or owner-financed sale.

Our top preference is Oxford or Androscoggin counties, with secondary preference to Sagadahoc, Kennebec, Lincoln, Knox, and some parts of Cumberland counties.

We require housing on the property, but are confident in our problem solving ability to come up with housing options.  We are familiar with MFT easements and what is allowable on properties with agricultural easements. With the right landowner and in the right tenure arrangement, we would be able to cost-share or invest in a small dwelling on our own until existing housing (if any) became available.

Utilities we require on any property: 200-amp service, ideally separate from any existing residential service; adequate water for farm irrigation (a second well, access to ponds/river/etc); adequate year-round access to fields.

We are most interested in properties where we can make a full investment in the property and our business.  We need to be able to leverage any tenure arrangement to take out loans for agricultural wells, agricultural buildings (pack shed), and so on.  We are happy to, and would require, discussion of any of these details prior to any arrangement.

Thanks for considering us!

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