Rebuilding our farm stand with a kitchen to begin cooking lobsters daily and expand for more veggies.
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Rebuilding our farm stand with a kitchen to begin cooking lobsters daily and expand for more veggies.
About this project
Who we are:
Alewive’s Brook farm was purchased in 1957 by Alvin Jordan. Alvin moved his family to his new farm, and passed the farm on to his son Jodie when he passed in 2008. Jodie Jordan has lived at Alewive’s Brook Farm since he was seven farming everyday of his life. The farm started out as a wholesaler to the Hannaford Bros. growing and selling cabbage as its main crop. In the early 1980’s as Jodie became the primary farmer, the farm transitioned into retail, opening the farm stand right on the farm.
The Next Generation:
Jodie Jordan and his wife have four children of their own, Tucker, Caitlin, Casey, and Lincoln. Each of their children continues to have involvement of different levels in the farm. Tucker owns and operates his own lobster boat, continuing to supply the farm stand with lobsters for resale. Caitlin after completing law school returned home to run the business alongside Jodie, she handles all the day to day business aspects, the legal work that comes up, the marketing and all expansion projects, as well as attempts to learn how to actually grow things. Casey is the recreational coordinator, farm photographer, and in house artist. She is responsible for all the art work, designs, and signs that are produced for the farm. Lincoln believe it or not has the most important job working alongside Jodie everyday in the fields learning day in and day out the ins and outs of what is needed to make the vegetables grow. Without the involvement and dedication of each of the next generation, the way of life of living on and operating a family farm may be lost.
Harvesting Land & Sea
Alewive’s Brook Farm is a very unique farm in Cape Elizabeth as it combines two of Cape Elizabeth’s primary historic ways of life, farming and fishing. The Jordan family not only farms the land of Cape Elizabeth but they also fish the waters, for lobster.
FARMING - While we are not a certified organic farm we use the best practices possible while sustaining our way of life, we use lobster shells, shrimp shells, fish gurry, seaweed, and manure in our fields for all natural fertilizer, and use minimal amounts of pesticide, using them only when absolutely necessary.
FISHING - The lobstering industry here in Maine has had a very rough year with the lobster whole sale price very low for the lobsterman. At Alewive's we not only catch our own lobsters but purchase from a dozen other Cape Elizabeth lobsterman. We pay our lobsterman over market price to catch only the best, highest quality lobsters. Making sure that every lobster that goes home with our patrons is the best it can be.
AND MORE!
Just in case you thought lobstering and farming were enough to keep us busy we also raise 150 chickens and sell their eggs in our farm stand; as well as 200 turkeys each year for Thanksgiving.
Our Project:
The dream of the Jordan Family is to rebuild the farm stand and expand it knowing that times are changing and having to branch out into new endeavors in order for the farm to continue to thrive and support the next generation and the generations to follow. Our current market is quiet literally a garage converted into a farm stand over thirty years ago, with a lobster tank placed in it. You can see the photo below, our hope is to tear down the two old garages, and replace it with a new building with an expanded market size and a kitchen, with office space above.
By far the most reoccurring question we receive throughout the summer is whether we cook the lobster instead of just selling them live, in the past we have had to repeatedly turn people to other businesses to get their lobsters cooked. We would like to utilize the new market space by having a kitchen to finally be able to offer people the full service of cooking their lobsters on the spot for them to take home and not have to worry about the clean up and smell of cooking their own lobster.
The new building will allow us to have enough space to sell our vegetables, as we have begun to expand the acreage we are planting from 19 acres to 25, adding new products such as leeks, celery, sweet potatoes, and other vegetables growing in popularity. With a certified kitchen on site we can begin to create our own value added products such as canned vegetables, jams, baked goods, and tomato sauce.
A Barn Raising Minus the Barn
We essentially will be having a good old fashion barn raising. The demolition will be done by our close family friend, Skip Murray, who employees my cousin, Jodie's god son, who will be operating the heavy machinery. The clean up then will be a call of hands by all our family members. Our new foundation will be laid by family friend Glen Barry. Then design and construction will be completed by my uncle, Bill Royal.
Our Rewards:
We have tried our best to offer rewards straight off the farm, meaning many of them need to be collected at the farm stand itself in Cape Elizabeth or at any of the farmers' markets we participate in (Scarborough, South Portland, Saco, Wells, and Portland).
Any of our lobster rewards can be shipped to your doorstep, we only ask that you provide the extra funds for the shipping, as lobsters must be shipped overnight and the shipping costs vary depending on their destination.
Additional Funds Raised
Any funds raised above those necessary to complete this project will be used to pay off other debits owed and finally send Jodie on a much needed vacation!!!!
FAQ
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Funding period
- (60 days)