Producing results University of Maine grad plants successat Dixmont’s Peacemeal Farm

Editor’s Note: This is one in an occasional series of articles on young business leaders and entrepreneurs and their decision to live and work in Maine.

For Mark Guzzi, the greatest challenge to running a small business in Maine is not high taxes or rising health insurance costs. It’s weeds.

Guzzi, 35, owns Peacemeal Farm on 80 acres in Dixmont. For the past 15 years, Guzzi has been involved in growing, harvesting and selling locally grown organic produce in the Bangor area.

Guzzi grew up in Newton, Mass., but after graduating from the University of Maine in 1999 with a degree in sustainable agriculture, he knew he had found his home in Maine, he said in a recent interview at his greenhouse.

“In New England, for a young person to get into agriculture, one of the best things to go into is vegetable farming,” Guzzi said, explaining that vegetables are valuable and in high demand. “Despite the lower population density [of Maine], there’s a very strong support among the people of central and midcoast for local farms,” Guzzi said.

In college, Guzzi worked at UMaine’s Black Bear Food Guild, managing with other students 2 acres of organically grown vegetables. They sold the produce at the Orono Farmers Market and also distributed a percentage of the food to shareholders. This allowed Guzzi to manage an operation without having to invest his own money. He said he was able to use the guild and his classes as “sounding boards” for business and growing decisions. It was also a good way to stake out a spot at the Orono Farmers Market.

In addition to the actual marketplace experience, Guzzi credits a great deal of his knowledge of sustainable agriculture and the business of farming to Vern Grubinger, a former visiting professor at the University of Maine. Grubinger taught Guzzi about budgets, ecological design and agro-ecosystems. Ecological design and agro-ecosystems emphasize creating farms in harmony with the landscape around them, as opposed to redesigning the land to fit farming.

“I learned that so much of vegetable farming is based on your own ambition. And [the class] focused on the economic realities of farming,” Guzzi said.

After college, Guzzi and two fellow University of Maine graduates grew vegetables on about 5 acres of rented land at Peacemeal Farm, which has been in existence since 1972. In 2003, Guzzi borrowed money from his parents to purchase the 80-acre farm.

“We already had a viable business going, but the bank laughed at us when we went in to apply for a mortgage,” Guzzi said.

Despite having few days off each year, which he takes only in the winter months, Guzzi enjoys his lifestyle, even if it means sacrificing income for a higher quality of life, he said.

“It’s not a problem to spend pretty much every penny you make to maintain the farm,” Guzzi said. He and his partner, Marcia Ferry, along with at least four employees, depending on the season, grow and harvest 10 acres of crops and travel to farmers markets almost daily. Guzzi’s mother comes up from Massachusetts to help weed in the summer.

Today Peacemeal Farm grows a variety of organic produce. Specialties include peas, beans, greens, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, squash, melons, onions and garlic. Vegetable seedlings are available in the spring and bulk vegetables in the fall for storage and canning.

Guzzi, Ferry and the Peacemeal farmers can be found selling their produce at markets in Orono, Belfast, Camden and Waterville.