Local farm receives solar grant

Mary Standard photo

Looking over plans for a solar building at Wrinkle in Thyme farm in Sumner are Lucas Sanders of Maine Rural Partners, farm owners Mary Anne Haxton and Marti Elkin, William Buchanan, and Mary Ann Hayes, executive director of Maine Rural Partners.

 

- Mary Standard photo

SUMNER — A Wrinkle in Thyme farm has been awarded a $7,327 grant from Farm Energy Partners, a branch of the nonprofit Maine Rural Partners.

The farm is one of 11 in Maine to receive solar power grants totaling $291,534.

After a formal ceremony Friday announcing the awards in Litchfield at the Weston Farm, a group met at the Wrinkle in Thyme farm in Sumner.

According to Mary Anne Haxton, she and Wrinkle in Thyme co-owner Marty Elkin will be applying for additional grants and securing loans to complete the solar program for the farm. They are working on step two, which is applying for a grant from Farms of the Future.

Haxton said the grant will enable the farm to begin erecting a 25-by-50-foot fiber processing building that will contain three solar panels. It will house a dye kitchen, washing, drying and carding facility and farm store where various wools and crafts made locally will be sold. 

William Buchanan, director of Risk Management Agency Community Outreach, came from Washington to tour the two farms.

"I travel all over the country looking for entrepreneurial farmers who are trying to use solar energy," he said.

Mary Ann Hayes, who is executive directory of Maine Rural Partners said, "I am very impressed with the inspiration, ambition and innovation of the local farms."