One especially hot and humid day late last month, I got on the phone with David Kimball (more than 200 years of family farming), and said, “Oh boy, it’s a miserable day.”

“No, it is not,” he said. “It’s a beautiful day, perfect.”

Perfect for what? For corn to grow.

I’d called the Kimballs because it’s almost corn season – the most lucrative season for local farmers at farm stands and in farmers’ markets. The Kimballs sell fresh eggs most all the year and produce at their Rumford Center farm and the market in Mexico (Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., behind the town office on Route 2).

The local farm is making a comeback. Like all comebacks, the routine changes, the pitch is new, the look is different. Gone are the massive hops and potato crops, large dairy operations and chicken farms. (There are a few exceptions, Ladd’s potato operation, for instance.)

Specialty crops

In their place are small, specialized crops produced with today’s sophisticated, organic-food minded consumer in mind. Toshio Hashimoto raises shittake mushrooms exclusively “to the trade,” though Dave Kimball sells them at market.

Pat Verrill and her husband (Harvest Moon Farm off Route 219 in West Paris; open on Monday, Wednesday, Friday) specialize in garlic, among their other crops, which they also sell at farmers’ markets (Harrison, Tuesday, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., in town on Route 35 south).

Over on the Middle Intervale Road in Bethel, Cynthia Flores grows five varieties of carrots: orange – naturally – and red, yellow, white and purple, plus 37 varieties of tomatoes.

You can stop by Cynthia and John Carter’s farm – he raises larger, more traditional crops like squash, corn, and cukes – or visit their stall at the Bethel Farmers’ Market. (Railroad Street on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon).

If you are looking for locally-produced meat, check out Dan Perron of Sumner at the Bethel Farmers’ Market, where he sells pork and chickens. Curtiss Hallock offers free-range chickens on Route 5 in Rumford.

Am I promoting local farmers? You bet I am! Good fresh food, a boost to our local economies, respect for the area’s agricultural heritage – all are good reasons to shop at the nearest farmers’ market or farm stand.

Next week, I’ll examine the organizations that have sprung up to promote and protect local agriculture in Maine and around the world; current practices; a beautiful partnership between two farms, one on the Canton Point Road, the other in south Rumford; and my talk with a creative entrepreneurial leader on the local agricultural scene, Lauri Ackley.

Linda Farr Macgregor lives in Rumford Point with her husband, Jim. She is a long-time community volunteer and author of “Rumford Stories.” The book is based on more than 120 oral history interviews she conducted for the Rumford Bicentennial Oral History Project. You can reach Linda at [email protected]