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| A couple of cows greet their newest arrival (Photo by Peter E. Randall) |
SOUTH BERWICK -
“Farming 101,” a new documentary film by Peter Randall about
Kittery and Eliot dairy farming, will have its premier on Friday, September 28,
at Marshwood High School auditorium. The event is co-sponsored by
SeacoastLocal, an organization that encourages residents to “think local first”
to cultivate socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable communities
in southeastern Maine and coastal New Hampshire. The film will be shown at 7
p.m.
When Randall moved from seacoast New Hampshire to Goodwin
Road in Eliot, his well-seasoned photographic eye was immediately attracted to
the beautiful fields, many of which were regularly used by local farmers.
Goodwin Road, along with Wilson Road in Kittery, is an eight-mile stretch of
winding Route 101 between Route One and Route 236. Here are located two dairy
farms, the last of the dozens of such farms that once made agriculture a common
business in York County.
Recently retired after forty years and 450 titles as a book
publisher, Randall also has authored a dozen books of his own, combining a love
of history and photography into prize-winning publications. Always ready for
new challenges, Randall made a decision to make a video documentary about the
dairy farms.
“Although I had no experience with making a film, I charged
ahead anyway,” Randall said. “Not many years ago, dairy farms were commonplace
and most people knew how the farms operated. But now, in this area anyway,
farms are disappearing along with knowledge of this way of life. I wanted to
help preserve this culture.”
Now three years later, Randall has finished his film telling
the story of the two dairy farms, but also a working hay production farm, three
former farms, a dairy, a tractor dealership, a tractor collector, and a cider
mill.
Randall used a new type of Canon digital SLR camera that was
made for still photography, but had a video capability that exceeded the
quality of consumer video cameras. In fact, this type of camera has been used
to make production television and Hollywood films. With relatively inexpensive
digital equipment and software, it is now possible for anyone to make a quality
film.
When it came time to turn his raw film footage into an
organized narrative, Randall turned to his grandson, Kael.
“Editing video to me is like another language,” said
Randall, who also got help from his daughter, Deidre, who wrote a song for the
film. “Deidre and Kael actually lived on one of these farms a number of years
ago. They rented a house from Fred Schultze.”
Randall has published a lot of book on local history,
including one a few years ago on North Berwick. Also, he has written a history
of Hampton, New Hampshire, a short history and guide to Mount Washington, and
three books of photographs of New Hampshire.
“I was not a farmer growing up,” Randall said. “I can hardly
grow anything. I had a neighbor who grew radishes. I asked why and he said,
“they come right up.’”
In his formative years, Randall lived in Hampton Falls,
where he spent a lot of time roaming around fields and woods. “I’ve always had
a feel for the land, always had sort of a conservationist outlook on things,”
said Randall, who was chairman of the Hampton Conservation Commission for ten
years.
“I saw, in particular the seacoast of New Hampshire, farms
going out of business for one reason or another and saw houses moving onto
their fields. When I moved to Eliot in 2000, I was amazed to see most of the
open fields still being used - haying, growing crops,” he said. He had been
using panoramic cameras, and started taking pictures for Goodwin farm and
Leavitt farm on Goodwin Road in Eliot.
“Farming is sort of a – I hate to say it – dying way of life,”
Randall said. It’s been in decline over the last forty or fifty years. Now the
farms are gone. People don’t know about farming anymore, as a common way of
life, the way it used to be.”
He hopes his documentary will re-instill in locals some of
that lifestyle, and let people know how farms operated and where their milk
came from.
“The original plan was just to do video interviews of
farming families. Once I got started I was told I needed to have more video. I
needed to have B-Roll. So if I have a farmer talking, the tractor in the field
becomes the B-roll,” he said.
Editing is perhaps the most complicated aspect of any film.
Randall’s grandson edited what began as a short documentary into an 80-minute
film. Making this a family affair, Kael’s mother, singer-songwriter Deidre
Randall, composed a song called “Dig,” especially for the film. Local
performers Mike Rogers and Dave Surette provided other music.
“While my first approach to filming was simply to document
what happened on the farms, “ Randall said, “People who knew what I was doing
asked, ‘What’s the point of the film?’ As I talked with the farmers and looked
at the landscape, I began to wonder what the future holds for the businesses
and the property. When the Kittery
Land Trust recently announced plans to purchase a conservation easement on the
Johnson Farm on Wilson Road, I knew my film then had a point!”
Kenneth and Richard Johnson own Rustlewood farm, but Ken
stopped working there several years ago, leaving the operation of the farm to
brother Richard. In order for Kenneth to receive his value in the farm and for
Richard to keep working, the brothers accepted the Kittery Land Trust proposal.
Richard and his wife Beth will now own the farm outright, and the conservation
easement means the land can never be developed, preserving it’s valuable soils
as open space, watershed protection, and wildlife habitat. While the farming
continues, the property will be open to the public for passive recreation and
hunting.
The film also features the dairy farm of Fred and Tony
Schultze, and the haying operation and former dairy farm of David and Jeanne
Leavitt, in addition to the former dairy farms of the Pettigrew, Pearson, and
Kashmere families, and the former Rowan dairy. Numerous historical photographs
illustrate the film, that also includes the Pearsall family’s tractor
dealership, tractor collector John Sullivan, and Ken Tuttle’s King Tut’s Cider
Mill. Other details are found on the website farming101film.com.
Admission to the film is by a suggested donation of $2 for
adults, students are free. DVDs of the film will be available for purchase.
A related film is also showing on Saturday, September 29, at
the John F. Hill Grange Hall, 1333 State Road, in Eliot. You can view Randall's
short documentary, “Rustlewood,” featuring Johnson Farm in Kittery/Eliot, and
segments of Maine Farmland Trust’s film, “Meet Your Farmer.” Bondgarden Farm's
Paul Goransson will introduce the film and Great Works’ challenge to raise
$25,000 in support of Kittery Land Trust's conservation easement for Johnson
Farm. For more information on this event, contact 207-646-3604 or
info@gwrlt.org.
