Mike and Charlotte Vermette: The Highlands

The Highlands
Michael Vermette
212 Nate Richards Road,
Saint Albans Maine, 04971
207-938-2710
thehighlands@tds.net

The Highlands---a 250 acre Kahtahdin-view hillside farm in Central Maine, half pasture and half woodlot, established in 1987. From childhood visits to his grandparent’s North Caribou dairy farm, Michael knew he would spend his life farming. With his initial purchase of 15 acres, three Highland cows and his foundation bull Bogey (Humphry Bogart) from Cecily Diamond and The Page Farm, the farm has gradually expanded over the past two decades. Techniques gleaned from an early subscription to The Stockman Grass Farmer, coupled with an underlying organic philosophy created the grass finished, rotationally grazed herd that is now supplemented by summer pastured pork production, and range broiler chickens a la Joel Salatin. Livestock on the farm are free to express their innate behaviors; cattle range, hogs root and wallow, and chickens scratch through fresh pasture daily. The farm’s herd is raised without additional hormones, antibiotics, or animal byproducts, and processed and dry-aged at a local family- owned packing house. With recent nutritional analysis confirming the wisdom of this “old fashioned” approach to animal husbandry, elevated levels of CLA’s, Beta Carotene, and vitamin E, Michael’s certain he’s raising a product that would make his grandfather proud. Growing stock is occasionally available; custom beef packages are available at the farm and at The Skowhegan Farmers’ Market from May to October.

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