ABOUT THE FARM

The farm is arranged along the crest of the hill overlooking what is now known as Cobscook Bay in Pembroke, Maine, on Passamoquoddy homeland. 

Most of the farm is forested with spruce, balsam fir, larch, maple, birch, and some queenly white pines. We invite you to visit and stay on the farm and enjoy the stars, the breezes, the sea mist, migrating birds, mossy trails, and quiet beaches in every direction. The farm is protected by a conservation easement from Maine Coast Heritage Trust and adjoins conserved lands in many directions.

This farmstead was established around 1820, during a settlement boom in the coastal fishing and farming community. 

Cobscook Bay is an extremely productive marine ecosystem. In 1850, there were 27 canneries and near-daily steamships straight to Boston.

The farm is here because of the abundant wild-growing seaweed, herbs, flowers, mushrooms, algae, and fish.

We are delighted to eat from a highly-charged ecological food commons shared with wild creatures: whales, moose, coyotes, foxes, grouse, bobcats, owls, and porcupines. The gardens are fertilized with seaweed and organic cow manure from nearby Tide Mill Farm. 

ABOUT THE FOUNDER

Severine feels so grateful to be making a home, a family, and a diverse orchard in this beautiful town of Pembroke, and to welcome kids, campers, and workshop attendees from near and far. Making delicious products from the farm’s own production is a long-held dream come true, in 2024 Severine and Terran welcomed their second child to enjoy the fruit from the farm’s young orchards. 

The holistic goal for this farm, farmstore, and U-Pick operation is to produce and serve the community with local food, to build a diverse and generative agroforestry farm system, to offer fun and intersectional nature study, and to welcome artists, teachers and young farmers to this little corner of northern New England. To achieve these goals, Smithereen Farm partners with our sister organization, Greenhorns which hosts a series of summer workshops and camps on the farm.

Severine has been at the helm of Greenhorns for seventeen years, making films, books, workshops, radio, guidebooks, and multi-media for and about the young farmers movement.  She is co-founder of the National Young Farmers Coalition and currently serves on the boards of The Merwin Conservancy, The Schumacher Center for New Economics, Farm Hack, Agrarian Trust, and The Savanna Institute. She is also publisher of the New Farmers Almanac, now in its seventh edition.

Brought up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Severine has worked on alpine dairies, and tropical agroforestry projects and various organic farms; apprenticing at the Kirstenbosch Botanic Garden in Cape Town, South Africa and Camp Joy in Boulder Creek, California. She got certified in Grow Biointensive in Mendocino, California; did permaculture teacher training at Bullock’s Permaculture Homestead on Orcas Island, Washington; and received the 12-week farm-to-table cookery school certificate at Ballymaloe in County Cork Ireland.

Previous to arriving in Pembroke in 2017 she lived in upstate NY where she helped start a food hub, created a farm for the Standard Hotel in Staatsburg NY, and oversaw a biodynamic transition for a family citrus ranch in Southern California. She holds a B.S. in Conservation with a focus in AgroEcology from the College of Natural Resources at University of California, Berkeley. She is pleased to serve on the planning committee of Washington/Hancock County’s newly designated National Heritage Area.  Other valuable networks include the Maine Seaweed Council, Slow Fish USA and the Local Catch Network, and the Seaweed Commons.

Follow Smithereen Farm on Instagram at @smithereenfarm