We’re pleased to introduce the three winners of the first-ever Russell Libby Agricultural Scholar Awards.

As part of our first annual Source Awards last spring, Source partnered with the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, MOFGA, to grant scholarships in honor of the late, much-loved Russell Libby. Until his untimely death from cancer, Libby served for many years as the executive director of MOFGA.

Each recipient gets $1,500, to be used for schooling or continuing education.

The awards were given in three categories: for a Maine high school senior, a student at Kennebec Valley Community College, and a MOFGA journeyperson. That last program offers hands-on training and mentoring to new farmers who plan to farm organically in Maine.

Special thanks to Adam Lee of Lee Auto Malls, who generously supported the awards.

Meet the 2015 Source Award winners

When she was 5 years old, Abigial Smith asked her parents for the present of a pig, of the pet pot-bellied sort. They produced one for her, but things didn’t end well. The tiny pig sickened with tetanus, a common pig malady, and soon died. The heartbroken Smith, who was growing up in Durham, asked for a new pig. No, her parents said.

“So I said, ‘Fine. I will save up enough money and get my own pig,’ ” she recollects today. “By fifth-grade I had enough money, but not knowing enough about pigs, I bought a pig that was pregnant. We went to a farm, and I liked this one that was white with black spots. I brought it home and named it Oreo. My dad’s friend would come over and say, ‘That pig is pregnant.’ I would say ‘No it’s not.’ And my dad would say, ‘It better not be.’ Two weeks later, I had seven pigs.”

That strong-willed little girl has grown into a determined young woman, and her vision of her future remains animal- and agriculture-focused and as sharp as ever. Smith, now 19, is a student at Kennebec Valley Community College (KVCC), where she is studying sustainable agriculture. She is also the recipient of one of three 2015 Russell Libby Agriculture Scholar Awards.

Her mettle is obvious both in her conversation and in her application for the scholarship: “I am always looking for new agricultural things to learn about,” she wrote. “Any time I get a chance to talk with a farmer or visit another farm, I jump on the opportunity. I want to learn as much as I can before I start my own farm.” Which, by the way, she hopes to do in Maine. “I haven’t traveled a lot, so I can’t be certain,” she said, “but unless I find some place as amazing as Maine… I love Maine – the coast and the woods and the farming community.”

These days, Smith spends a lot of time at the KVCC farm, where she was earlier this week when we spoke by phone to a chorus of bleating. “Can you hear the lambs?” she asked. “I’m going to walk to the other barn because they are going to make a commotion. We just brought their moms to the field, so they can’t see them, they can’t hear them, they’re a little upset.

“I love the sheep. I am a sheep person,” Smith continued.

Which explains her two favorite farm chores, or one of them, anyway: “I think it’s a tossup between haying and shearing. Haying (you are) baking on the field moving really heavy bales. But it’s so rewarding: ‘I just filled this entire barn with hay. I’m going to have all the food I need this winter.’ And then the whole process starts again. The same with shearing.”

Not long ago, Smith helped a farmer shear some 100 sheep. Before they began, she studied the flock and thought to herself, ” ‘Holey moley! Are we going to be able to shear all these sheep?!’ And then we did! And now we have amazing fleece we can turn into wool, and the sheep are nice and comfy for the summer.”

Asked whether many cohorts of her age are as definite as she about their futures, she said probably not. “I like to plan and write things down,” she said. “I like to know what I am doing.”

Abigail Karter grew up on a small hobby farm in Winslow. At least so she says. It doesn’t sound all that hobbylike to us, frankly. The family has more than a dozen beef cattle. There are pigs and goats. They tap trees for maple syrup and “do blueberries,” more than 600 bushes, Karter says. There’s a farm cat – of course – and some rabbits, too.

(Incidentally, when we spoke, Karter had just picked 7 quarts of blueberries. Do you ever get sick of them, we wondered. “No ma’am!” she answered vehemently.)

In that bucolic setting, Karter learned to birth (animal) babies, set fence posts, tend gardens and handle herself calmly when an animal’s time has come. “The circle of life is a beautiful thing,” she wrote in her application to be a Russell Libby Agriculture Scholar. “Even in death there is much to be learned.”

She will use her award money toward college, specifically Unity College, where she starts in the fall with plans to study wildlife biology.

Karter has always been happiest in the woods. As a small child, she had a pet bullfrog of sorts, Phoebe, whom she’d chase in the backyard, capture and kiss. (How did the frog feel about the relationship? “I have no idea. Probably terrified.”) When she’s in the woods, Karter feels a connection to the animals who live there and to the natural world. “It makes me feel whole,” she says simply. “I feel at home outside.”

She feels very lucky, she repeated several times, to have grown up where she did and among people who taught her about agriculture and animals.

Karter is active in 4-H and has volunteered many times for the Common Ground Fair. She also walks dogs – and does less glamorous jobs like cleaning pens – at the Waterville Humane Society. Next month, she will graduate from the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences, and she’ll start college soon after.

Karter says she already has most of her school supplies, except for a new pair of muck boots.

Michael Hayden has a big heart. While operating a vegetable farm in Milbridge, Folklore Farm, he somehow finds time to tutor migrant workers in math. And to volunteer at a weekly community dinner. And to teach kids yoga, another volunteer gig.

He works with Incredible Edible, a project in Milbridge that has placed gardens in neglected public spaces around town as a way to encourage townspeople to eat more vegetables.

There’s a community garden project in Cherryfield, too. (And when he can, he plays his bass clarinet – “whatever band needs an instrument. Any music I can find up here,” he says.)

Hayden, 36, worries about his region. How can he help people who have very little afford often cost-prohibitive local vegetables? How can he encourage them to add vegetables to their diets? How can he get children excited about gardening?

For one garden, he had a group of 12-year-olds help him weed. “They went home with some turnips and kale. Surprisingly, the kids love it. They’ll eat all their vegetables. As long as you get there before their parents tell them they don’t like it.”

Hayden sent in such a winning application to be a Russell Libby Scholar – despite claiming to be very tired when he wrote it – we decided to publish it in its entirety:

“For three years I have been growing produce in coastal Washington county. After training in Pennsylvania and the finger lakes, coastal Maine was quite a humbling shock. Between the fickle weather, the sandy or clay-ey soil, and the undeveloped market, the first two years hardly broke even. Almost ready to head back to more fertile lands, I hustled up a bit of luck last spring with a loamy field to lease, and a contract/grant through the Maine Sea Coast Mission, Finally, I could guarantee a small market, and to local school children at that. This coincided with a friend of mine recommending me to the (MOFGA) journeyperson program. Although not totally green, I had lots of question for my new mentors, and soaked up all the experience they could share. And for the first time in my independent farming career, the produce operation made some financial sense. Of course, I was paying $10 an hour while I made $5 an hour. But that was a huge improvement!

With the sure income from the fall school CSA program, I was able to subsidize my farm stand so locals would actually stop and buy produce. I learned to grow beet greens and peas, and not worry about the kohlrabi and eggplant. As I write this, I am waiting for the grant to come through for this year, while the farm is already half planted. All this leads me to how I could use the scholarship. I have much to learn in the world of fitting a farm to its community. MOFGA has been great with this, with workshops and seminars. I would like to be able to take more classes on farm management, attend more conferences, travel wide and find models that work for rural low-income areas. One of my primary missions is to re-ignite the spark of small agriculture in places like Washington County, where almost everyone’s grandparents farmed or gardened, but hardly anyone’s parents do anymore. We need to save the old wisdom before it is gone. So I ask you to help me learn to do just that.”

Very glad to oblige, Michael.