Farm Truck Institute

07/04/2025

New item alert!

Shaved roast beef, Boursin, red onion and dressed little leaf on toasted sourdough

Come in Monday thru Saturday 8-3 to try it!

10/05/2021

Let’s get to 381 signatures by the end of today - can you add yours?

03/07/2021

Gratitude is so much more than a polite thank you. It is the thread that connects us in a deep relationship, simultaneously physical and spiritual, as our bodies are fed and spirits nourished by the sense of belonging, which is the most vital of foods. Gratitude creates a sense of abundance, the knowing that you have what you need. In that climate of sufficiency, our hunger for more abates and we take only what we need, in respect for the generosity of the giver.

If our first response is gratitude, then our second is reciprocity: to give a gift in return. What could I give these plants in return for their generosity? It could be a direct response, like weeding or water or a song of thanks that sends appreciation out on the wind. Or indirect, like donating to my local land trust so that more habitat for the gift givers will be saved, or making art that invites others into the web of reciprocity.

Gratitude and reciprocity are the currency of a gift economy, and they have the remarkable property of multiplying with every exchange, their energy concentrating as they pass from hand to hand, a truly renewable resource. I accept the gift from the bush and then spread that gift with a dish of berries to my neighbor, who makes a pie to share with his friend, who feels so wealthy in food and friendship that he volunteers at the food pantry. You know how it goes.

To name the world as gift is to feel one’s membership in the web of reciprocity. It makes you happy—and it makes you accountable. Conceiving of something as a gift changes your relationship to it in a profound way, even though the physical makeup of the “thing” has not changed. A wooly knit hat that you purchase at the store will keep you warm regardless of its origin, but if it was hand knit by your favorite auntie, then you are in relationship to that “thing” in a very different way: you are responsible for it, and your gratitude has motive force in the world. You’re likely to take much better care of the gift hat than the commodity hat, because it is knit of relationships. This is the power of gift thinking. I imagine if we acknowledged that everything we consume is the gift of Mother Earth, we would take better care of what we are given. Mistreating a gift has emotional and ethical gravity as well as ecological resonance.

11/30/2020

We are in great company!

Thank you and welcome to this month's organizations that are new nonprofit members of MANP!

It's thanks to our members' continued support that we are able to provide much-needed resources to Maine's nonprofit sector. If you are able, please consider becoming a MANP member at this critical time. We're all stronger when the sector is stronger.

3i Housing of Maine, Aroostook House Of Comfort, Farm Truck Institute, Intercultural Community Center, Journey House Recovery, Community Health Options, Portland Youth Dance, Sailing Ships Maine, Saltwater Classroom, Veritas Health Care

11/03/2020

Dresden Farmlands.

10/31/2020

Please wander by Farm Truck Institute page.... things are beginning to perculate

10/05/2020

Farm Truck Institute has a new Go Fund Me page...please support our new venue with the New England Music Camp at Snow Pond

04/09/2020