Washington County, Salmon, Blueberries and Wreaths!


In October we head way North to Washington County and arrive at the International Motel in Calais, across the river we can see Canada. 

An observant member of the group pointed out the incredible resemblance to the Rosebud Motel for all the Schitt's Creek fans among us!


We began at Washington County Community College and learned about all the programs available for area students and learned that they even have housing available on campus for their students. 




We started the next morning with a boat ride to the salmon farm run by Cooke Aquaculture.  


The salmon pens were impressive to see and our group had many questions about the feed, the nets, the process to change the nets and harvest the fish.  It was interesting to learn how the business grew and changed over time.

Next, we hopped on a school bus and bumped our way out the dirt roads to the blueberry fields operated by Cherryfield Foods.  Here we gained an appreciation for the sheer amount of land that make up the blueberry fields in this part of Maine.  

Key takeaways were how much the industry has evolved and modernized in an attempt to eliminate the manual labor as it is so challenging to find. 


Our host make the important point that what they need are workers with "soft skills" that can go have a cup of tea with an elderly person and foster goodwill so that they can still continue to harvest blueberries on the tea drinkers land.  


Our final stop was Wreaths Across America and the Worcester Wreath Company.  We enjoyed watching Morrill Worcester make a wreath in the wreath factory.  

Our group was impressed with the Yankee ingenuity that designed the wreath trimmer using a common hedge trimmer mounted vertically and a homemade rack to spin the wreath on!






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