Farming roots grow deep into our family history. Andy’s paternal great grandfather, Forest Page, began farming in Ashland, Maine in the early 1900’s, growing many acres of potatoes, oats, barley and hay.

Andy’s paternal grandfather, Paul Ayer, also farmed for many years and prior to farming he had a produce sales business on Central Street in Bangor, Maine.

Andy’s maternal grandfather, Guy Kirk (below), who also grew potatoes and grains, began farming in the early 1920’s with only a pair of horses and a plow which he walked behind!

In the mid 1960’s, Andy’s father, Forest “Bud” Ayer, bought his first farm and began growing potatoes as well as running a potato sales business. Bud and his children moved to what we now call the “Home Farm” in 1966, where Andy and his family now live.

By the time Andy graduated from college in 1981, our farm acreage had grown to over a thousand acres of potatoes. In 1980, our family planted a few experimental acres of broccoli (the first in Maine) and increased this to about a hundred acres the next year, when Andy joined the family business.

By the mid-eighties, we phased out of growing potatoes and concentrated on increasing our broccoli acreage, researching the latest technology and selecting varieties that thrive in our northern Maine climate.

Currently, we have around 2,700 acres of broccoli across Aroostook County, Maine.