Joy and Tim Bueschen left their successful corporate careers and big city life to start Turning Page Farm in Monson, Maine, where they produce small-batch craft beer, artisanal goat cheese and other goat milk products.

“We literally turned a page to start a new chapter in our lives, and we could not be happier,” said Joy. “We are firmly grounded in this piece of land, which is exactly what we were looking for. We’re being healthier, living closer to our food chain, and there is great quality of life. Living in a small community you have accountability to the community and vice versa.”

Joy and Tim are committed not only to developing their business as an agritourism destination, but to their new community of less than 700 people, often referred to as the gateway to the Moosehead Region. They started a business association so the 40 entrepreneurs in town could support each other and help Monson attract newcomers. “We want people to move here. We want to support people coming through town who have a dream and help them realize that their dream could be here,” she said.

The Center has supported their growing enterprise with two grants from our Tourism Innovation Program (TIP), which helps tourism providers in Piscataquis County, Maine, implement innovations that will strengthen their businesses, expand job opportunities and attract new visitors to the Maine Woods.

A grant awarded in early 2020 is helping to reduce energy costs and carbon emissions at the goat farm and brewery. In 2019, the first grant from the TIP program helped the farm expand brewing capacity, add a food cart, and extend their visitation season with a passive solar greenhouse tasting room. With those improvements completed, Turning Page Farm was ready to move ahead with phase two of its plan.

“As the business has grown quickly, and without the proper energy infrastructure, the costs of running refrigerators, heaters, and freezing were crippling,” said Joy Bueschen who owns Turning Page Farm with her husband Tim. “If we can’t afford to keep the lights on, literally, we can’t make the business model work.”

This second grant supported installation of a 13-kilowatt solar system to provide all the energy needed for the Farm’s brewery, cheese making room, tasting room, farm store, and goat milking area. Insource Renewables of Pittsfield installed the new solar system. The project was funded in part by a grant from USDA Rural Development.

Like most businesses in the tourism and hospitality sector, Turning Page Farm is highly dependent on visitor travel. During the mandatory Covid-19 business closing in the spring of 2020, Joy and Tim switched to offering takeaway options for customers, stayed locally connected through social media, and offered increased sanitation and physical distancing options.

“Without sales, or with reduced sales, having a reduced overhead becomes more important than ever,” said Joy. “We need to keep the same spaces cooled or heated whether we have 50 or 200 customers each weekend.  This project may be even more critical if sales are down as we head into fall and the high energy costs of heating season.”