Northern Girl

Northern Girl (Maine) offers beets, potatoes, carrots and vegetable medleys, including some partially processed products. Northern Girl also offers Organic French Fries

Behind Northern Girl is the Cook Family who 15 years ago moved to the hamlet of Grand Isle, in the far reaches of the great state of Maine.

Possessed with the spirit of adventure and hard work, they planted 2 acres of organic potatoes and thus launched a family farm that would earn a reputation built on quality and integrity.

The organic potatoes would feed a cooperative marketing company, and the demand for high quality tablestock eventually begged the question, "What can they do with the portion of the crop that doesn’t make the grade?"

Value-added processing was Kate and Jim Cook’s big idea. Years later, their two daughters, Leah and Marada Cook, along with the girls’ business partner and general manager Chris Hallweaver, have brought Northern Girl, LLC, to the marketplace.

The premise is simple: sell the top notch percentage of each of their farmer’s crops on the fresh market, and process the culls and surplus to feed locavores the rest of the year. Its the kind of thinking that keeps farms in business, and draws young farmers to Aroostook.