BETHEL — Alongside the meandering Androscoggin River, under a blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds, tall grass waves in the gentle breeze.

Farmer Ed Swain calls this painterly island “a unique spot.”

Gone now are the many other island farms that once dotted the Androscoggin in western Maine.

Swain stands as the last island farmer in this part of the state.

He said access was most likely why others no longer island farm.

His own access, sometimes very difficult, is mostly doable. While Swain’s land flooded in 2023, he dismisses it as, “an odd year … a 100-year flood.”

Over the years, Swain’s father acquired many of the smaller adjoining plots that now constitute his son’s expansive 100-acre farm. While Swain actively farms 60 of those acres, he also tends additional parcels owned by others who rely on him for haying services.

Ed Swain’s father passed the West Bethel farm to him. Rose Lincoln/Bethel Citizen

ISLAND TOUR

The Androscoggin River splits and converges in several places in Bethel and Gilead. Swain’s island stretches more than a mile.

Swain, who has been driving a tractor since he was 7 or 8, powers through a 125-foot span of the river in his large pickup truck with “good tires” to reach his island. Long tufts of grass get stuck in the grille so the front of the truck often ends up looking like a mustached face.

When the river has been very high, “we’ve hauled corn across in an old motorboat,” he said, pointing to a former ice house where he stores a tractor or two in case of high water in the winter.

Swain grows vegetables, too. “My rows are pretty straight, almost as good as Sunday River (potato and corn) Farms,” he brags.

He plants his island corn every week to 10 days, offering customers fresh batches at his farm stand through the fall. Off island, he grows and sells tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini, summer squash, peppers, eggplant, cabbage, broccoli, pumpkins and decorative corn.

With the Androscoggin River to the north, farmer Ed Swain’s island fields stretch more than a mile. Rose Lincoln/Bethel Citizen

HAYING

Swain watches the weather carefully since the hay needs to bake in the hot sun for three consecutive days. Some years, they have the first haying done by the Fourth of July; he didn’t think that would happen this year, but in the end the weather cooperated. On July 2 and 3, Swain’s four friends show up to work, plus a few high school helpers.

Telstar High School senior Kyle Kimball, 17, of Gilead points to where he saw a bald eagle fly over his head, “When I’m here, it’s like I’m in a Hardy Boys novel,” he said.

At his father’s urging, he answered the ad to help with haying, as his father, Josh, had done when he was a teenager.

On his first day, Kyle was late. When he called, Swain told him he’d have to cross the river on foot since they were already on the island.

Swain starts the arduous project with a mower that has an 8-foot span.

A tedder spreads the hay out across the field to help dry it. Next, the crew rakes it into circular windrows. Finally, Swain rides his tractor in circles with the baler attached. Almost magically, squared bales begin to pop out the back of the baler, where the other workers load them on trailers.

On hot days, Swain appreciates the shade the round baler tractor offers. Its bales are larger and it clears a field faster, but most of his customers can’t handle the bigger bales.

George Clement and Cheryl Emerson of Shelburne, New Hampshire, come to the haying, loading their own trailer with 30 square bales to feed their two horses. Their trailer is new and untested and Clement worries that they won’t make it through the river on the way out, but all goes well. On the next run, he said he’ll load the hay even higher, taking home 90 bales in all.

Swain sells much of his hay to nearby Sunday River Ski Resort, where it is used for construction projects. DiAnne Ward at Albany Township’s Deepwood Farm and others who own horses and cattle buy the rest.

He likes to have a barn full of hay for winter, too.

Ed Swain drives a sturdy pickup with good tires through the river’s 125-foot span. When the river is too deep to drive through, he uses a boat. Rose Lincoln/Bethel Citizen

FERTILE LAND

The produce sold from the gardens at Swain’s is more lucrative than the money made from haying.

“To hay, you have to keep so much equipment,” like their five transport trailers, Swain said.

Repairs are costly, too. “Twenty bucks a piece for those (tedder) teeth … My other rake broke apart, so that one’s new – $10,300 for a new rake.”

Summer helper Kimball and his father expected to see a high-tech operation since it had been awhile since Josh worked at Swain Family Farm, but Swain’s father’s six 1950s-era tractors are still in use.

Ed Swain carries a bale of hay through the barn for a customer last month. Rose Lincoln/Bethel Citizen

Swain had to lay off his mechanic last winter, so he’s the sole repairman now.

But for Swain, island farming remains worthwhile because while floods and ice jams can be disruptive, he views the rich soil left behind as a boon.

“They say it’s some of the most fertile land in the world,” he said.