My love for animals, began early. As a child I was exposed at a young age to poultry and horses. I grew up in a log cabin in Maine, in a small town called North Berwick with my mother, father and little sister. I started riding horses young and began showing at age 6 until age 18 and participating in 4-H with horses and later with beef heifers and a steer. 

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When my parents split up and divorced, I was introduced to beef cattle. My sister and I both had the opportunity to learn and show them. It was an incredible opportunity that I believe helped pave the way for my foundation of farming today.

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After graduating high school in 2005, I attended Medical Assistant school to start a career in the medical world. Where I was able to learn and work in family care, ambulatory surgery, and orthopedics. 

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In 2010, I met my now husband Jim. He walked into my life at an unexpected time. A time that I was not ready or yet looking for a relationship. But I guess sometimes those are the best opportunities for love to sneak in. He supported me from the beginning with my love for horses, by building me a barn for my horses to keep them at his family's land. We got engaged in December of 2011 and later learned we were expecting our first child in February of 2012. Cooper arrived into our lives on October 19, 2012 and made us parents. What an incredible experience we got to share. We were married on November 2, 2013 in a beautiful New Hampshire setting with our 1 year old Cooper at our side. 

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I was later able to go back to the same school that I attended and teach others to be Medical Assistants. It was a great experience! The best part is the company that owned this school also owned many other schools on the east coast. I was able to go to nursing school (Licensed Practical Nurse, LPN) for free, only paying for books and fees, and gain an education that I was eager to use and help others.

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Summer of 2014 I started nursing school for 1 year and graduated summer of 2015. In August 2015, I started my first job as a nurse and I successfully worked until November 2020. 

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Along with owning horses, we raised our first chicks in the spring of 2013. My husband grew up with no animals, not even a cat or dog. It took me several weeks to convince him to get chicks. Unfortunately for him, the saying “chickens are the gateway animal to farming”, is quite true. Well at least it stands true for us. We started raising our own hogs in 2018 and honestly I believe it sparked us in beginning of our homesteading journey. We wanted to be as self-sufficient as possible. Making it our goal to curate ‘family grown food for our family’. As time went by, I wanted to have access to red meat as well as chicken and pork. I began researching what I could possibly raise with lower feed costs and less time to grow out. I knew that my parents raised beef cattle and I didn’t want that overhead of the length of grow out time and feed costs. I stumbled upon cashmere goats in 2020 and picked up my first 2 wethers from a small farm in VT in the spring. We raised them up until December that year with hanging weights of 60 lbs each. I was thrilled! The next year the same thing and in 2022 I bought a young doeling and 3 year old doe along with 2 wethers to grow out. I was about to start my own herd of cashmere goats. What an incredible journey it had been thus far.

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Despite growing up with animals and learning the ropes of being a farmer, I never actually thought of myself as one. All the pressures of others who knew me and thinking about what a let down I could be, it was just too much pressure and I never included myself in the category of a "farmer". It wasn’t until 2018 or ’19 when a now dear friend walked into our world and showed us how much of farmers we truly are. He gave me ths confidence to say : Hey! Why Yes! I really am a farmer! I really do curate and create sustainable food for my family and others”. It was honestly a pivotal time in out journey of Homesteading and has now forever shifted my thinking. I will forever be grateful to him!

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Sadly, in 2021 my step-dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer and their life situation changed. They moved up to our Homestead with all of their cattle and we all began to farm together. We changed our motto from “Family Grown Food for Our Family” to “Family Grown Food for Families” We started attending farmers markets in 2022 and 2023 selling our homestead produced meats, eggs, and maple syrup. 

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Throughout 2022 & 2023 we experience tremendous growth. We increased the number of pork & beef shares, as well as welcomed dairy cattle to the mix in February of ’23. Looking back it was an incredible thing to have such growth. But, for being just one family doing all of it, not being able to hire help because we were still in the beginning processes, it was incredibly hard. 

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For me, with such a large growth spurt, it followed with worry, anxiety, and overwhelm. I struggled with meeting the demands of consumers and it led to not taking care of myself. I worked tirelessly to stive for success but just felt like I was drowning most days. It was not sustainable and it eventually resulted in a hospitalization the end of February 2024. 

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I had to do some cut backs and learn to reintegrate taking care of myself in 2024. The phrase I decided on centering 2024 on is ‘less is more’. So far we have cut back on the number of cattle here at the homestead by 60% and we have decided not to raise summer hogs. This reduced the number of half and whole beef & pork shares, which does decrease profit. But, in learning to navigate this journey and continue to be successful I had to change my perspective. 

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This has in turn changed my thinking and I am looking forward to offering other services. Such as educating others in home preservation, consulting on homesteading, and maybe creating some online courses. The future is bright here for MapleAkers Homestead and I am looking forward to the direction we are going!

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Thank you for reading about our farm, and we can't wait to make a connection with you!

-Mariah