Maine Boy Turns Farming Into Business

A 12 year old boy in Auburn, Maine opened a farmstand in hopes of taking over the family farm one day. Brayden Nadeau said he’s been farming his whole life and now he essentially runs the family farm himself and has opened a farm stand to help feed his community. Nadeau started his first farmstand two years ago and earned enough money to buy a new one.

He sells homemade zucchini bread and zucchini relish made by his family and other community members with vegetables straight from his garden. He also raises livestock and turkeys for meat, chickens for meat and eggs, and pigs for meat and breeding. Nadeau works 12 hours a day, seven days a week in the summer. During the school year, he picks vegetables in the morning and sets up the farm stand before heading to school.

Nadeau says he always wanted to be behind the wheel of a tractor. “I’ve been farming my whole life. As long as I could remember, I’ve been on his lap, steering the tractor, running the bucket,” Nadeau said, pointing to his grandfather, Dan Herrick. Herrick always had a farm at his home but until now, it didn’t serve as more than just a way to feed his family.

Herrick said “There ought to be more 12-year-olds like him. The farmstand teaches him business, it teaches him how to work, it teaches him to stay out of trouble, it teaches him where food comes from, and it teaches him that without farmers, there’s no food.” Nadeau said he’s learning a lot more out in the fields than he would have sitting in front of a TV playing video games.