A teenage farmer in Maine faced a hard summer after dealing with a lack of sunshine, flooding rains, invasive animals and a devastating break-in, but remains steadfast in his focus on community and business as pumpkin harvest season begins.
Brayden Nadeau, a 13-year-old resident of Poland, Maine, told Fox News Digital, “It takes hard work. There’s going to be some good days and bad days and good years and bad years. But if you care about the land and it’s your dream, you can do it.” The teen, who attends Bruce Whittier Middle School, owns and operates Brayden’s Vegetable Stand on Hatch Road in Auburn, Maine, about 10 miles from where he lives with his family.
When he was just 10, he noticed an overabundance in his grandparents’ garden and formed an idea. He said, “I’ve always liked to garden, and the vegetables had been piling up on the counter. So I decided to open a vegetable stand, and I’ve just kept it going from there on out. I’ve been doing it for three years now.” The 12-by-14 foot vegetable stand that the teen said is in a “decently busy” spot is a fixture in the community. Even the mayor is a customer!
Auburn Mayor Jason Levesque told Fox News Digital, “The kid has heart. He’s got a work ethic. He’s exactly the person we want, regardless of age, to come to Auburn, build a home, and start a farm. Whether it’s your primary income or your secondary income, it’s a critical part of community building. Nothing says community more in Maine, and especially in Auburn, than a farm stand.” A unique project shared with his grandparents, Dan and Marie Herrick of Auburn, Brayden spends hours each day working the 12-acre garden.
He said, “We grow quite a bit of cucumbers and tomatoes. We do zucchini, summer squash, corn, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, garlic and, right now, lots of pumpkins.” The teenager said he planted 6,000 tomato plants this year, and he and his grandfather are planning to double the acreage of the garden by next year. He said, “My favorite thing to grow is zucchini because it grows so fast and is one of the first things we harvest. But my favorite thing to pick is pumpkins because when you’re picking them, and you get to the end, it’s like you have a big volume of them.”
The teen has been working on the farm with his grandfather since he was two years old. The teen’s grandfather, Dan Herrick, told Fox News Digital, “He forces me to be tired sometimes because he pushes me, but that is the best part. He’s on topic. He knows what he’s doing. I’m proud of him. He doesn’t slack off, and he just goes every day.”
His grandmother confirmed his strange work ethic. Marie Herrick told Fox News Digital, “We might be a little partial because we’re his grandparents, but I can honestly say he is the hardest working child I have ever come across.” Still, running the vegetable stand comes with its own issues.
At around 3:30 p.m. on June 16, someone broke into the vegetable stand and helped themselves to produce and profit. The teen said, “It was right after I left to go home.” He added, “My grandfather was gone somewhere. So it was a very short window, like 35-40 minutes. Someone decided to come inside and break open the cash box. They took some vegetables, and they also stole meat out of our freezer.”
The teen said there are no security cameras on the property, so they don’t know who was responsible. The teen said, “It was very disappointing. If someone was hungry, I would’ve given it to them. But I don’t think it was someone hungry if they’d break into the money and steal a majority of stuff.” Nadeau closed down the stand for a day to regroup. He reopened to record sales. Word of the theft made it around the area via social media. “The support was crazy,” said the teenager. “We had people coming from all over the state of Maine. They were very apologetic, and they really felt bad, and so they wanted to come and support me.”
Nadeau’s dream is to keep farming vegetables and getting more beef cows. But for now, he said he’s got a crop of pumpkins to harvest and sell, about 150-200 of them.