Want Locally Grown Coffee? Not Here.

This fall, history will be made in Maine. On Sept. 25, 26 and 27, the Common Ground Country Fair, the largest organic farming and gardening event in the country, will open its gates to a projected 60,000 visitors, and coffee will be for sale. For years the fair prohibited the sale of coffee, tea and chocolate, not, as I once thought, for health reasons, but because of a belief in promoting local food.

The rule was that all foodstuffs sold had to contain a certain percentage of Maine-grown ingredients. Naturally, an enterprising character who called himself the Coffee Man set up shop just outside the gate, so attendees could stream in with their cups of joe. Now coffee is legit inside, as long as it's fairly traded and grown under shade.

I'm a true believer in sourcing your food as locally as possible. Shopping at area farms gives you fresher food, creates a sense of community and reduces your dependence on fossil fuels.

But in a non-tropical climate, coffee is a stretch. I once looked into it enough to know that I would have to fill most of my living room with potted coffee plants to support my two-cups-a-day habit. Nevertheless, it does sound like an attractive plant to grow: Its fragrant blossoms morph into red berries, known as cherries, from which the brew is made. Someday I might even buy a Coffea arabica plant just to see how it would do. Gurney's Seed and Nursery Co. (http://www.gurneys.com) sells a manageable four-foot dwarf variety. But I would need to heat one of our greenhouses to do the crop justice, and I draw the line at that. Better to rack up some food miles on this one essential thing and try to grow as much of everything else that I can.

One concern I have is the security of our coffee supply. Me without my morning coffee is not a happy sight. Think of flight attendants' advice to put on your own oxygen mask before helping others. I don't even risk making my husband's tea until I've had at least one sip. How would I fare if a national crisis disrupted the caffeine pipeline? And think of the poet Alexander Pope's famous assertion that coffee "makes the politician wise." As near as I can tell, history has not borne out this assertion, but what if Pope was right? Are we willing to take a chance on a Washington without coffee? Maybe the Department of Agriculture should order a glassed-in plantation on the Mall.

To grow coffee successfully in the North, the Coffee Research Institute recommends regular watering, porous soil with a low pH and artificial lighting to simulate bright equatorial skies. Apparently the concept of shade-grown does not include gloomy East Coast days in February. Note to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack: More tips can be found at the institute's Web site, http://www.coffeeresearch.org.