[MSN] Vegetables plundered from museum garden

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

Vegetables plundered from museum garden
Tony Reaves
Posted: 10/16/06
An unidentified male looted the Page Farm and Home Museum's Heritage Garden
on Saturday, Oct. 7. The culprit emptied the quarter-acre garden of
vegetables that the museum as well as University of Maine Landscaping spent
all summer maintaining.

"It was like the Grinch," said Patricia Henner, the museum's director,
comparing the thoroughness of the theft to "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."


"Remember how he came back and got that little crumb so the mouse didn't get
it?" Henner said even vegetables which hadn't yet ripened were taken. 

Henner said she hasn't reported the incident to Public Safety. "What would
be the point?" Henner said, reasoning that most of the produce would soon go
bad and that the unripened vegetables would have to be thrown away. 

According to Henner, a museum employee saw a male leaving the garden
carrying "bags and bags of produce" at around 4:30 p.m. Saturday, but no
further description was available. "We have no leads whatsoever."

The museum grows heirloom vegetables, which were grown historically but are
no longer used in large-scale agriculture. The produce stolen includes
watermelons, cantaloupes, several kinds of tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage,
zucchini, several types of squash, peppers which weren't yet ripe, and
pumpkins.

The pumpkins are used each year for local children's programs. Henner said
children traditionally come to paint and carve the pumpkins but that they'd
have to cancel this year.

Other vegetables are usually donated to Manna, a Bangor soup kitchen, as
well as local assisted-living facilities. Henner said the museum would have
shared some vegetables, such as the tomatoes, to anyone who came by the
museum and asked.

In addition to paid laborers from the museum and UM Landscaping, student
volunteers helped maintain the garden as well. "None of the kids that
planted the garden got a thing. There's a whole crew of students that worked
in the garden," Henner said. She estimated about 14 people were involved in
the garden's upkeep.

"I think it's a shame that this happened. This is a museum. The garden is
installed for demonstration and exhibit purposes," said Henner. 

The Page Farm and Home Museum is based in the White Farm barn, located near
Nutting Hall. 

http://www.mainecampus.com/