Author name: Elena Bourakovsky

With just an acre in production since 1992, Elena Bourakovsky and Bill Raiten lovingly tend their small patch of earth with their mission; to live their dream, to homestead and earn a living on a small farm. For such a small size farm they amazingly grow bountiful crops of vegetables, raspberries, peaches, cherries and currants to make jams, jellies and many other value-added products. Bill had tried farming previously, moving from New York City to New Hampshire in the 1960’s and loved the homesteading way of life but was too busy with Theatre and his passion for directing and teaching to stay in one place. When he was invited to live and direct a play in Leningrad, USSR in 1989 to further his New Surry Theatre’s mission to Promote Peace, he met Elena, the Costume Designer in the Komedy Theatre. She was then invited to teach at the University of Maine and they eventually got married and moved to Blue Hill. Backstage Farm began as their garden in 1992 (it didn’t have a name then) and eventually produced so much food that Bill and Elena realized they should offer this bounty to their friends and neighbors. Thus began Backstage Farm and a line of Moxie products, such as lacto-fermented pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha as well as garlic scape pesto and various low sugar jams. Elena continues to develop new products and designs all her whimsical and funny labels.