FARMINGTON -- Three years ago, the Marble family took a big step when they invested in building two unheated hoop houses and started commercially growing vegetables year-round on their 135-acre farm on Holley Road.

Last year, Richard and Weslyn Marble, their son Andrew and his partner, Sarah Winslow, added a 100-foot-long greenhouse and since then, have been building their "Marble Family Farm" brand with the distinctive, red barn and rising sun logo appearing on food sold in gourmet and health food stores in central Maine and at farmers' markets.

Their latest move is a state-certified commercial kitchen that opened last week where they make breads, baked goods and pies using Maine-grown whole wheat flour and process products from the farm.

"This is truly a family operation. We all pulled together to make it happen," said Richard Marble, a part-time plumbing inspector and a full-time farmer.

"For a small farm in Maine, you cannot produce enough to compete with the big farms. You can only enhance the value of your product," he said. "If we can process what we grow, we can deal with the competition. There is a huge market out there and our problem is being able to produce enough to meet demand.

"We are finding our niche," he said.

In one day at Friday's farmers' market in Farmington, they sold all 34 loaves of five varieties of their bread, cinnamon buns, muffins and cookies. The 25 loaves they dropped off at the Better Living Center health food store on Front Street last Monday were gone by the following afternoon.

"My father is a chef and we always had great homemade bread at home. He gave me some of his recipes and I've been experimenting for months to convert them to whole wheat," said Winslow, 25.

The results are delicious whole wheat, multi-grain, oatmeal, cinnamon raisin, and anadama breads with artisan and rye breads and sun-dried tomato and herb focaccias in the works.

The commercial kitchen idea came along as a way to add value to the excess farm produce, processing tomatoes, peppers, herbs, carrots, garlic and onions into sauce for frozen pizzas, into chicken pot pies and other specialties.

"That is where the bread comes in," said Andy Marble, 26. "We needed a way to use the commercial kitchen immediately, and Sarah is an amazing baker."

The kitchen cost them less than $30,000 to assemble, researching and buying the equipment at auctions. They have a 16-quart Hobart mixer, a moisture and temperature-controlled proofer for rising bread, a convection oven, 20-gang bread pans, a bread slicer, a Vulcan commercial range, stainless steel prep tables and shelves, cooling racks and a huge sink.

They have also built a walk-in cooler kept cold by a gizmo called a "Cool-Bot" that turned a window-type air conditioning unit into a turbo-charged cooling machine that keeps vegetables fresh and the space thermostatically-controlled down to 32 degrees. It cost a fraction of the price of a new cold storage unit, Andy Marble said.

Early reviews have been positive. "They are making very good bread. (Sarah) has hit on some excellent recipes and the bread has great texture and taste," said Russ Richards at the Better Living Center.

Weslyn Marble, a teacher at Academy Hill School in Wilton, is the family's pie maker who hopes to fill a niche and satisfy pie lovers as well as sell to local restaurants.

"We are always trying to think of what we can to make the farm pay for itself," she said.

"I grew up on the land and we want to keep this farm. But with prices and taxes going up, we wanted to make sure it stays as it is. We want to grow old here and have the land here for our grandchildren to enjoy," she said.

Andy Marble, a graduate of the University of Maine at Farmington in community health, said making a living farming is challenging and there are times he and Winslow question whether this is the right career choice. And if they had not had the land in the family, they say they never could have afforded to buy it.

"But then we sit down together for a meal and everything on the table is food we've grown or produced ourselves. That's what keeps us going," he said.

Betty Jespersen -- 778-6991

bjespersen@centralmaine.com