bered in many hundreds. It supported the entire family throughout World War II along with Pat’s restaurant and Eska Farms, this was one of the largest pig farms in the state as written in Maine’s Own Pizza King, The Life and Times of Carl D. Farnsworth, 1909-2003, a book written by granddaughter Sue Fletcher. In present day, a hay farmer cuts hay each season on the former Farnsworth lands in Alton that were made rich from pig manure. So lush in fact, this ground has seen little to no fertilizer added for many years. Commuters along Rte. 16 - well known as the winding Esker Road or Bennoch Road - were keen observers of pigs in those same fields for most of the fifties and sixties and the Eska Farm pork production activity was both a visual and olfactory landmark for passers by. Bruce Farnsworth offered, “My good- ness. How cute piglets really are when small.” He said he and several of his friends and 3 siblings had daily chores on the farm and unlike Pat and his siblings - where few if any chores were once shared as fairly - Pat’s workaholic lifestyle was instilled within his own children that sea- sonally, there were many roundups to gather all piglets one at a time for vaccina- tions and return them accurately to each proper sow. Thereby, that function - all chores - was a lot of exercise catching screaming piglets, and a full focus coordi- nation for each farm discipline for feeding, mucking out, and watering. Esker Farm had its own licensed slaugh- ter house right on the premises. The fami- ly prepared the hogs for shipping, kept them in large refrigerators ready for ship- ping directly from the farm. And as a boy, Bruce was directly involved in that process of the farm. Bruce became almost a car- bon copy of Pat with his lifetime spent at Pat’s Pizza and yet it was Bruce who de- veloped the statewide franchise of the family recipe and diligent menu practices for the many stores throughout Maine that resulted and continue to trade upon Pat’s well known persona and restaurant suc- cess. The demise of the pig farm from the interruption of road building ushered in an off-farm place of steady work for all four of Pat’s sons and daughters and twelve grandchildren and many great grandchil- dren. Most of them taking meals at the restaurant with their expected chores for the growing years. Today, four genera- tions of Farnsworth grandchildren and great grandchildren still work the Orono store with the many employees overseen by Bruce Farnsworth. Bruce never worked for any other company, working for Pat, unlike his siblings who went off on different career paths. Bruce led the fran- chise success story that now has Pat’s Pizza stores south to below Portland. Historically at the pig farm, feed for so many pigs came from local restaurants, chicken plants and through a trucking routine that saw Pat Farnsworth with con- tracts to include all mess facilities at Dow Air Base, hauling off table scraps. At that time that was the main source of pig for farm use, it was later mined for gravel and the final divesting of the whole farm, sold off. As if pig farming and running a restaurant were not enough, Pat Douglas Farnsworth was an avid horticulturalist maintaining a large greenhouse at the fam- ily farm and even managed many bee hives, later selling honey at his restaurant. V Over the years Pat owned several rented buildings and leased other fully operating businesses in Orono to include a bowling alley, a small excavation / construction company and he even managed cattle farming operations with his licensed slaughter house at the farm. His garden- ing, greenhouse and planted flowers were part of a landscaped farmstead that fea- tured a 100-foot rock wall that Pat built in his ‘spare time’. During the world war, Pat’s trading of scrip and cuts of meat by bartering among local merchants and food customers be- came a dickering practice to make ends meet in his very early farm and family business operations. Pat was never fond of bookkeeping for so many activities, even when shared with his wife, he eventually knew he had to give all this to an accoun- tant to keep him current with government rules and regulations. Government, a per- sonal irk for the workaholic who lost his successful pig farm to the highway cutoff, seemingly gardened each day before opening his business as an escape and avocation before a steady routine 12-14 hours a day, seven days a week spent at Pat’s Pizza. His full menu restaurant regime as the final vocation of his life, was loved by his many loyal customers. Customers at Orono are still made up of 75% townspeople, and the rest, college students and a continued university alumni that show up many years returning with their own families and with second, and third generation universi- ty students hungering for a relaxed meal in a college town. The Pat’s Pizza taste is now been duplicated in every store of the same name, across the state. On February 13, 2003, Pat didn’t show up for work and that was the day he died, at age 94. With him, the ever present cigar stub, his starched restaurant-white clothing and colored suspenders had left an indelible iconic image for thousands of patrons over many many decades. A member of the Maine Restaurant Association, he was a recipient of that organi- zation’s lifetime achievement award for a ca- reer that started with tedious hard work at the family pig pen, clerking at stores and finally, mixing all of his own beloved farming activi- ties within his exacting food preparation detail as practiced at his restaurants and handed down from his father before him to be passed on again and again, ever since. Transport issue complicated farming To my children I said, “I love you” As I worked both day and night It wasn’t for me I put in these hours, It was for you all to be alright. - Sherri Cunningham g granddaughter to Pat Farnsworth aft after his passing at 94 years fodder other than the natural rooting nature of pork. Like his fa- ther George, before him, food scraps from the fraternity or later, scraps from so many area local restaurants served as the major pig food at the start through a much larger full fledged pig farm developed by Pat in his early years of mixed farming and downtown business activities. When the state of Maine and most states added more and more regulations aimed at pork production and food preparation, Es- ker Farms was forced to go out of business. Already - because of I 95 - the farm was cut in two by the new in- terstate, and all day to day operations at Esk- er Farms became much more compli- cated with the routine of operating a grow- ing Pat’s Pizza busi- ness in Orono. While some of the former farm was cut ORONO - What is not a widely known fact, the construction of I-95 in the fifties, forever forced Carl ‘Pat’ Farnsworth into a major life discipline for his continuous on and off-farm work activities preceding the eventual major growth of Pat’s Pizza, here. The original head of the household, George and wife Eva Farnsworth came to Orono from Harrington, Maine with their children and George, previously a logging camp cookie and rail car diner chef, traded in that work to cook for a fraternity here for 28 years at the University. In summer, George, Eva, Pat and his older siblings spent every summer in Ogunquit where George taught them all the skills of the trade, cooking, cleaning, preparation, each annual season at Lookout Hotel. Back at home, on a small plot of ground, the family homestead was never without chores, gardens and livestock. Pigs were a standard with the Farnsworth's. Pat - more than his siblings - did most of the chores and worked various small town jobs like subbing at a filling sta- tion for the owner’s lunch hour to a daily after school clerking job at an Orono store before his waiting pig pen-chores at home. A family pur- chase of more farm ground that was to become Esker Farms of Alton/Old Town in the period of 1931-1940 - reported son Bruce Farnsworth - was far more than just a growing family farm, as the number of sows and litters were beyond the hundreds and num- ● ● ● 2015 S P R I N G ISSUE Mainely Agriculture || Equi Ag & Livestock || Aqua Agriculture 13 1931-2015 (84 years) - Be sure to visit your Pat’s Pizza in the following towns in Maine - By Wally Sinclair, Publisher 20 Park St. 100 E Main St. 791 US Rt. 1 209 US Rt. 1 1 Main Rd. 209 US Rt. 1 662 Main Rd. 168 Main St. 237 Main St. 11 Mill 209 US Rt. 1 396 High St. 30 Market St. 844 Roosevelt Tr. Rt 2 Mayfield Rd. 292 State St.