MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • June 26, 2022
For centuries, the Maxwell family has been growing fruit and vegetables in Cape Elizabeth. It traces its lineage back to a certain James Maxwell, “husbandman,” who in 1772 paid two pounds, six shillings and eight pence “lawful money” for 25 acres of land. The farm’s website encapsulates this 250-year family history in about a dozen paragraphs. But as the narrative wraps up the Maxwell genealogy (for now), it takes a detour. It introduces the Rodriguez family. “For three generations the Rodriguez family have been an important part of the Maxwell’s Farm family. In the 1960s Ken Maxwell established a relationship with families from the small town of Patillas, Puerto Rico. Since then they have been an intricate part of farm operations, each summer leaving their homes and families in Puerto Rico to come and work with our family here.”