SOUP TO NUTS

SOUP TO NUTS
Roe by roe: A caviar primer
There's wild or farm-raised, foreign or domestic, in a wide range of prices ... so no need to put all your eggs in one tin.
By MEREDITH GOAD
Portland Press Herald

Even in bad economic times, people always manage to find reasons to celebrate.

If you have a graduation or wedding to attend this month, chances are you're going to indulge in a champagne toast or two. Starting a new marriage with flutes of bubbly somehow seems more hopeful than clinking together a couple of bottles of Bud.

Caviar has the same cachet. It's obviously not something you eat every day, but there's nothing like the pop of those little eggs in your mouth to complement the bubbles in champagne and celebrate in style.

But what if you've never tried caviar before, and you don't know what kind to choose? Is it worth it to pay $200-plus an ounce if you're a caviar virgin, or should you choose a less expensive American roe, such as spoonbill, which will run you about $25 an ounce? And what if you're worried about fish eggs tasting, well, fishy?

For some tips, I went to the experts at Browne Trading Co. on Commercial Street, where caviar is shipped every day to fine restaurants in New York and Las Vegas. Browne Trading supplies caviar to foodie catalogs Dean & DeLuca and Williams-Sonoma. Rod Mitchell and his wife, Cynde, have traveled the world checking out aquaculture operations that focus on farm-raised caviar.

The Mitchells also have individual customers who just love caviar. Some people order it so they can have something special to indulge in on their birthdays. Their busiest time is Christmas and New Year's.

What does Mitchell suggest for the caviar novice?

"My advice is that if you're going to try caviar, you should try real caviar first," he said. "Real caviar is only from sturgeon. Anytime you say salmon caviar or golden whitefish caviar, you can't just call it caviar. Caviar used as a word by itself means sturgeon roe."

When they think of caviar, many people think of beluga caviar, a wild caviar harvested from the largest species of sturgeon. It is indeed the most prized of all caviars, but because the fish is endangered, its roe can no longer be imported into the United States. (The fish has to be killed to harvest its eggs, and beluga populations are in big trouble.)

Better to stick with something more sustainable. There are other wild caviars to try, harvested from the Caspian and Black seas and exported by Iran and the countries of the former Soviet Union. The coveted flavors of the osetra (Mitchell's favorite) and sevruga caviars come from the varied diets of the wild fish.

Iranian osetra caviar is also the favorite of Richard Hall, caviar director at Browne Trading. Next to beluga, of course.

I watched recently as Hall transferred mounds of shiny golden eggs from a large container into Browne's 500-gram tins (that's a little over a pound) in the caviar room.

"This is an osetra 1B," he explained. "Iran is currently the only country that grades their caviar. They actually have three grades of osetra. This is an Acipencer persicus, or the common name is the Persian sturgeon. It's the one species of sturgeon that's actually doing fairly well in the Caspian Sea, mainly because Iran has been raising fingerlings and dumping millions of fingerlings back into the Caspian Sea."

He hands me a tiny taste of this treat, which at that moment was going for about $250 an ounce.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=191839&ac=Food






Photos by John Ewing/Staff Photographer

SOUP TO NUTS
Sweet tea
This Southern concoction, now catching on north of the Mason-Dixon line, may be the quencher you crave this summer.
By MEREDITH GOAD

One of the oddest experiences I had when I moved here about 20 years ago was trying to order iced tea in a Maine restaurant in February.

I was informed that iced tea was a seasonal item. Seasonal? Like strawberries?

Thankfully, things have changed a bit since then. While iced tea is not the first thing you'll see on a Maine restaurant menu in winter, it's no longer as rare as a hound dog with no fleas.

Tea is hot. Green teas and white teas are crowding out the Lipton's on grocery store shelves. And whoever thought you'd see McDonald's selling its own version of a Southern sweet tea anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon line?

Now that it's summer, we're swimming in iced tea. I asked some Maine chefs to share their takes on this refreshing beverage (which you'll find elsewhere with this story), and I'll also explain how to make real Southern sweet tea. I've tried the Mickey D version, and while it has the sweetness factor about right, the tea tastes powdered to me. Sweet tea is so easy to make at home, you might as well make your own pitcher and have it on hand in the fridge.

I've had sweet tea on my mind because I've been traveling south a lot lately for three family weddings. The food at all the rehearsal dinners and receptions was decidedly Southern. There were smoked pork chops and tender slices of country ham in Georgia, and the cheese grits-and-shrimp in South Carolina was wolfed down at mach speed by the groomsmen, a bunch of Air Force pilots.

The one constant? Sweet tea.

Ask for iced tea in any Southern restaurant, and you'll get sweet tea unless you specify that you want "unsweet." This even happened at a Chinese restaurant on my last trip.

Sweet tea is different from sweetened tea in that the sugar is added while the tea is still hot. It dissolves better that way, and I swear it just tastes different than adding a teaspoon of sugar after the tea has already been iced down.

I love "unsweet tea" and drink it year-round, always with lemon. For me, sweet tea is a treat to be enjoyed only occasionally. (I never drink regular Coke, either.) On the last wedding trip, when I opened up a conversation about sweet tea during the bridesmaids' luncheon, my nephew's wife – Whitney, a woman with deep Georgia roots – quickly put me in my place.

"You aren't a real Southern girl unless you drink sweet tea," she gently admonished.

Well, OK. But you have to be careful with sweet tea, or else you'll be going on the hunt for it like an addict. Seriously. I mean, it's basically caffeine, antioxidants and sugar.

And what about all that sugar? When my already-slender niece Laura wanted to lose a little weight for her wedding, one of the first things she did was cut out sweet tea.

She immediately dropped a few pounds.

Lest you feel too guilty about this guilty pleasure, however, consider the fact that a large (32-ounce) Coke at McDonald's contains 310 calories. A large sweet tea, same size, has 230 calories, an 80-calorie difference. A medium (21-ounce) sweet tea has 150 calories, and a small one (16 ounces) has 120.

I suppose you could make sweet tea with a sugar substitute, but wouldn't that be like putting pollock on the plate and calling it Maine lobster?

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=195909&ac=Food


Jill Brady/Staff Photographer

SOUP TO NUTS
Back in the DAY
America's colonists celebrated Independence Day in a big way, usually with lots of meat and plenty of spirit and spirits.
By MEREDITH GOAD
Portland Press Herald

On Friday, when you're enjoying your Fourth of July picnic, be thankful it's a hot dog in that bun and not a chunk of salt pork or a – gulp –songbird.

Food in the Revolutionary War era could be quite sophisticated if you lived in a wealthy household and had access to the right cooking implements and a variety of foods. Heck, if you were rich, you didn't even have to turn your own meat on the spit. All you needed was a clockjack, or a poor person you could pay to do it for you.

But generally speaking, the food scene in 1776 was built around just a few staples: fat, meat, salt, bread and alcohol. (There's a good reason all the wealthy founding fathers look so plump in those old portraits.) Fresh vegetables were seasonal, and shellfish – including lobster – was considered "pig food."

Research conducted a few years ago by the American Institute for Cancer Research found that the typical 18th-century diet contained 5,000 calories per day, which makes sense if you're working dawn to dusk scratching out a living. Colonial times were especially tough for settlers trying to carve out a future in the Maine wilderness.

"Fall was a great time, because at harvest time, you had fruit and vegetables and all kinds of fun stuff to eat," said Tom Desjardin, a historian with the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands. "But during the winter – later in the winter, especially – you had meat, and you had flour and cornmeal, if you had made enough of it.

"And you could dry some fruit. They use to string slices of fruit on a string and hang it in the attic to dry. And then in the middle of the winter, if they wanted an apple pie, they'd go up and take down a string and soak it in water to bring the moisture back into it and make a pie."

American colonists believed eating meat gave them the strength of the animal it came from, whether it was game meat, beef or pork. They didn't often raise this meat themselves, and when they did, they didn't eat it until it had outlived its usefulness. No stewing an old hen, for example, until she was done laying eggs.

"Animals didn't go into the stew pot until they were ready for the glue factory," said Suzanne Goldenson, author of "The Open Hearth Cookbook: Recapturing the Flavor of Early America" (Alan C. Hood & Co. Inc., $15). "They ate songbird. That was considered a delicacy. They even had these special bird ovens for songbirds with little hooks."

Colonial cuisine was based on the English model, which meant lots of boiled food and puddings, including pigeon pudding.

Yes, you read that right. Pigeon pudding.

Colonists also ate a lot of breakfast porridge, mixing it up the night before and letting it cook by the banked embers overnight. The porridge would often sit in the pot for days, just as the children's rhyme says: "Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold, pease porridge in the pot, nine days old."

The colonists definitely knew how to make food last. One common food was sort of like the bouillon cubes we have today. Cooks allowed all the water to evaporate from their soup until it was dry. This was called "pocket soup."

"People who went on long trips into the woods would take little parcels of this," Goldenson said, "and they would reconstitute it if they had a fire with water at their campsite, or they would just suck on it for some nourishment."

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=197163&ac=Food

Here's a typical recipe for making clam chowder over an open fire from "The Open Hearth Cookbook: Recapturing the Flavor of Early America" by Suzanne Goldenson.

NEW ENGLAND CLAM CHOWDER

5 dozen cherrystone clams, well-scrubbed

5 cups water

5 slices bacon, cut into 1/4-inch dice

1 cup onions, diced 1 red bell pepper, diced

Whole milk or half and half (about one cup)

2 cups new potatoes, peeled and cubed 2 cups corn kernels, fresh, frozen or canned (if using canned, drain)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon dried thyme or 2 teaspoons fresh, minced

Fresh thyme sprigs for garnishing bowls (optional)

Place cherrystones in a large gypsy kettle suspended from a crane. Add 5 cups water. Cover and cook over hot fire until the clams have opened. (At least 5 minutes.)

Swing kettle away from fire and lift the clams out with a slotted spoon. Discard any that have not opened. Let cooking broth cool. Remove the clam meat from the shells, discarding shells.

Chop clam meat into small pieces and set aside. Strain the clam broth through cheesecloth and reserve. Swing the empty gypsy kettle back over the hot fire. Add the bacon and saute until light brown. Add onion and red bell pepper and saut lightly.

Measure the reserved clam broth and add enough milk or half and half to equal 6 cups of liquid. Add to kettle with potatoes, corn, salt, pepper and dried thyme. Bring to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes.

Add the clams and cook for two to three minutes longer. Ladle the chowder into hot bowls and garnish with fresh thyme sprigs (if desired). Serves six.

The Wabanaki way
'Chef John' is ready for an old-fashioned clambake.
By MEREDITH GOAD
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald

The way Chef John Marcellino sees it, history will be repeating itself July 28 when he prepares an old-fashioned clambake in Bristol Mills for "Wabanaki Days."

Marcellino, known as "Chef John" on his Cape Cod cooking show, is a member of the Wampanoag tribe in Mashpee, Mass. The 17th-century Wampanoags were a generous people whose compassion for the Pilgrims kept them from starving. They shared their food and their knowledge of indigenous foods with the new arrivals.

"They wanted (the Pilgrims) to survive, and they wanted to feed them, and they didn't want them to suffer because when one had food, everyone had food. That's the way it worked for the Wampanoags," Marcellino said.

The Wampanoag tribe lives in Massachusetts, but Marcellino will be sharing their history with Mainers during Wabanaki Days, an annual festival that honors the native residents of the Pemaquid and Damariscotta region in midcoast Maine. This year's event, which runs July 22-28, features demonstrations of native crafts, storytelling, concerts, field trips and historic dramas.

Marcellino will prepare a traditional Wampanoag clambake as well as roast venison on wooden skewers to teach American Indian cooking techniques to modern-day Americans. You'll be able to sample both the meat and the seafood he prepares at the event.

"We're also going to be doing some popcorn covered with maple syrup, which was a traditional snack amongst the Native Americans," Marcellino said.

Food will be a major focus at this year's Wabanaki Days festival. There will be a program on culinary plants used by the Indians, and some local restaurants will be offering native dishes on their menus. On July 26, folks can chow down at a potluck featuring only indigenous foods -- no apples or dairy allowed, since those foods were introduced here by Europeans.

On the same day Marcellino shares his knowledge of Wampanoag cuisine, Kerry Hardy will talk about the natural foodways of the Wabanaki people here in Maine. Hardy is a local author who became so fascinated by the Wabanaki culture he immersed himself in it for three years. His new book on the topic, "Notes on a Lost Flute: A Field Guide to the Wabanaki," will be published early next year.

"When we're exposed to this stuff going through school," Hardy said, "any indigenous peoples are often portrayed as hunter-gatherers, which suggests a great deal of luck in the whole thing, or just sort of aimlessly wandering around. Or sometimes you even hear the word 'nomadic,' and that's so far from the truth.

"What they did was treat the whole landscape like a farm in terms of knowing what grew there, and sometimes helping it grow, then go to where they needed to in the landscape at the right time of year to collect the food that was there."

The Wabanaki moved between three general food-gathering areas, according to Hardy. The most important places were villages with lots of cleared land near the head of tide on a major river -- places like Damariscotta. These were the best places to harvest anadramous fish, one of their most important food sources.

In high summer, the Wabanaki would move to coastal islands or peninsulas to gather lobsters, clams and striped bass, and to hunt for seals. Lobsters were speared on shore, and the meat was often dried. Burned-off land produced lots of blueberries. Wildflowers such as wood lily and Solomon's seal were gathered for their edible roots.

"They figured out long ago that most of the wildflowers we have here, their survival strategy is to store all of their surplus food energy at the end of the growing season in a succulent root," Hardy said. "And that root, even when the top of the flower is gone in fall, winter and early spring, is really a bundle of goodness in many cases."

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=198354&ac=Food


John Patriquin/Staff Photographer

Courtesy photo

Soup to Nuts: Garden on busy corner gives deli a fresh approach
By MEREDITH GOAD
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald

FALMOUTH — Elaine Titcomb stopped outside Leavitt & Sons, a deli, sandwich shop and specialty grocery store perched on the corner of Route 1 and Depot Road.

Titcomb is from Sebago, but she and her husband keep their boat in Falmouth. She walks or drives by this busy corner every day, and lately has noticed something new -- a large vegetable and herb garden.

Today, she's stopped to take a closer look as cars whiz by a few feet away.

"What are you going to do, sell vegetables?" she asks deli owner Pete Leavitt.

No, he's not. Well, not unless they are incorporated into a salad or some other to-go meal.

Leavitt has decided to follow in the larger footsteps of restaurants such as Arrows in Ogunquit, which is well-known for its garden, and Cinque Terre in Portland, which grows its own vegetables on a Maine farm.

In June, he had a landscaper plant $5,000 worth of vegetables and herbs outside his deli. Now the project is starting to bear fruit.

While Leavitt's garden is not as large as the restaurants' plots, this isn't exactly a small vanity garden, either. Growing all around the store are tomatoes, rosemary, thyme, parsley, low-bush and high-bush blueberries, oregano, cilantro, lavendar, Thai basil, a couple of kinds of lettuce and cabbage, spinach, eggplant, celery, mint, hot peppers, jalapenos, green peppers, zucchini, summer squash, radishes, basil, Swiss chard, beets, carrots and lemongrass.

There are peach, apple and plum trees.

There's also some nasturtium, which the 4- and 7-year-old sons of Leavitt & Sons think is "cool as heck, because you can eat the flowers."

Leavitt estimates that right now, he's probably only using about 10 to 15 percent of the garden in his food because most of the vegetables aren't in yet.

The basil, for example, is going into the store's caprese sandwiches. The lemongrass goes into soup.

"The herbs we use in a lot of our different soups, and when we do roast-chicken dishes, we'll use a lot of the herbs in that," Leavitt said. "The blueberries I put into the fruit platters that we do and the fruit cups that we make."

Next year, he may add grapes, watermelons or pumpkins.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=200874&ac=Food




Photos By Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Cheese, fries & gravy
It's called POUTINE, and while it might not be the heart-healthiest of dishes, to generations of French-Canadians, it's comfort food, plain and simple.
By MEREDITH GOAD
Portland Press Herald

It's just a simple dish on the pub menu at the Frog and Turtle in Westbrook, but it inspires some of the most passionate reviews from customers.

When chef and owner James Tranchemontagne started serving poutine, customers began chatting him up by reminiscing about the way their memere used to make it, or recalling that amazing version they had on a trip to Montreal.

"It's a fun one to sit down and talk to people about," Tranchemontagne said.

Poutine is classic French-Canadian comfort food, and it's showing up on Portland menus the way macaroni and cheese did a few years ago. Some versions adhere to the basics – french fries and cheese curds smothered in brown gravy – while others are gussied up a bit, like truffled mac-and-cheese, to suit more sophisticated tastes.

I talked with a couple of local chefs about their poutine, then – for a "professional" opinion – enlisted two co-workers of French-Canadian descent to taste-test three versions.

First up in our Poutine Olympics: The home-style taters from Silly's on Washington Avenue go head-to-head with the hifalutin' fries from Duckfat.

Poutine is a regular entry on Silly's specials board. According to the staff, they make it whenever there's enough drippings around to make the gravy. It's as "down-home" as you can get: Melted cheese covering thick-cut fries, all swimming in so much homemade gravy that Michael Phelps could probably manage to get another gold medal out of it. Price: $5.95.

Duckfat's version is the Nastia Liukin of poutine – slender, elegant and striving for perfection. For $8.50, you get a bowl of the restaurant's famous Belgian fries cooked in you-know-what, topped with cheese curd from Smiling Hill Farm's Silvery Moon Creamery and served with two ounces of duck gravy.

Rob Evans, chef/owner of Hugo's and Duckfat, developed his own version of poutine a couple of years ago when customers began asking for it. It seemed like a natural addition to the menu, given the popularity of the restaurant's Belgian fries.

"We send our duck wings from Hugo's over to Duckfat" to make the gravy, Evans said. "Just traditional sauce. It's not a highly reduced sauce like Hugo's, meaning we use a little roux in there. Otherwise, we could never keep up with it. They go through gallons of that stuff. Also, being a roux-based sauce, it helps it cling" to the fries.

My judges were Ray Routhier and Stephanie Bouchard, co-workers who spend way too much time discussing the merits of cretons, a pork spread that is a staple of Quebecois cuisine. They can debate for hours whether turkey is an acceptable substitute for pork or an abomination to their cultural heritage.

Stephanie found the Duckfat poutine to be "tastier," but added that the Silly's version "looks more familiar."

Both Stephanie and Ray thought the Silly's poutine seemed more like what they grew up eating at local diners and Franco festivals. Ray liked the fact that Silly's cheese and gravy were "nice and gloppy."

"It's supposed to be comfort food, so you need kind of a thick, gloppy gravy," he said. "You need that gravy flavor. And you don't really get it with Duckfat."

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=205585&ac=Food






Photos by Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

Jamon iberico de bellota: It's a cut above
A high-end ham from Spain, recently brought to American shores by a Portland-based importer, brings intense flavor and an unusual back story to the table.
By MEREDITH GOAD
Portland Press Herald

Until last year, foodies longed for jamon iberico the way the Red Sox once longed for a World Series.

This acclaimed ham, which comes from a unique breed of free-roaming Spanish pigs, finally made it to America last fall. Folks who really love their pork forked over $80 to $100 a pound just to try it.

Then, a few weeks ago, an even more exclusive and exquisite version of the ham became available in this country. Jamon iberico de bellota comes from pigs who eat only acorns during the last three months of their lives, and it is expected to sell for about $200 a pound.

The man responsible for bringing these coveted hams to the United States is Taylor Griffin, the 37-year-old president of the Rogers Collection, a Portland-based importer of artisanal foods that are produced by traditional methods.

With offices above Vignola on Dana Street, the Rogers Collection searches the world for the finest cheeses, meats, olive oils and other gourmet products and brings them to restaurants and retailers in America.

Artisans who catch Griffin's eye can be assured their products will make it into the hands of Thomas Keller, Jean Georges Vongerichten, Daniel Boulud and other famous chefs, as well as high-end retailers such as Dean & DeLuca and Williams-Sonoma.

Griffin, a New Yorker, bought the business from his uncle, Richard Rogers, about five years ago. He now lives part time in Manhattan and part time in Portland, and travels the rest of the year.

SPANNING THE GLOBE

His work year includes a couple of weeks in Spain, a couple of weeks in Italy, a week in Greece, and a week or two in Tunisia and North Africa. He finds new products through tips from chefs, trips to food shows, and through his producer networks.

"I go up in the mountains to see my mountain reggiano producer," Griffin said last week over a cup of coffee in the Old Port, "and five kilometers down the road, this little sheep's milk producer is making some fresh sheep's milk ricotta or something."

Jamon iberico was the Holy Grail of ham. It wasn't difficult to find, but it was seemingly impossible to import because of FDA regulations.

Jamon iberico comes from the free-range iberico pig, also known as the pata negra, or black hoof. The iberico breed freely wanders the dehesas, the indigenous oak forests of southwestern Spain.

"The first time I went out to visit the deshesus, I was driving around in a 4-by-4 for 45 minutes before I saw one pig," Griffin said. "So the land-to-pig ratio is huge."

In spring, the pig eats mushrooms or forages for roots. In the fall, it turns to acorns from cork and holm trees.

This all-natural diet is one of the factors that informs the quality of the animal's meat, which is more tender and flavorful than prosciutto, and its streaks of succulent fat. The pig's fat profile, Griffin says, more closely resembles the monounsaturated fats of olive oils than animal fats.

"What makes the iberico breed really special across the board is it has the genetic ability – and this is unique among pigs – to retain vegetable fats, monounsaturated fats, HDL, into its tissues at much higher levels than other pigs," Griffin said.

Meat products that come from the animal include the jamon iberico – the ham that comes from the hind quarters – and the paleta iberico, which is the pork shoulder.

Even more desired is the jamon iberico de bellota, which just arrived in this country a few weeks ago. Same pig, different husbandry.

The bellota comes from iberico pigs that are born around November. About 10 months later, they are turned loose in the dehesas at the time when the oak trees are dropping acorns like crazy. The pigs gorge on nothing but acorns the last two to four months of their lives, and double their weight during that time.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=206786&ac=Food




Photos By Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

KIDS ON BOARD ...
. . . with proper eating and exercise habits, thanks to a new interactive game that's all about 'Healthy Options.'
By MEREDITH GOAD
Portland Press Herald

The hummus was a tough sell.

But children will do anything to win a game, including tasting foods their mothers have been begging them to try for years. Things like yogurt and broccoli and other healthful edibles that, to young tastebuds at least, carry that indescribable "eeewww" factor.

Moms, you have Marty the Moose to thank for these junior culinary adventures.

Marty is the "mascot" of Martin's Point Health Care in Portland and Brunswick and the star of a new interactive board game that teaches children about healthful eating and the importance of exercise, helping out at home, and limiting TV and computer time.

"We really are gearing it more towards healthy living," said Barbara Groth, a nurse educator.

Martin's Point is offering a free two-day program for children ages 8 to 11 that is built around the game Healthy Options. The first sessions in Brunswick, scheduled for Tuesday and Sept. 23, are already full, but the health center is taking reservations for future programs. At least one parent must accompany each child because the game is geared toward getting families to talk about their food choices and activities and to make changes in their lifestyles.

Here's how it works: A spin of a dial takes Marty the Moose around the board in an imaginary 24-hour period. Marty needs to choose a breakfast: Should he go for an English muffin with peanut butter or a bowl of Cocoa Puffs?

Children may choose the sugary cereal, but that decision opens up a conversation about which choice is a better option with Groth and Anita Huey, a dietitian who led the team that developed the game.

If Marty feels tired in the morning, it could be because he had donuts and juice for breakfast. Huey takes the opportunity to run two remote-controlled cars around the room – one zippy, one sluggish – and talk about food as fuel for the body.

There are different stops during Marty's day where the children must try a new food, go on a scavenger hunt, or do some kind of physical activity such as jump rope or navigate an obstacle course.

Once, to get the players to try zucchini, Huey brought in some zucchini muffins. For at least one little girl, the ploy worked. "The mom tells me that now she eats regular zucchini as a vegetable at home," Huey said.

For the September Healthy Options sessions, Huey is considering bringing in artichokes.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=207957&ac=Food








Aaron Skilling photos courtesy of Martin’s Point Health Care

Get the lowdown on the locavore trend
By MEREDITH GOAD
Portland Press Herald

Becoming a locavore is getting to be as trendy as loading cloth grocery bags into hybrid cars.

Last fall, I wrote about Mainers who were trying to prepare a Thanksgiving meal made with only local ingredients. The Morris Farm in Wiscasset just began a series of workshops for "aspiring locavores" led by cookbook author Cynthia Simonds.

Want to try on this trend for size? Check out Cultivating Community's Second Annual 20-Mile Meal on Sept. 28 at Cape Elizabeth's Turkey Hill Farm.

About 20 local chefs will be preparing tastings made from food grown on the farm or within a 20-mile radius. There will also be music, art and tours of the farm.

The farm is located at 120 Old Ocean House Road, and the event will go from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. Tickets cost $30 ($18 for seniors and students). It's free for children ages 6 and under.

For more information or to reserve tickets, e-mail: 20mm@cultivatingcommunity.org

CHOCOLATE LOVERS' RED-LETTER DAY

Mark your calendars, chocolate lovers. You'll get a double dose of your favorite treat on Oct. 2, when Simply Divine Brownies and Wilbur's of Maine Chocolate Confections celebrate the grand opening of their new Freeport stores.

The event will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. and will feature brownie and chocolate samples and demonstrations, live music and tours. Wilbur's will showcase its pumpkin pie malted balls and molded starfish, and Simply Divine will offer a taste of its brownie ice cream sandwiches made with Tubby's Ice Cream, which is made from scratch at a creamery in Wayne.

There will be milk, juice and punch to drink.

Both stores are located at 174 Lower Main St.

TOMATOES, AND MORE TOMATOES

If you're heading north this weekend, say goodbye to the taste of summer at a tomato tasting hosted by the master-gardener project at Brae Maple Farm in Union.

The event will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday and feature a presentation by a master gardener who will talk about each variety of tomato and demonstrate methods for saving seeds. The tasting tomatoes will come from the farm's master-gardener project as well as from the home gardens of the master gardeners.

Want to show off your own tomatoes? Bring them along.

To get to the farm, take Route 17 to Union and turn onto North Union Road. The first farm on the right is Brae Maple.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=209319&ac=Food

Project would have made this farmer proud
By MEREDITH GOAD
Portland Press Herald

When Rep. Abby Holman, R-Fayette, died in a skiing accident last year, mourners and admirers sent in memorial donations to her family.

Her family in turn sent the funds to the Kennebec Land Trust in Holman's honor.

Now the land trust has used the donations to create the Abby Holman Agricultural Project in honor of Holman's love of farms and farm life.

Holman lived on a farm in Fayette, and before her death had submitted an application to the Land for Maine's Future Board for a conservation easement so her land would be preserved in perpetuity.

The land trust has hired a retired elementary school teacher, Karen Simpson, to go into four elementary schools in Holman's former district – Belgrade, Fayette, Manchester, Mount Vernon and Vienna – as well as schools in Wayne and Readfield to teach children about the importance of eating locally and preserving local farmland.

This week, Simpson began lessons in fourth-grade classrooms. Later in the fall, she'll take the students to visit local farms.

"It's really going to give the kids a sense of what it's like to actually try and make a living day to day with farming," said Theresa Kerchner, stewardship director of the Kennebec Land Trust in Winthrop.

The project will also produce a brochure that highlights the farms and what they sell, gives consumers more information about what they can purchase at each farm, and tells them when meat and produce are available.

"What we've found is, a lot of people are interested in buying local foods, but they never quite know where these farms are, when they can go," Kerchner said.

The students will distribute the brochures at their local town offices, post offices and other public areas.

The project also hopes to forge stronger links between local farmers and the children's schools so that more locally produced items appear on school-lunch menus.

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