WALDOBORO—On March 16, the doors opened for the first time for Dayboat Cafe, a new daytime neighborhood cafe and market in Waldoboro's downtown.

Two good friends, Anna Hymanson, 32, and Kelsey Woodworth, 35, took on the business venture together, offering a warm, welcoming hub for locals and visitors, serving sandwiches, soups, salads, and take-home meals to go. The retail side of the cafe offers beer and wine, Maine-made goods, and other specialty items.

The pair have varied backgrounds in food, hospitality, and business, working off each other's strengths. Hymanson, a native Mainer, trained in whole-animal butchery. She also has experience in business operations and financial management.

Woodworth graduated from the Culinary Institute of America. Originally, she went to school to study food science, but found she preferred cooking fulltime in the kitchen. From the Midwest originally, Woodworth worked as a private chef and has cooked in several restaurants in the Northeast before landing in Maine in 2009.

They met in Damariscotta and began talking about starting a food business together before deciding that Waldoboro was the town in which to get established.

With the older condition of the 17 Friendship Road building, they went to work, double-belt sanding the floors, applying polyurethane to the floors, doing much of the renovations themselves. Woodworth's husband built the 22-foot lunch counter in sections on casters, so they could move it around.

"We have a five-foot deli case we bought from some really cool fishermen in Brunswick who helped us load it up in the store," said Woodworth. "All of our equipment is essentailly used and bought from surrounding communities. So, the cafe was not only built by us but by the community around us."

The rustic interior of the cafe has a working harbor feel.

"We landed on the name, Dayboat, as an homage to the working waterfront," said Hymanson. "Waldoboro has such deep roots with clamming, fishing, worming, and people who recreate on the water as well. We really wanted it to be a space that felt open and welcome to all."

Previously, the building was home to a cabinet maker. And locals will remember that in 1997 it became Fernald's Country Store. And before that, it housed the Waldoboro Five and Dime.

"It has a great history as a meeting place and market place in downtown Waldoboro," said Woodworth.

"We have food for 'the working boys,' the guys fishing, fixing things, mowing lawns, working 12 to 18 hours a day, who don't have time to make lunch or dinner, so they often end up at gas stations to get something to eat," she said. "These guys need more options that are a little more thoughtfully prepared, and interesting for them.

"Next, our menu also focuses on the moms. Stay-at-home moms, working moms, they're busy, trying to get everything done, and want something quick and healthy. Then, for the seniors, what if someone who lives alone just wants one meatball? They don't want to buy a whole tray.

"We say this a lot: 'We want to meet you where you are in your day.' We want you to be able to afford a treat for yourself. You don't have to do all the cooking yourself. We want you to know we're a partner in your daily life."

The hearty menu features classics, such as grinders, turkey clubs, Reuben sandwiches, tuna, chicken salad, BLTs, and hot chicken parmesan subs. Vegetarian items include Cobb and kale salads, as well as grilled cheese sandwiches, and a seasonal roasted vegetable sandwich. Every day, there is a homemade soup or a clam chowder.

"We call our sandwiches 'The Great Equalizers,' because you could be a billionaire or on your last dollar—you're going to enjoy a sandwich that's hearty, wholesome, and delicious, and you'll be able to afford it," said Woodworth.

The take-out cases carry dinner items such as lasagna, and their freezer contains more take-home dinners, such as a pasta dish that can be reheated. They also have a beer and wine license, so anyone who wants a beer with his or her lunch, can enjoy it or buy a bottle to take home.

For more information visit dayboatmaine.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKPORT—Rockport Public Library's second SEED FEST is approaching Saturday, April 11, and Julia Pierce, Deputy Director of the Rockport Public Library, anticipates this year will draw an even bigger crowd than last year, in part due to the varied educational exhibits and activities they plan to offer.

"One of our library patrons, Charlie Costello, approached us a couple of years ago with the idea of a spring seed swap, and we decided to take it a step further, make the day a SEED FEST—because who doesn't love a good fest?" she said. "Charlie is a big advocate of seed saving, growing and community."

From 9:30 a.m. to noon, visitors can browse educational exhibits and activities on both the upper and lower levels of the library covering seed-starting, pollinators, soil health, composting, native plants, heirloom vegetables, growing rice and grains in Maine, and Wabanaki food sovereignty.

"Last year we had wonderful exhibitors, such as the Knox Lincoln County beekeepers," said Pierce. "They not only provided great advice to potential new beekeepers, but they also gave out free resources and honey sticks — that was a big hit. Likewise, people were thrilled that we gave away free seed packets and hundreds of free tomato seedlings.

"This year, Charlie has started 50 different types of heirloom tomatoes, and we'll be giving away 600 plants. These are going to include varieties you won't be able to get at any of our local gardening centers. People who planted their seedlings last year came back to tell us all about the fun they had growing them, and the strange and wonderful tomatoes that came out in all kinds of different colors and stripes."

At 12:30 p.m., Petra Page-Mann, of Fruition Seeds, will deliver an interactive keynote presentation. Page-Mann and her nonprofit seed company are strong advocates of “gift culture", which involves giving away seeds to promote food cultivation and community building. This ethos aligns perfectly with the theme of SEED FEST.

"She is a big advocate of giving away seeds to various people and groups with help from financial donations, and she throws these seed-exchange parties to promote food cultivation, as well as growing tips, and eating together," said Pierce. "It's a great way to help unite communities together and get us all inspired."

"We live in a moment where it's not normal to share...," said Page-Mann, in a phone interview from New York. "We so highly prioritize individualism and accumulation and in other cultures, the beings that have the most abundance are the beings that share the most abundance. And seeds are brilliant embodiments, invitations, teachers of this system. They are so incredibly generous even as we commodify them, and here to nourish us."

Costello, a big proponent of gift culture himself, said the first time he got a greenhouse in 2009, his life changed. Tomatoes became his focus and sharing those seeds became his mission.

"Building community through seeds, one seed at a time, is what I do," he said. "This year, I have more than 50 varieties I've started and more than 1,500 plants. We'll bring about 600 seedlings to the SEED FEST and a bunch will go into the community a number of ways."

Costello said people who are interested in growing additional tomatoes from any seedlings they take home to follow the events calendar of Merryspring Nature Center, which will host a September tomato tasting with instructions on how to save seeds and regrow them.

Last year, seven organizations participated in SEED FEST. This year, there will be double the organizations, including Herbal Hummingbird Hub, Knox Lincoln County Beekeepers, Knox-Lincoln Soil and Water Conservation District, Maine Grains and Maine Grain Alliance, Maine Heirloom Seed Network, Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Maine Rice Project at Ararat Farms, Merryspring Nature Center, Niweskok: From the Stars to Seeds, Roots n Shoots, University of Maine Cooperative Extension, and Wild Seed Project.

"The event is also an opportunity for new organizations to introduce themselves and let us know what they've got going on," said Pierce. "For instance, Deb Soule, of Avena Botanicals will be introducing the Herbal Hummingbird Hub, which is a hummingbird preserve on the Avena Botanicals property.

"We'll also have the Maine Rice Project, from Ararat Farms in Lincolnville, which is a fairly new attempt to grow rice in Maine, and this is a great opportunity for their founder, Ben Rooney, to get the word out on this brand-new possible industry in Maine."

The event is generously sponsored by the Rockport Library Foundation.

Find out more about SEED FEST.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

SPRUCE HEAD — As the season starts to tease with sunny, 40-degree days in the Midcoast, a fresh reminder of Spring will be hung April 2 on the walls of Rockport Public Library with artist Katharine Cartwright's botanical paintings, just in time for SEED FEST, on April 11. 

Her "Organic" series featuring garden vegetables will hang alongside her "Music Makers" paintings of musical instruments artfully concealed in flowers and vegetation — a perfect reminder where all those seeds go when they "grow up."

Cartwright has focused on art since she was a child.

"My mother decided I'd be an artist and a musician since I was born," she said. "She said I'd never cry, I'd just lie there and look at things. When I went to Kindergarten to draw things in perspective, the teachers noted that I was probably going to be an artist."

As a teenager, she attended an all-girls' school to major in art and was also playing music at that time. That passion followed her into university.

Earth and nature, and what springs up from the ground, became her inspiration. What's notable about Cartwright's journey is that hard science also factored into how she interpreted her artistic vision on a canvas.

"When I was in my 30s, my husband and I bought a sailboat and we sailed for a couple of years," she said. "I started to become curious about why the earth is the way it is. So I went back to college in my late 30s and studied earth science and geology, and graduated. Then, Syracuse University offered me a fellowship to study there, so I started studying mass extinctions."

That led to a position at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, where Cartwright taught courses in climatology, paleocimatology and oceanography.

Now in Spruce Head, Cartwright has decades of exhibitions under her belt, working primarily in watercolor, acrylic and oil.

"I've worked in many different series, because I always kept the art going, while working in science," she said. "Everything I do is autobiographical. I'm a garderener, and love doing organic gardening. I'm also a musician, so I put the two together."

It is shape that catches her imagination.

In her Music Makers series, she paired the fluted mouthpiece of a tuba with the similar funneled petals of a petunia. In a painting of tiger lilies, a lone dulcimer is seen as the emerging flower bud of the lily, with matching salmon tones. In another painting, the scroll of a violin is camouflaged with the coiled spirals of burgeoning fiddleheads.

"I have dyslexia, so I picture everything in my mind before I paint it," she said. "And when I do paint, I paint it very quickly."

Cartwright said she needs only to go out into her garden and property, and sit among the vegetation to fully imagine what she is going to paint. 

"I live in a forested wetland here in Spruce Head and we have a lot of fiddlehead and ferns," she said. "I try to paint what I am familiar with, what I have a relationship with."

With the Organic series, her scientific background melded with her artistic interpretation, once again, comes into play. She is not so much interested in capturing the exact botanical illustration of a vegetable as she is in studying its external form.

"I try to emphasize the beautiful structures of these vegetables," she said. "It is a way of bringing focus to these organic vegetables and their symmetries and shapes. As a naturalist and paleontologist, I've always been interested in the symmetry of organisms, because that's important when identifying and classifying extinct organisms. That's how my eyes naturally see vegetation."

See Cartwright's show starting April 2.

She will also be doing a special oil painting exhibition in July to benefit Homeworthy, partnering with that nonprofit to donate all of her proceeds to its program. The large-scale paintings of shells, such as tortoise shells and seashells, will be grouped in a show called "Shell-ter."

Learn more about her work.

Learn more about SEED FEST 

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELMONT—The garden space is still fallow on a dreary March day at  77 Halls Corner Road in Belmont, but a bright, hand-painted wooden cupboard at the end of the driveway beckons neighbors to stop and take a peek inside.

Mossflower Cottage Bakery is the home-baking business of Whitney Brown, 37, a wife and mother of two boys, 10 and 14, whom she schools at home.

Like many home-based entrepreneurs, she looked into expanding her business with a licensed kitchen, but discovered that her residential septic tank was too small. Working through the obstacles, she had several options: She could move all her products to a commercial kitchen, or she ciould dig up the lawn and remove her garden to make room for a bigger septic system. Or, she could give up her dream. 

The commercial kitchen option was a long shot. The nearest one is in Damariscotta, and as a baker, she'd have to be up all night and travel too far. With gas prices and food costs rising daily, this was not viable. As for spending thousands more on a septic system her family didn't have the money for, this was also not cost-effective.

Then, one day, a post from her Facebook page signaled an epiphany.

"Things have been hard for everyone for a while now," she wrote. "I want to do more than just complain, I want to make a change."

Brown announced she was done worrying and feeling despondent over life's obstacles. She was going to make her lifelong vision happen anyway by selling her products at a little driveway stand with no prices on the menu.

Currently, the Mossflower Cottage Bakery stand is only open on the weekends at 10 a.m., until the items are gone. Since she made her announcement on Facebook three weeks ago, the stand has been cleared out of goods almost within the first two hours of opening.

"Mostly it has been a good response," she said of the new business model. "Some people questioned why I was doing this, and others reacted as though they were offended. It's my house, my family, and this is a choice we made together."

"Since I was a teenager, I've always dreamed of opening a unique café, but it wasn't really attainable," she continued. "I didn't come from money, and in the back of my mind, it was like, 'When is this ever going to happen?'"

Growing up in Maine, Brown got her start working in the food industry right after high school at French and Brawn, in Camden; Bell the Cat, in Belfast; and the Only Doughnut, in Belfast.

"I was experimenting with vegan flavors and other flavors no one had been doing, like chocolate and bacon at the time," she said. "The reactions I got from people made my heart fill up."

"I just aim for simplicity," she said. "I cook for my kids. We make all of our condiments and breads, and doing that just makes me happy."

Her specialty is sourdough breads, cupcakes, scones, cookies, muffins, and cakes.

"I also garden, knit sweaters, and plan to offer fresh garden vegetables and cut flowers at the stand, as well as a media library."

Her little stand also offers homemade muffin kits and laundry soap.

Her background explains to anyone who is confused why she has chosen to give her products away, rather than sell them.

"I worked at Sweetser with kids and families, and there, I learned about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs," she said. "Knowing that the bottom level of need is food, shelter, clothing, and water, and looking around our community, you can clearly see that people's basic needs are not being met. I can't control housing or clothes, but I can try to help with food."

Her motto is to give back wherever she can.

"When I was working in restaurants, if I saw someone panhandling outside, I'd just give that person my employee meal," she said. "That's just who I am."

"When I first started putting items in the stand, I always told people 'These are my suggested prices. If you're having a hard time, we can work something out. I'm so happy to barter and give my stuff away at a discount.' I want to share what I love to do with people."

One of the most frequent questions, she's been asked of the free stand is,

"What if people take advantage?"

After all, it still costs Brown money and her time to create everything. What is she getting back from this?

"I'm not a spiritual person, but if you're taking advantage of a free stand, that's between you and whoever you answer to," she stated. "And if that's where you are in life and you need it that badly, I'm happy to give it to you."

She added that her policy allows people to limit themselves to one item from the cupboard in fairness to others. If someone wishes to have more, contact her a week ahead of time, so she can accommodate the request. 

Brown said she believes most people want to pay it forward. She has received eggs from neighbors, books, and even art to add to her free media library at the bottom of the stand.

"I always need soil, so if people want to bring me a yard of topsoil, take a loaf of bread," she said.

"We're going to build a bigger stand, and when my garden is full, there will be fresh vegetables and cut flowers, because who doesn't love cut-flowers? We'll have hand-knit items to keep you warm for the winter."

A bartering of community skills is yet another adjunct function of this humble food stand.

Brown put "The Notebook" in her stand, a spiral-bound notebook that serves as a way to communicate with her customers and let them communicate their needs among themselves.

"It's an experiment," she said. "Instead of people paying me, I would love to trade acts of kindness and list in the notebook what they intend to do. For example, say someone writes, 'I need some shelves put up, and in exchange, I can take out your trash.'"

By removing prices from the equation, she is, in fact, creating a level of abundance for herself where money no longer controls the narrative, something that burdened her as a child.

"Going back to when I was a kid, I always wanted to try the fancy foods, but I was a food pantry kid," she said. "My parents didn't have money. To see a kid in class whose mom made him a fresh-baked cookie — my parents never had the time or ingredients to do it — didn't make me feel good."

Doing what she's doing now balances out some of that childhood longing into actionable ways to not only meet her own needs and family's needs, but also the community's needs—somewhere on that Maslow chart.

"That's the best version of yourself I think, the adult version of yourself you wish you'd had as a kid," she said.

Mossflower Cottage Bakery will be undergoing more changes in the spring and summer. Follow Brown on her Facebook page.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

OWLS HEAD — Two years ago, The Apron at Terminal A, a fast casual restaurant helmed by Matthew Stilphen, opened inside the Knox County Regional Airport terminal.

This past winter, with the help of Evan Stevens, a visual artist and self-taught home cook, The Apron is spreading its wings and rebranding as a different culinary concept called Nomad.

Stilphen is now taking an administrative role, allowing Stevens to take his unique spin to the restaurant.

Previously, Stilphen's daily menu consisted of breakfast and lunch, with daily specials, and featured special brunches on weekends. Nomad is keeping the operation small for the moment, offering a limited menu on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with pastries and baked goods, along with handhelds, breakfast sandwiches, and chicken schnitzels.

On Sundays, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., the new brunch concept pulls out all the stops with classic dishes such as benedicts (salmon and Florentine), pancakes, chicken and apple cheddar waffles, a grass-fed beef burger with a farm egg, and the usual breakfast sides.

With Nomad, the focus will now be on more handmade pastries and baked goods.

"My passion lies with baked goods and pastries, so we're rolling out a slow path to having a full bakery case with savory and sweet options," he said. "We're also going to continue a few things that Matt does really well and the customers liked."

Since their soft opening on Feb. 7 and 8, their roll-out has been small, but appreciated by the locals who frequented The Apron.

"We've really had some great feedback from customers on the new items, so I'm excited about that," said Stevens.

"I've been cooking since I was about 10," he said. "I've also worked in several restaurants before, but with Matt, this is a good fit. It's really creative and collaborative. Cooking has been my biggest passion in life, and I feel like that passion and desire to learn about cooking as much as I could coincided really well with art. Just the sensory language of it is appealing, like how things go together, the flavors interact, how textures work together feels very artistic."

With Stevens' background in visual art, the restaurant will continue its commitment to hosting artists and creatives.

"We plan to host occasional dinner services and casual wine nights, paired with local author readings, open-mics, and more," he said.

As an artist himself, Stevens will also display some of his paintings on the walls and hopes to have more work by local artists. 

"This place has a really loyal following with people who want really good food at an affordable price," he said.

As Nomad finds its rhythm, Stevens said the restaurant will be expanding its hours and days in the spring.

"Right now it's a really good time to roll out new menu items and test the waters," he said.

Weekly menus and updates can be found on their Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/nomadowlshead 

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST—Rounding the corner to March, thousands of people packed the streets of Belfast for the annual Belfast Ice Festival on Saturday, February 28. And with a balmy 45 degrees and sunshine, the 25-30 ice sculptures positioned around town might not have loved the weather, but the community sure did.

The weekend event, spanning  Feb. 27 to March 1 was jam-packed with all sorts of creative events, from live music and pub crawls to balls and dance parties. Several restaurants around town set up ice bars and patio bars for the public offering specialty winter-themed cocktails. 

Nautilus had a tented outside bar serving beer on draft, along with drink specials and canned ciders.

"I feel like getting toward the end of winter, everybody wants to get outside and we've been blessed with amazing weather today," said co-owner Shawna Aitken, who worked the outside bar as people enjoyed drinks and warming stations.

Front Street Pub was serving Ghost tequila spicy margaritas in their own to-go specialty bulb cups, along with a Mexican chocolate martini with a chocolate rim on a tiny sipping souvenir cup. While the drinks weren't hot, the ghost peppers in the tequila warmed the palate nicely.

"It's such a beautiful day; everyone is coming out," said Katherine Loblein, co-owner of Front Street Pub, who was on hand to serve the public.

One bystander double-fisting both the margarita and the chocolate, chimed in.

"This is actually my fifth Ice Festival," said Carolina, of Winterport. "I come here every year and go around to all the local businesses, like the cheese shop, and Vinolio, and support them.  I like that they have the ice bars and the ice sculptures the most. This is one of the best years ever."  

Darby's Restaurant set up an ice bar with a firepit extending out into the street with folks lined up to purchase spicy Bloody Marys, warmed wine, and hot cider with or without alcohol.

"The outdoor bar concept originated during COVID-19, just as a way to get outside, said co-owner Cory Chase. "But, now it's stuck around. The weather is phenomenal for spectators, but the ice bar is taking a bit of a hit."

The Belfast Community Co-op also had a hot cocoa bar with all the toppings available.

The day was kid-friendly and-dog-friendly with plenty of fun things to do and see around town, such as cornhole and games in the lot beside Delvino's Grill & Pasta House, where they also had an outdoor bar with long lines.

"This year was the biggest turnout we've ever had," said Ryleigh McFadden, Assistant Manager of Delvino's. "It's the most amount of people I've seen in Belfast since a summer day."

They served a Ghost Tequila Margarita and an Absolut and Tobasco Bloody Mary.

As for the ice sculptures, there was plenty to see. Three live carvings were done throughout Saturday at various downtown locations. Saturday also showcased the Annual State of Maine Ice Carving Competition in the empty lot between Traci’s Diner and Renew ME Spa.

"We have amateur and professional carvers take a block of ice and just create something out of it," said Amanda Cunningham, Our Town Belfast Executive Director. "This year we have two 13-year-olds competing, as well."

Jay Bluck took first place with his ice carving of a turtle.

"I've been carving for about 13 years and just wanted to do something new from last year, which was a fish and The Bumble [a character from the animation Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer]," he said. "We like to do carvings that are kid-friendly."

"This is a huge economic boost for downtown Belfast," said Cunningham. "It's been very slow from January into February, and about 4,000 people who come into town and visit our restaurants and stores really boost these businesses up, giving them one of the best days of their whole year."

For more information visit: ourtownbelfast.org/ice festival

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN—The Midcoast's newest Irish pub has a special cocktail just in time for March 17. Co-owners Abby Kidder and Tom Ryan opened the pub in August 2025 and have created a signature Old Fashioned—The 8 Bells—which speaks to the heart of their pub.

The star of this cocktail is Ryan's favorite Irish whiskey, Powers.

"I've always loved a good Irish whiskey, something sweet, and Powers lends itself pretty well to an Old Fashioned," he said. "It's far superior to Jameson, I think, with the same price point."

"Abby and I have been talking about what we'd like to make for a signature cocktail and we wanted something to put on the menu that would be ours," he said. "It represents us in location, tradition, and personal preferences."

While Irish whiskeys are known for their bite, this cocktail provides a comforting overlay that smooths out the fire. Ryan uses a simple syrup of Guinness and maple syrup "as an ode to Maine" to accomplish this.

"This whiskey is well-rounded and triple-distilled, very drinkable," he said.

The other secret ingredient is a handmade sea salt saline.

"Being a mariner for the last 25 years, salt is always a good way to pull flavor out and accentuate the drink," he said.

A few dashes of orange bitters and orange zest released bright citrus oils into this cocktail. The result was warm and elegantly rounded with the maple and Guinness tempering the whiskey’s bite. Sitting on one of the sofas next to the stove in the pub with this drink in your hand feels unmistakably Irish. 

To make this cocktail yourself, get a rocks glass and set it aside. To a mixing glass, add:

• 2 oz Powers
• 3/4 oz Guinness simple syrup
• 2 drops orange bitters
• 3 drops Angostura bitters
• 1-2 drops saline

Add ice into the rocks glass, stir the mixing glass for 20 seconds, and pour into the rocks glass. Serve with a garnish of an orange tendril and a Maraschino cherry.

Or go to 8 Bells and have them make it for you!

8 Bells Pub is hosting a St. Patrick's Day bash on March 17 with an all-day music festival that kicks off at noon under a heated tent right next door. The headline band, Simple Things, is from Ireland, with three other incredible local bands, The Oystermen, Yesterday’s Men, and Jimmy Moreland & Friends. General Admission - $20 includes all-day access to the music tent plus Paddy’s Day swag, with Guinness and Harp on tap, Guinness 0.0, wine, soft drinks, and the Portable Pie food truck (with a special Irish menu) available for purchase on site. VIP tickets are sold out. Find out more about the event here.

To learn more visit: 8 Bells.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Statewide—Valentines' Day may be a pas de deux, but the gals are saying the more the merrier.

Galentine’s Day has always been a celebration of female friendship, a counterweight to the overly hyped, overly commercial expectations of modern Valentine’s Day.

Created by the TV show Parks and Recreation in a 2010 episode featuring Leslie Knope (played by Amy Poehler) Galentine's Day was created as a brunch for her female friends, where they “leave their husbands and boyfriends at home.”

In Maine, there are multiple events happening around the state within the themes of wine night, spa treatments, books, films, and crafts.

Thursday, February 12

Galentine's Day at Bangor Beer Co.
Bangor Beer Co, Bangor

Get your best friends and celebrate friendship with wine specials, prosecco, waffles & desserts from 4 p.m on. Free event. FMI: Bangor Beer Co.

Galentine's Day with Shaved Ice & Books
Multiple sponsors, Bangor

Join Sawyer's Shave Ice and Books-A-Million for a Galentine's Day party. Grab your besties and go celebrate from 5:30–7:30 p.m. for a fun, cozy evening with romance books and bookish goodies from Books-a-Million, a build-your-own bouquet station, a bookmark charm bar by Dream Charm Bar, pastries, treats, and more surprises sprinkled in.The first 10 guests will receive a free goodie bag, so go early. FMI: Galentine's Day

Friday, February 13

Galentine's Day at Aykari
Aykari Aesthetics, Bangor

Go for the DIY juices & cocktails from 1 to 4 p.m. including a dirty soda bar, desserts, a station for photos & cute props, blowouts, headspa, massages, facials, lash extensions, spray tans, lip filler and Botox. Non-ticketed event. FMI: Aykari

Galentine's Day at Unwined
Unwined, Skowhegan

Grab your girls, Leslie Knope style! Galentine’s at Unwined takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. at a wine bar/venue with a charcutierie grazing table, wine, snacks, and friendship bracelet making station. Wear what makes you feel fabulous and confident. Tickets are going fast. FMI: Unwined

Galentine's Day Double Feature and Pizza
The Emporium Spooky Goods, Bangor

Since Galentine's Day lines up with Friday the 13th, the Emporium Spooky Goods invites women to join the party for pizza and two films. At 6:30 p.m. they'll start with Jawbreaker (1999), then move to Valentine (2001). Email you are attending so they order enough pizza: emporiumspookygoods@gmail.com. FMI: The Emporium Spooky Goods

Saturday, February 14

Bookish Galentine’s Night
Smitty's Book Cellar, Waterville

The bookstore is hosting a Galentine’s Day party from 6 to 7 p.m.with light refreshments, cupcakes, crafts, and creative time with friends. The event includes a book-themed craft, like making bookmarks or valentines and a raffle with a gift basket. This is a ticketed event. FMI: Galentine's Day Party

Creative Gathering
Creative Faces, Auburn

A no-cost creative makeup group that meets monthly at Creating in Maine will be offering a Galentine's Day event from 2 to 5 p.m. where you BYOM (bring your own makeup). Bring a friend, and turn your faces into art. The projector will be playing 2001’s quirky teen comedy classic, Sugar and Spice. Free event. FMI: Creative Faces

Harleys & Girl Vibes
Big Moose Harley-Davidson, Gorham

Who says Galentine's Day has to be girly? Big Moose Harley-Davidson is hosting a day for the ladies with snacks and fun activities from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Space is very limited so rsvp right away. FMI: Big Moose Harley-Davidson

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST—Nicolle Littrell, founder of DoryWoman Rowing, unveiled a new service to her business, a wood-fired six-person sauna at 15 Front Street Belfast, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, January 29.

Littrell, a licensed Maine Guide who rows a traditional-style 19-foot, 5-inch wooden Swampscott dory, takes clients out on rowing  lessons, nature/wildlife tours, workouts, and specialty rows in Belfast Bay. Her new sauna service took nine months to develop.

"Last year, through a collaboration I did with the Belfast Ice Festival, I did a collaboration with Selkie Sauna and the City of Belfast's Parks & Recreation. We offered an Ice Row + Sauna + Dip combo, right on the waterfront," she said. "It was a huge success; every session was booked. So, people kept asking me, 'Why is there not a sauna here all of the time?'"

That got her thinking, "Indeed. Why not?" 

She'd already applied twice for a small business grant to a national organization called WomensNet to add another boat to her DoryWoman Rowing business to no avail, but trying for the third time, she applied to build a community sauna and won the $10,000 grant last February.

"To my great surprise, I was awarded the grant and then began the sauna  journey," she said. "It was right back to the beginning. It was like learning to row again. Even though I loved and used saunas before, I'd never done a business around one."

On the recommendation of a friend, she found her perfect sauna from the Amish-owned company, Backyard Buildings in Unity.

"I just knew," she said when she saw it for the first time.

They constructed the 8x14 sauna with aromatic Maine white cedar on the inside and Maine white pine on the outside.

The other crucial part of this plan was to place the sauna near the ocean, which had worked out so successfully for the Belfast Ice Festival. So, using her contacts, she worked out an agreement with United Farmers Market of Maine in Belfast to lease waterfront space at 15 Front Street.

"It all lined up," she said.

The sauna, which seats up to six people, is open to all, ages eight and up, from Wednesday to Sunday, December to May.

Most of the sauna's sessions are open to the community for $35 per person, lasting one hour and 15 minutes. Private sessions are also available for a group for $150-$175, lasting one hour and 15 minutes to an hour and a half.

Sessions are available afternoons, and evenings, along with special full-moon sessions she coordinates with one of her rows. Clients can also add on a sauna session after a row.

The sauna was built with a small changing room in the front with space to store clothing and coats. Larger groups may access bathroom facilities on the premises.

Sometimes, Littrell joins a community session if there's room, managing the firewood for the stove. If people are comfortable feeding the woodstove themselves, she is happy to let them be on their own.

"What I'm hearing is that people are so grateful that this is now here, on the Belfast waterfront," she said. "We have a growing sauna culture in Maine, and people appreciate that it is right on the waterfront, which is unique. Saltwater is steps away, and those who like to cold plunge or swim don't have far to go; it's an important part of the experience."

The health and wellness benefits of taking a sauna are widely known: It improves cardiovascular function, lowers blood pressure, and boosts immunity.

"We've had a lot of snow recently, and people like to play out in the cold snow, then come in and get warm; that's part of wellness too, there's fun and joy," she said. "To have that as a resource feels right for a lot of people in Belfast."

She will also be offering her Ice Row + Sauna + Dip package as well as community sauna sessions for the upcoming Belfast Ice Festival Feb. 27, 28, and March 1.

To learn more about her services visit: www.dorywomanrowing.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CUSHING—There are two things you need to know about Pumpkin, an 11-month-old ginger tabby in Cushing.

He has a penchant for getting into refrigerators and stealing entire loaves of bread, and he has a shot at winning $10,000.

Owner Natalie Dame, who adopted him through a Facebook post, calls him her "chaos goblin," and recently entered Pumpkin into America's Favorite Pet contest.

The contest relies on public votes for the top cat and dog to win a $10,000 cash prize, a feature in Modern Cat or Modern Dog magazine, and a two-page spread. It also serves as a fundraiser for the nonprofit PAWS (Progressive Animal Welfare Society).

"There's just so much craziness going on in the world, and I needed to take my mind off it, so I entered the contest for fun," said Dame.

Currently, Pumpkin is in first place as a finalist in the first round of voting, which ends Feb. 12. If he wins, he advances to the second round, where all the finalists in their respective groups compete for the prize money and magazine spread.

"I love animals and have four cats and a dog," she said. "I thought I'd give it a shot. And folks can vote for free, or they can donate money for more votes, which goes to an awesome organization, Progressive Animal Welfare Society. They do a lot of animal advocacy, and I'm a big supporter of adoption."

Dame said she's been going "crazy cat lady-ish" reaching out to friends to vote for Pumpkin. Meanwhile, Pumpkin is "all about Pumpkin," with zero regard for personal space or boundaries. Whenever she gets out a snack, Pumpkin is right there to steal it.

"Chips, sandwiches, snacks, he ‘doesn’t even like’? All fair game," she said. "If it’s mine, Pumpkin wants it. Preferably immediately."

The refrigerator is his preferred hunting ground.

"He's such a spicy little guy, so friendly and loving and just a riot," she said. "He likes to jump right in the refrigerator and sit in there to see what's in there; he's so weird. And, he loves bread ties. He's obsessed with stealing our bread. He'll jump on the counter and try to rip open the bag.  If he can't get the tie off the bag, he'll take the entire loaf of bread and drag it off somewhere into the house."

If Pumpkin won the national prize, Dame said she'd pay off some debts and focus on animal welfare.

"I want to use the winnings to do a little good in a few important places," she said. "A big part of that would be supporting local animal shelters and rescues— helping with food, supplies, and medical care for pets who are still waiting for their forever homes."

Voting ends on February 12 at 7 p.m. To vote for Pumpkin for free or to donate your votes, visit: https://americasfavpet.com/2026/pumpkin-a372

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN — It's hard to believe that in 1991 only a few hundred locals attended the first organized traditional wood toboggan race in the country. Sports Illustrated called it, "a cross between an Alice in Wonderland costume ball and a family reunion..."

Thirty-five years later, the U.S. National Toboggan Championships held at the Camden Snow Bowl will draw more than 5,000 visitors and 413 two-, three-, and four-person teams for a competition that energizes the Midcoast in the dead of winter. A thoroughly frozen Hosmer Pond will come alive with tents and ice shacks, and Tobogganville — the central focal point around the toboggan chute, will be lively with food trucks, music and a Saturday noontime parade.

Friday, Feb. 6, the teams will do a group check-in at Tobogganville, but the bulk of the event will take place on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 7 and 8. There is no admission fee for spectators; however, parking is limited with an onsite fee of $20 per vehicle. Free public parking is available in downtown Camden and a free shuttle bus service will run between there and the Snow Bowl, with the loading spot on Mechanic Street, across from the Knox Mill, between Free and Washington streets.

In addition to the chute action, the weekend is full of highlights:

Worlds Race

Every five years, a special “Worlds” race takes place as part of the U.S. National Toboggan Championships weekend, and this year, past champions are back and ready to slide down the chute.

The Worlds is a one-run race scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday, when all first-place four-person teams from 1991 to 2025 will race to be named the 2026 Worlds Champion.

"It's kind of a winner-take-all for the heaviest, fastest sleds," said Holly S. Anderson, cochair of the organizing committee.

Bruce Richards is a team member of the four-person team, Big Kahoonas, which won first place in 1994, 1995, and 2005. PenBayPilot learned about their secret sauce to fast sledding in a story called You've gotta have brass ones to hang with the Big Kahoonas.

His brother, Sean Richards, was on a rival team, Throbbin Boggins, which started racing in 1992. Big Kahoonas started the following year.

"Sibling rivalry is in full swing not only during the event, but pretty much all year, making sure to rub in whoever places better over the years!" said Bruce Richards. "We have a 28-foot snowmobile trailer with heat and a couple of kegs, and we grill our own food all weekend. We usually have about 50 people hanging out with us and cheering both teams on. We like to have a good time and support the community."

Costumes and Tobogganville

One of the most fun aspects of the weekend is the themed costumes that racing teams and their entourage wear, as featured in numerous Pen Bay Pilot past stories and galleries. Every year, locals and visitors come up with a group theme and costume that is usually a pun on their team name, sledding, snow, or ice.

Then, there's the natural coalescence of Tobogganville, a self-made temporary village of ice shack tailgating parties, complete with fire pits, barbeques, and a bottle of the hard stuff sitting in the snow. It's the easiest place to walk up to strangers, share a bite, and have a laugh. See our story about that last year. 

Vendors

While some teams bring their own snacks, Toboggan Nationals brings in several food trucks to satisfy the hungry, thirsty crowd. In addition to the Sea Dog Brewing beer tent and the Portland Hunt+Alpine Airstream bar, this year’s vendors include Gunslingers Barbecue, Portable Pie Place, Tinder Hearth Pizza and the Black Sheep Foodtruck.

You Might Get On TV

Historically, the event draws media from around the state, such as Maine's WMTW, WABI, and WCSH-6. This year, Télévision Française 1 will be roaming around Hosmer Pond and Tobogganville. 

"We also have a TV crew from Washington D.C.; they're coming up on Friday and Saturday to shoot footage for a story," said Anderson.

Additionally, StreamState, Maine's first streaming hub for hyper-local content, will also be on hand both Saturday and Sunday, capturing a variety of footage for a livestream that you can watch for free here. (See our past Pen Bay Pilot story on who they are here.)

"We'd love to do more storytelling around the history, and the culture of the toboggan racers," said Rory Strunk, CEO of Streamstate, whose trailer will be positioned at the bottom of the chute while they catch the action. "Some of these racers are coming for two or three generations; they're coming from 32 states around the country. We'll be doing interviews and collecting stories all during the 14 hours of coverage."

Weather looking frosty

This coming weekend, Accuweather predicts the temperature will be about 21 degrees on Saturday and 12 degrees on Sunday. The surge of teams participating this year reflects that, said Anderson.

"We had 381 teams in 2025 and 342 teams in 2024, but this year we sold out with 413 teams registered to race and I think the weather is a big factor for that," she said. "It just has everyone thinking winter and that's what hadeveryone signing up and filling the rosters early."

What that means for the average attendee—especially first timers—is layers! Hats, ear warmers, heavy gloves, neoprene underlayers, hand warmers, insulated bibs and pants, boots and ice cleats are highly recommended.

In past years, the weather has been unpredictable. Some years were warmer than normal, resulting in an ice luge of slush at the bottom of the chute, while there have been several years with blizzard conditions, forcing the event to take place on one day only.

Bigger and better... but still the same

Twenty years ago, in 2005, the revenue budget for the toboggan race weekend was $5,000. Today, it stands at more than $80,000.

"It's amazing that for several years now, we've been able to net $50,000 to $60,000 from this event, which goes back into Camden Snow Bowl programming," said Anderson.

"Watching over the years, one of the reasons we've got so many people coming back year after year and participating and so many teams racing is that we haven't changed much of the event itself," said Anderson. "The chute is the same. We haven't added a second chute or another division. The venue hasn't expanded. We haven't done many wholesale changes to this event. We still have volunteers handwriting the scores on a dry-erase board with Sharpies. People rely on that and it keeps them coming back."

To see the U.S. National Toboggan Championships' new website and daily schedule of events visit: https://toboggannationals.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKPORT—The Banff is back!

It is the 50th anniversary of both the Banff Mountain Film Festival and Maine Sport Outfitters, which has sponsored the festival since 2001. The annual mountain festival's world tour once again will land in the Midcoast on February 6 and 7. The Camden Hills Regional High School Ampitheatre in Rockport will screen a different selection of films for two nights, about 2.5 hours long with an intermission.

The programs are divided into three programs each night. Each name is nature-inspired, but not organized around pre-set themes. Each program features a curated mix of films across different outdoor pursuits, lengths, and storytelling styles.

The Camden Hills Regional High School Ampitheatre will screen the following:

Friday, February 6th at 7 p.m. - Serac Program
Saturday, February 7th at 3 p.m. - Crevasse Program
Saturday, February 7th at 7 p.m. - Moraine Program 

Click on each program to see the full roster of films.

"The films look as fun as ever," said Jeff Boggs, the equipment buyer for Maine Sport Outfitters, and who is a coordinator for the festival. Some standouts, according to Boggs, in each program that audiences found the most popular include:

Serac Program

Old Man Lightning 2025 Best Film: Climbing

The best climbing, comedy, comeback ever made, with a conservation plight. It will make you laugh and cry and maybe pee yer pants.

"Old Man Lightning is one of my favorites," said Boggs. "It's the story of Verm, a climber famous for bouldering. He wears out his body and devotes his life to photographing birds and saving the Condors. He gets the itch to return to bouldering, and his rehab is documented in the film. Humorous, spectacular bird photos, and entertaining!"

Crevasse Program

Reel Rock: Riders on the Storm

Big wall climber Siebe Vanhee enlists Drew Smith and fellow Belgian countrymen Nico Favresse and Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll to attempt the first free ascent of the elusive Riders on the Storm route on the East Face of Patagonia’s Torre Central.

"Riders on the Storm is an epic big wall climb with some wild and crazy climbers," said Boggs. "A good presentation of life on a big wall climb."

Moraine Program

Best Day Ever *2025 Best Film: Mountain Sports /2025 Audience Choice Award

Best Day Ever follows the stories of adaptive mountain bikers Greg Durso and Allie Bianchi as they navigate the relentless challenges of their disabilities with humour and attitude. Along the way, they embrace the tremendous support, friendship, and joy they find in their rural Vermont riding community.

"Best Day Ever tells the story of disabled cyclists and the exhilarating rides on their adaptive bicycles," said Boggs. "Thoroughly enjoyable film!"

To learn more about the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival programs through Maine Sport Outfitters, visit: Maine Sport Outfitters

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

MIDCOAST—It may be the quiet season, but in the Midcoast, the arts are still thriving. Even though 1 ½-inch snowstorms may keep us temporarily housebound, Maine arts venues are still bringing people together in the colder months. Here's a rundown of everything going on in the Midcoast to get you out of the house and engaged with your community.

Opera House Performances

• The Rockport Opera House is hosting FRIGG, a Nordic Strings concert on January 31 at 7 p.m. This internationally touring folk/roots ensemble blends Nordic tradition with contemporary string music. According to their press, "Their music is powerful, evocative, rhythmically charged, and full of the sparkling interplay that has made them ambassadors of Finland’s 'Nordgrass' sound." FMI: FRIGG
• Story Songs of the ’70s with Tom DiMenna: Coming up at the Rockport Opera House on February 1 at 4 p.m., Maine-based singer-songwriter Tom DiMenna sings songs in the maritime spirit and covers classic folk and pop songs by Gordon Lightfoot, Cat Stevens, Harry Chapin, and more. FMI: Tom DiMenna
• Trad Night is bringing Irish music to the Camden Opera House on January 30 at 7:30 p.m. with Accordion maestro Dan Possumato, guitarist and vocalist Jim Hyland, and tin whistle player Jody Johnstone. FMI: Trad Night
• The Mallet Brothers Band, featuring Chris Ross, takes the stage on February 6 at the Camden Opera House, just in time for the Toboggan Nationals weekend show. These Maine musicians with a passionate following  play alt-country to Americana, country, jam, and roots rock. FMI: Mallet Brothers Band

Art Exhibits, Studios, & Galleries

• The Farnsworth Art Museum is hosting a Farnsworth Concert Series in January/February, with intertwining music and art, featuring eight monthly concerts with an eclectic array of musical genres.  FMI: The Farnsworth Art Museum
• Center for Maine Contemporary Art is thriving this winter with Open Studios, which are ArtLab drop-ins with revolving themes, Adult Makerspaces with guest artists who inspire attendees to make hands-on art, and CMCA After Hours parties, which involve food and drink, informal curator-led tours, a chance to create, and a music playlist created by a Maine artist. And that's not all they're doing! FMI: Center for Maine Contemporary Art
• The Belfast Chamber of Commerce has a list of upcoming classes and workshops in the arts, such as glassblowing, life drawing, printmaking, comedy workshops, and more this winter. FMI: Belfast Chamber of Commerce
• Waterfall Arts is currently in the midst of its winter exhibition, with "Homegrown," in the Clifford Gallery. "The exhibition celebrates the people who make Waterfall Arts feel like home—a place rooted in shared creativity, care, and belonging." The exhibition remains on view through February 27, 2026. FMI: Waterfall Arts

Theater & Performance

• The Strand Theatre in Rockland hosts Griffin William Sherry, the Maine-born singer, songwriter, and guitarist, who is the former frontman for the Ghost of Paul Revere, on January 31 at 7:30 p.m. Many other live performances are slated this spring, so stay tuned. FMI: The Strand Theatre
• The Waldo Theatre in Waldoboro is hosting Curbside Queens on February 14 at 8 p.m. This quirky new show blends live performance and the nostalgia of music television. In a world where the media is controlled by the high elite, the Curbside Queens will go rogue, taking over the airwaves right in front of your eyes. FMI: Waldo Theatre
• Belfast Maskers kicks off its 2026 season with Below the Belt, which has been described as "Glengarry Glen Ross meets Waiting for Godot," starting March 19 and running until March 29. FMI: Belfast Maskers

Film

• The Waldo Theatre in Waldoboro has built up quite the cult film following. It plans to screen Rollerball, the 1975 flick where the ruthless corporation reigns supreme, and this vicious and barbaric "sport" is the only outlet for the pent-up anger and frustrations of the masses. The film is set to run on January 31 at 6 p.m. Accompanying the audience is Rock Coast Roller Derby, Midcoast's premier roller derby league, and Waldo After Dark. FMI: Waldo Theatre.
• The Strand Theatre in Rockland is currently screening 12 unique films in January and February. Check them out! FMI: The Strand Theatre
• Meanwhile the Colonial Theatre in Belfast is currently running four indie films worth viewing. Catch them here. FMI: Colonial Theatre
• The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour is back again in the Midcoast this year at the Camden Hills Regional High School Auditorium in Rockport, February 6-7. Hosted by Maine Sprt Outfitters, learn more about the films screening. FMI: Banff

Winterfest & The US National Toboggan Championships

• The 23rd annual Camden Winterfest is taking place in the Camden Ampitheater January 31 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with ice carving, a polar plunge, a fashion pet show, kids' activities, live music, hot food, and more. The Facebook event shows the entire itinerary and where to park. FMI: Winterfest
• The 35th annual US National Toboggan Championships takes place February 6-8 this year. I guess you could call this "toboggan arts." It has its own website now and a gallery of past fun-filled events. FMI: Toboggan Nationals

 Winter on the Midcoast isn’t an off-season — it’s a different kind of spotlight.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BUCKSPORT—In the Penobscot River harbor town of Bucksport, one joint is jumping on a Tuesday afternoon. It's the new restaurant of chef/owner Cory LaForge and, because it's Taco Tuesday—three tacos for the price of two—the place is still packed past lunch hour.

The Salsa Shack, at 84 Main Street,  is the first brick-and-mortar restaurant for LaForge.

It's been a roundabout journey for the self-made chef, and he couldn't be any happier about where it's all ended up.

Born and raised in Washington, before his family moved to Lincolnville, LaForge worked in the kitchen at the Whale's Tooth at Lincolnville Beach after high school. He worked his way up from dishwashing to chef assistant before following his buddies to Sugarloaf Mountain Resort and working at restaurants in Western Maine, "as kitchen slave labor before moving up to a chef position," he said.  "That's really where my culinary career took off, learning how to run and manage a restaurant."

While some of his friends spent their 20s in Maine, he was encouraged by other friends to travel and work in the western part of the U.S., specifically in Utah, Wyoming, and Arizona.

"I really did not know the culture shock I was going into," he said. "There were people from Canada, Montana, New Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras. It was a huge eye-opener for me to experience the different ethnicities of food and cultures."

He bounced around from Maine to Colorado and back to Maine in 2017, when he started a family and wanted to be closer to his Maine family. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in 2020, LaForge, like many people in the restaurant industry, found himself out of work.

"I was getting to the point where I was outgrowing working for other people and thought I might want to work for myself," he said.

Operating by a, "let's throw it at the wall and see if it sticks" resilience, he found an opportunity to buy a food trailer and operate it at Ellsworth Harbor Park all summer.

"At first, I was going to do some kind of smashburger," he said. "But the trailer was so small, I could not fit anything inside it except tortillas. With my experience working in restaurants, I took all of my favorite ideas to make tacos. Little did I know it was going to be a huge hit."

When the summer ended, so did the food truck opportunities. As it so happens, the Orland community center opposite his house had a commercial kitchen, where he asked if he could do food prep for the food truck.

"It worked out pretty good," he said. "The owner said, 'Why don't you sell tacos out of this kitchen for the winter?' It was like an old cafeteria, so I was sticking my head out of the lunch lady window, selling tacos."

Again, opportunity struck when he learned that just down the road, the building that once housed the popular Friars' Brewhouse Tap Room in Buckdport was for lease. 

With minimal renovations, he took in his own kitchen equipment and opened the restaurant in early December. It has been busy ever since. A two-man operation, he has help from his friend and employee, Connor MacLeod, who once helped run his father's Bucksport restaurant, MacLeods.

Thinking about how he got here in life, he said: "I don't know, I just stumbled through everything in life. I had a really good buddy who worked with me in restaurants and who also grew up in Maine; he was just stuck. He didn't want to go anywhere because Maine was all he knew, but he was heading on a downward spiral. He was working at a restaurant in Bar Harbor that had a sister restaurant in Montana and I told him he should leave Maine and go to Montana.

"I said, 'If you're in doubt you shouldn't do it, you just should.' I hooked him up with a restaurant in Montana because I knew the chef. The chef hired him; he moved out there, and it turned his life around. My buddy called me up months later and was just in such a better place, so grateful to have taken that chance."

"It's a lot like skiing," he said. "Just commit to it. Just send it."

Once the Salsa Shack gets its liquor license, which he predicts will be within a month, they'll be serving beer and wine, and simple tequila margaritas. The hours are currently 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday and may extend once the warmer months arrive.

For more info visit: The Salsa Shack.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penabypilot.com

ROCKLAND — It's closing in on one year since a group of Midcoast citizens started standing at Chapman Park in Rockland every Saturday from noon until 1 p.m. to protest the current U.S. presidential administration's policies and actions.

What started off as a local, grassroots group founded by community member James Cook has mobilized into a cohesive organization called The Audacity: CAT.

While it is apparent from their signs that the protesters are against policies of the Trump Administration, many might be surprised to know that when the group originated in January 2025, it consisted of Republicans, Democrats, and politically independent voters, said Peter Jenks, an organizer of, and spokesperson for, the group. Thus, they named themselves for their willingness, despite their differences, to take creative action together (CAT). 

Although the protesters hold different views on specific issues, they agree on seven core values: They oppose authoritarianism, bigotry, and corruption. They support inclusive democracy, equity, and freedom. And, they are committed to nonviolence in their actions.

Jenks said the protests include approximately 100 to 200 people a week, drawing Midcoast residents in a region stretching from Bristol to Belfast.

"We originally started meeting after Trump's election at the Rockland Public Library," he said. "It wasn't just a Democratic thing; people of all political sides were frustrated."

L. Miles, another activist and demonstrator with The Audacity: CAT moved with his partner to Rockland last June.

"I would see the group on the corner and started to regularly go every weekend," he said. "We've both been pretty involved in political activism since the 2018 midterms and organizing for the Democratic party. From what I know as a historian of industrial and social change, as a concerned citizen, and also, as a member of a marginalized community, I had to go into the public square to peacefully demonstrate."

Peaceful protest with signage is the most visible part of their mission. Another part of their mission is to organize and deliver citizen testimony on multiple policies and bills at the Maine State House and Rockland City Council, and to call on Maine’s members of Congress to hold an in-person town hall.

After a tense week of nationwide political division over the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officer's killing of Minneapolis protestor Renee Good, protests erupted across the U.S., according to Reuters and was followed by a call for more protests from a coalition of various groups.

In Maine, dozens of anti-ICE protests were held in the larger cities Portland, Bangor, and Augusta, as well as smaller communities and islands, including Islesboro. According to ABC News, citing a Quinnipiac University poll, 53% of registered U.S. voters thought the shooting was unjustified, while 35% said it was justified and 12% had no opinion.

Jenks said that Audacity CAT group met with Congressional Representative Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, most recently on Saturday, January 10. She had attended the Rockland protest, and standing in front of approximately 300 people, said: "This was our first week back in Washington, and you all know this has been a horrible, horrible, awful week. Our hearts go out to the good people of Minnesota and to the tragic death that did not have to happen. It was a murder. We will all be here to remember Renee Good. But all of us are here to remember the good people of Minnesota who are fighting back and standing up and saying, Not in my city. Get out of our f---- town and don't come back."

Meanwhile, across the country, the number of protests were surging and the level of violence rising. The news of ICE action in Maine this week raised anxiety levels across the state, with social media filling with warnings and observations.

Jenks said Audacity CAT is committed to nonviolence and has stuck to that principle.

"We're aware of how dangerous it can be," he said. "People will drive by in their pick-up trucks and give us the finger and shout things at us. We know the reality is that a truck could possibly drive into the crowd. We did a march around the block one time, and a car swerved in our direction and we had to get out of the way. And one counter-protester at the No Kings rally came up and threatened us. But we've been very fortunate that nothing has happened to us."

"We have a number of younger protesters who come out every week," he said. "And, given the demographics of Maine, it's going to be more common for white and older protestors to turn out, but out of all the people who need to stand up for others, it is us."

But, how effective are public protests in changing policy?

Numerous social media commenters have dismissed protesting as useless, while others say the result is more nuanced.  A review in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences studied the effectiveness of nonviolent protests and concluded: "nonviolent protests seemed to be effective at increasing mobilization among sympathizers, nonnormative protests or protests involving violence seemed to be more effective at advancing policy change among more resistant target audiences."

The January 21, 2017 Women's March, for example, drew more than 500,000 protesters in Washington, D.C., with up to four million participating in affiliated demonstrations nationwide. According to The Guardian: "research confirms that the Women’s March incited tangible change. In particular, it directly prompted an unprecedented surge in female candidates for elected office."

"There has been an unbelievable gathering of people showing up every weekend in the worst kind of weather possible, so it's been an amazing determination," said Jenks.

"The thing that brings us back every single weekend is a deep commitment to our democracy, making sure we exercise our First Amendment rights," said Miles. "Our rights are only as good as we continue to practice them. My First Amendment rights include peacefully gathering, peacefully demonstrating, and I think a lot of folks forget that the First Amendment also protects the right to peacefully determine ways they want to petition their government for a redress of grievances. I have the right to say I don't like what the government is doing and have the right to mobilize with my community."

"These protests have been a profound statement on where our community stands," said Jenks. "It's so important to make a stand to say this is not acceptable and we won't put up with the current chaos in the government. When the ultra-wealthy are spending billions of dollars to convince people through media and publications that their perception is the only perception, that's when the community needs to come together and speak out. We may not have the platforms, but we do have the street corner."

Jenks said the AudacityCAT group will hold their anniversary protest Saturday, February 7 from 12 to 1 p.m. at Chapman Park.

To learn more visit their Facebook page.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST—If you've ever strolled around the bustling United Farmers Market of Maine in Belfast and came across Claire Fuller's 'Glo's Carinderia' Filipino food stand and enjoyed her lumpia (similar to spring rolls) and other Filipino hot dishes, now you can try to make some of these recipes on your own.

Her new market, an Asian and specialty store called Glo's Market, opened in early December in Belfast at 382C Starret Drive (next to Foster's Pets store) as an offshoot retail location of her food stand.

"Every ingredient I cook at the farmer's market each weekend wasn't available here," she said. "I had to go to Portland once a month to buy cases of ingredients."

A Midcoast entrepreneur, Fuller worked at Oriental Plaza and McDonald's in Belfast, before pivoting to cooking her family's dishes for the public and selling them through the United Farmers Market of Maine in Belfast, where she still works each weekend.

"I learned a lot on the business side from those jobs, learning about ordering, scheduling, and food costs," she said.

Both the Carinderia (the Filipino word for 'eatery') and the new market are a homage to her mother, Gloria.

"I came to Maine in 2003, and three years later, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer," she said. "I told her she needed to come to the United States, and I'd pay for her treatment. In the Phillippines, if you don't have money, they [the doctors] won't even see you; they won't do surgery. So, I borrowed money to help my mother get surgery and chemotherapy, but the cancer spread throughout her body, and she died in 2008. That's why I've named my businesses after her."

Fuller said she learned how to cook from her mother by doing the prep work.

"I helped her chop all of the ingredients," she said. "She was such a really good cook. When there was a wedding in our village, they would invite her to cook, and she would never charge them; that was her gift to the bride and groom."

Her market has a front area and two back rooms, each with multiple shelves filled with Asian ingredients that are hard to find anywhere else. Dark soy sauce is the most popular item most people buy.

She sources from distributors in New York and New Jersey. Although limited space prevents her from offering fresh produce, Hannaford Supermarket is just around the corner, and Chase's Daily Farmer's Market is down the road. All of her pantry products are Filipino staples such as soy sauces, rice, cane vinegar, coconut vinegar, fish sauce, shrimp paste, banana ketchup, calamansi concentrate, Mang Tomas, Toyo-mansi, as well as seasoning packets and mixes. There are also many Pan Asian and East and Southeast Asian ingredients. In one of the back rooms, one shelving unit is dedicated entirely to Asian snacks not found anywhere else.

For many born-and-bred Mainers, who have not historically had access to a diverse array of Asian pantry ingredients, the market might seem intimidating at first, but Fuller pointed to a row of spice and sauce packets on the bottom shelf in one of the back rooms.

"You can learn how to cook just by following the directions on these spice packets," she said.

She demonstrated by pulling out a packet of spring roll shells, the kind she uses to make her own fried lumpia, the recipe her mother perfected. On the shelf next to it was a packet of Mama Sita's Lumpiang Shanhai Mix—fried roll seasoning mix with the recipe on the back. She also has the sweet chili dipping sauce to go with it, but for her food stand, she makes her own.

People can also learn how to cook this dish by following the recipe on All Recipes. More Filipino recipes can be found on dedicated food blogs like Panlasang Pinoy and Kawaling Pinoy

All of Fuller's efforts come back to her mother. "In our culture, we don't say 'I love you,' but that's how my mother showed me, by cooking," she said. "The reason she loved to cook is because she loved us. For her, cooking was love."

To follow Glo's Market, visit her Facebook page.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST—If you go to the Belfast Free Library in the Teen Room on the second floor, you'll find some sculptures that reflect gothic sensibility, childlike whimsy, and offbeat humor.

They are the creations of 16-year-old artist Tylor Cumler, a sophomore at Belfast Area High School, and the same could be said about him. His works of art could be out of a Tim Burton movie, reflecting rickety, spooky houses, steampunk creatures made from gears, bits, and bobs, and even a giant orange suspended peach reminiscent of James and the Giant Peach.

I first encountered his art at Opera House Video in Belfast around Halloween. He had created a replication of Jack Skeleton's house in The Nightmare Before Christmas.

"I like to make a lot of things from movies, like the house from the movie Up,'" he explained.

Tylor explained his process.

"I use mostly cardboard and hot glue and acrylic paints," he said. "Sometimes I just create things from my mind—just jump into it without much of a plan. I think, 'Hey, that would be a good idea for a building.' Then, I'll do a rough sketch, until then it evolves into the final product."

For other works, he has been inspired by what he browses online, such as a house he created with chicken feet.

"It's based on this Russian folktale about this witch Baba Yaga, who lives in a house that's on giant chicken feet and she eats misbehaved children," he said.

Most of his houses have the same gothic aesthetic; some sag in the middle, while others look like they could be set props in Salem's Lot.

He started crafting when he was very young.

"I've always been a creative character," he said. "I think I first started creating things after playing video games. And then, I just started to do a lot of paper craft and moved onto cardboard, making things sturdier and sturdier."

The way most of us see functional objects, such as the cap off a soda bottle, Tylor sees as potential materials for what he may make next. Some of the steampunk sculptures consist of empty Chapstick tubes or a small toy from a Kinder Egg, for example.

He showed me little cardboard ROVs (Remotely Underwater Operated Vehicles) he'd made after watching a documentary exploring the sinking of the Titanic.

"They're these little robotic submarine cameras that float through the water," he said. "Their names are Jake and Elwood."

Also inspired by ghost stories and literature. I asked him about the James and the Giant Peach sculpture that first found a home at Opera House Video before moving to the Belfast Free Library.

"You look a little younger in this picture," I said.

"Actually, that's my stunt double," he quipped.

"Is that you, or no?"

"That is, okay?"

In addition to being left-of-center, he's got a subversive sense of humor, which is not surprising.

"I'm also inspired by other YouTube crafters who make art out of junk and have my own YouTube channel," he said. "I haven't dug into the rabbit hole of TikTok yet, but YouTube is where a lot of the creators I like are."

"I feel like a 76-year-old Englishman," he said. "I picked that up from a crafting YouTuber."

His room is crowded with sculptures, he told me. He often gives the smaller ones away to friends. And, as he's already showing his work at the library and at local businesses, he is interested in putting together his first art show.

"Both my mom and dad have had art shows, and I feel like I should do one, too," he said.

Check out his work at the library up through the end of February.

Hail To The Rad Kids is an ongoing feature highlighting teens in the Midcoast with a special talent.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

MIDCOAST— Have we ever had a legit food critic in this area before? Yelpers and Facebook reviewers, notwithstanding.

We do now.

Munchies in Maine is the idea of two culinary crusaders and best pals, Ali Farrell and Bill Boyle, who bonded over their shared love of scrumptious bites and delightful sips.

The pair invited me along for a lunch date to try Darby's Restaurant, in Belfast, where we discussed the purpose of their new volunteer venture and enjoyed some great food.

Both work full-time in other professions. Farrell is a Maine-based author, entrepreneur, and publisher and Boyle whips up cocktails at multiple Midcoast establishments.

Boyle moved here three years ago from Chicago. Before moving to Maine, he dined out frequently, savoring dishes at multiple restaurants, and writing more than 700 Google reviews on every restaurant he tried, which have garnered more than 1.3 million views.

"I traveled for work for 20 years for corporate America and would stay in different cities, and wherever I went, I'd review the restaurant," said Boyle. "I wanted to show business people who were traveling to find the best spots, to get away from the tourist areas, and find the real pulse of the city."

How did they collaborate on this idea?

It started off as a friendship, where they often discussed food and dishes they'd had at various Midcoast restaurants. Farrell, who had been part of the Maine community for 40 years, had been taking notes on her own, thinking about starting a food blog on Instagram in the Midcoast before they'd even met.

"He'd already had all of these notes from his own experiences, and I ate out a lot in the North End of Boston before I moved here," she said. 'Once we met  and realized we were both obsessed with food, this idea naturally came together."

Lunch is usually their jam because Boyle bartends at night, while Farrell arranges her business hours to accommodate.

As we sat down in a booth, Boyle took a look around the restaurant.

"I love booths, he said. "Booths are the best conversation starters in dining history."

They both ordered Hornitos and soda, their go-to cocktails, before settling in for a review.

"We always say we've got to be fresh, so we tell ourselves: 'Don't get cray cray on the Ho Ho,'" said Farrell.

As their website tagline states, "We’re here for great food, strong drinks, and hearing cool stories."

For our lunch, Boyle ordered the Big Buddha Bowl (rice noodles tossed with chicken, bell peppers, mushrooms, bok choy, sprouts, scallions soy sauce and sesame oil). Farrell ordered the Pad Thai (chicken tossed with rice noodles, scallions, and eggs, topped with a satay sauce and crushed peanuts), and I ordered the Fiesta Salad (chicken chili with cashews, melted cheddar, shredded lettuce, diced tomato, salsa, sour cream, scallions, and black olives).

While I've been going to Darby's Restaurant for 30 years, this was Boyle's first time. They were impressed with the quality of the dishes (which you'll have to read about in their review), but they also enjoyed the atmosphere of the 1867 restaurant, with its antique high-backed stained glass bar, tin ceilings, and paintings on the walls from local artists.

And, true to the nature of Maine's close-knit community, we called over owner Cory Chase and longtime server Jodi Young to chat with us about the history of the restaurant.

Munchies in Maine's approach to food reviews doesn't discriminate. They're just as at home reviewing homemade smashburgers and chili at Myrtle Street Tavern as they are enjoying and writing about rare tuna served over coconut rice with asparagus at Franny's Bistro.

So far, with 15 reviews under their belt, mostly throughout the Midcoast and Damariscotta, they're not the kind of foodie snob food critic villainized in movies such as 'Ratatouille' and 'Chef'; on the whole, their reviews strive to share the real experience.

Boyle said they often visit a restaurant five or six times, ordering different dishes to sample, before writing about a restaurant.

"There are places that sometimes have dishes that crush and dishes that miss," he said. "Maybe one dish wasn't our favorite, but another one was fantastic."

"Whether it's high end or a local favorite, we love meeting people next to us, talking with the staff; that's all part of it," said Farrell.

"The food scene is so good around here, and they're all doing good stuff," said Boyle. "But it's also about the energy and the vibe in each place too, that we want to share. In our reviews, we also mention how you feel when you're in a place—do you feel comfortable, cozy, excited?"

Sharing the work, the duo said they both contribute to the writing and editing of each review, while Farrell, a professional book designer, handles the online publication.

"She's great at pulling in the history and background, because she's been here longer than I have," Boyle said.

Currently, they're just enjoying the process and paying for each lunch or dinner out of pocket. While there are some plans in the works to monetize the reviews online eventually, they do sell some merchandise on the website to defray some of the costs.

Munchies in Maine has caught on with more than 600 Facebook followers. They were even recognized out on the street recently, with someone calling out "Hey Munchies!" to their delight.

"We're just doing it because we love it," said Farrell. "We're eventually going to work our way all over Maine."

"Maybe even over the border," added Boyle. "But she's gonna need a passport."

"We're gonna need a bigger boat," said Farrell.

Having fun is what it's all about for these two.

To read their reviews follow Muchies in Maine on Facebook.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

A group in Waldo County believes it is a fundamental human right to be able to eat fresh fruit and vegetables.

Its members comprise Waldo County Bounty, a community-based organization that delivers fresh, locally grown food to people in need.

The organization was founded in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, and was built by and for the local community. It remains one of the few organizations in Maine acting as a bridge between local farmers and people facing food insecurity. Their secret weapon was aligning with Daybreak Growers Alliance (DGA), a women-owned business that networks and distributes to nearly 30 local farms.

"We were born out of necessity and came together with the help of people from all walks of life, including musicians, nonprofit activists and farmers with distribution routes," said Mattie John Bamman, communications coordinator for Waldo County Bounty.

The 2024 Maine Shared Community Health Needs Assessment, produced by the Maine Center for Disease Control, reported that 13.9% of the Waldo County population experiences food insecurity, including 20.4% of children. But, working families in the Midcoast do not need a report to know that despite earning an income technically above the poverty line, many struggle to afford basic necessities, such as housing, food, and childcare.

The Waldo County Bounty oversees a Farm-to-Pantry program, by which they buy fresh food from local farms and distribute it to food pantries and soup kitchens in Waldo County. 

With the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s cancellation of $1.25 million in funding over the next three years, food banks and those who rely on them will suffer, making Waldo County Bounty's mission even more paramount.

"With more volunteer engagement than ever before, our programs have so far distributed 53,000 pounds of produce and nearly 30,000 vegetable seedlings to 14 food pantries and other food access sites countywide," the organization's Nov. 14 annual appeal letter said. "These nutritious, locally grown foods and food sources make the difference for Waldo County households who lost significant access to fresh food due to federal funding cuts."

"We fortunately have not had any of our funding cut because we focus on local, grassroots funding and grants, but some of our partners are losing funding, and some of the local farms we buy from are losing funding," Bamman said. "We are currently hustling to raise funds to respond to both critical funding losses."

WCB's Veggies For All Gleaning program coordinates volunteers to harvest ripe crops from partnering farms and deliver them to food pantries and soup kitchens. They also offer a gardening program that provides free seeds and seedlings to help local residents share with neighbors or donate excess homegrown food to hunger relief programs.

Perhaps the most visible part of Waldo County Bounty's work in the Midcoast is its Give & Take Program. Likely, you have seen one of the 23 open-air farm stands scattered around Waldo County, and which are heaped with fruits and vegetables, all free for the taking from June to October. The concept is simple: Instead of dropping a donation into a coffee can, there is simply a notebook to record produce you have donated.

The concept of the Give & Take Program appeals to many whose biweekly paychecks may not cover necessities but who won't go to food banks for fear of the stigma.

"The farm stand was designed during Covid-19, so that people did not have to interact with each other; but, it has worked out well afterward because stigma is a huge problem for hunger relief," said Bamman. "A lot of Mainers are too proud to accept a handout."

Give & Take started with nine stands in 2020, and has since grown to 23, with nearly one in every town in Waldo County. The 300 volunteers make it all happen.

"You wouldn't believe the number of people involved in this program, from the Maine State Prison Woodworking Program helping to build Give & Take stands and signs, to local builders and local gardeners," he said.

Since its inception, Waldo County Bounty has distributed fresh food to 8,000 Mainers annually. Overall, they distributed more than 265,000 of fresh vegetables and fruits to food banks, and soup kitchens, and other food-access sites, with an average of 60,000 pounds given away each year.

"Daybreak Growers Alliance distribution routes have been the key to our success," he said. "We're able to transfer food across the county through them."

For more information, or to learn about volunteering, visit waldocountybounty.org

For 2026, there is a widespread desire for a fresh start, with nearly half of Americans (49%) believing 2026 will be "their year," according to an article "What Are Americans' New Year's Resolutions for 2026?" And it all starts December 31, which falls on a workday Wednesday this week. Belfast has plenty going on this year on New Year's, so check it out.

Whether you’re a day partier, a happy-hour-then-bag-it-and-go-home type, or a diehard up ‘til midnight and beyond, Penobscot Bay Pilot has the complete rundown on what’s happening for New Year’s Eve in the Midcoast, including new venues and events. Enjoy your night, and stay safe!

Belfast

· All Ages: Join the Belfast Community Co-op and Waterfall Arts at 3 to 5 p.m. as they celebrate New Year's Eve by making fun party hats for Last Night Belfast. This event is free, and everyone is welcome to come.  They will have all of the supplies you need to make your very own hat, along with hot cocoa, cookies, and snacks. FMI: DIY New Year's Eve Party Hats

· All Ages: Magic, Juggling, and Mime with Bob Lloyd. Starting at 4:30 p.m. at the Belfast Maskers Theater, experience a fast-paced blend of magic, juggling, and mime sure to captivate audiences of all ages. Freely offered, donations welcome. FMI: Magic, Juggling, and Mime

All Ages: Belfast Last Night, an all-volunteer-run organization, will host Megan Pinette, Belfast Historical Society & Museum president, in The Abbott Room, Belfast Free Library, starting at 6:00 pm. For her program, she will present, “Hello America, The Experimental Radio Corporation Station in Belfast Makes Global History.” FMI: Belfast Last Night

· All Ages: The Belfast Maskers are kicking off the evening's entertainment with Captain Obvious a rock band at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free. FMI: Belfast Maskers

· All Ages: "Hit the Hay" Parade. A new Last Night Belfast tradition-an early New Year’s Eve parade! Meet at the Belfast Maskers’ Theater at 7 p.m. to join the procession down Main Street to the Brigham Green Park for a countdown and sparklers. Everyone is encouraged bring a musical instrument or noise-maker and a lantern. FMI: 'Hit the Hay' Parade.

· All Ages: The American Legion Hall is hosting a New Year's party with Phil Hummer & The White Falcons as well as other performers from 7 to 11:30 p.m. $10 tickets at the door/or pay what you can. Cash bar. FMI: The American Legion

· All Ages:  The Belfast Maskers’ are hosting one of Midcoast Maine’s hottest bands, The Sugar Snaps! from 8 to 9:30 p.m. Free show. Tips greatly appreciated! FMI: The Sugar Snaps

· Adults: New Year's Eve at the Commons. DJ Robby Neighbor @xo_sandoz will be playing the best dance music selections all night, starting at 8 p.m. $10 at the door, 21+ only (IDs will be checked at the door). The Commons is right down the street from the bonfire at midnight. FMI: The Commons

· Adults: Must Be Nice is throwing its first NYE party with DJ Harold from 9 p.m. onward. No cover. FMI: Must Be Nice

Camden-Rockport

· All Ages: The annual Holiday on the Harbor festivities will begin in the village as the sun sets at 4:30 p.m. Ring in the New Year right! Luminaries will light the way - food trucks and fire pits will be available, and a DJ will be spinning with Fireworks lighting off at 6 p.m. over the harbor. FMI: Holiday on the Harbor.

· Adults: The Rockport Opera House will be rocking in the New Year with The Right Track, starting at 7 p.m. The all-inclusive ticket includes dancing and dinner, with catered light fare provided by The Villager Cafe. (Cash bar available on site). Tickets are $40. FMI: Rockport Opera House

· Adults: The Vintage Room is doing a 1920s-inspired New Year's party from 5 p.m. to 12 a.m. with live jazz by Bobby Katz from 8–10 p.m. Dress-up is optional—1920s speakeasy vibes. FMI: The Vintage Room

· Adults: Ring in the New Year at Samoset Resort. Enjoy an evening filled with dancing, a cash bar, and live entertainment from Creatures of Habit. Registered hotel guests enjoy automatic entry to the event. Attendees must be 21 years or older. FMI: The Samoset Hotel

Rockland

· Parents and Kids: The Rockland Public Library is celebrating the upcoming new year with a party in the Children's Room starting at 11 a.m. Join Miss Katie for a special New Year's storytime, crafts, and activities. Listen to stories, dance, sing, decorate your own party hat, and then help us countdown to noon. FMI: Rockland Public Library

· Adults: High Tide is hosting a New Year's Eve '80s party with Deadly Desire starting at 9:30 p.m. FMI: High Tide

· Adults: Join Ada's Kitchen for New Year’s Eve featuring DJ Johan Churchill playing disco and funky vinyl, from 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. FMI: Ada's Kitchen

Searsport

· Parents and Kids: The Carver Memorial Library is ringing in the new year during a mid-day celebration featuring crafts for kids, a photo booth, and festive party favors starting at 11 a.m. The countdown will begin at 11:59. They'll toast the new year (with sparkling water) at noon. FMI: Carver Memorial Library

Note: If your establishment isn’t listed here, it’s because either we were unable to find any details of your event posted online, or it was restaurant seating only, not a public party. We will be adding more details and more New Year's events as they become available. Please check back! To contact us with more details, email  news@penbaypilot.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN—The Devil's Pride motorcycle club has tender hearts when it comes to at-risk youth.

This past fall, the motorcycle club held a fundraising barbecue with the intent to donate the proceeds to a local cause.

They raised $4,000 and handed the check to Jed Schwalm, Executive Director of Atlantic Academy, Inc., a special purpose private school in Camden, which serves nearly 30 Midcoast children and teens.

"We've reorganized the club this year with the goal of donating to at least one organization per year that benefits the people in our area," said Robert "Biker Bob" Sheehan, club president. Through a mutual colleague who provides transport for some Atlantic Academy students, he learned of the school and its purpose and brought the idea back to his club.

"We tried to come up with a way to be beneficial to those kids," he said. "We put on a big chicken barbecue event at the Oddfellows Club in Warren, and we had quite the turnout." 

The club name "Devil's Pride" means "positive self worth or cultural pride," explained Roland "Poet" Pease, the Sgt. at Arms for the club.  "For five years, we've been giving donations to a good cause and that's why we chose Atlantic Academy."

Atlantic Academy

The Atlantic Academy was founded in 2017 by Schwalm, a Board Certified Behavioral Analyst. It is located on Knowlton Street, in the old YMCA teen center. It operates like a regular school, Monday through Friday, and provides highly individualized, skills-based treatment and education to children with social, emotional, and behavioral deficits.

"Students whose needs are well beyond what public schools' capacity can provide for are referred to Atlantic Academy by special education directors, and public schools provide the tuition," said Schwalm.

"These kids are coming from the hardest backgrounds with ongoing trauma," he added. The school also serves the needs of students with autism.

The curriculum teaches the students skills that result in greater independence and inclusion, and a more enriched quality of life, according to the school's website.

"We have almost the same ratio of students to staff, and our goal is to meet their emotional and social needs and get them back into public schools," he said.

"When Bob called us, we didn't expect it since we only have enough funding for our students for day-to-day programming, so we're using their funds to give the students the same kind of experiences that public schools have the resources for," said Schwalm.

Atlantic Academy prioritizes experiential education in the outdoors, field trips, and social emotional programming, and these are the kinds of activities that the Devil's Pride donation are earmarked for.

For example, the Academy recently took all of the kids skiing at the Camden Snow Bowl.

"We try to get these kids out in nature as much as possible because it is so therapeutic," said Schwalm. "A lot of these students are coming from impoverished backgrounds, so some of the funds we receive outfit them with the kinds of equipment they need to be outside in a Maine winter, pants, gloves, all of it."

Occasionally, being outside skiing or ice skating for a day meets these kids' needs in a way that sitting eight hours in public school cannot. "We take them on activities that they can be embodied in, find success in," he said. "They get therapeutic benefits from moving around, getting exercise, combined with the emotional benefits in terms of regulation, finding confidence, and mastering a hard skill.

When the students come back from an outdoor activity like this, Schwalm said, "They are so proud. We see more regulated kids with more confidence."

For one Devil's Pride member, this donation was special.

"I have custody of my grandson, age five, who is on the spectrum of autism, and donating to this cause is close to my heart," said Pease. "Our goal is to support our community in any way we can, supporting those in need."

"It always feels good to do a good thing," said Sheehan. 

Learn more at Atlantic Academy.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Nature has a palette, and artist Gabrielle Benzie is the paintbrush. 

When Benzie was a little girl playing outside in her backyard in Camden, she would often gravitate toward the neighbor's field.

"As a kid, we would spend hours back there, playing and exploring, making play houses, and collecting things," she said.

Those carefree childhood moments stuck with her while she went on to study graphic design and digital media at the Savannah College of Art and Design before completing her degree at Northern Vermont University.

One day, reading a big, heavy, family book at her mother's home, a pressed purplish leaf fell out of the book pages.

"It could have been a pressing from my grandmother or my mother, but I was just in awe," she said. "It came to me at a time when I was craving to get back into art. That leaf inspired me to go do pressings again."

She created her first piece in San Diego and developed a small collection, which was featured in a San Diego gallery.

"That really lit my fire," she said.

While working and traveling, she took the creative life path as an artist, forager, and flower preservationist, creating the business Forage & Press. Now back in Camden, she works part-time at The Waterfront and uses the rest of her time in her studio, or out on foraging walks.

Her artwork is lovely, fragile, and exquisite in the form of large-scale botanical portraits made up entirely of hand-picked, pressed and arranged flowers, ferns, foliage and wild grasses. 

"For commissions, I'll often use the buyers' flowers, such as from a wedding bouquet," she said.

During the high season, she forages fields, roadsides, and her own backyard for wildflowers, ferns and grasses, pressing them immediately after harvesting to preserve their color and vibrancy. Once dried, the botanicals are carefully stored until the off- season, when she creates her large-format collages. Each original composition can take 80 to 100 hours to complete, with every petal, stem, and leaf thoughtfully arranged into place.

Her art collection includes a mossy green "Cedar Lake" theme, a spring-like "Hosmer Pond Forage," a striking contrast called "Midnight Harvest," and a soft, elegant "Vintage Garden."

While other artists might be satisfied to exhibit and sell, Benzie has diversified her business using the skills she developed as a graphic designer. She digitizes each original art piece into multiple reproductions for framing. That's not all; she further extrapolates each design into products, such as totes, tea towels, artistic shells, wildflower beeswax tapers and clay vessels. She sells those in retail shops and through the summer Maker's Market in Rockland.

Through the fall, she is out scanning roadside ditches again. She's also walking alongside beaches for her next collection, an original piece in the scheme of blue inspired by the ocean.

To see them in person, her originals are currently on view at Harbor Square Gallery in Camden. 

To see her work, visit forageandpress.com

WASHINGTON — Some musicians play in the bright, major keys, and some play in the somber, minor keys.

Finlay Donaghy, 14, is a self-taught photographer who, I'd say, uses his camera in the minor keys, creating atmospheric, muted prints.

"I see the images in my head first, then try to capture the photo the way I saw it in my mind," he told me in a sit-down at the library.

His work has been on display the Gibbs Library in Washington since the beginning of November until the end of this month. He had his first formal art reception on Sunday, December 7, and sold six prints, a major feat for someone so young.

His exhibit, called "The World as I See It," drews the community and even some of his friends, who'd never attended an art reception before. 

"It was such a great experience to be 14 and be able to do this," he said.

The piano metaphor comes into play with one of his framed prints, a forced perspective of an old piano sitting outside in the woods at dusk, with two burnt matches lying on the keys.

"We had a piano in our house that was old, out of tune, and couldn't be fixed, so we were going to set it on fire," he said. "We were going to take the ivory off and burn the rest in a burn pile. It was last winter, at 4 p.m., and getting dark. I liked the colors outside; I liked editing it. I was trying to figure out what emotion I wanted to put into this piece. I looked at this moment as frozen in time and printed it out."

He is constantly trying to improve on his last photograph, and admitted to taking 300 pictures of this piano before he was satisfied.

He uses his iPhone camera and a tiny Akaso camera, which is like a tiny Go Pro, as well as editing apps.

As a freshman at Medomak Valley High School, he is furthering his interests by taking a photography class. But, just in the thoughtful, measured way he speaks and how he forms a deep attachment to the subject matter, it's clear he has an intuitive eye.

His photos have the quality of the detached observer whose subjects don't know he's there. And manipulating the fish eye lens in his some of his work almost feels like we're all sharing his dream. A frequent subject in his work is his twin sister, Erin.

"She's with me everywhere," he said. "She's always willing to be my subject, and in some of these photos, it's like we've created a story, and she is the narrative."

It is also interesting how he can take the light of day and edit the print make it seem oppressive. "I want people to look at my work and not be scared, but not be happy," he said.

In one sense, Gen Z teens have access to the kind of technology that Gen X kids only wish they'd had. I mentioned that when we were teens, we had traditional cameras, and unless you had access to a school dark room, you had to wait a week until the film was developed by Foto-Hut. And, there was no editing of the photos.

The freedom with which this generation can download apps to edit creative work is enviable. But, the amount of easily downloadable tools can also be overwhelming, and some kids don't get beyond the creative phase before they're onto the next shiny tool.

It takes a lot for a young creator to put together a body of work and put it out there in the public like he did.

"I was really thrilled for the opportunity and to share with my community what I've been doing," he said. "But, I was being vulnerable with this show. Because this is new to me—what if people don't like it?"

Still, the drive outweighed the fear. "I put so much time into these photos, and they felt so personal to me that I wanted to show people how much hard work went into each one of these frames," he said. "The feedback I got, and the positive reinforcement, was really important."

His drive, his skill, and his humbleness, are going to take him far.

You can still catch his gallery of work at the Gibbs Library until the end of the month.

Kay Stephens can be beached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND — Roasty's, Portland's roast beef sandwich shop, quietly made an appearance in Main Street Markets' kitchen last week for two days, delighting locals.

It seemed like a random collaboration until the connection was revealed. Co-owner Jenn Rockwell is also the owner of Roasty's, the casual eatery she founded quietly last year.

"We had a very niche, very regionally specific concept of what a roast beef sandwich should be," said Rockwell, "We make sure it's perfectly, consistently cooked every time."

Rockwell said people have an emotional attachment to what the perfect roast beef sandwich is, particularly because so many regions in the U.S. claim theirs is the best.

For that reason, she traveled around the U.S. to taste-test roast beef sandwiches, and the variations are reflected in the menu.

Signature sandwiches are made in the styles of Boston and the North Shore, Buffalo, Chicago, L.A., New Jersey and Philadelphia.

"People have a clear idea of what they want from these regions," she said. "It has to be the right topping, the right bread, the right temperature — rare — the perfect cut, and the perfect au jus, and until recently, you could only get that sandwich if you went to these regions."

Everything on the menu can be augmented with homemade sides and sauces, and, of course, the star, au jus.

"We take all of the trimmings and that gets braised to make a really rich and delicious au jus," she said.

Rockwell said she made the choice to open Roasty's in Portland because there was more volume and better numbers. She lives in Rockland, managing Main Street Markets, while her manager, Sean Williams, handles the Portland shop.

Williams comes up on his days off (Mondays and Tuesdays) to run the Roasty's pop-up in Rockland. Meanwhile, Rockwell travels down several times a month to Portland to handle business details of her shop. 

"Everyone has been curious about the sandwich shop in Portland, wondering what I've been up to," she said. "We've really wanted a way to introduce it to the public in Rockland."

Rockwell said one of the reasons the casual eatery has been so under the radar is that they did a number of pop-ups prior to opening in Portland to get customer feedback.

"There's no sugarcoating an opinion in this state," she said.

"The first week has already been a hit with great feedback and plenty of 'OMG' texts," she said. "We hope to see familiar faces, keep the momentum going, and maybe even explore future pop-ups or a more permanent spot down the line."

The Rockland menu is going to be slightly pared down from the Portland menu.

They're set up inside the Main Street Markets Gallery (adjacent to the market and café at 435 Main Street) every Monday and Tuesday in December from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., when their Portland shop is closed.

For more info visit: https://www.eatroastys.com/menu

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Some people who get up at 6:30 in the morning to run post-Thanksgiving-themed marathons.

Then there's the rest of us, staring into our refrigerators on Friday, November 28, thinking, "What am I going to do with all of these leftovers?"

The most common ways to reuse Thanksgiving leftovers are making sandwiches, casseroles, and soups, but today we're going to elevate that concept with individual mini turkey pot pies, made super posh by substituting pie crust for puff pastry.

After a huge meal yesterday, you thought you were going to cut down on calories today? Nope. Save those flights of fancy for your New Year's resolutions. These little pies, while high in protein, rich in vitamins and fiber, are a bit high in fat due to the puff pastry, but you'll only need about a fourth of a sheet, which, at the max, is about 225 calories.

Posh Mini Turkey Pot Pies

• 2 cups cooked turkey breast, shredded
• 2 tbsp butter
• ½ yellow onion
• 1 ½ celery sticks, diced
• 1 ½ carrots, skinned, diced
• 1 cup green peas
• ¼ cup flour
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 2 tbsp dry sherry
• salt and pepper to taste
• puff pastry thawed to room temperature
• 1 egg, beaten to brush on puff pastry crust

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Add butter to a saute pan and cook the onions, celery, and carrots until soft. Whisk in flour, then heavy cream. Stir in chicken stock and sherry. Bring to a low heat until the mixture thickens, then add the peas, turkey, thyme, salt, and pepper. Fill each ramekin. Cut the puff pastry sheet to ramekin size, so that the sides hang over slightly. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake for about 30 minutes until the tops get golden brown.

This recipe serves two, but one pie can be covered with tin foil and frozen. Congratulate all of those people who completed marathons, because this is the only exercise you're going to do today.

Kay Stephens is a home cook with a penchant for recipes and a reporter for Penobscot Bay Pilot. Her dishes are decent enough, but not Instagram-worthy.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND—Rockland’s creative economy just got a zesty boost with the arrival of Lemon Bar, a stylish yet comfortably down-to-earth new spot at 305 Main Street.

Owners Carly and Wesley Summers made the permanent move to Maine from Nashville, Tennessee, a year and a half ago after Wesley completed a three-month class at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship. Having both worked in restaurants—often together, most of their careers—the time and place felt right to open up their own cocktail and wine bar with the tagline: "A sweet bar for sour people."

The dream was 10 years in the making, long before they got married, and as of November 7, Lemon Bar has opened its doors.

Once known as The Brass Compass, the newly revamped space feels like a retro-vibe cocktail lounge, with faux lime-wash walls that make you think you're sitting at the bottom of a swimming pool. Wesley carved the sapele wood wraparound bar, and they both added comfortable chairs and a lounge area in the back. A woodworking friend helped them decorate the place, providing a handmade chess set and a unique bathroom door.

"Everything in this place has a story," Carly said.

The menu concept is high-low, with a sophisticated wine list, a robust cocktail list, and a working-class beer lineup (Miller Lite, Narragansett), as well as boilermakers, such as a Dressed Tecate and Tequila. Bar snacks are also simple: bar nuts, olives, a tin fish plate, and of course, a lemon bar. There are also N/A options, spritzes and a "tiny 'tini" for $6.

"Our friends in Nashville owned a bar and ran the tiny dirty 'tinis, and it was a huge hit, so we brought it here," she said.

While Carly handles the administrative side and the wine menu, Wesley is comfortable behind the bar slinging cocktails. "We were trained by the same people at the restaurants where we worked, and I feel we have the same style," she said.

The public has been appreciative, said Carly. "People have come up to us and thanked us for opening this spot," she said. "We just wanted to create a space that felt comfortable. We really wanted to embody the feeling of being in someone's home.

The Lemon Bar's winter hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 5 to 10 p.m. For more info visit their Instagram page.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Thanksgiving is one of those mix-and-match holidays where people open their homes to family, friends, even strangers, to enjoy a communal fall meal together and to give thanks...for, let's face it,...even being fortunate to have food on the table these days.

Often, family and Friendsgivings are potluck style. BYOB and bring-a-dish. For anyone who wants a departure from Ambrosia salad and green bean casserole, here's a seasonal recipe requires minimal effort to bring to the table.

You can buy a quality frozen ravioli; I recommend Terra Cotta Pasta ravioli from Hannaford Supermarkets or Trader Joe's four-cheese ravioli.

I bought one of those little pasta makers this summer, so I decided not to make it easy on myself and make the ravioli from scratch for this recipe. I'm no Ina Garten, just a home cook, but if saving over 500 TikTok recipe videos has taught me one thing, it's that I will try and try to make something until it looks passable.

Onward.

Savory Pumpkin Cream Sauce over Four-Cheese Ravioli

First, do not do what I did—buy pumpkin pie filling. It's too sweet and spiced. What you need instead is pure pumpkin puree, such as Nature's Promise Organic 100% pumpkin, also found at Hannaford's. Every mistake I make in cooking is like driving in Boston. One wrong turn and I'll never forget that again.

Recipe for one or two people.

• 10 raviolis
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• Several cloves roasted of garlic
• 1/2 white onion
• 1 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon ground sage
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• Salt and pepper
• Red pepper flakes to taste
• Parsley for garnish

Cook the ravioli in a large pot of salted, boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes, until they float to the top, reserving a half cup of pasta water before draining. In a saucepan, sauté onion for three to four minutes, then mash in the roasted garlic along with heavy cream, Parmesan cheese, nutmeg, sage, salt, and pepper. Blend until smooth and creamy. Let it simmer in a saucepan for three to four minutes, adding reserved pasta water, until slightly thickened.

Serve the drained ravioli with a good drizzle of the pumpkin cream sauce and top with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese, a few red pepper flakes, and a sprig of parsley.

The pumpkin in this dish does not overwhelm at all; it's a decadent bite of the gooey four-cheese ravioli topped with a mild, savory cream sauce with a tiny kick of red pepper. You can make the sauce ahead, freeze it, and assemble in the kitchen in minutes. Enjoy your Thanksgiving and feed a friend!

Kay Stephens is a home cook with a penchant for recipes and a reporter for Penobscot Bay Pilot. Her dishes are decent enough, but not Instagram-worthy.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST—Sadie Samuels, a young lobsterman who got her start in the restaurant industry in 2019 with a food truck in Belfast  named Must Be Nice Lobster, has expanded her enterprise into the former Dockside Restaurant space just up the street. They held the grand opening Wednesday, November 5.

Belfast doesn't have a lot of zones for restaurant spaces that aren't already in use, so when Jeff and Lisa Mosher, owners of Dockside Restaurant, told Samuels that they wanted to spend more time with their family, she jumped at the chance to take over the restaurant.

"Our biggest thing was wanting to stay in Belfast, the community that built us," said Samuels. "It was the best opportunity we had."

The restaurant with the harbor views has been updated with Samuels' beachy decor. Going from a 14 x 8-foot truck to 2,960 square feet was "surrea,l" in Samuels' words.

One of Dockside's customer favorites has remained on the Must Be Nice menu: the dill haddock burger, a recipe that longtime server Darlene Ginn said was the most requested sandwich during her time at Dockside.

"It's a creamy dill dressing we made in-house, instead of tartar sauce with lettuce, pickles, and a fried onion in between the buns," she said. "Sandra, the original owner of Dockside, invented it way back when I first started working for them 25 years ago. I was glad they kept a couple of items from the old menu on the new menu."

Other notable favorites from the lobster shack menu that will be reprised in the new space include the lobster roll flight, featuring full-size lobster rolls three ways and crab rolls.

"All the classics from the food truck menu are still available," said Clarissa Wetmore, general manager, who goes by the nickname Red. "Just ask."

While Dockside has long had a good reputation with locals and tourists, the change in ownership means there will be more evening activities for younger people, such as karaoke and trivia, and a bar open until 12 a.m.

"We're going to bring new experience and perspective to the event space and will be bringing in different types of entertainment for the community," said Wetmore.

The restaurant plans to be open year-round, even when Samuels takes a break from lobster fishing in December.

"I have been able to stock up on lobster while I've been fishing, but I also have access to other guys who are lobster fishing offshore this winter," she said. "It allows me to bring in the quality of seafood that we stand behind."

For someone who has had many "firsts" in her life, including being interviewed by The Today Show, this next phase as a restaurateur is just as exciting.

"It's always been my dream to own a restaurant, but when I was in the throes of it, it was hard to see that happen," said Samuels. "I've been so busy working, but I'm really grateful because I'd never be able to do this without my team. I walk in and it's like 'holy cow — we did it!'"

Learn more about the restaurant's hours and upcoming events on their Facebook page.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST—Last week, on November 1, when the distribution of SNAP benefits for millions of people stopped, neighbors stepped up their support with many donating to food banks. In Belfast, Nautilus Seafood & Grill's owners, Shawna Aitken, Shelly Trisch, and Mary Marchini, came up with a novel idea to help in their own way. They created a Community Menu available for takeout only, free of charge to every SNAP recipient who presented their card to the host. 

Their motivation for doing this was simple: Every human deserves to eat. Their menu offered warm, comforting meals such as fish and chips, a chicken sandwich, clam chowder with a salad, or the vegetarian option of pasta marinara or butter with garlic bread.

They began offering this special menu on the first day, which drew 56 people to the restaurant. By the second day, when 61 people showed up and the restaurant's capacity was getting stretched, the three owners knew they were going to need some help.

"Clearly, there is a giant need here, and we asked how we could continue to sustainably help people," said Marchini. "A lot of people reached out to us and asked how they could help. We have a lot of community support, and we know how strong Belfast is. They will show up for us. So, we as a restaurant had to figure out what makes sense, what was a reasonable amount of money to request as a donation, and honestly, any time you have to ask for help, it's hard. But we came up with $10 as a base for each SNAP meal. If customers are already here having a meal, we made it easy for them to add that amount onto their bill."

In addition, Marchini said people have been dropping by and calling in $10 donations.

Whereas the Community Menu was previously available Tuesday through Sunday, the owners realized they needed to limit the days to reach their goals, and the program is now only available on Saturday and Sunday.

"We figured that if kids are getting free breakfast and/or lunch on the weekdays, it made more sense to offer our program on the weekends, especially since the Belfast Soup Kitchen is closed on weekends,"  she said. 

"There's no stigma here; just flash your card," she said. "We just want to feed people."

The response from people who have been able to come in and feed their families has had an emotional impact on the staff.

"People coming in [for the SNAP meals] are so kind, so grateful," Marchini said, "I'm a lady of a certain age, hormones are starting to do things; I will ugly cry."

To learn more about what Nautilus is doing, stay tuned to their Facebook page.

MIDCOAST—People are scared. That is the general message that directors and volunteers of local food pantries have been hearing since October 21, when the USDA notified states that November SNAP benefits would not be issued if the federal government shutdown continued.

With that deadline a few days away and no resolution in sight, more than 170,000 people enrolled in the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) in Maine will not receive monthly benefits to buy food. That affects mmore than 50 percent of Maine SNAP recipients who are families with children.

Impact on Midcoast Communities

AIO Food & Energy Assistance, which serves all of Knox County, including Vinalhaven and Matinicus islands, with a variety of programs, including an AIO Food Pantry Market, has seen a surge in both the need for supplemental food and an uptick in community giving since the federal government's announcement.

"About a year ago, some 350 households came to the Market," said Alan Kearl, Executive Director of AIO. "Today, I'd say we're seeing about 600 households using the Market. This halt to the program is very personal, very specific to people, and we're hearing a lot of people talking about it, worried about what they're going to do, worried about what will be available for Thanksgiving."

He estimated that SNAP recipients get 50 to 70 percent of their monthly food budget from AIO to make up the difference.

"We're telling people, come as often as you need to, he said. "The last thing we want is to see hoarding due to food insecurity." 

Kearl said he has reassured people that AIO's annual Thanksgiving Box Distribution is still on for Nov. 25.

"Ever since that October 21 announcement, we've also had numerous people reaching out, wanting to volunteer, wanting to donate food," he said. "It's amazing."

Debra Milliken, President of the Camden Area Christian Food Pantry, said: "One of our volunteers spoke with one mom who has two small children who expressed concern because her rent also just went up. She wonders how she will be able to cover everything. We are fortunate to be open twice a week, and on average, serve about 80-plus families a week. However, we have been seeing an increase in the number of families visiting our pantry and anticipate helping more as this situation continues."

Mary Guindon, Co-Director/Secretary of the No Greater Love Food Pantry in Belfast, also had insight into how the shutdown is affecting local families.

"The halt in SNAP benefits statewide is not only unsettling but inhumane," she said. "People want to point fingers and place blame, but now is not the time for that. Our families are being held hostage by politics, and it's from both sides of the aisle, not just one, as everyone would like to believe. In any case, for Waldo County alone, it's going to create a hardship for approximately 6,000 households. They will have to rely heavily on local food pantries. Not just one, because one food pantry cannot feed a family all month."

For Guindon, this halt of benefits is personal.

"Families are not going to be able to sustain their lifestyle without SNAP being a part of their budgets," she said. "They will have to forfeit their rent and medicine to buy food. Our patrons are scared and beyond worried at this point. They feel hopeless and forgotten about. They are disgusted that, because of political gain, they are footing the pain. It's heartbreaking."

Community Steps Up

Nishant Patel, owner of Megunticook Market in Camden, organized a food bag giveaway this week.

"There are people scared right now," he said. "I had an interaction with one customer who said he had a family with two kids who relied on SNAP and didn't know what he was going to do."

As of October 27, the store had given away 50 bags of food, with another giveaway planned the following day.

"And if we run out of bags, we may offer free pizza," he said. "We just wanted to do something to support our community because basically our store is a community place."

Melanie Daigle, owner of Fresh Off The Farm in Rockport, also organized a food bag giveaway this week.

"It's a really hard month because it's a holiday month with Thanksgiving, so we decided to offset some of the costs for people now by bagging up 40 bags of fresh food to take away to stretch those dollars," she said.

The bags contained five pounds of potatoes, onions, greens, radishes, and more and were given away on a first-come, first-served basis.

"All you have to do is flash your EBT card; we don't check for your name; we don't run it to check for balances," said Daigle. "I've coordinated with some of my local vendors and had a great response from customers who have given a monetary donation. I'm coordinating with my organic co-ops, where I get a lot of my winter produce. We'll be able to make even more bags, and they'll be even bigger, full of protein, eggs, chicken, beef, bananas, onions, and even homemade cookies from a local baker."

Since the intial reporting of this story, even more local restaurants and stores have stepped up, offering discounts and food to SNAP recipients.

"What I have noticed in just this past week is the number of people emailing the pantry wanting to volunteer—wanting to be able to help in some way," said Milliken. "People have been dropping off food. Donations have come in with the comment that they are donating to be able to help families who are being affected by the cuts in the SNAP benefits."

"In just the last week, I probably had 60 cash donations, which in a normal week, might be 10," said Kearl. "On a normal week, we might get three volunteers; this past week, we've had 10 volunteers. This is on top of 10 to 15 organizations that have reached out and said, 'What can we do and how can we help?' It tells me we have an amazing community."

Added Guindon, "As a community, we will do what we can collectively to keep the food flowing throughout the month. We are all open on different days and times throughout the month and also offer emergency pickups if needed. I think if we all open our hearts and give a little more in the upcoming months, we will make it through as we did during the pandemic. The community is already kicking it into high gear. Support your local pantries in any way possible. Whether it be food donations or monetary donations, which are extremely important. With extra funds, we can purchase far more nutritious foods to help feed our neighbors."

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

As we approach The Midnight Hour in the Midcoast, here is a comprehensive list of Halloween-themed events everyone can enjoy. From parties to movies, poetry to theater, here are the color-coded events for partying adults, parents, and kids.

Thursday, October 16

· Adults and Older Kids: Rockland Public Library is celebrating Halloween with a screening of 1959's "House on Haunted Hill," starring Vincent Price as a millionaire who invites five strangers to his home with a challenge: whoever stays in a locked, allegedly haunted house for one full night will earn $10,000. The guests find, to their horror, that this challenge is even more terrifying than it seems. The show starts at 6 p.m., in the Community Room, at Rockland Public Library. Details

Friday, October 17

· All Ages: The Trail of Terror at the Union Fair officially kicked off October 11 and will take place Friday and Saturday nights (17, 18, 24, 25 & 26) from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The cost is $15 per person. Suggested for 13 and older.  Tickets and Details

• Parents and Kids: The Spruce Head Community Hall is hosting its Second Annual HALL-OWEEN at 30 Village Road Spruce Head, with more goblins, more ghouls, more screams! Creep back to the Haunted Hall . . . if you dare! We're dying to see you, wearing your favorite costume, beginning at 6 p.m. Admission is free. 30 Village Road, Spruce Head. Details

Saturday, October 18

· Adults and Older Kids: The Waldo Theatre is hosting a Rocky Horror Picture Show sing-a-long at 7 p.m. Online tickets for adults are available in advance for $15, which includes an audience participation prop bag. Adult tickets the day of and at the door are $20. The recommended age for this show is 16+. If this has not sold out, tickets with be available at the box office starting at 7:00pm. Doors open at 7:00pm. Concessions will be available for purchase. Details

· Parents and Kids: Fort Knox's Scavenger Haunt is taking place 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. geared toward the younger monster hunters who search through historic Fort Knox’s dark passageways and creepy rooms to check off their list. All monsters are static props and decorations. Free with gate admission fee. Details

· Parents and Kids: The Penobscot Bay YMCA invites the entire community to a free afternoon of "spooktacular" Halloween fun at The Monster Mash from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The family-friendly event in Rockport promises with games, crafts, a dance party, a photo booth, face painting, temporary tattoos, open climb, and a floating pumpkin patch, all in the Halloween spirit. Details  

• Parents and Kids: The Spruce Head Community Hall is hosting its Second Annual HALL-OWEENat 30 Village Road Spruce Head, with more goblins, more ghouls, more screams! Creep back to the Haunted Hall . . . if you dare! We're dying to see you, wearing your favorite costume, beginning at 6 p.m. Admission is free. 30 Village Road, Spruce Head. Details

Sunday, October 19

· Parents and Kids: The Waldo County YMCA is holding its annual Trunk or Treat from 3 to 5 p.m. with parking at the Troy Howard Middle School. Details

Tuesday, Oct. 21

· All Ages: History talk: Perhaps Belfast’s Ghosts Are In Its Gardens? Tuesday, October 21, at noon, in the Abbott Room of Belfast Free Library, the Belfast Garden Club will host Belfast Historical Society president Megan Pinette for a seasonable exploration of the ghosts of gardens that once graced the backyards of some of Belfast’s historic homes. Details

Wednesday, October 22

· All Ages: Lucky Betty's is hosting its annual pumpkin-carving block party. Bar opens at 3 p.m. Costa Media starts grilling on the patio at 4 p.m. They’ll have some pumpkins available, but feel free to bring your own. Costumes welcomed and encouraged. Details.

Friday, October 24

· Parents and Kids: Ashwood Waldorf School is hosting an All Hallow's Eve Pumpkin Walk - a twilight journey through lantern0-lit woods with storybook characters, warm cider, and storytelling. Non-scary costumes encouraged. Details

Saturday, October 25

· Parents and Kids: Lincolnville Community Library is hosting a Halloween-themed crafts for kids at 10 a.m. Details

· Parents and Kids: Stockton Springs Community Library is hosting a Halloween party from 10 to 11:30 a.m. with a costume party, story hours, games, refreshments, and gifts. Details.

· All Ages: The Owls Head Transportation Museum is throwing an event, Night at the Museum, Living History from 5 to 7 p.m. Meet historical reenactors as they bring legendary figures to life—race car drivers, daring pilots, ingenious inventors, movie stars, and more. For kids: they can explore the Science & Industry Center, light up squishy circuits, fly broomsticks (stomp rockets), test their aim at the pumpkin toss, and try ghost-catching games. There will also be arts and crafts like rock painting, leaf rubbings, and coloring with a classic Casper the Friendly Ghost (1945) on the big screen. Costumes encouraged. Details.

· All Ages:The annual Belfast Lions Club Ghostly Gallop 5K run is Halloween-themed, and runners and walkers are encouraged to participate in costume! The run goes from 8:30 to 10 a.m., and tickets are $20. Details

· Older Kids: Join Crow's Keep Games in Rockport at 5:30 p.m. for a Halloween party with free food and drinks. BYOB. $10 per person to get in but you get 2 free raffle tickets to use towards winning one of three games. Costumes encouraged. Limit 35 people max. Details

· Parents and Kids: Coastal Recovery Community Center will be hosting a community Trunk or Treat at 11 White Street in Rockland at 5 p.m. Details

· Parents and Kids: Thomaston’s Fall Festival will be a day of fun, food, and community spirit from 12 to 6 p.m. at 13 Valley Street (public parking will be available.) This family-friendly event will include matepahysical art and crafts, a kids' zone with bounce house ($5 admission), food trucks, local vendors, an an adult Halloween softball tournament. Details.

· Adults: Trackside Station is hosting its annual costume Halloween party with live music by NO Guts NO Glory. Kitchen closes at 8 p.m.; music starts at 8:30 p.m., ages 21 plus after 8 p.m. $5 cover. $100 prize for best costume. Details

· Adults: Ghouls, Grapes & Good Times. Stone Tree’s 4th Annual Monster Mash Halloween Partytakes place from 4 to 9 p.m. with wine and candy pairings, live music and food by 2 AM Pizza. Costumes encouraged. Entry: Bring one non-perishable food item to donate and help support the local community. Details.

Sunday, October 26

· Parents and Kids: South Hope Community Church is hosting a Trunk or Treat from 3 to 5 p.m. Details

Tuesday, October 28

· Adults: Monster Mash at the Rockland Public Library. Come make mixed media monsters, craft creative creatures and design delightful demons using a variety of found and fabulous materials. This 18+ event is a collaboration between the Rockland Public Library and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. Registration with RPL is required. Details

· Adults: The Lincolnville Community Library is hosting a book discussion, "Tales from the Haunted South" from 5 to 6 p.m. Details

Wednesday, October 29

 · Parents and Kids: Families are invited to dress up and join Rockport Public Library Youth Librarian Stephanie at 4 p.m. in Memorial Park (across from the Rockport Library) for a Halloween parade through Rockport Village. After, there will be cider, chocolate milk, and treats made by Laugh loud Smile Big. Stephanie will be reading a spooky story, or two, while families are enjoying their treats. Adorable, costumed guest shelter pups, from P.A.W.S. Adoption Center, will be joining the festivities, walking along in our parade! In the event of rain, our event will be moved inside the library. Details

Thursday, October 30

 · Parents and Kids: Riley School will hold its annual Trunk-or-Treat event on Thursday, October 30 from 4:00-5:30 p.m. on its campus at 73 Warrenton Street, Rockport. This year’s event will also include a black light dance party in their theater. Come bring your little ones and your not-so-little ones in their costumes for candy, fun, and dancing! Details

Friday, October 31 

· All Ages: Join musical instrument creator and Sound Therapists Jim Doble and Maleine Gargurevich on an assortment of gongs, other instruments, and vocals for an All Hallow's Eve Sound-bathing experience in the Camden Ampitheatre. from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Details

· Parents and Kids: The Camden American Legion will open its parking lot for Trick or Treaters on Halloween evening to park and walk along Pearl Street.  Parking lot will open at 4:30 p.m. with Legionnaires assisting the parkers. The Legion will be open for all to come in and pick up their free glow necklace and some treats.  FMI please call Jeff at 691-2270

· Parents and Kids: Thomaston Trunk or Treat's annualevent takes placeat 13 Valley Street in Thomaston starting at 4:30 p.m. Go dressed up and join a fun evening of trick or treating in a safe location where everyone is welcome. This event will run until 6:30 p.m. or while supplies last. Decorated cars that wish to participate should arrive by 3:30 p.m. and will need to register. Details

· Parents and Kids: Belfast's Veractiy Chapel is holding an annual Trunk or Treat goes from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Details.

· Parents and Kids: The Carver Memorial Library in Searsport will be holding a costume parade starting at 3:00 pm with apple cider and snacks. The parade begins at 3:30. It is a short walk around the block and perfect for even the youngest to attend. This event is free and open to all, no library card needed. Details.

Parents and Kids:Vose Library in Union will hold its annual Trunk or Treat, Friday, Oct. 31, Halloween night. Join a safe, festive evening of costumes, candy and fun. Vose Library parking lot, 5-7 p.m. 392 Common Rd, Union. (207) 785-4733.

· Adults: Park Street Grill's new owners are hosting their first Halloween Costume Party featuring Living Room Circus delivering spooky tunes from 9 p.m. to midnight with a costume contest and $5 drink specials. Details

· Adults: Ada's Kitchen is hosting its annual Halloween dance party featuring DJ Awesome Sauce and The Pasta Slut. There will be costumes, a live DJ, dancing, a disco ball, drink specials, and free late night pizza slices. No cover. Start at 9 p.m. 21+ event. No Cover. Details.

· Adults: Siren Song Tattoo in Thomaston will be offering festive flash all day, starting at $50. They’ll also be hosting a costume contest, so come in your scariest, goriest fit. The best costume will win a gift card! We’ll be passing out candy for the kiddos starting at 5 pm. They kindly ask that you don’t bring children with you while getting tattooed. Details

November 1

· Adults: Bistro La Cave is hosting is closing Halloween bash from 7 to 10 p.m. Costumes encouraged. QR code link for $15 preorder tickets, $20 at the door. Details.

Parents and Kids: Penobscot Bay Language School is excited for the return of the very popular Dia De Los Muertos sugar skull workshop event with other cultural activities related to this unique holiday celebrated throughout Mexico, Mesoamerica, and beyond!

Join the Penobscot Bay Language School's  Día de los Muertos family event for all ages. Families with young children are encouraged to participate. The event will be held from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. to decorate traditional sugar skulls, discuss the holiday’s origins and cultural significance worldwide. Details.

To add any more events, please email Kay with your details formatted exactly like the listings above.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Maine and all spooky things go together like a lock and a key. The state also has numerous locations with paranormal legends, isolation and mystery, plenty of ghost stories, history, and folklore. Here are a number of podcasts that capitalize on creepy Maine stuff.

Malevolent Maine

Malevolent Maine is a paranormal and horror podcast based in Maine. As noted by its creators and co-founders, Chris Estes, Lucas Knight, and Tom Wilson, their fictional podcast "blends the line between reality and urban legend. Our stories are a mix of urban legend, campfire ghost story, and traditional scary stories." We reached out to Chris Estes to find out a bit more about it.

Who inspired you to start digging into the darker folklore and legends of Maine?

When we started this podcast, we were all high school teachers. We were teaching about urban legends, and how they spread. We thought it would be fun to have our students write their own Maine-centric urban legends, so we wanted to give them some examples. We came up with a few of our own. Obviously, Stephen King is a huge inspiration—the way he blends his fiction with that real Maine vibe is something we all relate to. We've always been into ghost stories, like Alvin Schwartz's "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark," as well as horror movies and legends and folktales in general.

What draws you to tell stories that blur the line between myth and reality?

Malevolent Maine sees itself as a sort of 21st-century campfire. We're all gathered around together, telling stories that sound real, and definitely could be. But there's always some doubt between fiction and reality. Myths and legends were created to explain things early mankind didn't quite understand. That hasn't changed in 2025. There's still plenty we don't know, and stories like ours might help fill some of those gaps. For us, we like the idea of not really knowing where a story ends and a fact begins. Our tagline or motto is: "We Believe You." No one else might, and it might seem far-fetched, but we believe you. Look, a good story is a good story, and at the end of the day, that's what we are—storytellers. Believing in a story is a little different than believing in a fact. There's a power in storytelling, a truth that sometimes extends beyond what can be proven. 

Where in Maine have you found the most chilling or unexplained tale so far?

Maine is perfect for stories of the odd and the strange. We're a state with lots of unexplored areas. There are plenty of woods and plenty of old sites. We're in the heart of Puritan country, where early European settlers lived, but there are tons of Indigenous Peoples' stories, early explorers, and even possibly Vikings. Maine is a great place; we've got a little bit of everything and lots of places for creepy things to hide. We tell stories from all parts of the state. Northern Maine has lots of wilderness, but there are plenty of pockets of weirdness everywhere.

Who in your audience are you most hoping to reach — skeptics, believers, or storytellers?

We're trying to reach people who love good, old-fashioned scary stories. Anyone who likes things that go bump in the night, or asks what's waiting for us in the dark. We're amateur podcasters and storytellers, but we love talking about spirits, demons, aliens, and otherworldly interdimensional beings. If you like your stories on the spooky side, if you like tales of the unexplained, then we're here for you.

What do you think makes Maine’s folklore distinct from other regions in New England?

Maine is a perfect melting pot for folklore. We have the stories of the Indigenous People, the European explorers and settlers, the early American myths and legends, such as Paul Bunyan! It's this mixing of ideas and beliefs that we find fascinating. We're just far enough away from the big cities that the old-style beliefs can creep in. The ghosts and creatures of the old world migrated when the settlers came here, finding the creepy things already waiting, and they blended together, mixing the best parts. There are still places for unexplained things to hide here in Maine.

To listen to Malevolent Maine's podcasts, visit: https://malevolentmaine.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

UNION — If there's one thing Andrew Jura loves, it's a good, blood-curdling scream.

As the President of the Friends of the Union Fair Society, who spearheads the annual Trail of Terror, a haunted attraction on the Union Fairgrounds every October, he isn't just the front-facing side of things, he likes to get dressed up in a raggedy clown costume with a face only "It" could love and scare the bojangles out of the people who venture bravely through the Trail.

"I'm focused on making a profit for the organization, but I ended up scaring a lot of people, and it turned out to be a lot of fun," he said.

Alongside him is his spooky sidekick, Anthony Collins, who also gets a charge out of the whole inner workings of the Trail. As a volunteer-run event, both men pitch in as scare actors, set builders, and prop masters.

The Trail is actually two trails, the Soule Trail and Sterlingtown, set up inside a big chicken barn with 400 feet going one way and 400 feet coming back. The partitioned haunted scenes inside have all come from the labor and donations of hundreds of volunteers over the last 10 years — from a gruesome murder kitchen to a maze of giant spiders.

The real appeal to the Trail is how much the set pieces disorient the guests' senses as they walk through with eerie UV lighting, hanging burlap bags obscuring the view, the acrid odor of fog machines, and jarring images designed to instill unease. What else?

Creepy doll collection. Check

Severed mannequin heads. Check

Genuine meat hooks holding body parts. Check.

Then there are the scare actors — some 20 regular volunteers — who take great pleasure in dressing up as individual spooky characters and find just the right spot to jump out and terrify the guests walking through.

"I think their favorite thing is to be able to scare big, tough men," said Jura. "And of course, we have rules in place to keep the actors at a distance."

Jura said teenagers love the Trail the most, sometimes buying two tickets to go through twice.

Haunted Fairgrounds?

The Union Fairgrounds started in 1869. It's not just the Trail of Terror that raises gooseflesh. Jura and Collins both have experienced ghostly sounds and sights at the fairgrounds.

"At night, sometimes when it's just me here, I often hear Model Ts driving around," said Jura. "Doors closing and opening. Laughing and giggling."

"The open sky at night when it's really dark is terrifying in itself," added Collins. "Down toward the racetrack, in the distance, I swear I've seen something like lights that look like an old Ferris wheel in the sky."

In the 1800s, there was a Ferris wheel on the fairgrounds, both men confirmed.

Jura took over the Trail's operations last year. Between him and several dedicated volunteers, they've already put 400 hours into building this year's set pieces to make them even spookier and scarier.

With 1,400 guests coming through last year, the Trail of Terror raised $14,000 through the Friends of the Union Fair Society, which went back into upgrades for the Union Fair.

The Trail of Terror is always looking for donated items to fill out the scenes. While they rely on about 35 volunteers each year, they are always looking for more year-round. Scare actors are highly encouraged; just show up at 5:30 p.m. the night of the event, sign a waiver, and they'll provide you with a costume, makeup, and even a free meal.

Another area of the fairgrounds that Jura has purposely made free to the public this year is the sitting area next to the restaurant with a bandstand.

"We want people to enjoy coming here and having something to eat and listen to a band on the Trail of Terror Nights," said Jura.

On Saturday, October 25, local singer-songwriter Aidan Kaczynski will be performing for free. 

The final weekend of the Trail of Terror at the Union Fair will take place Friday and Saturday night (25 & 26) from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Trail organizers will stay until the last guest is through. The cost is $15 per person. Suggested for 13 and older.  Tickets and Details

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN —This past June, a quiet little candy shop opened at 27 Washington Street in Camden, owned by Amanda Murray and Ian Cheney, and it all started from a whim.

The couple, who owns the business next door, Other Media Other, had an additional adjacent space that was unused.

"Last December, we opened the space up as a pop-up shop for holiday movies and people loved it," said Cheney. "We love the holidays, and after doing a film shoot at a maple sugar shack and driving home, I got the idea to use the space as a magical spice and candy shop."

The shop, which is 100 square feet, was designed and curated primarily by Murray, who is a graphic designer.

"She made it feel like a welcome little corner of Camden," he said.

Cheney's sister is a spice merchant in the Boston area and provides the store with exotic spices from Curio, from growers in New England, and from all over the world.

"For example, we have a ginger that comes from women who grow it in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains," he said.

The candy is a mixture of nostalgic products, such as Necco wafers and root beer barrels, and exotic candy, such as a Japanese mocha latte Kitkat bar.

"I'd call our selection a combination of low brow and high brow," he said.

The shop's highlight is a row of glass candy jars that hold various bulk Swedish and Scandinavian gummy candies and tiny takeaway jars for customers that they mix and match however they like.

Cheney said: "My favorite candy is the Fifth Avenue bar, which I used to buy in gas stations as a kid. I'm not even sure if you can get it any more and today, but there's this surge in making small-batch candies and chocolates from all over the world. We want to offer some flavors you wouldn't necessarily stumble upon."

The Downtown Spice and Candy shop also sells local candy and chocolate from makers such as Bixby Chocolates, Dean's Sweets, and Le Nef Chocolate.

Cheney said with two little kids, meeting other people is not always easy, but that the shop has been "a wonderful way to meet our neighbors and people visiting." Added Murray: “As much as I love Swedish candy, connecting with people has been my favorite thing about the shop by far.”

The couple is looking forward to offering the space as a Christmas wonderland again this winter with a Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory screening.

Learn more by visiting their Instagram page.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN — Electra Bennett, 17, from Camden, got a life lesson she didn't expect last year when her parents took her phone away for four months to focus on studying and improve her grades.

"I was so used to the phone and addicted to it, and going to boarding school, I was around people who were always on their phone, as well," she said. "I focused on my studies and work, which is one way I got over it, initially."

Electra eventually got her phone back, but the dissonance of seeing what life was like without the internet spurred her to create the "Look Up And Wave" challenge, inviting people to put down their phones for one day and focus on genuine human connection and engage in small acts of kindness.

She hosted the in-person challenge in front of French and Brawn in Camden on Saturday, August 16, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with coffee, doughnuts, and a raffle jar, encouraging people to unplug from their digital devices and reconnect with their communities through in-person interactions.

"Lots of people stopped by and we raised more than $300 in a raffle, which we're donating to a charity called Cybersmile," she said.

The Cybersmile Foundation's mission is to, "create community where everyone feels free to express themselves" and "is committed to digital well-being and tackling all forms of bullying and abuse online."

To date with her GoFundMe campaign, the challenge has raised $3,150 to give to the nonprofit.

"People, especially the older generation, donated the most and wanted to stop by and talk about their own experiences," she said. "They told me about life before social media and how it has changed society and how they'd really like to see it go back to how it was."

The waving part of the challenge came from an experience she remembered as a young child in Camden, as her parents' car passed by a resident named Kermit Ingraham, a beloved Camden resident who would sit outside on Washington Street and wave at every person who passed by. You might recall him from a story Penobscot Bay Pilot ran about Ingraham when the paper initially launched in 2012.

"When we were younger, my brothers and I would open the window and wave back at him; this is something I really remembered from my childhood," she said. "A lot of locals remembered him."

"It’s important to say that I'm not anti-technology — it’s more about the pro-connection side of it," she explained.

Since a cell phone can absorb the user's complete attention to the point of zero situational awareness, as most of us observe daily, her challenge is subtle, but it packs a point.

As her press release stated: "Whether it’s a smile to a passerby, holding a door for a stranger, or simply enjoying a screen-free conversation, the mission is simple: Be present. Be kind. Be the change."

With 73% of Gen-Z young adults reporting feeling more lonely than any other age group, Electra's challenge is especially timely.

Being present is the key. Looking up and around, observing the social cues right in front of you, being proactively engaged—even with strangers—are the little gestures that foster that social connection that make people feel that they belong in a community.

Hail To The Rad Kids is an ongoing feature highlighting teens in the Midcoast with a special talent.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Maine's wild blueberries have been around for 10,000 years and are the state's "official dessert." Since August is the time when they are at their peak availability, it's only right to include them in a Take It and Make It story; but not in a traditional pie, no. This time, we're going to make a blueberry galette.

A galette is the rustic version of a pie, the French word for galet—or pebble—which makes zero sense, but in simpler terms, the crust is a tart with the dough folded up over the fruit filling.

Right now, wild Maine blueberries can be found at many roadside stands, farmers' markets, and even on counters at convenience stores for around $6 a pint.

It's wild that such a tiny fruit can pack such a nutritional punch, but blueberries are high in antioxidants, rich in fiber, vitamin C, and manganese. They also contain anthocyanins, which are the compounds that give them the deep bluish-purple color, and improve the heart, reduce inflammation, and boost cognitive benefits.

So much so, you can skip dinner altogether and eat a hearty piece of blueberry galette. That's what I did, and there's no shame in that. Here's the recipe:

Blueberry galette

Crust

• 2 ½ cups of flour
  
• 1 tsp Kosher salt
• 1 cup butter, cubed (2 sticks-this is no time to be thinking about your diet)
• bowl of ice water

Filling

• 1 pint of rinsed wild blueberries
• ½ cup of white sugar
• 1 ½  tsp cornstarch
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp lemon zest

This recipe is best made with a food processor with a plastic blade, but you can also make the crust the old-fashioned way, kneading the ingredients in a bowl.

With the food processor, add all of the dry ingredients first. Then, drop in the cubed butter until the dough starts to look crumbly. Next, add a couple of tablespoons of ice water until the dough comes together. Use a rolling pin and flatten the dough on a floured surface to about 1/8 inch thick.

The official recipe calls for placing the dough on parchment paper on a baking sheet, but I find it easier to mold it into a shallow pie pan.

The filling is easy to assemble; just combine all of the ingredients in a bowl, and pour into the center of the dough. Then fold the extra edges of the dough around the berries. It doesn't have to look neat; in fact, the less uniform the folds are, the more it looks like a rustic tart. Use an egg wash around the pleats and bake for 40 minutes at 375 degrees.

You can make it completely decadent by placing a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top right when you take it out of the oven.

Farms and farmers' markets are where to buy wild blueberries right now; not only are you supporting them economically, but, you are getting top-of-the-line produce.

Here is a list of all farmer’s markets in Maine, and use the interactive map to find the ones in the Midcoast.

If you really want to go the Martha Stewart route and pick your own, here is a list of barrens you can visit.

Kay Stephens is a home cook with a penchant for recipes and a reporter for Penobscot Bay Pilot. Her dishes are decent enough, but not Instagram-worthy.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

PORT CLYDE — Michael Mastronardi, owner of North Beacon Oyster in Rockland, launched a new food truck this month featuring high-quality beef burgers and hot dogs as its stars.

Named QP Burger, the new business features quarter-pound smash burgers with all-natural chuck from Pineland Farms and red snapper hotdogs from W.A. Bean & Sons. The burgers and dogs concept is "Build your own" with a variety of handmade toppings and chili.

As for the name, Mastronardi said, "I knew I wanted to have my patties weigh four ounces [a quarter pound] and the world we live in is abbreviating things more and more; i.e., Dunkin, DQ, BK, et cetera, so I just thought it was a quick, memorable name."

While Maine seafood, especially locally harvested oysters, is the focus of North Beacon Oyster, Mastronardi said the fast-casual appeal of operating QP Burger made sense. "I've always loved hot dogs, and I saw a few places out of New York doing these ridiculously tasty-looking cheeseburgers," he said. "The concept from the beginning was simplicity.  I wanted to make this model fun and easy to duplicate when the time is right."

With his business partner and co-owner Eric Buxton running the daily operations at North Beacon Oyster, Mastronardi has taken a step back from the formal restaurant business and now has more time to focus on the small food truck.

As a trained chef, his standards remain consistent when it comes to using high-quality ingredients.

"QP Burger is fortunate to have a few Maine partners," he said. "Our all-natural ground beef comes from Pineland Farms. Our hot dogs come from W.A. Bean & Sons. Our mustard comes from Raye's Mustard. Our sauerkraut comes from Morse's, and our relish comes from Flo's.  It's really cool to have a hot dog, our Ultimate, that is 98 percent made in Maine. "

Asked what people should try on the menu first, he replied: "I always suggest people try The QP Burger first. Smashing the onions into the beef and having them melt and cook into the beef fat when you flip the patty is about as good of a taste and smell sensation as I've experienced. The sharpness from the pickles, the mild heat from the jalapenos, and the crunch from the crispy fried onion bits all work together really well.  It's funny to say that I researched different burgers for months, and The QP Burger is what I came up with."

The food truck is at Ocean View Grand, No. 63, Port Clyde. Its hours of operation are Wednesday through Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

For more information visit: QP Burger

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN—Summertime is for light snacking, and Allison Warren capitalized on the whole grazing trend by opening her first business, Camden Charcuterie, this past Memorial Day.

The sit-down restaurant at 56 Elm Street in Camden has a beer and wine license, but many customers prefer to purchase her custom boxes and boards for takeout.

Warren worked hard to get the new business up and running with financial support from family and friends. And that's not all. Getting up at 8 or 9 a.m. to prep for Camden Charcuterie, the 29-year-old entrepreneur works all day and then goes to her second job at 4 p.m. as a manager for the restaurant American Flatbread in Rockport, where she's been for 10 years.

"We do weddings and catering for American Flatbread, so I took a lot of those skills to create Camden Charcuterie," she said. "This is the first time I've done something on my own."

Her cross-over skills in ordering for restaurants and catering helped her form the structure for her business, which offers custom charcuterie boards, mini individual boxes, and party platters. 

The store's cold case has divided sections that offer a range of locally sourced Italian cured meats, cheeses, fruits, vegetables, nuts, sweets, and even custom spreads, such as fig jam and an apricot spread. Customers can go in and order anything they want. Sometimes, it's a snack box to take on a local schooner, or a quick mini box for a picnic outside. But so far, her biggest customers have been offices and families ordering the party platters.

"I had to teach myself how to create a charcuterie board by researching a lot of examples on Pinterest and watching videos on how to fold the meats into attractive shapes," she said. "I thought it would be fun to let people pick and choose what they want. Each week, we rotate out the offerings with different sweet and savory tastes and textures."

Further cementing her marketing skills, she canvassed businesses throughout Camden with pamphlets and a small sample cup of charcuterie to let people know her business was open.

The most significant business challenge has been managing all of the moving parts while working three or four nights a week at American Flatbread. Given the public demand, she also hired two young women from American Flatbread to assist her part-time in the store.

Warren also hosts a paint night at the store, which she plans to host once or twice a month.

"People have been excited about this store; it's something new and different," she said.

Visit Camden Charcuterie and learn more about its offerings.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND — Like most Gen Xers, Justin Miller remembers his first vinyl record, The Germs. Back in the 1970s and early 1980s, before cassette tapes became overwhelmingly the popular choice for playing music, vinyl was king.

Private Press, a 200-square foot space on 385 Main Street, which opened June 13, has been Miller's dream business for some time. A private collector of vinyl records for more than 30 years, he began buying and selling records online before deciding to move the business to a brick-and-mortar location.

"During the COVID-19 pandemic, I had a lot of time and dove even deeper down the well, discovering music," he said. "As long as I've been interested in music, this felt like a natural progression and [the store] brings me a lot of happiness. I was working two remote jobs and resigned from one to open up this shop."

The type of music he carries ranges from mid-1960s to the early 1990s.

"It's a lot of original pressings of music, such as rock, folk, country, soul, funk, disco, electronic, jazz, even a lot of disco from Italy," he said.

There's even Canadian disco — who knew that was a thing?

"I source a lot of the titles from overseas," he explained.

Miller professed that he belongs to many "nerdy music sharing groups," and that his knowledge of various titles continues to deepen. For customers who love vinyl, he keeps one turntable playing all day, switching out records that add to the customers' browsing experience.

"I'm constantly amazed at how much more music there is to discover," he said.

Miller is also a good source for recommending companies that sell turntables and stereos. He said that in the few weeks the store has been open, customers from the era of eight-track tapes and turntables as well as the era of MP3s and streaming music, have been curious enough to walk through the door.

"There's a large contingency of young people who are finding records that aren't available on streaming platforms," he said. "Digging through record bins has always been the way to find something unique."

Just the tactile description of "digging through bins" is what makes Miller such a vinyl aficionado. The hands-on experience of pulling a record from its sleeve, turning it over to view the cover art, reading the liner notes and lyrics, gently placing the record onto the turntable, and lifting the needle, "captures that original feeling we [Boomers and Gen X] had when we were younger—that feeling of discovery." 

"It demands more of your attention-it's a listening experience," he said. "I remember being a kid and holding what I felt was an object of art that was affordable and attainable."

Beyond being a resource for his customers, he also brings his turntable and records to Luce Spirits, a distillery on Main Street.

"In cities all over the world, there are vinyl listening nights popping up at bars, a trend that mainly started in Japan, and so I like to DJ over at Luce Spirits occasionally," he said.

The store is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

To learn more about the store and daily vinyl recommendations on Facebook and Instagram.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN—When Jeff Clarke opened String Theory, his first music store, in October 2024, he had dreams that this two-story building at 57 Bay View Street in Camden would be more than just a place to buy musical instruments; instead, it would become a hub for local musicians.

"We had a group of teenagers come in last week who just hung out on the couch upstairs listening to records and playing guitars," he said. "One of my reasons for wanting to have a music business is to give people of all ages a place to hang out."

Clarke, whose professional background is in neuroscience, always listened to lots of music on road trips with his father. They would play tapes on a never-ending loop while driving to visit family in the Midwest, or cross-country visiting Montana, Wyoming, and California.

"My dad also listened to a lot of blues-inspired classic rock and country, so it just got me into music, bands like Eric Clapton, The Beatles, The Cars, and Boston," he said. 

Clarke started playing piano when he was six; he got his first guitar at age 11 and his first electric guitar at 14. While in school, he played in jazz bands and later, as an adult, played music for fun, enjoying its meditative qualities.

When he had the opportunity to buy the building that formerly housed Uncle Willy's Candy Shoppe, he jumped on it. The store sells primarily new instruments from smaller builders who build one at a time or small batches, as well as upcycled and recycled instruments, such as guitars, bass guitars, and ukuleles, as well as pedals, amps, and books on music's positive effect on mental health.

"We feel that big box companies have put enough new instruments in the world; we're all about unique instruments that you can't just go online and buy," said Clarke. "In the back of my mind, I knew running a business around music was something I always wanted to do, and it felt like there was a really good music scene around here, but like a lot of things, it got fractured by the COVID-19 pandemic. I felt like I could contribute to the Midcoast something valuable to the community and to me."

Everything in the store is laid out and accessible for poking around and playing instruments, which he encourages.

"I want to just get people in here, playing music, talking about music," he said. "Audiophiles can come in and browse records; people can just come in and play the guitars."

In the movie, "Wayne's World," the music store sign reads "No Stairway to Heaven" (meaning customers have overplayed that song in the showroom). Of that trope, Clarke quipped, "Actually 'Stairway to Heaven' is fine. But no 'Slow Dancing in a Burning Room.'"

"No, I'm just kidding," he said. "People can play what they want. To express yourself creatively in public is such a hard thing, so I wouldn't tell anyone not to play exactly what they want."

Another side to his business includes repairs on acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and guitar bass.

Returning to the community side, he said, "People have been really positive about this place and told me there's a lot of need for it. There has been no shortage of support."

As the store broadens its purpose, Clarke feels that teaching the younger generations music how he experienced it is essential.

"You can try to learn guitar on YouTube, but it's never going to be the same as the face-to-face interaction with a teacher who can teach you and help you get rid of your bad habits," he said. 

The store hosts free musical events and guitar workshops and serves as a hub for musicians looking to find other band members and gigs or who want to experiment with different guitars and pedals.

In an age where face-to-face interaction and hands-on experimentation with instruments are dwindling with younger generations, String Theory aims to be a "third place" for budding musicians. 

"You can try to find your sense of belonging online, but you need to be face to face with people when it comes to music," he said.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

MIDCOAST—Maine authors, particularly those who would rather write than wear a sales and marketing hat, are finding community and collaboration with a new authors' collective called No Shelf-Control. 

Midcoast authors and friends Danielle Bannister and Carley Packard were socializing through an informal breakfast club held at Bell The Cat in Belfast one morning in 2024 when they discussed how hard it was to set up bookstore events as authors. They shared the struggles that many new authors, and those who are long-established, share when it comes to marketing, sales, and public relations.

From that discussion came the idea to form a collective, to share the burden of setting up book events, and to provide a built-in community.

"Let's do it ourselves," said Packard. "We know enough people."

"And I had a lot of experience attending events over the last few decades, so we thought, together, we had enough knowledge to get something small going," Bannister added.

Since its inception last year, No Shelf-Control has amassed 36 members and averages about four to six events all around Maine. The collective, while still small, is free. A printed tote bag, which Packard created to represent the group, has garnered enough sales to defray marketing costs such as Facebook ads.

While there is no specific count on how many Maine authors reside in the state, there are at least 1,700 Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance members who traditionally published and self-published writers living in Maine with the assumption that there are many more in the writing community.

Typically, an event at a bookstore or a library showcases around three to six authors in various genres, such as the one they recently did at Anodyne Bookshop in Searsport this past March. With an event planned for June 21 in Gardiner, 15 to 16 authors will be set up at a tabled event.

For readers, these events eliminate the unconscious discomfort many feel when coming into a bookstore to find only one author at a lone table. For customers, it can create a sense of pressure or obligation to buy the author's book in order to speak with them.

"There's a lot less pressure for the customer," said Packard. "If someone comes up to me and says, 'I'm really looking for a romance novel,' I'll recommend an author in our group; it's so easy to pivot and direct the reader to another writer."

With a No Shelf event, customers feel more like they are at a multi-vendor craft fair and the vibe is much more easygoing.

Packard said she and Bannister have relied on a network of authors to help them find other venues through connections.

"The libraries adore any help and want to be supportive, and the bookstores we've been to have told us they love how easy it is for our group to come in and set up shop," said Packard. "For example, Grump & Sunshine's bookshop in Belfast was impressed with our authors' tables and unique displays at a recent event."

For the authors, this collective is a place to continue building skills. Writing and marketing require different identities, and the majority of authors not represented by larger publishing houses often have limited budgets and time to find space in an already crowded literary market. 

"The camaraderie in our group is huge," said Packard. "Even if an event has low foot traffic, we spend time talking to each other and having conversations about marketing skills and trade sources on editing, cover design, and things like that."

"We try to find a healthy balance of more established Maine authors and newer Maine authors just learning the ropes so that these events have a little something for everyone. Maybe we'll have a few books you've heard of and some you haven't, but we're hoping these events provide a variety of genres and experience levels," Bannister said.

Find No Shelf-Control on Facebook

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKPORT — Inside Kelly Hokkanen's pocket-sized used bookstore measuring only 120 square feet, there are vast worlds — and the public is just starting to hear about it.

The Tiny Bookshop, sitting at 163 Union Street, is in a little outbuilding on the property she owns with her husband. Having opened on March 15, it is an inviting spot for anyone who loves books and bookstores. While a vast, big-box store gives off cavernous impersonal vibes, Hokkanen's minuscule shop is precisely the opposite. It invites you to come in, poke around, and have a chat.

With floor-to-ceiling shelves, the store focuses on contemporary fiction, classic fiction, Maine authors, and Maine topics. Open four days a week, there's no missing Hokkanen at her little desk in the back. She greets everyone who comes in, and most people naturally want to know how the little store came to be.

After working in the tech industry for the last two decades and their kids out of the nest, Hokkanen was musing about what her next venture in life would be. The thought kept coming back to books. She thought about working in a bookstore, but on a hike with her husband one day, they noodled the idea around of starting her own bookstore on the property.

"It was time to do something different," she said. "I'm a big reader and thought it would be fun to have a bookstore."

After getting the go-ahead from the town, which allowed a mixed-use retail business in the zoning, Hokkanen equates her shop  to the cottage businesses of farm stands on people's properties.

"The thought of leasing a huge space was a little overwhelming, so this space felt like a nice way to give it a try."

She initially sourced her inventory from her own collection of books. She knew what she liked and sourced other used books to fill the shelves. Lastly, she accepted donations from other book lovers to round out the collection.

"It's been really fun to see what people are picking off the shelves," she said. "People have told me that in a big bookstore, they might only browse one section, but with the small shop, they have more time to discover more titles, not just the current best sellers."

The tiny shop is the only owner-operated tiny bookshop in Maine and already a book lover's driving destination. There is another small used bookshop in Camden that's been around for decades, called Stone Soup, and yet, another in Sedgwick called Pushcart Press, which is 9 x 12 feet wide and operates on the honor system.

Hokkanen said she's just started a couple of book clubs and will have more events this summer. To stay up on the bookshop's news, visit their Facebook page.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND—Sebastian and Coral Crissey, both 25, just launched the state's first virtual Maine Lobster Museum this week.

The venture took the couple eight months of planning, designing, researching, and building to bring the virtual museum to life. For $10 for a day pass, visitors can browse a virtual experience dedicated to the rich culture, history, and sustainability of Maine's iconic lobster industry.

Sebastian Crissey, who grew up in Maine, credits several experiences with this new venture. From traveling solo around Ireland at 17 as a way to volunteer on organic farms to studying food sovereignty and digital media while going to college in Australia, Sebastian Crissey began to look at Maine's iconic industry from an enterprising point of view.

"When I turned my attention back home to Maine, I couldn’t help but look at our most iconic creature, the lobster," he said. "I knew there were more stories to be told. This background helped me see beyond the tourist-friendly image of lobsters to recognize them as part of a complex ecosystem of relationships between people, marine environments, and local economies."

With his wife as the museum's co-creator, Coral Crissey served as archival curator and Designer for the project. Coral Crissey helped shape the museum's foundation, bringing knowledge in community archiving, accessibility, and visual storytelling.  

The museum has seven exhibits on the history, biology, sustainability, and cultural relevance of the Maine lobster.  It also has an arcade and a Meme Gallery, which is for everyone, but will especially appeal to kids and teens.

"Growing up in Maine, my most formative lobster memories come from the daily rhythms of island life while attending Islesboro Central School," said Sebastian Crissey. "For the museum's content, I consulted with food scholars, biologists, and historians, including Dr. Darra Goldstein, a renowned food scholar, author, and professor and leading Lobster Biologist Dr. Christopher Tudge. I also had extensive support and mentorship from professors at Champlain College, where I study digital media."

The couple has tied all of the exhibits together with a virtual docent, who, naturally, is an animated talking crustacean. Laurance the Lobster is the guide to the museum. Named after Sebastian's great grandfather, a mechanical engineer who worked to develop machines used for microfilming documents, Laurance is a tribute to innovation. 

"Just as my great grandfather worked to preserve information through innovative technology, I am carrying on that legacy by using today’s technology to tell stories, create immersive experiences, and preserve cultural memory in new formats," said Sebastian Crissey.

The museum launched in early May, but the Crisseys are still developing new collaborations and partnerships. Specifically, they want to partner with summer camps, schools, retirement homes, libraries, community centers, and tourism associations to incorporate the interactive content into their communities.   

"My goal is to keep creating new exhibits in collaboration with different artists, curators, and organizations he said. "I imagine the exhibits cycling on the website so the content is always fresh and exciting."

This is good news for Maine's cultural tourism industry. So far, several hotels have already added links to the museum to their guest information materials.  

"As a virtual experience, the Maine Lobster Museum has a global reach, so I hope it inspires more people to visit and love the state," said Sebastian Crissey. "Our project has the potential to create ambassadors for Maine lobster worldwide."

To learn more about the Maine Lobster Museum visit: https://mainelobstermuseum.org

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

MIDCOAST—This year, we are consolidating our annual “Welcome back” article to acquaint those who haven’t been around this winter with what’s open, what’s closed, what's new, and what's happening in the Midcoast.

Belfast

Pulling Corks: A new wine bar and shop recently opened at 31 Pendleton Street. It offers a curated selection of wines and snacks, such as cheese, charcuterie, popcorn, and olives along with some lighter wine-friendly fare.

Carousel Wine & Cheese opened in early January 2025 at 94 Main Street. Owner Lauren Crichton acquired the business from Maura Salvatore, who previously operated it as Salvatore & Roscia. The name "Carousel" reflects the rotating selection of products, which change seasonally and based on customer preferences.

Chocolate Drop Candy Shop: After a brief closure, the strore reopened November 30 under new ownership, continuing its tradition of offering sweet treats to the community.

Cheeky Food Truck Park: Set to open in summer 2025 at 139 Searsport Avenue, this food truck park run by Belfast-based entrepreneur Kristine Wentworth will feature up to five vendors overlooking Penobscot Bay. the vendors will offer lobster rolls, burgers, international cuisine, and vegetarian options. Vendors will rotate weekly, providing more variety to the local culinary scene. 

Belfast Co-op: One news item that slipped under the radar of last year's Snow Birds article was the $6.4 million renovation of the Belfast Community Co-op, which expanded its space in the bulk food sections and other areas of the store. The Café, which has been closed since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, has now re-opened with more seating, a new coffee bar, a new outdoor patio, and an an enhanced menu.

Modern Metalsmith, an independent Midcoast jeweler, has relocated to 92 Main Street. See our past PenBay Pilot story.

Waldo County Habitat for Humanity opened a new Restore in late December at 92 Belmont Avenue, a discount store that relies on donations of furniture, appliances, and tools that customers can afford to buy second-hand. The store's revenue will allow Waldo County Habitat for Humanity to build more homes for families in Waldo County.

Spark Bagel opened in Northport in January. Instead of boiling bagels in barley malt the New York way, owner Shawn Williams boils his bagels in a honey water bath using local Swan's Honey, which seals the crust. Read the PenBay Pilot story.

Camden

Winona's, a 20-seat restaurant, formerly Goods, opened on 31 Elm Street in late October. Launched by Hannah Adams and chef Devin Dearden, the tiny menu features six revolving dishes.

Villager Café: A new breakfast and lunch spot has opened at 25 Mechanic Street, a community hub for Midcoast Villager.

The Smiling Cow: This family-owned shop, which has been a Camden staple for 85 years, changed ownership in April when Meg Quijano handed the business reins to her nephew, David Fisher. Read the PenBay Pilot story.

String Theory Music: A music shop opened at 57 Bayview Street this past October. It provides a selection of high-quality guitars, amps, and accessories and services acoustic and electric guitars and bass guitars. Further, the shop is committed to being a hub for musicians who are looking for a space to perform, congregate, and build community around.

The Village Candy & Gift Shoppe: Last year, the shop at 53 Bayview, formerly Creative Creations 4U, took over where Uncle Willy's Candy Shop left off and combined the two businesses into one. The family-owned shop offers gifts and home decor from local artists and crafters, as well as locally made chocolates, candies, maple syrups, and hot sauces.

Simply Blessed 'N More: Another gift shop, around the corner and up the street at 56 Elm Street, opened in November. The interior is huge, hosting more than 70 vendors. The shop carries handmade crafts, gifts, upcycled art, and more. Additionally, the shop is hosting hands-on classes in certain crafts.

Rockport

Rock City Employee Cooperative: This worker-owned cooperative moved its roastery to a larger space at 16 Rockport Park Center to a building better suited for production.

VIP Tires & Service: The Rockland-based tire store and shop has made plans to move to 1075 Commercial Street, which was, at one point, the site of a Denny's Restaurant. See that PenBay Pilot story here.

Rockland

Stone Alley Brewing: Six friends launched the small craft brewery, formerly Liberator Brewing Co., opening in early 2025, adding to Rockland's craft beer scene. See that PenBay Pilot story here.

Cafe Grazie: Set to open in late spring 2025 at 148 Main Street, this bakery, cafe, and market is being launched by the owners of Double Grazie at the spot that was formerly Wiggin's Meat Market. See that PenBay Pilot story here.

Olive Rose Chocolates: A new chocolate shop opened in February where the Rock City Coffee location used to be at 252 Main Street, offering handmade small-batch chocolates.

The Spot: The Spot, owned and operated by Brian Fickett and Jillian Lary, opened in its second location in the former Oceanside Deli at 131 North Main Street, offering salads, beef and veggie burgers, and handheld sandwiches, beer, ice cream, fries, and onion rings. See the PenBay Pilot story here.

Aroma Joe’s: A new 1,071-square-foot drive-thru coffee shop is being proposed at 182 Camden Street, with plans under city review.

Midcoast Sports Exchange: This sports equipment and apparel store has relocated to Rockland, doubling its previous space to better serve the community. See that PenBay Pilot story here.

The Wine Seller recently moved from its old location on Tillson Avenue to a new and larger location at 415 Main Street. 

Tenants Harbor

Ancho Honey Closes: In April, Ancho Honey announced on soical media that the popular restaurant was closing, citing a number of factors. Its other restaurant, Honey's Fried Chicken Palace, is still operating in Thomaston.

If we’ve missed a restaurant or business, email news@penbaypilot.com with the relevant details (who/what/where/when) and we’ll paste it into this story.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Sometimes, an author's life story can be just as interesting as the novel she creates.

Jennifer Comeau's debut historical fantasy novel, A Moon In All Things (12 Willows Press), took 10 years to write and is about to launch this week.

The novel, set in 1820s Galway Bay, Ireland, is YA-adjacent. It features 16-year-old protagonist, Morrigan Lane, a headstrong girl who isn't interested in stitching the perfect crewel or keeping a tidy hearth, but instead wants to captain a boat like her fisherman father. Her journey is inspired by Ireland's mythological Otherworld, which teaches her how to "heal brokenness between humans and their natural world."

The Otherworld is a term for a magical, invisible realm in Irish mythology where supernatural beings like fairies, gods, and spirits live.

It's fair to say that Comeau's personal journey served as a template for Morrigan's unorthodox choices.

In the 1980s, there was a cultural shift toward career-minded women. Like many women her era, Comeau followed a money-making path after high school, not an artistic one. So, without even being aware of her own wants or needs, she earned a bachelor's and master's degree in engineering.

After decades working as an executive in the automotive industry and information systems, Comeau started to feel that her chosen path was detrimental to her health and soul.

"Early on as a people pleaser, a child of eight kids in the family, I did whatever it took to get the achievement, the 'atta girl,' really to the point where I didn't know who I was," she said.

At 37, she started taking stock of what was really important. Not money. Not status.

"At my core, I'm an empath, a sensitive person, what would have been called 'thin-skinned' in the corporate world," she said. "I kept asking myself how to get out of this trap that I, myself, had made."

She harkened back to what felt good and healing in childhood. "I had been a dreamy, bookish kid, playing in ponds, writing poems, having picnics under willow trees."

She was instinctively drawn to singing and writing, but wrestled with Imposter Syndrome.

"I had no credentials, and in the corporate world, credentials are everything," she said.

Still, she gave herself permission to build her talents, by first teaching herself to play guitar, and then writing lyrics to accompany songs. That resulted in producing two albums of original music, with one song snagging a finalist level in a Maine songwriting competition.

Having moved to Maine from California with her husband 25 years ago, the state's heavily forested areas provided more inspiration. She became a certified forest therapy guide.

Her Irish ancestry and her mother's genealogical stories manifested in a dream one night, about a woman on the cliffs of Galway Bay. Through all of these pivots in her personal life, a story was born, the beginnings of A Moon In All Things.

Still pursuing the lifelong pattern of earning credentials, she began honing her writing through taking workshops.

As her story unfolded, it became about Morrigan, "who is summoned by The Otherworld to heed her calling and go against societal dictates to become a healer of her village, and thus, herself." Comeau took a 99-percent pay cut from her job to travel to Ireland for four weeks and surround herself with the setting of her novel. "I didn't pressure myself to write anything," she said. "I just walked everywhere and absorbed everything. I had this mantra the whole time: 'Quiet mind; quiet mouth; open heart; empty vessel.'"

She continued research on the novel by working with Irish History Professor Niall Ó Cíosáin

"That trip made me trust my intuition and break old patterns," she said. "I've come full circle to fully appreciate these skills I now have. I think the world may be ready for a novel like this. For years, the trend in novels has been dystopian, but now that we're living it, I think the world is ready to fall in love with magical relationships, nature, and the Otherworld."

The novel can be found locally at Left Bank Books, at independent bookstores, and online. Visit her website to learn more about upcoming events.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND—Midcoast Sports Exchange, a center for used and new sports equipment and recreational gear, recently moved  from the former KeyBank building in Camden Market Square to the vacant sporting goods store, Olympia Sports in Rockland's Harbor Plaza.

Justin Hovey, the store's owner, said the new location has more than doubled the store's inventory space.

"In the last space, we were constantly moving seasonal inventory up and down the stairs and re-arranging things," he said. "It was getting to the point where it was becoming unmanageable and causing people who were coming in to shop anxiety."

Now, with every square inch of the store dedicated to almost every indoor and outdoor sport imaginable, all of that shuffled inventory now has a dedicated area in the new store.

Now, sports gear (both previously owned and new) for all four seasons is out in full view and Hovey said customers are excited to see the store expand.

His business model has always been to make equipment and gear affordable for locals.

"I want people to find a good, used option for a sport or recreation and a great deal of reasonably priced new gear that keeps everyone in the equipment that they need. We're starting to build more relationships with more vendors so we can offer new things."

He cited a recent example of someone bringing in a used frame backpack with a hole in it, which he typically would not accept as all consignment items must be in clean and useable shape to be accepted in his store.

"I learned about a bunch of kids who go out on a once-a-year backpacking trip and who needed gear but can't afford a frame pack that's hundreds of dollars. So, I saved this one for him, $25, a nice frame pack that will get that kid out to the woods and function well, even though it's got a hole in it."

Hovey's “Play it Forward” program works with Midcoast athletic directors and coaches to outfit a student on the team who doesn’t have the money to buy new equipment or clothing. 

"It's my favorite thing we do," he said. "I love going out to watch their games and seeing the products from our store being used—they have no idea who I am or where it came from."

For spring and summer, Hovey has areas of the new store dedicated to fishing poles and gear, camping, tents, bicycles, weights, pickleball, watersports, sailing, golf, motorcycle jackets and helmets, and many more items that may be hard to find elsewhere.

"We'll hopefully expand into equestrian items and dirt bikes—items that didn't have enough room to display before," he added. "Anything you use or wear to recreate, ask me about it."

People in the area who have sports equipment or recreational gear (no firearms) to sell on consignment may contact Hovey at info@mserockport.com

For more information visit: www.mserockport.com or on Facebook

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

PORTLAND—A new Maine-based film and TV streaming service just launched this month. If the creators achieve their goal, the platform will be a curated "Netflix for Maine" with immersive documentaries, feature films, TV programs, live events, and cultural deep dives.

Rory Strunk, his business partner, Tristan Noyes, and media Director Ken Hess from O'Maine Studios launched StreamState on February 1 with a platform of Maine-focused movie features, such as Islander; TV programs, such as Teagan Wright's From Away; andworkshop videos, activity cams, and live events.

"We plan on being a one-stop shop for movies or TV shows made in Maine," said Strunk.

How it works: Anyone can create an account in February, where all the content will be free. Starting in March, the subscription will be in the $5 to $6 range per month for access to all content.

Free viewing will remain in place to see what is happening in real-time at Sunday River, Sugarloaf, Camden, Topsham, and Kennebunk with live webcam footage and samples of films and programs.

StreamState will add more live activity cams will be this spring. To date, more than 1,060 accounts people have signed up.

As their platform is still in its infancy, Strunk acknowledged that StreamState is: "The Portland Sea Dogs comparatively to the Boston Red Sox," but he and his team at O'Maine Studios hope to grow the platform on the premise that the demand for Maine content will be the draw for viewers in-state and millions of out-of-staters who want to stay connected to the Pine Tree State.

Beyond offering Maine TV and movies, StreamState also aims to provide "behind the lens" content and trailers for each listing so viewers can get a contextual connection to the filmmakers, locations, and other types of content typically found on a DVD collector's edition.

StreamState debuted in Camden on February 1, with live coverage of the US National Toboggan Championships. Strunk and his crew took a camera crew to Hosmer Pond, where they shot 385 races over the course of the weekend. After the footage aired, Strunk said that they had about 650 viewers signed up just to watch that coverage.

"I had already fielded two queries from the public asking if we would have live streaming this year, so Rory's news [requesting to cover the event live] was beyond exciting for me," said Toboggan Nationals Coordinator Holly Anderson.

It took some last-minute fundraising to match a Shipyard sponsorship to pull it off.

"With live streaming, viewers could cheer on the people they knew were traveling to Camden to race, and the event could be introduced to a whole new audience of future racers," said Anderson. "Following the positive experience we had working with Rory and his team, we will make the 35th annual U.S. National Toboggan Championships live streaming an even bigger phenomenon for Camden and the Midcoast."

"We want to create interactivity around signature sports events for each Maine town, such as the Toboggan Nationals, the state-wide lobster boat races, Sunday River's North American Wife Carrying Championships, and more," he said.

Thirty-three percent of the membership subscriptions will be funneled into a programming pool every six months to allocate revenue back to the independent producers based on viewership. Thus, the more people view a particular movie, show, or event, the more rewards the producer earns.

"We really want to see what people are responding to," said Strunk. "If people are more interested in horror films, we'll add more. If they want live events, we'll get more. We'll be able to see what the Maine tastes are."

StreamState is constantly searching for good material that will resonate with its niche audience. Strunk said more than 250 Maine-made films are currently sitting on the digital shelf, and it's StreamState's goal to promote them to viewers.

"We want to help film and TV makers in Maine grow their brand," he said.

Strunk founded O'Maine Studios, with Noyes as his business partner and a team of creative professionals in content and media development. O’Maine Studios has operated for 10 years as a media and event studio in Portland with a core focus on creating content and events that shine a positive light on Maine.

"With Rory’s decades of experience in creating media companies and branded content and my background in agriculture, education, and nonprofit and business leadership, we're building a platform that elevates regional stories and strengthens community connections," said Noyes.

Strunk and Noyes said Streamstate will naturally grow in tandem with their connections to the people of this state.

"If you originate the content coming from the community, you'll instantly connect with these people who have affinities to these communities," said Strunk.

For more information visit: https://streamstate.tv

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

MIDCOAST—Valentine’s Day isn't for everyone, especially if you’re flying solo. Whether you’re embracing the freedom of single life or just want to dodge all the heart-shaped clichés, check out five fun, anti-V-Day happenings in the Midcoast that are perfect for singles looking to have a blast on Friday, February 14.

I Hate Valentine's Day Party

Bistro La Cave, Camden

While they are serving dinner for the love birds from 5 to 9 p.m., wear your perfect all-black ensemble and hit their Anti-Valentine’s Day Bash at 9:30 p.m., "where you can nicely dismantle the cheesy Valentine’s décor, make real connections, play some games, and celebrate love in all its fun, unconventional, and carefree forms."

This is a fun event for V-Day rebels with a stack of board games and conversation starters. They even have wristbands:

Red: Open to love and romance (but on your terms).
Green: Ready for anything – surprise me!
Blue: Just here to make friends and chill.
Yellow: Flirting is fun, but commitment isn’t on the menu.
Orange: No thanks, I’m just here for the party.

FMI: Bistro La Cave

Good Tern Wine Tasting

Good Tern Coop, Rockland

The best part of not sharing a bottle of wine with another is... more for you!

From 4 to 6 p.m., the Good Tern Coop is hosting a wine tasting with their wine and beer buyer, Deminique. Enjoy red and white wines from Domaine Montluzia vineyard in France, aswell as a Junmai Rosé Sasanigori Sake. Take it one step further and make a special dinner for yourself or friends that pairs well with these wines and sake with recipes here and here.

FMI: Good Tern Co-op  

Dance Party with The Right Track

Watts Hall, Thomaston

You know the expression, "Dance like nobody's watching?"

Nobody is watching, so go ahead and enjoy yourself and dance to the music of The Right Track, an 11-piece R&B, soul, and funk band. The show goes from 7 to 9 p.m. The Block Saloon will be on-site with a beer and wine cash bar, and Watts Hall will have light concessions available for purchase.

FMI: Tickets 

Singles & Friends Night

Hot Hill Tavern, Thomaston

Hot Hill is getting into the solo vibe "without all the mushy stuff" starting at 6:30 p.m. They'll do giveways, host a human Scavenger Hunt, and play Cards Against Humanity.

"It's a way to get people to talk to each other," said co-owner Carly Laughery. "Because in a bar, sometimes people tend to sink into their phones. We're not going to try and hook you up with somebody. I feel like Valentine's Day, if you're not in a couple, it is kind of depressing."

She emphasized that this night is more for adult humor. 

FMI: Hot Hill Tavern

Love is Funny... with Ian Stuart

Hey Sailor, Searsport

A night of comedy is just what Doctor Lovelorn ordered. Hey Sailor hosts headliner comedian Ian Stuart, star of the YouTube comedy sensation "Welcome to Maine."

He will be joined by comedians Dennis Fogg and Rosellen Earl.

Hey Sailor will have food and cocktails available, and the event starts at 7 p.m. Whether you're single, taken, or "it's complicated," this event is sure to bring a smile to your face. Grab your tickets for $15 before they're gone!

FMI: Tickets

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com