A number of Maine-started Facebook groups went viral with the COVID-19 virus pandemic in 2020, and now there’s one more to get a read on.
First there was Quarantine Karaoke, then Wine Fairies of Maine. Now, another group has shot like a rocket thanks to Windham resident, Courtney Edwards. The group is called Maine Book Club/Discussion (What Are You Reading?)
Edwards, a mother and wife, had a job as a receptionist at a dental office until last March, when the pandemic forced the facility to close. Until then, she’d been working nearly 50-60 hours a week, cleaning, caring for her children, cooking, and performing other daily household tasks, which left her precious few hours of personal time.
“My whole life, I have just worked, worked, worked,” she said. “I’ve always had two jobs and when the dental office closed, I had all of this extra time where I needed to find something creative to do.”
Edwards admitted she had never been a bibliophile until the pandemic hit.
“I was watching Outlander, the TV series, and really liked it. I discovered that the series had been based on books, so I bought the books. I just started reading and I loved the feeling it gave me, so I became obsessed with reading more books.”
That got Edwards into exploring other Facebook book groups, until one day she had the idea to simply start her own in Maine in October.
“I thought people would really enjoy reading, especially those who’d never picked up a book before,” she said. “I’ve never been a fast reader, but since the group started, I’ve read 32 books.”
Edwards is a fan of historical fiction, historical fantasy, and time travel.
The group, which started off as a book club for Maine women with 150 followers, began to take twists and turns of its own, worthy of its own short story.
“I started off with just women, but then I started to get male readers asking if they could be part of the group and it sort of hit a controversy,” said Edwards. “I lost a lot of members and felt awful, so we decided to open the group to male readers and authors, as well. I’d never done anything like this before, so I didn’t know how to approach it. But Gregg Olson was one of the first authors to hit the request button and I almost keeled over.”
From that point on, more and more people began joining the group, not just readers and authors from Maine, but from all over the United States and even overseas. More than 100 authors from the United States have joined, and Edwards has set up a special tab for them titled Authors/Maine Authors [accessible on smartphones and iPads].
Authors in Maine in particular, are getting a boost of free publicity thanks to Edwards’ efforts. She and a team of moderators have personally responded to every author’s request to join the group. Each author has received a personal introduction from the group on a welcome post.
“I’ve gotten a lot of thanks from authors for giving them a spot in our group,” she said. “The most famous Maine author obviously is Stephen King, but I still haven’t heard from him yet,” she added with a laugh. “I’m sure he is very busy.”
She has also offered her Facebook platform as a place for anyone to schedule free events, from author readings to book discussions.
Edwards said the size of the group as it continues to grow is slightly overwhelming, but she feels like she has started a mission she can’t abandon. “I have friends who haven’t touched a book in years who are starting to read again,” she said. Everybody while quarantining seems to binge on media, whether it’s on your TV or phone, but there’s something about connecting with a book and getting lost in another person’s world for 300 pages.”
“I’ve never really traveled, so when I get into a book, I really feel like I’m traveling there,” she said.
DAMARISCOTTA—Faced with the food limitations necessary for their own family, a baker and her husband have decided to open a completely gluten-free bakery and cafe at 77 Main Street in downtown in mid-January named Butter Up Cakes.
Candice and Patrick Brady have three children.
“Two of our children have celiac disease, are lactose intolerant and can’t have high fructose corn syrup, and my husband is the same way,” said Candice. “So, I make all of their food from scratch, anyway. We decided to open the business so other people with celiac disease could have options, too.”
Originally from Michigan, the Bradys originally started their bakery in Bangor. But, as they found out, it wasn’t the best location, so they decided to relocate to Damariscotta where Patrick took a job with a local construction company.
Set to open January 16, the Bradys have expanded their original store concept from more than just a bakery. The new cafe will offer all kinds of gluten-free options such as homemade muffins, bagels, donuts, quiche, and breakfast sandwiches. For lunch and dinner, they’ll offer gluten-free soups, chilis, chowders, pasta, salads, and pierogies.
“Everything that comes out of that kitchen I make myself,” she said. “There is nothing processed, frozen, or packaged. I get to the cafe at 6 p.m. to start work, I go home at 6 p.m. at the end of the day and I wake up at midnight to start baking,” she said.
“When someone comes into our cafe, I want people to have as many options as they would at another restaurant; I want them to experience what it’s like to have regular food and feel safe eating it,” said Candice. “Coming from Michigan, I realized a lot of Mainers aren’t used to certain foods. For example, we make pierogies as my husband is Polish. These are basically Polish dumplings. I’ve had Mainers [from our last establishment] come in and ask about them; they’re really intrigued by them.”
Added to the mix, Butter Up Cakes will be the only restaurant in Damariscotta —and the Midcoast for that matter—offering gluten-free beer and hard ciders, which are naturally gluten-free.
“There is no Maine-made gluten-free beer, unfortunately, so we will be sourcing elsewhere, such as the Glutenberg beer from Canada,” said Candice. “With the hard ciders, we’ll be offering Maine-made ciders from the bigger cideries such as Ricker Hill and Kennebec Cider Company, but we’ve also found a couple of smaller cideries that we really want to use, so we’re working on getting those in as well.”
The cafe plans to offer limited in-house dining with respect to COVID-19 precautions, with tables spaced six feet apart. “When things change, we’ll be able to open to full capacity,” she said.
Candice said she expects a gluten-free clientele from all over the state will have an interest in the new location, given their experiences from their last location.
“When we were still in Bangor, we had people come from Presque Isle, from Canada, from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont,” she said. “With everything closing down due to COVID, I think the gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan communities needed to know that there is something here for them, sort of a light at the end of the tunnel.”
Butter Up Cakes also ships their items nationally, as well.
Learn more about Butter Up Cakes from their Facebook page.
COREA—Markham and Suzanne Starr are two different artists inspired by the same source material—the Maine lobstering way of life. In 2011, Markham published a photography book titled Finest Kind: The Lobstermen of Corea, depicting the lives of Corea, Maine, lobstermen. His wife, Suzanne, a nationally recognized award-winning artist, got inspired by those photographs and drew a number of charcoal and graphite portraits of Maine people and places.
The couple is from North Stonington, Connecticut, where Markham, who worked for many years at Mystic Seaport, developed a love for the fishing industry.
“Years ago, he was granted the rights to come up to Prospect Harbor and photograph the sardine factory in its last days,” said Suzanne. “He got connected with someone who worked at the sardine factory who lived in Corea and visited her. He found Corea a place that is truly untouched, uncommercialized.”
It’s probably not a coincidence that both Suzanne and Markham’s work mirrors one another’s style.
“My husband is very partial to black and white photography and that, in turn, has inspired me to draw primarily in black and white,” said Suzanne. As an art teacher for many years, she is now retired and works on her art full-time. Her involvement with the American Artist Professional League, a national organization, has led to her participation in national shows.
Suzanne’s portraits are crisp and striking with some capturing a desolate tone.
“I really like the story behind each drawing, especially, the story in someone’s face,” she said. “Color can shout; it can be beautiful, but to me, it often distracts from what you’re trying to see. I really love the textures, the subtlety and contrast. When you see black and white photographs from long ago, there is a timelessness to them; they tell a story of a reality that’s not tangible anymore. That’s how it feels to me with black and white tones, instead of colors.”
Portraits of people’s faces are some of her favorite, such as the depiction of a young man working the trap hauler in one image. “When Mark was doing the project in Maine, we stayed in Gouldsboro, Maine,” she explained of the portrait. “Just down the road, was this family, the Whitakers, a big lobstering family who fish out of Corea. We became friendly with them and Mark spent some time on their boats. This young man’s name is Ethan and he was about 20 years old when that photo was taken. Once I did the drawing, Ethan’s father reached out to me to buy the drawing for Ethan as a surprise Christmas gift.”
Today, Suzanne does commissions of portraits, the majority from the general population, but some from fishing families, who’ve seen her work online and at shows.
The lobstering life holds a fascination for many artists who view it from the outside in. From her work with the people in the industry, Suzanne has come to understand what makes these communities tightly knit.
“It’s just who they are and what they do, and despite all the difficulties, it’s a life they wouldn’t trade,” she said.
To learn more about Markham’s photography visit his website and to find more of Suzanne’s portraits, visit her website.
THOMASTON—On Thursday, Dec. 24, a crowd of 30-40 people gathered in a line at noon, plastic bags in hand, in an empty parking lot off New County Road.
Standing at the back of his pick up truck, Matinicus lobsterman Noah Ames played the proverbial role of Santa, giving away crates of live lobster for free that he and about six other Midcoast lobstermen caught, banded, and transported so that people in the area could have a good Christmas Eve dinner.
During an unprecedented Christmas season, with Americans across the nation suffering economically awaiting a long-delayed $900 billion coronavirus relief package that has still yet to be signed by President Trump and with unemployment benefits set to expire in a matter of days, many people have had to choose between buying food and paying bills.
Ames, with his friend, assisting, chatted with folks as they stepped up to the truck, bag in hand. Given how many people were standing in line, he announced he could only give away four lobsters to each family, with extra to veterans, in the form of a Hannaford gift card he additionally handed out.
Ames started this tradition in 2014. In former stories Pen Bay Pilot has written about Ames over the years, he said, “It’s about teaching my sons the spirit of Christmas. It’s important to learn how to give back.”
Many grateful people left with their bags of lobster, parting with sentiments of “Merry Christmas” and “You’re doing a wonderful thing.”
At a time when every bit of kindness and generosity is coming from Mainers helping Mainers, Ames and his lobstermen friends are an example to the leaders in this country.
NORTHPORT—Back in April, The Atlantic magazine wrote a story about how making old-fashioned crafts during the pandemic could ease anxiety. Millions of crafters took that to heart, and with the COVID-19 virus still raging on nine months later, many burgeoning creators have taken to Instagram, YouTube, and other online resources to make something beautiful.
One such artist, Shelby Connolly, from Northport, found her niche that way. After purchasing secondhand furniture such as dressers, trunks, and jewelry armoires, Connolly has created a cottage industry called Mainely Homespun, using her natural talent as well as pre-made design tools to refinish the items into stunning, fairytale pieces.
Connolly, a mother of two toddlers, needed something to occupy her time when the pandemic first hit.
“ I started this process just to do something for myself during nap times and at night just to relax,” she said.
A self-described DIY fanatic, Connolly said she had been refinishing furniture for about a year, teaching herself how to paint, decoupage, and use creative stencils, transfers, and moulds to transform the furniture. She decided to start an official business after being inspired by a similar crafter’s Facebook page.
“I first picked up an old oak entertainment center in Rockland and painted it with chalk paint, then put a decal, what we call a ‘transfer image’ on it and ended up selling it,” she said. “After that, I was like ‘Okay, let’s try another!’”
One of the secrets to Connolly's furniture appeal is that she uses Redesign by Prima, a line of DIY products that allow artists to redesign, repaint, and retexture the furniture. She has also created a side hustle as a Redesign by Prima retailer, and regularly blogs about how she does her artistry through tutorials.
Like any self-taught artist, she has a plethora of tools to choose from, but it’s her own aesthetic she calls “Farmhouse and Cottage style to French Chateau Chic” that transforms these pieces into works of functional art.
Her pink-striped vanity with mirror is emblematic of her unique style, using certain painting techniques, pale pink colors, and neutral, feminine tones.
“Each piece is different,” she said. “I do like the Shabby Chic vibe and that vanity has a sweet and petite look to it. I just kept picturing it in some old run-down chateau in France.”
“I’ll buy a piece, then think about it, what vibe I want and from there, I’ll paint colors, transfer, decoupage papers onto it,” she said. “For this one, I love stripes, so I just taped off the top drawers with painter’s tape and used decoupage paper on the front. And for the warm look around the edges, I used a product that’s almost like loose eyeshadow and mixed two different techniques.”
Some of her furniture designs gravitate toward what she calls “crazy colors, patterns, and florals, which are more rustic and primitive,” such as a magnificent jewelry armoire in deep blues and greens.
She also brings glam to everyday objects, such as a gumball machine, which looks like a prop on a vintage carousel.
“I actually buy them on eBay and Amazon new and just prime the metal and do my designs on them,” she said. “I do love doing it and mixing certain elements. it’s super fun.”
Connolly has a website, but primarily sells her pieces through Facebook Marketplace.
For the holidays, we’re continuing our series to shine the spotlight on Maine craftspeople. This week, we’re focusing on Maine Made gourmet and specialty foods made from all around the state.
Cup of Sea tea made from seaweed
Portland, Maine
Photo courtesy Josh Rogers
The back story:
Josh Rogers, a freelance cookbook editor and web content strategist on the side, got the idea to make tea from seaweed after noticing how alike green tea and kelp tasted. He started making tea from seaweed and opened his own store, Heritage Seaweed, the country's first and only all-things-seaweed store, in Portland, Maine. “I source flakes of dried seaweed from local harvesters including Atlantic Holdfast, who's based on a remote island seven miles off Stonington,” he said. “I blend the seaweed with caffeinated or herbal tea ingredients in small batches at our Portland shop. You'd be hard-pressed to find a more nutritious tea. It’s chock-full of minerals, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory agents. Ultimately, a cup of tea is one of the easiest ways to add seaweed to your diet.”
Cost: $12.99 per bag. You can buy it online or in-person at Heritage Seaweed, 61 India St, Portland.
In his words: “We have five blends and they couldn't taste more different--warm ginger, white truffle honey, smoky malt, regular old black tea, and a green tea with a distinct whiff of sea breeze. People are all over the map on whether they can detect the seaweed, but most everyone likes it if they try it.”
Bub ‘N Mutha’s Gourmet Dry Rubs
Winter Harbor, Maine
Photo courtesy John Furman
The back story:
John Fuhrman is the founder of Bub ‘n Mutha’s. (If you want to know where the company name comes from, check out his story on his website—and yes, his mother is very much an inspiration!) He is also a veteran and their company mission is to grow enough to be able to hire area veterans for full-time jobs right here in Maine.
From his labels to his recipes, John likes to put fun into dry rubs. “Barbecue does that better than any other style of food and it’s an American invention,” he said. “Our rubs are very unique in that they use 100 percent natural ingredients and no preservatives. Both flavors use far less salt than the other blends on the shelves in supermarkets. In addition, we use real Maine ingredients from real Maine companies. Both of our flavors use Raye’s Mustard ground mustard seeds. Our DownEast Dinnah (pronounced DINN-uh) Dust also uses real maple syrup crystals from Maine Made Maple in Madison and espresso ground locally at Coffee Hound in Brewer, Maine.”
Cost: $15.99 for individual dry rubs. They can be bought online or at these retail stores across Maine, including all Reny’s Department store locations.
In his words: “With all that's going on in the world, barbecue is a great distraction. No one has a bad time at a barbecue. For 2020, we won 1st place at the International Flavor Awards for our Honey ‘n Heat in the dry rub category.”
Ass Over Teakettle Bloody Mary Mix
Cornville, Maine
Photo courtesy Katie Quinn
The back story:
Katie Quinn, a bartender from Cornish, Maine has a hilarious backstory on how her initial Bloody Mary skills needed some improvement. With some guidance from a friend, her recipe improved. So much so, she started making them at Bullwinkle’s Bistro, Sugarloaf's on-mountain restaurant. On her best day, she served 512 Bloody Marys in one lunch! After that, a group of Katie’s regulars encouraged her to start her own business and bottle her Bloody Mary mix with the unforgettable name. “I make six gallons at a time in my commercial kitchen with my own tomato juice and Worcestershire sauce, that is then hand-bottled and labeled,” she said. “It’s small-batch, with classic ingredients, just what a Bloody Mary is supposed to be. People have said it has a wonderful balance of flavor and spice, and a fresh tomato pop with a horseradish heat. It tastes fresh and not from a bottle.”
Cost: Prices range from $3.50 to $30.00 depending on jar size. They can be found online and at these participating Maine stores.
In her words: “ I have a YouTube video on my website that shows the process. This will be the last Bloody Mary mix you will ever use. It will kick you right square in the donkey!“
ROCKLAND—A fast-casual lunch and dinner spot opened this week called Maine Kebab, and owner Shane McGarvey and his executive chef, Ken Hynes, are already ahead of the curve in terms of issues that have plagued restaurants since the COVID-19 virus hit back in March.
The menu is very simple: Mediterranean and Turkish flavors. Main dishes include Tumeric rice bowls, flatbread sandwiches, falafel and hummus box, and a salad box all serve as the main ingredient dishes, to which a diner has the choice to add in protein: lamb kofta, beef brisket, grilled chicken, pork belly, Haloumi, and tofu.
There are also smaller sides, kid’s meals, fried chicken dishes, desserts, and drinks. But the real stars of the menu are Hynes’ six different sauces from scratch to go with each meal, such as the MK Green, a take on green goddess dressing, MK Yellow, a curry and honey sauce, and MK Orange, a white sauce with a habanero kick— to name a few.
“Everything is mix and match on the menu,” he said. “The basis of the menu stemmed from late nights in New York City after getting out of work at 2 a.m. and there’s nothing but halal carts and after not eating all day, that food saves your life.”
Hynes, born in New Jersey, went to culinary school and has traveled all around the country for the last 15 years, working in fine dining and exploring different culinary regions from Napa Valley to New York to Alaska.
“I grew up in a very small town and wanted to experience more of the world and the flavors in different areas,” he said. He and his wife moved to Maine to be closer to her family once they had a baby. Most recently he was a chef at 40 Paper, before joining forces with McGarvey.
McGarvey is also a chef. He owns Applecroft Catering on the side. The Rockland branch is the latest franchise to open. McGarvey opened a restaurant of the same name in Waldoboro back in July.
“With COVID, we switched gears to try and feed the public the safest way we can and as affordable to the public as possible,” said Hynes. “Shane designed this menu completely with the limitations of COVID in mind and to be fast, easy, simple, and franchisable.”
Unlike a traditional takeout shop, Maine Kebab only allows online ordering on a website that hosts both locations. No cash is exchanged. Once the order is completed, a diner can simply pick up the boxed food at the window with minimal contact.
If and when the world goes back to normal, the open space in the restaurant, may, someday, be open to indoor dining. The outdoor seating is still available once the weather gets warmer.
To see the menu and order go to Maine Kebab’s website and choose either Rockland or Waldoboro. The restaurant is open from 12 to 9 p.m every day except Tuesday.
THOMASTON—Like so many enterprising crafter/artists before her, Jo Ann Hoppe, an artist and entrepreneur from South Thomaston, has made a career from her hobbies. Refusing to let a pandemic dictate her direction, she’s lifting up a dozen or so local crafters, who are selling their consigned items in her newly opened shop, Blueberry Moose at 166 Main Street in Thomaston.
“I’ve always been artistic, but in 2007, an artist told me I should be showing my stuff at craft fairs,” she said. “So, I started making these rustic-looking signs with Maine town names on them. I thought it was crazy, but I gave it a shot. Meantime, I was working full time as a nurse. And, at one point, five years ago, as I was getting ready to go to my booth at the Maine Lobster Festival, I wanted a teal-colored lobster on my T-shirt to match my shorts. I had lobster stencils, so I quickly stenciled a lobster on a t-shirt and went to the Festival. While there, folks kept asking me where I got my shirt. So, I called my husband and told him I had to go buy more shirts. I bought a dozen white T-shirts and sold out of them as fast as I could paint them. I did lobsters, sea horses, anchors, all nautical themes.”
Originally, while still working as a nurse, Hoppe had opened Blueberry Moose in South Thomaston in 2007, but found it was too tough to keep open due to her hectic schedule. She re-opened it again after retiring, in 2017, this time from a shed on her property, but when COVID-19 struck in 2020, Hoppe found herself unable to keep her retail space open.
Being resourceful, she helped coordinate “Open Air Craft Fairs” in August and September, on the grounds of both the South Thomaston Library and the Jackson Memorial Library in Tenants Harbor. It was clear that she wasn't quite done with owning a shop.
“Coming through Thomaston this past summer, I saw a ‘For Rent’ sign at the Watts Building and finally called to rent it,” she said. “I talked with my other crafters and ladies whom I had I worked with before at the “Open Air Craft Fairs.’ There are a few of them in their 80s, and this is their pin money. A lot of them were dependent on this money from their crafts to supplement their social security. So, it all gelled; I got the space, and together, with local crafters and a few others, I invited about 15 of them to sell their wares on a consignment basis at my shop.”
Hoppe said her goal is to add more Maine Made crafters to her shop, a brand that pertains to a rigorous standard for Maine artists and crafters.
“I’ve helped a few of these ladies to sign up to be members of Maine Made and the goal is to qualify as a Maine Made shop,” said Hoppe. “The community is happy that we’re here.”
Hoppe is the only person who runs Blueberry Moose, so the crafters can stay safe at home while still earning a percentage on their products. Hoppe also plans on hosting “paint parties” starting in January, teaching people how to stencil signs and shirts.
Her shop is open seven days a week, Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“This is what I love to do,” she said. “Every day is a gift.”
Find Blueberry Moose, along with Hoppe’s live tutorials on Facebook.
For the holidays, we’re continuing our series to shine the spotlight on Maine craftspeople. It’s important to shop locally and support innovators and entrepreneurs who keep the creative economy alive in this state. So each week, until Dec. 25, we will bring you this series until you can’t take it anymore. Ready. Set. Go.
Julie Littlefield is the maker and owner of Running Blynd, a small handmade business located in the small southern Maine town of Cornish. She creates fun and functional home décor. and her signature items are decorative clothespin magnets in a variety of sizes, as well as a variety of other clothespin products. All of her products are hand painted and/or decoupaged. Pictured are set of 12 decorative clothespins in black and white theme with 10 feet of jute twine and two wood push pins for hanging. “Use it to display your photos, kids artwork, cards, postcards, etc.,” she said. “The possibilities are endless.”
In her words: “My inspiration for my products began when my kids were needing an easier way to hang multiple things on the fridge and it has evolved into other products over time.”
Happy New Year “Good Riddance to 2020” handmade cards
Rockwood, Maine
The back story:
Robin Merkle lives in Rockwood, Maine with her husband Todd, where they enjoy a beautiful view of the Moose River. “When one retires to the north woods of Maine, it is necessary to have a hobby to get through the long, cold, snowy winter,” she said. “I don’t ski, or snowmobile. I tried iced fishing once and decided it was too cold for me. So, while my husband enjoys the outdoor activities, I stay inside doing the artistic things that I have always enjoyed. I paint, I sew, and mostly I design and make cards, like this one, a set of 10 cards with envelopes to say “Good Riddance to 2020.” For a while, I donated the cards to our deployed military through an organization called Operation Write Home. Then, when our troops were recalled, the need for donated cards lessened. I had way more cards than I could ever use, so I started selling them to friends and neighbors. A couple of local gift shops also carry my cards. Through my Etsy shop, I have sold cards in 40 states and as far away as Singapore and Australia. I am happy to see that the demand for my cards is growing, and maybe someday I will sell enough to actually support my hobby. The challenge is to come up with unique designs.”
Cost: $18.00 each through her Etsy shop.
In her words: “A lot of my inspiration comes from the north Maine woods and the ‘Good Riddance 2020 Happy New Year’ design has been very popular in this year of the pandemic. ”
Lobster Gauge Bracelets
Friendship, Maine
The back story:
Crystal Lee runs an Etsy shop called Lobstermanswife in Friendship, Maine. She started making these bracelets back in 2015, which are very similar to the gauges that lobstermen use on their boats to determine whether a lobster is big enough to keep. “I saw some bracelets made using a real lobster gauge and wanted to put my own spin on the idea by engraving boat names and personal messages on mine,” she said. “Since my husband is a lobsterman and I come from a family of lobstermen, this seemed like a great way to promote the industry and bring extra money to the table while being a stay-at-home mom.” To make them, she hired a professional to create a die using a legal measure and who cut the bracelets from a hydraulic press. After they are cut, she stamps the metal with letters/numbers/image, sands and cleans the metal, and bends it by hand to create a bracelet.
Cost: $25.00 (brass, aluminum, and copper) at her Etsy shop
In her words: “I am inspired by the hard-working lobstermen in my community and my coastal lifestyle. I walk the shore almost daily combing the beach for new treasures and I'm always making something new.”
SOUTH BRISTOL—Many Maine artists use the concept of lobster in their art, but Tenley Seiders, an artist from South Bristol, actually uses lobster claws, tails, and other parts of the shell in her elegant jewelry and ornaments.
Born in California, she was first inspired to create jewelry from the abalone shells found on Pacific beaches. From there, she delved into working with pearls and semi-precious gemstones. After spending countless summers in Maine, an “a-ha” moment occurred when she found herself sterning on her boyfriend’s lobster boat.
“Occasionally when lobsters would be pulled up on deck, we’d find some that dropped a claw,” said Seiders. “Not only does that becomes lost poundage for the lobsterman, but it’s kind of a waste in general. I was trying to figure out what to do with those extra claws. With my jewelry background I got to thinking, ‘What can I do to make these shell pieces into something pretty?’”
Seiders’ love of shells and jewelry extended to whatever she could find in the wild.
“I’ll find the oyster and mussel shells when beachcombing with my kiddos,” she said. “For the star-shaped ornaments, I’ll pulverize them with a mortar and pestle and then sift the crushed shell with a strainer. The Snowflake ornaments are made by forming pieces of shell into a mold and affixing it with epoxy resin. The whole point of jewelry is taking something that would be thrown out and reuse it.”
It took her awhile to chemically preserve the color of cooked lobster shell for her jewelry, consisting of pendants, earrings, and bracelets.
“Red fades like crazy,” she said. “To maintain that jewelry-grade primary color red without destroying the composition of the shell took some work. I ended up working with chemicals that are often used to preserve buoy colors to keep the paint from fading.”
People who see her ornaments and jewelry tell her they can’t believe it’s derived from lobster shell; they think it’s some kind of precious stone.
Seiders still melds her personal life with her art: her lobstermen boyfriend is now her husband. They have been married 13 years and have two children.
Friends and neighbors often offer her the shells after lobster bakes or suppers.
“If I know where the lobster originated, I incorporate their story into the product,” she said.
On her website, Lobster Designs, is a section “Our Lobstermen” which goes into more detail. Each piece of jewelry comes with an information card on where that lobster shell was sourced and on the particular lobsterman who caught it.
“There’s so much inspiration all around us if you look around and I always use it in my art,” she said.
Seiders primarily sells her creations number of retail locations in Maine, including several shops in the Midcoast, as well as through her Etsy shop.
OWLS HEAD—Bill Clifford, a chef who once ran Bill’s Original Kitchen in Kittery, has revived his one-man operation and recently opened his new kitchen at Knox County Regional Airport.
Originally from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Clifford has worked as a chef at multiple venues in Maine, including his last stint at Point Lookout in Lincolnville before it abruptly closed.
The plan was in place since mid-October to take over the space, once occupied by the Salty Owl Cafe. He decided to take the best elements from his former restaurant and open at the end of the terminal two weeks ago.
“I had the Original Kitchen in Kittery from 2015 to about 2017 and then had an opportunity to come up to the Midcoast where my children have been living for many years,” said Clifford. “When this space became available, I had the opportunity to take my idea for a lobster roll business into this location and expand it with some other popular items from the Kittery location.”
His breakfast fare is simple: homemade breakfast sandwiches and Carrabassett Coffee. Lunch offerings are, in his words, “hearty plates and quick sandwiches.”
Chief among them include his famous lobster roll, sourced locally and made to order with Hellman’s mayonnaise, a little seasoning, a seared off split-top New England style bun, and cracked pepper and salt.
“The lobster roll is not pre-made and that’s the difference in the flavor,” said Clifford. “Everything is freshly coordinated together. You can tell when a lobster salad has been pre-mixed. Here, that doesn’t happen and people always tell me, ‘This is the way it’s supposed to taste.’”
A pot roast burger is another hearty item on the menu made with slabs of hot pot roast on a bun with barbecue sauce.
“As the lobster roll business took off, many times, people would come in and not everyone wanted a lobster roll, so they usually chose this item,” he said. “After a lot of trial and error, it has become very popular.”
Another unusual item, made popular at his Kittery location, is a swordfish BLT served on a bun with homemade mayo.
“I served that many many times,” he said. “People fell in love with that sandwich.”
The K.C.A.P. is open-faced Italian made with provolone, salami, and ham with banana peppers, red onions, tomatoes, roasted garlic oil, a staple on his menu. Other rotating items will include homemade soups and salads.
Clifford is primarily serving airport customers coming through right now, but hopes the locals will visit to try some of his from-scratch fare.
Bill’s Original Kitchen hours are 7 to11 a.m. for breakfast sandwiches and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for lunch items. Specials can be found on his Facebook page.
For the holidays, we’re continuing our series to shine the spotlight on Maine craftspeople. It’s important to shop locally and support innovators and entrepreneurs who keep the creative economy alive in this state. So each week, until Dec. 25, we will bring you this series until you can’t take it anymore. Ready. Set. Go.
“Jellyfish’ Airplant Holders Made From Urchin Shells
Rockland, Maine
The back story:
Lynn Ann Carrano Stasulis works full time at Superior Restoration in Camden, but her sidegig, “Midcoast Beachcombers” has taken off like crazy. Her best-selling items are whimsical airplant holders using urchin shells, which resemble jellyfish when hung by fishing line. “I started making them three years ago. I’ve always liked working in gardens and really like succulents. I also have a real draw to the ocean as well so I started doing some research and found urchin shells online, but they were used upside down as a planter. So, I thought, why don’t I swap them upside down, hang them from some fishing line and call them jellyfish?” Her natural products have become so popular, that’s she’s gotten nearly 1,000 inquiries on them in the last week.
Cost: $20.00 each. She ships them across the U.S., but has noted, due to the tremendous interest in these jellyfish, (and that she’s still working full time!) she’ll be able to take more orders after Christmas. She can be messaged through her public Facebook page: Midcoast Beachcombers.
In her words: “I source the urchin shells from all over the world, from Maine, from Florida, and the Carolinas and some from overseas. All of them contain succulents; some flower and some don’t.”
Handmade wreaths from natural forest materials
Newcastle, Maine
Handmade wreaths. Photo courtesy Trish Stockton
The back story:
Trish Stockton is now semi-retired, but most of her working career has been with plants, as a caretaker, grower, and restorer. She said her greatest reward was working for the National Park Service collecting native seed for restoration of protected native areas. “I have been collecting plant material from gardens, woods, and roadsides for as long as I can remember,” she said. “Until now, I made my wreaths for myself or as gifts but, I had always wanted to try to see if I could make some mad money selling them. It has taken until now because collecting enough material takes time, and the right sources.”
Cost: $25-$100.00 each. She can be reached through her personal Facebook page.
In her words: “I collect all year long, I find things to make the wreaths with while I'm on a morning walk or strolling through the woods, around my yard or driving down the road. Each wreath is formed with a base plant which is then decorated with other plants. For example, the one in the photo is made with Curly Dock and some milkweed pods.”
Maine coasters made from birchwood
Portland, Maine
Maine state coaster made from birchwood and laser cut. Photo courtesy Zootility
The back story:
It all started in 2012, when mechanical engineer, Nate Barr launched the PocketMonkey on Kickstarter. The credit card-sized multi-tool received more than 1,900 backers and $27,000 in 14 days. The company, now called Zootility, has continued to grow. From product design to manufacturing, Zootility produces everything in-house at their 8,000 sqft shop in Portland, ME. They make fun and stylish coasters from all 50 states, laser-cut from birchwood.
In their words: “This year, we’ve pivoted our efforts to manufacture comfortable masks to help protect our customers. We're always developing new products and currently have a few things in the works. Stay tuned by following us on social media @zootility"
CAMDEN—A nine-week-old stray kitten was brought into P.A.W.S Animal Adoption Center last August badly injured from being hit by a car—a situation tragically far too common.
Initially nicknamed “Mulligan,” after a golfing term that means getting a second chance, the kitten was stabilized by P.A.W.S.’ staff veterinarian Jodi James with the hope of saving the leg. However, her little body was fighting the infection so hard, that ultimately, the hard decision had to be made to amputate the left front leg up to the shoulder bone in order to save her life. Jodi’s daughter, Annie James, volunteered to foster the kitten while she healed. As it turned out, their bond was so strong, Annie adopted Mulligan and gave her a new name: Maizie.
“I have fostered cats before that needed medical care, especially the ones my mom needs to have watched 24-7,” said Annie. “She sets them up in my room and I will take care of them. Right after Mazie’s surgery, I was fostering her with no intention of keeping her, but something really clicked between us. We were meant to be.”
PET OWNERS
If the COVID-19 virus has decimated your income and your pet needs medical attention or food:
Maizie’s recovery was surprisingly fast, but the kitten was still struggling with trauma. “She had a lot of road rash and would barely eat,” said Annie. “She had this quiet meow—basically her mouth would just open and no sound would come out. And she would shake, her whole body would tremble, so I’d go under the covers with her and hold her on my chest and hold her really tight until the shaking stopped.”
Within a day, Maizie was walking. “It took a little figuring out,” said Annie. “She learned how to walk on three legs so fast. It was more of a hop. She uses her back two legs like a rabbit and her one front leg slingshots her forward.”
Annie, 22, had to make special arrangements with her housing in Colorado, where she works as a lift operator at Breckenridge Mountain, in order to adopt Maizie. On the road trip out west, Annie brought a special backpack made for cats, so Maizie could enjoy the great outdoors. Annie has documented some of these travels on her Instagram page 3LeggedMaz.
P.A.W.S Fundraiser & Auction
Due to the COVID-19 virus, P.A.W.S. had to cancel three of its major fundraisers this year and as they are entirely community and grant-funded, this last fundraiser is crucial.
“I took her to Niagara Falls, Chicago, the Badlands, to Mt. Rushmore and everywhere in between,” said Annie.
P.A.W.S. is unusual in that the adoption center contains its own veterinary clinic. Roughly, 80 percent of the animals who arrive at P.A.W.S. need some kind of medical attention, whether it’s fleas and worms, injuries, or dental care. As a no-kill shelter, it takes in around 1,000 animals a year and successfully adopted out 751 animals in 2019, with a 96% save rate. Their adoption rate is consistently three to four times above the national average and is one of the highest in the nation.
“I think P.A.W.S. having veterinary care in the shelter is above and beyond,” said Annie. “I volunteer with my mom in the medical suite when I can and every single cat that comes in has a medical issue.”
As for Maizie, Annie said the kitten is thriving, happy and bopping around.
“She’s adjusting well to our new home in Colorado,” said Annie. “She was able to adapt to life on three legs, so I’m not worried about where life takes us because I know she’ll be able to handle it. She inspires me not to worry so much.”
On Thanksgiving day, I decided to roll up my sleeves and attempt to bake some bread. Not just any bread. Loaves made from those damn acorns it took me one hour of gathering, two weeks of cracking, five hours of leaching, and 28 hours of dehydrating, as explained in my recent article, “Back off squirrel, these acorns are mine.”
Basically, a gallon and a half of raw acorns produced probably two and a half cups of acorn flour. Worth it? You tell me.
Actually, don’t tell me. My friends have already told me they thought that was a futile experiment.
But, my reasoning for going to those lengths was because we’re still in the midst of a pandemic. Remember back in March when the grocery shelves were empty because of panic shopping? Here was my story on that: “Alternatives to panic shopping/hoarding while we get through this.”
We may get another round of panic shopping again in the coming weeks as the COVID-19 virus tears through the United States. That disruption, that discomfort of not being able to find certain food or supplies, was a significant reminder to anyone in a first world country not used to supply chain chaos or the awful feeling of scarcity. So many people in the U.S., especially here in the Midcoast, are panicking because they don’t have enough money for rent or food for their children or pets.
To quiet the mind, I gathered food that was right outside my door, literally. I took all of that time to learn how how to make something with a main ingredient I didn’t have to buy.
So, we’ll get right to it: How to make acorn bread.
Gather your ingredients
Water (1 cup)
White Flour (2 1/2 to 3 cups)
Acorn Flour (1/2 cup)
Active Yeast (1 packet)
Oil (2 Tbsp. of Vegetable, Olive or Canola)
Sugar (1/3 cup)
Honey (2 tsp.)
Salt (1 tsp)
You’ll need white flour because the acorn flour is essentially ground nuts and doesn’t have gluten needed as a leavening agent. But, it also stretches the recipe, so you only need about 1/2 cup of it.
Get The Yeast Going
Heat up a cup of water to about 105-115 F, or if you’re like me and have no idea of how to measure how hot a cup of water can get, microwave it for about 45 seconds and hope for the best. In a large mixing bowl, add in a packet of yeast with a half tsp. of sugar with the water and stir it gently. Then, wait for about five or 10 minutes until it gets foamy. Best to wait to go to the grocery store if you’re making this bread to see if that yeast takes. Otherwise, you’re going to have to go back to the store and get a new packet of yeast. Ask me how I know.
Form Acorn Bread Dough
Once the yeast is going, add in the sugar. then fold in the oil, honey, and half of the white flour. Then, be like David Rose from Schitt’s Creek and repeatedly question how to “fold” an ingredient in. With a plastic or wooden spoon, mix all together, and add in the acorn flour. At this point, the bread takes on a cool, earthy color. Remove from the bowl and on a floured surface, begin kneading the dough for about five to seven minutes until the dough ball is no longer sticky. Once the dough is formed, place in a clean bowl with a damp warm cloth covering it and allow the dough to rise for about 90 minutes. Then, punch it down and reform into another loaf. You can either use a sprayed or buttered standard 9 x 5 bread pan for one loaf, but I chose to form three mini loaves. Cover the loaf pan with a warm, damp towel and allow it to rise for another hour.
Bake it off
Heat the oven to 350 degrees and stick the loaf on the top rack. Make sure you check it at 25 minutes to make sure it’s not browning too much (cover with aluminum foil if so) and allow the loaf to fully cook for the entire 35 minutes. Your kitchen will have a nice, yeasty, nutty aroma.
Give the bread to your friends
Acorn bread was served for Thanksgiving dinner in lieu of rolls. I’m astounded I didn’t screw it up, because the bread came out with a spongey, pleasing texture and a nutty, honeyed taste that was fantastic with a pat of butter. I gave away the other two mini loaves to the friends who wondered why I went to all of this trouble and asked for their honest opinion.
APPLETON—Maine Cater, a recruitment company dedicated to serving New England’s food and beverage industry, has come up with an idea to provide local “restaurateurs, employers, job seekers, and FOH/BOH” with an economic lifeline during a pandemic that shows no signs of stopping.
Husband-and-wife team, Daryle and Orianna Degen launched Maine Cater in Camden in 2017 as a way to supply temporary employees to restaurants suffering from immediate gaps in employment.
“We’ve both worked in the hospitality industry all of our lives, said Degen. “I used to be a relief chef in England and Scotland helping short-staffed restaurants for years, but when I moved to Maine, I realized there wasn’t any service that could quickly plug in a chef or a server or a bartender into an existing restaurant if the restaurant was short-staffed. Given Orianna’s background in FOH (front of house) management and mine in BOH (back of house) management, we decided to start our own company.”
Since the COVID-19 virus hit, the couple left their Camden location and now operates remotely out of their Appleton home. In addition to providing the public a job board for the restaurant industry in all of new England akin to Craiglist or Indeed.com, the couple recently announced a community service arm to their job board.
Whereas before, employers looking to post on Maine Cater’s Job Board could do so for free. But now, adjusting their model, it requires a $25 fee— the majority of which goes back into a fund to assist workers and restaurants.
“Employers are already paying $25 to some of the larger corporations such as Craigslist in order to post jobs, so why not support a local company?” said Daryle Degen. “And in return, we invest the funds they paid and put it back into the industry to help other businesses and restaurant workers.”
As PenBay Pilot reported two months after the COVID-19 virus shut down indoor dining for the majority of Maine’s restaurants and bars in a story, “Open? Close? Adapt to permanent Takeout?” the restaurant industry was left flapping in the wind. The Paycheck Protection Program was not a huge success and came with too many strings attached to be workable for many businesses.
A dire prediction from restaurateur John Stowe, owner and chef of Rockland’s Rustica, interviewed for that article is now coming true. “...The reality is the pivotal moment won’t take place this summer; it’ll be after the winter, where you’ll see more restaurant closures,” said Stowe. “So, if locals love their favorite restaurants, the best thing they can do is continue to go there, get gift certificates and continue to support them past the summer.”
“To put it in a harsh reality, the restaurant industry is in a pretty bleak state,” said Degen. “Without any help from the federal government, I don’t foresee many places surviving, especially with all of the state restrictions on top of that. It’s making it impossible for restaurateurs to survive the pandemic as we enter the ‘Dead Season’ in January. That’s typically where restaurants rely on the income they made in the summer and many of them didn’t have that safety net this year.”
When a restaurant’s margins are razor-thin, it trickles down to the employees. “A lot of servers have also left the industry, where they were just not making enough,” said Degen. “It’s an industry not known for being able to offer the best wages and benefits.”
It’s more than that: it’s a Perfect Storm of economic disparity. Seventy percent of restaurant servers are female and yet, women have been disproportionally hit the hardest with the pandemic, particularly those with small children and who live in districts where schools are doing remote learning.
Giving Back Through A Worker Fund and a Restaurant Fund
Maine Cater spells out clearly in a blog post titled Community Service what they intend to do with the employer job listing fee.
“The $5 from the $25 will go towards credit card processing fees and job board software upkeep, and the remaining $20 will go into the chosen fund account,” states the blog.
To kick-start the fund accounts, Maine Cater will put $500.00 of its own money into each fund. They will keep track of which employers in New England states and regions are posting the jobs. So, if a Midcoast restaurateur pays the $25 fee, the $20 will go into a fund for Midcoast servers and restaurants.
“For the Worker Fund, we will be offering several types of assistance,” said Degen. “One is a disaster relief assistance, where if a worker is struggling to pay his or her rent, or is facing eviction, we will be building up that fund in order to give back to that individual. The other way we’ll distribute funds is to issue gift certificates to workers so they can dine out or buy take out and feed their families. We can also use those funds to drop a large tip to a particular restaurant, whether it’s one or two thousand dollars, which the workers can split. There are a number of ways we can give back to them, directly.”
The Restaurant Fund focuses on the economic health of local restaurants. Maine Cater will supply restaurants with gift cards to their own restaurant that either Maine Cater gives away to the public or the restaurateur hands out to guests. The funds can also be pooled to give away to hotels with attached restaurants for a “Weekend Getaway’ package.
“We can buy gift cards to multiple restaurants so that restaurants paying into the job post funds end up helping one another stay afloat,” said Degen. “It creates an ecosystem of restaurants supporting other restaurants.”
The other benefit to restaurants when customers use a gift card, say $50, is that the customers often spend well above the gift amount, increasing the ticket average for the restaurant.
A General Fund is also being built with the purchase of a resume package and job listings ($290) to directly benefit food banks, rent or disaster relief assistance for industry workers, and larger prize giveaways like weekend getaway packages, etc. Currently, this system is not open to receiving general donations from the public; it’s all through the economic investment of restaurateurs.
Maine Cater aims to launch this new program in mid-December. To follow their updates visit: https://www.mainecater.com
Given that so many artists were hard hit economically over the COVID-19 virus, Penobscot Bay Pilot puts a spotlight on the hard-working artists and entrepreneurs in Maine. So each week, until Dec. 25, we will bring you this series until you can’t take it anymore. Ready. Set. Go.
The Original Lobstah Trap Beer Caddy
Cumberland, Maine
The back story: The Lobstah Trap Caddy is handcrafted in Maine constructed from authentic Maine lobster trap material. Joe Hamilton has family members that lobster fish and buys the same galvanized wire that lobstermen use when constructing their own traps to make a caddy. “Everybody asks me if I use broken traps and I always tell them, no it’s new: otherwise you’d never get the smell out of the stuff,” he said. He is the first in Maine to make these types of beer and condiment caddies having started in 2010. “I was a woodworker for quite a few years and I built a wooden caddy to hold six craft beers and one day I thought I’d make something different out of lobster wire,” he said. Now, retired, Joe works 20 hours a week in his shop and sells them all over the country to individuals, retail stores as well as to restaurants in the U.S. and overseas. He just sold his first order to a cruise ship this year.
Cost: $39.99 in blue, black or green wire. FMI: Etsy
In his words: “With COVID-19, I actually had better sales since people are shopping online. I probably sell 20 of these a week.”
Cherry Bookmarks
Smyrna Mills, Maine
The back story: Jack Lilley, a woodworker who owns 623 Woodworks created these solid cherry bookmarks that have been re-sawn, sanded smooth, and then laser cut for uniform size and shape. These are high-quality solid cherry pieces, not plywood. “I got the idea some time ago when I was in L.L. Bean and saw wooden bookmarks and so I acquired a laser engraver and was just coming up with a way to make something from the scraps from Shaker boxes and wood-turned bowls. He said he also creates engraved bookmarks, but it’s his blank cherry bookmarks that are the biggest seller. “They are solid wood and that’s hard to come by these days.”
In his words: “ I have a construction business; that’s what I do for a living but my Etsy shop is probably selling 300-400% higher during the pandemic.”
Fisherman’s Net Air Plant Hanger
Portland, Maine
The back story: Dana Bettez, a macrame artist, is the owner of My Mini Maine. Her niche features Bohemian-style products like this macrame air plant hanger. “The knotting of this cotton macrame string reminds me of a fisherman's net and each one is anchored by locally sourced driftwood,” she said. “My family and I gather the driftwood on walks we take along the coast. We cut and sand the ends. I use thin macrame cord made from recycled materials to knot in a nautical-style pattern what looks like a net. An air plant is the perfect “catch”—a lot of people say air plants look like something that grows underwater (they don’t!). The plant tucks right into the net and can be removed to water it.”
In her words: “When the pandemic first hit, there definitely was a surge of online sales for awhile, but it has quieted down for the past couple of months.”
THOMASTON—Back in March, 29-year-old Carly Laughery, of Thomaston, had her hands full with three kids and a job at Staples. With so many people around her losing jobs, childcare, and their financial security due to the COVID-19 virus, Laughery looked at ways she could possibly help.
She heard about a mysterious nationwide group called “Wine Fairies,” people who band together to anonymously drop a bag or basket of wine, food, or other special gifts on the doorstep of someone having a rough time.
“I had a friend in New York who was part of the Wine Fairies group, so I started a Facebook group in Maine,” said Laughery. “I didn’t expect it to get so big, but we ended up with more than 4,000 followers within two months.”
Little did Laughery know it at the time, but she took on a second full-time job with that decision—and it is reaping benefits all over Maine. Members of the Facebook group identify someone in need and then certain Wine Fairies dress up and deliver their bags of goodies they call “dustings” at the front door. The Fairies then take off before they can be thanked.
“It’s like ‘Ding Dong Ditch,’ but with wine,” said Laughery. “With COVID-19, the concept was to brighten somebody’s day without having any physical contact.”
“I gave one basket to a single mom and it had wine, chocolates and flowers, stuff she wouldn’t regularly treat herself to on a regular basis,” she said.
Now, with the holidays approaching The Wine Fairies of Maine are broadening their philanthropic scope by gifting families in Maine with holiday presents, clothes, and food.
Even though the group started out informally, Laughery has streamlined the process by requiring all new Facebook members to fill out a form and using that information county by county, organizing a spreadsheet of families in need. The Wine Fairies in each county can then pick a recipient closest to them. It’s Pay-It-Forward kindness on a grassroots level.
“We’ve raised enough money and presents to cover 24 families and 57 kids in Maine, but we still have 85 families in the queue that need more help,” she said.
Laughery said the Facebook group prohibits families from directly asking its members for help. Instead, all requests go through Laughery.
“I ask each family to send me information about what their kids need, want, and love and then I hand type in every family’s needs anonymously,” said Laughery. “Then I set up a post, asking our Fairies who can adopt a whole family, cover part of the holiday list, or even contribute to the Amazon wishlist for each child. Everything is between $5 and $10 and delivered directly to the parents. So, the item shows up at their door; they can wrap it up; and no one is the wiser that they got help.”
Asked what the most common items families are requesting right now, Laughery said: “Almost every request, believe it or not, are hats and gloves. For a state with such a cold climate, it’s crazy to think that the one thing the parents are reaching out for is winter gear for their kids.”
The lead up to the holidays is about an extra 20 hours a week on top of her Staples job. It’s sometimes an exhausting process.
“I don’t get much sleep,” she admitted. “But, I have a wonderful husband who stays home with the kids and two other Mom Fairies who are helping me.”
One of Laughery’s Fairies, Shannon Shannon Delisle-Harris likes to get really into character when she drops off the Christmas packages. She dresses up as The Grinch from Dr. Seuss’ storybook How the Grinch Stole Christmas! She has another Wine Fairy who dresses up like Cindy Lou Who.
“I didn’t expect the response we got when I started this group, but it has shown me how many people in Maine are willing to go out of their way to make someone happy,” said Laughery. “Brightening someone’s day and making someone happier is really important right now.”
To get involved with Wine Fairies of Maine and be part of their Christmas project to help 85 families, join their Facebook group and fill out the form once admitted to the group. They will take local donations up until Christmas Eve.
Laughery said once the holidays are over, they will go back to delivering their “dustings” of alcohol and goodies as they have before.
ROCKPORT—On a cold, wintry day in 2018, Isaac Remsen was driving to work when glancing across the Rockport Harbor, he was compelled to slow down.
“I noticed the inner part of the harbor was completely frozen and there were about five lobster boats stuck in the ice,” he said. “I literally called my boss right then and there and said, ‘I’m going to be a little late; I need to take a shot of this.”
He took his DJI Phantom 4 drone out of the back of his car and sent it flying. The shot it produced is an aerial view looking down at the frozen boats in what looks almost like a topographical map.
“I felt like I was capturing a once in a lifetime moment brought together by environmental circumstances,” he said.
This shot just put Remsen as a finalist in Down East’s annual photo contest. The winner will be announced on December 14.
Remsen, who was born and raised in West Rockport, first got an interest in photography when he was a kid with a disposable camera.
“It wasn’t until I took an Outward Bound course to Costa Rica when I was 23 that I completely opened my mind to photography,” he said.
His parents saw the quality in the photos Remsen was sending back from Costa Rica and made some inquiries about getting him into a special Maine Media Workshops course abroad.
“As soon as I returned home, my parents were supportive of this new-found passion and asked me: ‘What do you think about going to Paris?”
Remsen replied, “I’ve not even been home 24 hours yet!”
But, a month later, off to Paris he went to study international street photography with world-renowned photographer Peter Turnley, an associate of the Maine Media Workshops. From there, he continued his travels to Amsterdam, London, and Scotland, and Buenos Aires, taking as many photos as he could.
“While taking these workshops, my techniques improved,” said Remsen. “I learned to better operate a camera from a technical standpoint. Peter pushed me to experiment and go out into Paris alone, where I’d never been in my life. He kept telling me to look for the story, get closer to the subject, and capture something that’s honest. I came away with about 14,000 images from that trip.”
Back home in Maine after that, Remsen tried to figure out how to take his interests to the next level. Like many young people who grow up here, he thought he’d seen enough of Maine by the time he was in his 20s and headed for more exciting adventures in Boston. He then ended up attending and graduating from the New England School of Photography. An aficionado of music and concerts, he got himself immersed in the concert scene, photographing events, people, and musicians that also got his work into The Boston Globe and other publications. He became the staff photographer for Leedz Edutainment, an independent promotion company primarily for hip hop.
But, Maine always calls back its creatives. After a decade, Remsen wanted to move back to Midcoast. He worked for architectural photographer Brian Vanden Brink for a number of years, but after his daughter, Isla, was born, he transitioned into a new role. For the past three years, he has cared for Isla, while using the time to refine his body of work.
“Now that I’ve returned home, I realized I took a lot of this area for granted,” he said. “I’m seeing Maine from a fresh perspective and starting to explore it more. I go out every day and try to find an interesting perspective on something whether it be a blizzard or coastal flooding; I just try to create some art in some way.”
VINALHAVEN—This past June, the nine graduating students at Vinalhaven School, like so many seniors across the country, had their graduation ceremonies curtailed. While they were lucky enough to hold a commencement ceremony due to the class’s small size, they weren’t able to do a grand march or a lobster boat parade afterward, for it would have attracted too many onlookers gathering at the shore.
Instead, the class came up with the idea of putting a message in a bottle. All nine students wrote or drew a special message and tucked it into the bottle. Then, they boarded lobster boats and rafted up in the middle of the sea. A drone camera caught the amazing photo from overhead.
“Over the VHF, we read out loud a number of good things about each senior and well wishes,” said Bryan Feezor, the Assistant Principal at Vinalhaven School.
When the lobster boats all went their separate ways, that’s when the bottle was tossed into the ocean.
Only, it didn’t get far—it washed up on nearby North Haven.
According to Feezer, a merchant marine on the island told him he was shipping out pretty soon and could take the bottle with him and throw it overboard in the midst of the Atlantic. And that’s what he did.
At this point in the story, no one ever expects to hear about the bottle’s whereabouts again. Most of them end up in gigantic floating garbage patches on the ocean. The recovery rate for such a bottle is less than three percent, according to an article in The American Surveyor.
Five months passed by. A couple in Grand Isle, Louisiana, was walking the beach in October, when they stumbled upon the bottle and opened it.
The Louisiana couple spread the news to other friends via Facebook. To back the story up slightly, Vinalhaven School hired a couple from Iowa to help the school create and design a remote learning team for the students. This couple had friends whose family lives in Grand Isle, Louisiana. In a five-degrees-of-separation twist of events, when the Iowa couple received the news, they knew exactly where the bottle had come from.
As Feezer recalled, “Someone who was friends with this Iowa couple said to them on Facebook, “Hey my grandparents just found this bottle, check this out. We assume that the storms that have battered the Gulf helped get the bottle to wash up there and can't believe the coincidence that the people that found it had contacts with our remote team.”
Feezer said the students were thrilled to learn how far the bottle traveled (approximately 2,000 nautical miles) and that it had been found.
“As the seniors last year did not get to have the graduation that has been part of our island tradition for a long time, this story brought some extra excitement to them and gave them some fond memories of their last days of high school,” said Feezer.
Learn more about Vinalhaven School through their Facebook page.
It feels like decades since I last wrote a Cheap Dates story. Thanks to the onset of the pandemic back in March, during those dreary spring months, there was not only nowhere to go, but nothing to do. There’s only so much sourdough bread you can bake and so many family Zoom meetings you can take with a bottle of wine tucked out of view.
And now with Thanksgiving around the corner and college students coming home to record-high coronavirus infections spiking across the country, we’re facing the same kind of high-alert social distancing in November that was necessary to keep the virus from super-spreading in March. It’s necessary, but understandably, there’s a lot of fatigue around that.
For the college kids, who come home after their first semester, this time of year has always been a joyous and raucous excuse to whoop it up with old high school friends, to go to each other’s houses, hang out in bars, and have parties. Well, thanks to the COVID-19 virus, you can now chalk that up to the one more thing that college students are going to miss out on.
Throw that in with the casualties of having no in-person graduations, no proms, and no senior field trips.
But enough with the sad trombone. College kids, here’s something you can do with your buddies outside when you come home. The weirder friends you invite, the better.
Erickson Fields in Rockport off Route 90 is a family-friendly trail featuring a 1.4 mile loop. Just recently, Maine Coast Heritage Trust set up a collaboration with local author Liza Gardner Walsh to display pages of her new book posted along the trail titled, “The Fall Fairy Gathering” illustrated by Hazel Mitchell.
Here’s the Cheap Date: meet up with your friends (you can even take your leashed dogs) at a time when it won’t be busy. Opt for a real small group—four people is ideal. Have the one person who is good at cooking and organizing put together a posh picnic. Leave the job of clean up and pack everything out to the one person in the group who never remembers to pitch in for food. Fair is fair.
Pair off in twos and begin the loop with a Trust Walk. One partner is blindfolded while the other leads through the trail, verbally guiding the blindfolded person when not to trip and smack into a tree. I did this so much as a college-aged camp counselor with other camp counselors on our days off; it’s ridiculously fun.
As you meander through the trail, you’ll start to come across Gardner Walsh’s book pages, laminated and set up as signposts. Her book is a sweet children’s story, and part of the fun of this walk is to read her story in chapters along the way. It’s also a great way to forest bathe.
Once you hit the first signpost, switch blindfolds on partners. Speaking of stories, here’s another game we used to play as camp counselors (that we modified after working with young kids all day). As you find each signpost and part of Gardner Walsh’s story, riff on the theme with The Story Game. The first person begins the story by saying “Once upon a time…” and completes the sentence. The next person in line must continue the story and it can only be one sentence. This is where your weird friends will really add to the game.
So college kids, what I’m saying is, don’t let the pandemic ruin your homecoming; use your creativity and imagination to still have fun.
Stay socially distant to folks on the trail, wear masks when you come upon anyone on the trail, be mindful of the impact of your group, and follow Maine Coast Heritage Trust’s COVID-19 guidelines before setting out.
Gardner Walsh’s story pages will be up on the trail loop until late December.
NORTH HAVEN—Whoever said punk is dead hasn’t been to North Haven in awhile. Not exactly considered the gritty underground mecca for the post-punk scene, this lobstering community with only 400 year-round residents, holds its own when it comes to three riot grrrls who live and play music there.
Fiona Robins is the owner of Island Apothecary and her job entails gardening and making organic skincare products on North Haven, which have been featured in Mother Magazine and Buzzfeed. Her other day job is to garden for a company called Islandscape, which recently shut the greenhouse down for the winter months.
Right out of college, Robins moved to North Haven in 2015 to try out island life.
“I did the summer-winter switch around, ended up living in Portland for a time, and ended up coming back to North Haven full time in 2018, when I first started working at Island Apothecary,” she said. “It was a match made in heaven.”
Robins took over the apothecary after working with original owner Laura Serino who decided to sell the business after a few years.
But that’s only one side of her passion.
While living in Portland, Robins, a feminist punk guitarist, looked in vain to find the right band to play with.
“I moved there to become a musician and pursue that life, which is funny because I was searching so hard for people to play with in Portland, but it’s when I moved back to North Haven, I ended up finding my band,” she said. “And now we are making incredible music together.”
Bait Bag is the name of the three-musician group featuring Robins on guitar and vocals, Claire Donnelly on bass and Courtney Naliboff on drums.
Of the band’s title, Robins explained: “Alliteration is always fun; there’s of course, the island reference, but when it comes to those two words, ‘bait’ as in jail bait, or women used as bait and ‘bag,’ as in calling a woman an old bag, we thought we’d reclaim these two negative words for our own.”
One of their big hits, “Eat Him Alive” is about women who need men to validate themselves or give women their worth.
“The chorus is ‘Eat him alive, so I can survive’—it’s a little vampiric’,” said Robins.
Everyone in the band still has to have a day job.
“Courtney is the music teacher on the island,” said Robins. “And her husband is the music teacher on Vinalhaven. So they kind of have cornered the market on that. And Claire is working remotely for Island Institute.”
It’s hard to imagine, especially with the COVID-19 virus curtailing event venues, where Bait Bag would find an audience on the island, but apparently, they are doing just fine.
“We just played two shows through the Community Center and live-streamed them for SPACE Gallery in Portland for Halloween,” said Robins. “Last year, we had two working punk bands on the island and had a punk basement show. There are so many fun, young people out here who just want to have fun and thrash around—it’s a pretty good group of people.”
Life goes on; Robins continues to develop her best-selling serums, cleansers, and toners and the band keeps practicing and honing their songs. There will be a day when they can play live again.
“It’s really great to live here, and make stuff, make music that reaches other people outside the island,” she said. “Just connecting with other women in Maine and making music that people want to listen to is all I need.”
For more information on Island Apothecary visit their website and while you’re at it, visit Bait Bag’s website.
Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com
In an opinion column this past summer, I made an off-hand crack about urban dwellers wanting to come to Maine to escape the pandemic and get all cottage core, e.g., ditch the high-priced restaurants they could no longer go to and start rooting in the dirt for fiddleheads now that they were “back to the landers.”
Well, after living in the Midcoast for 27 years, I got all cottage core recently. In the past, I’ve made hard cider and dandelion wine from scratch, planted a cocktail herb garden, pilfered tomatoes from a public garden (that were going to rot on the ground, anyway) and made a killer vodka sauce. I thought it was time to make use of all of those black oak acorns out in the yard, free for the taking. Why not?
Truth be told, it was wild food gatherer and author Euell Gibbons and his supreme field guides, Stalking The Wild Asparagus and Stalking the Blue-Eyed Scallop, that inspired this latest kick.
The Gathering
Hunching down and sifting through all of the acorns I could find, I then crab-walked around to find more. That movement sent a signal from my lower back to my brain that said: “Yup. That’s gonna hurt tomorrow.” But I couldn’t help it. Once I started collecting them, I became a little obsessive. I left the darker brown ones and split ones alone, for the nut was likely to be spoiled by weevils. After perusing some blogs, I discovered that procuring about a gallon of acorns would yield a fair amount of acorn flour.
Get Cracking
Anytime you try something new for the first time, there’s a 99.9% chance you will not have the right equipment for it. The purists recommend a Davebilt #43 Nutcracker. But that’s $175 I don’t have laying around.
First, I tried cracking each acorn with a nutcracker. That was a laborious process. Then, checking some online tutorials, all I needed was a meat tenderizing mallet, a clean section of newspaper, and the desire to slam those things inside the folded newspaper like Whac-A-Mole.
I learned, after trial and error, an even easier way was to roast the acorns in a pan for about three minutes and then hit them with the mallet afterward; the nut popped right out of the shell. It was sort of cathartic until it got real tedious.
If I were a pioneer woman and had eight children doing all that nut-cracking, I can see why this might have been a popular pastime in the days of yore. I didn’t get through an entire batch at once; I’d get crackin’ when I had time, so all in all, this process took two weeks.
Pro-tip, keep the shelled nuts in a Tupperware container in the refrigerator until you can get through the entire process.
Leeching Out The Tannins
You could go down the rabbit hole of the various ways to leech out tannins: There are hot and cold methods, and even a super hippie stream leeching technique, but I went with Gibbons’s method which, he claims takes about two hours.
Fill a large pot with water and get up to boiling; add the peeled, dried acorns. Get that pot boiling and start a second pot on the boil.
When the acorn water turns “tea colored,” according to Gibbons, drain the acorns and without rinsing, immediate place into the second pot of boiling water. Keep going until the water finally clears and the nuts look chocolate brown.
When you taste one, there should be no bitterness left. With black oak, the tannins are higher and it takes more time to leach. Little did I know, I’d be standing in front of that stove for five straight hours. FIVE hours doing this.
Drying Out
Since many of the cracked nuts still have the “testa”, the skin on them that needs to be removed, natural food bloggers recommend laying the nuts out on a cookie sheet and dehydrating with a dehydrator or placing it in the oven on warm in order to shrink the nuts and allow the testa to be easily removed.
We had a wood stove going, so I opted to set the cookie sheet next to the stove and let it do its work all night.
Grinding the Nuts
Finally, once the nuts were dried, it was time to grind. You can process them in a food processor or coffee grinder until it ends up into a fine powder or flour. I chose to use my NutriBullet.
Then, allow the flour to dry by the woodstove for another four hours.
Store the flour in Tupperware or a Mason jar in a dark corner of your kitchen cabinet and now you have acorn flour to make bread. How to make acorn bread? That’s a whole other tutorial right here.
After one hour of gathering, two weeks of cracking, five hours of leaching, and 28 hours of dehydrating, I thought to myself: “I’d better be starving like Scarlett O’Hara gnawing on the hind end of a dirt-covered turnip before I try something like this again.”
My friends made fun of me for a solid week—until they lost interest in my continued labor over the acorn flour.
It’s trial and error; you don’t try something for the first time and have it come out perfectly right. For now, it’s just one more cottage core skill to tuck under my belt. And now I just want to slap myself silly for saying that.
WALDOBORO—In life, John Stephens Sr. from Woodville, Maine, was a vibrant artist who came to his gift naturally, before going back to art school to earn his art degree in his 60s.
When he passed away three years ago, he left a studio filled to the brim with loads of art supplies, including acrylic paints, watercolors, pastels, watercolor paper, canvases, easels, and hundreds of art books.
In September, John Sr.’s widow, Barbara, passed away and the family decided to give away the contents of his studio to anyone who needed it. Early in November, Becky Stephens, John’s daughter-in-law, posted an announcement to the Midcoast Message Board Facebook group that the family was doing an art supply giveaway in Waldoboro.
John Stephens
1946 - 2017
“I began my Art career at Walt Disney World, in Florida, as a portrait artist. My main interest, in the Arts, has always been painting, photography, and recently digital art.
I believe that Art, such as a painting, should be like a beautiful memory, a golden moment in time,which expresses how creative and wonderful life can be. “
“We must have had 30 or 40 people come, mostly from the Midcoast,” said Becky Stephens. “A lot of artists came by and many people came by to pick up art supplies for schools and school programs. Some were teachers, some were friends of art teachers.”
Asked what kind of artist her father-in-law was, Becky Stephens said, “He actually did a lot of mediums; when he was younger, he did a lot of painting and drawing with charcoals. He took his first art class as a senior in high school. His teacher submitted a piece of his work to the magazine Art Education and it ended up being the cover. He worked for Great Northern Paper Company and when they shut down, he went back to his art. He ended up going to the University of Maine in Orono in his early 60s and got his degree in art. There, he learned a lot of digital techniques.”
His work can still be found on Fine Art America. His compositions and portraits are vivid, stunning, ethereal, and playful. A lot of it in physical form is still at the house of Becky and John Stephens Jr.
“He had tons and tons of stuff just sitting there in his studio and I’m not exaggerating when I say there was probably $30,000 worth of supplies there,” said Becky Stephens. “One of the people I met that day was Dawn Witham, an artist. She let me know she was struggling with the recent death of her son and she has used her art to her to heal from that. She was able to connect with us and pick up some things able to help her.”
Many people left donations for the materials.
“There were several people who even wanted to look through proofs of his artwork and keep it and Dawn was able to take one of John’s art booklets he’d made with poems mixed with artwork,” said Becky Stephens. “It was a good turnout and we met a lot of interesting people. We know that John’s supplies will be put to good use. I think that’s the best thing to come out of this.”
As John Stephens’s own words in his Fine Art America biography attest, his art created beautiful memories, golden moments in time. And his raw materials, once sitting in the dark storage area, unused, have now been rippled out through the art community and schools in Maine.
“That would have made him happy to know people were using his art supplies for their own work, especially the kids at school,” said Becky Stephens.
As we head into a fall still spiking with the COVID-19 virus, along with a time change and the results of an election that have still divided many people, it’s completely natural that feelings of tension, stress, exhaustion, and anxiety are high. We reached out to herbalist Katheryn Langelier, who has authored a soon-to-be-released book, Herbal Revolution (Macmillian, 2020), the eponymous title of her Union farm and apothecary. The book delves into 65 medicinal recipes that heal.
There are a number of ways to calm anxiety according to psychology experts, but one way to use your hands and focus on a meaningful activity is to start a medicinal herb garden. Here are four herbs and one succulent to improve your mood, body, and mind.
Aloe Vera Aloe vera is a cactus-like succulent that produces a gel and latex.
“Aloe vera is a really fantastic topical plant,” said Langelier. “I love using it for rashes, burns, and sunburns. Coming into the fall, we’re washing our hands a lot, the air is dryer, so aloe is really soothing on chapped or cracked skin. With powerful antioxidants, aloe can also be taken internally and aloe juice can be soothing to the digestive tract.”
Thyme Thyme is an herb and its flowers, leaves, and oil can all be used medicinally.
“Thyme is one of those ‘food is medicine plants’,” said Langelier. “It is antibacterial and antiviral, so it’s really great for this time of the year. Cooking with it, adding it to soup stocks, and adding it to roasted vegetables, will be very beneficial. I like to make an infused honey with thyme or a tea with thyme and fresh ginger, which helps with decongestion or sinus infections.”
Peppermint Peppermint is a plant; the leaves and oil are used medicinally.
“Peppermint is used for digestive tracts; it’s a carminative, which helps with bloating and gas,” said Langelier. “It’s good for any digestive pain and can help decrease nausea. These are best used in teas as well.”
Lemon Balm Lemon balm is an herb; the leaves are used medicinally.
“Lemon balm is an antiviral and is a fantastic herb for preventative care for the immune system,” said Langelier. “It’s great for the digestive system, helping with bloating and gas, but it’s also good for the nervous system. Lemon balm lifts our moods and reduces anxiety and stress. Again, I’d use this with tea, one of my favorites.”
Rosemary Rosemary is an herb; the oil extracted from the leaves is used medicinally.
“Rosemary is also antiviral and antibacterial, so it’s a great one for the immune system,” said Langelier. “I like it for respiratory support and it’s great for our cerebral circulation. It’s a mild brain tonic as well. I’d use this in savory cooking, make infused honey, or into hot drinks.”
Tips for Planting “The first thing you do is get seeds or cuttings and then put them in individual pots,” said Coco Hilt, Annuals Manager of Plants Unlimited in Rockport. “Peppermint especially goes crazy; it’s an aggressive plant so it has to be kept separate. You need to have good potting soil with nutrients— don’t just go out to your garden and scoop up what’s leftover from the summer. Because that soil is going to be compacted and the seedlings might get root rot. The aloe vera plant is a succulent, so it also could use a good cactus mix and should have plenty of drainage holes. As far as water, all of these plants like to be on the dry side. And the aloe vera will want to be even drier. Don’t fertilize too often; just every couple of months.”
Light in a month where Daylight Savings has cut back an hour and it starts to get dark by 4:30 p.m. is also tricky.
“You’re going to need at least six hours of direct light for these plants, so put them in a window with southern exposure,” said Hilt. “And if you don’t have that, use a grow light; you can get them at any plant or hardware store or online. I have my staple herbs in the basement, under a grow light and use a lot of them in my cooking—rosemary, parsley, basil and cilantro.”
No CMP Corridor, a grassroots advocacy PAC, sent out dozens of volunteers on Election Day, November 3, statewide to collect a new round of signatures to block the Central Maine Power’s (CMP) New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) proposal to build a 145-mile transmission line from the Québec-Maine border to Lewiston. During the day, volunteers posted updates on the Say NO to NECEC 501c3 non-profit Facebook group.
Many of these volunteers stood outside in 34-degree weather at 120 polling stations from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. explaining the issues to voters passing by. And they were fired up—for this is their second time collecting statewide signatures for a new referendum.
The quick back story: As reported by WGME, in February 2020, No CMP Corridor, delivered more than 76,000 signatures to Maine’s Secretary of State Office, to get a referendum question put on the November ballot and let the people of Maine decide on the $1 billion project.
But, by August, as reported by Bangor Daily News, the referendum was killed by the state’s high court, calling a particular question on the ballot unconstitutional, which effectively removed the question from the ballot on Nov. 3.
But that has not stopped the thousands of Mainers and visitors who support this effort from moving ahead with a new plan.
According to No CMP Corridor and Say No to NECEC’s leader Sandi Howard, the group mobilized to press forward with the goal to get 67,000 signatures in order to construct a new referendum that will ban all high-impact transmission lines in Maine without the approval of the legislature. The deadline to submit the signatures to the Secretary of State is by January 20.
The opponents to CMP’s corridor project got approval last week for the referendum effort to proceed and within days, hundreds of sign up sheets were reproduced and distributed to their polling place outposts.
At the Lincolnville Central School, No CMP Corridor volunteer, Andrea Palise stood outside the polling station by a table, keeping her hands warm. This issue, she said, was one of the few non-political issues Mainers could agree on.
“Both sides of the political spectrum can be involved in this project; it’s about nature, saving our environment,” she said. “It’s about preserving the last tracts of pristine woods in the Northeast, in North America. It’s absolutely important to me to oppose CMP and Avangrid [of which CMP is s subsidary]. They [TDI Vermont] already have permission in Vermont, but don’t want to spend the millions to bury the lines. so instead, they want to blow a Jersey turnpike-wide corridor through 53 miles of pristine wilderness. The reasons are many to oppose this project.”
Matt Wagner, from Knox, stood outside the Crosby Center in Belfast, on a cold, windy day. As one of the founders of Say No To NECEC, he said his dedication to this movement stems from his personal connection to the proposed corridor area.
“My wife and I were registered white water guides for 10 years and we lived in The Forks area, so we have a really strong sense of place there,” he said. “We go there and do a lot of hiking, camping, fishing, and boating with our two little kids, so we know the place really well. For almost three years now, we’ve been at this.”
Asked if he’d learned anything from having the original referendum struck down by legal language, he said: “They threw out our last campaign on the referendum, but in doing so, they gave us really explicit directions on what we could do on how to proceed forward. So, this referendum isn’t just bulletproof, it’s retroactive to September 1, which means CMP can’t claim that by starting to invest in this now, that they have some vested interest and they can sue the state for taking this project from them. We’re going to take this project away from them—they’re not going to build this in western Maine. Their investors are actually already aware of that.”
Given several reports from multiple Maine newspapers that the CMP corridor project is already taking place and certain sections of woods are being cleared for the transmission line is already happening, Wagner, dismissed the news, saying the photos coming out were misleading.
“They have to get their contract done, so they have to start doing something, but can’t they start cutting trees in the corridor until they have all of their permits and they don’t have all of the permits yet,” he said.
Despite the cold temperatures, COVID-19 pandemic, and record early voting in Maine, No CMP Corridor's volunteer signatures collected outside the polls from Kittery to Caribou. Volunteers reported collecting more than 23,000 signatures on Election Day, an impressive show of force on the first day of this new Citizen's Initiative effort.
Wagner said interested Midcoast citizens who want to add their signatures before January 20 or get involved, should visit the No CMP Corridor website and Facebook page, or send questions about how to volunteer or sign the petition to stopnecec@gmail.com.
ROCKLAND — Lexi Zable, owner of Port Clyde’s The Dip Net and The Barn in Port Clyde, has secured a new Rockland location for a third establishment, taking over The Eclipse and The Speakeasy on the corner of Park Street.
The Grey Owl Bar & Brill comprises both spaces and is currently in the midst of renovations, not only to improve the eatery’s aesthetic, but also to provide more partitioned space between diners per the COVID-19 mandates.
With The Dip Net and The Barn closed down for the season, the timing was right for Zable to jump on the opportunity to lease the Eclipse building. Citing the difficulties of running a seasonal establishment, Zable envisioned Rockland as a prime year-round spot for her team.
With staff helping Zable, she has already put in a number of hours painting the place (often after hours at night) with plans to refinish the floor renovate the décor and update the restaurant’s look.
“This place has so many memories for this community,” she said. “The downstairs bar has had a lot of evolutions over the years. My grandmother remembers coming here when it was the Red Jacket.”
At the time of this interview, Zable has been operating like all Maine restaurateurs under the state’s Stage 4 of the Plan To Restart Maine’s Economy. Stage 4 began Tuesday, October 13, 2020, increasing the limit on indoor seating to 50 percent capacity of permitted occupancy, or 100 people – whichever is fewer. That mandate changed on November 1, when Governor Mills announced new measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, effective Wednesday, November 4, indoor gatherings will return to a maximum of 50 people, regardless of capacity.
The restaurant was built out initially to accommodate 100 seats. Of the new change, Zable said, “We are going to follow all of the latest mandates and will have a maximum capacity of 50 people in the space.”
The pandemic has factored heavily into her opening plans, including erecting glass partitions between dining areas, installing sanitizable barnboard walls, and maintaining the proper distance between tables.
The Speakeasy space below the restaurant will function as a casual bar and dining space with a comparable menu.
The Grey Owl Bar & Grill’s menu features hearty, American comfort food. Zable created the menu with input from her chef Chad Upham from The Dip Net, who will serve as one of The Grey Owl’s chefs. “I wrote the menu, then re-wrote it, then pared it down, then made it bigger,” she said, laughing. “We’re going for American cuisine, really cozy and comfortable.”
They’ll be bringing back The Dip Net’s fan-favorite cheese curds with Maine maple aioli as well as mussels in a homemade cream sauce.
The entrées include a variety of steaks, from filet minion to ribeyes. Stick-to-your-rib dishes such as Maple Spring Chicken, Slow Braised Beef Short Ribs, (with or without mac and cheese) Veal Scaloppini, Blackened Chicken Carbonara with pancetta will be part of the menu’s appeal. “Other things we’ll have on the menu for the locals is fish tacos and fried chicken sandwiches,” she said.
Zable estimates a soft opening weekend on Friday, November 13, and remaining open for the three weekends in November, including Thanksgiving, in order to get the kitchen used to the new menu. When the bar and grill open full time in early December they hope to be open 5-7 days a week, eventually utilizing the bar as a later night establishment, “We want to be a first drink of the night place rather than the last drink,” she said.
For the weekends in November, reservations are required.
ROCKLAND—The Rockland Breakwater in all of its 4,364 feet of granite glory is a spectacular sight and experience for first-time visitors. But, like all landmarks frequently visited, it can fade into the background of everyday life, until a photography book comes along to remind you just how majestic it is—and always has been.
Author Bob Trapani is releasing his fifth book, Breakwater: A Journey Through The Seasons, in November.
A writer and visual storyteller, Trapani found himself drawn back to the Breakwater over and over again when he first began taking photographs of it in 2009.
“I’ve photographed it in all four seasons and the more I visited it, the more I started to realize there is so much more to this place than meets the eye so I knew I had to document it,” he said. “It’s probably one of the only spots I know of in Maine where you can go out to sea without leaving land.”
The 108-color photographs in the book each tell a microcosm of a story. There are so many elements that people are drawn to: the 7/8-mile-long granite walkway, the lighthouse at the end, the proximity to a working harbor, even the wildlife that can be seen from that vantage point.
“The different kinds of maritime traffic is one element to it,” he said. “Next to the Portland harbor, I can’t think of a more diverse Maine harbor with all of the working vessels, the ferry and windjammers. You will sometimes even be able to see lobstermen up close as they work. The other surprise element is the marine life. From sandpipers to seals to fish swimming along the Breakwater, it’s amazing how many things you can see there.”
The book has plenty of beautiful shots in the summer and fall, particularly shots of sunrises and sunsets, but it’s the winter photos that provide some of the most dramatic material.
“There’s plenty of weather in this book: sea smoke, rain, ice, and snow,” he said. “The Breakwater takes on a whole new personality in the wintertime. Even just walking out there, the wind coming out of the Northeast biting your face, in those harsh conditions, there’s beauty and that’s what I tried to bring out.”
There were times, as his photographs show, that walking out on the Breakwater was even too dangerous to attempt. “During some astronomical high tides; sometimes the tide was 18 inches above the Breakwater,” he said. “And when a good Northeast storm comes in, when those seas hit that Breakwater, that thundering sound is almost shocking.”
Six months into a pandemic, the recommendation from many experts is to keep going outside, keep exercising, and staying present in the moment, something the Rockland Breakwater affords in nearly all seasons.
“It is a release to walk it, especially at this point in the year,” said Trapani. “Even if other people are walking it, you are able to get a sense of solitude. It allows you to disconnect from all of the craziness in the world and at the same time, it makes you appreciate what a beautiful spot we live in. The Rockland Breakwater really does create a unique sense of place in Midcoast Maine.”
In all of the years Trapani has been going out to observe the Breakwater, he has seen his fair share of “regulars”—some who walk it every single day. “People’s emotional ties to the Breakwater are as varied as the marine traffic going by,” he said.
His book also includes a brief history of the lighthouse and the Breakwater. The book will be available for purchase the first week of November through Moments in Maine by visiting shop.momentsinmaine.com or calling 207-691-8400.
PORTLAND—Many of us played with Barbies, G.I. Joes, and Star Wars action figures growing up, but one man has taken his love of this type of childhood play and combined it with his classical music training to produce elaborate, operatic miniature theater productions in Maine.
David Worobec, 31, who lives in Portland, is the one-man showmaster behind Tophat Productions. His specialty includes a wide repertoire of live miniature theater productions from iconic Broadway shows such as Camelot, Guys and Dolls, and South Pacific to name a few.
But, it’s his fascination with gothic horror that he’ll bring to stage with a live-streamed production of Jekyll & Hyde in conjunction with Mayo Street Arts in Portland at the end of October.
“As a kid, I was always a fan of that kind of classic Gothic literature and I still love it to this day,” he said.
Toy theater, according to Worobec dates back to the late 18th to the early 19th century as an art form in Europe.
“It was a way of formal parlor entertainment,” he said. “People would buy these paper and cardboard kits and set up a stage, playing out scenes and stories from whatever was popular at the time. For the past 50 years or so, toy theatre has made a comeback and there are toy theatre festivals done all over the world."
“It’s the way I played as a kid,” said Worobec. “I always loved acting out stories and I think when I first saw Phantom of the Opera, I became hooked at a young age. I had the whole score memorized. I was acting out the whole show with Star Wars figurines. I had a PVC figure of Snow White as the opera singer Christine in Phantom of the Opera. It was while watching me act out the show with her old dollhouse that my mom decided to make me a miniature theater.”
Worobec might have come to his gift early in life while playing, but miniature theater is only part of his talent. He is a classically-trained opera singer and a talented pianist. A graduate of the Boston Conservatory, top-shelf classical vocal performer, he plays live piano for parties, and also acts in theater productions.
For Jekyll & Hyde, the mini theatrical set comes from one of his childhood creations, which he has since used many times in his productions. Different stage sets have been revised and the figurines are sourced from multiple places, including custom-made creations he buys from eBay to pre-made 12-inch scale Victorian-era dolls.
His mother, Polly Plimpton not only builds the stages and sets, but also helps with creating costumes.
As an artist, Worobec, like so many others in his field has taken a big hit from the pandemic. Not only has it curtailed his own performances in theatrical shows, but it has also drastically impacted his miniature theater performances. Prior to March, 2020, he was doing live shows. How it worked was he’d stand behind a screen and hand manipulate the figurines around the stage, while voicing the characters. With pre-recorded orchestral music playing in the background he’d also sing every character's musical parts. A camera would be pointed at the mini stage, and then would be projected onto a bigger screen, which allowed the audience to see all the details of the characters, sets, and costumes.
“Audience members have told me after seeing one of my productions that with little subtle movements, along with the voices I give the characters, they are able to see the emotions of the scene,” he said. “It's all about suspension of disbelief,” he said.
Worobec said his Jekyll & Hyde is a slightly abridged adaptation of the Broadway musical by Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse, which is based on the classic novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Some music cuts are made to help improve the dramatic tension and focus of the plot. “The first act of the musical is around an hour and 15 minutes; then we have an intermission, and the second act is around 50 minutes,” he said.
Jekyll & Hyde will be his second live-streamed performance throughMayo Street Arts where he also works part-time.
The performance will take place on October 30 at 7 p.m on the MSA Facebook page. The viewing is free but MSA recommends a donation toward the artists’ work.
ELLSWORTH —Two years ago, graphic designer Nick Sarro and Chef Daron Goldstein of the Ellsworth restaurant, Provender Kitchen + Bar, were having the kind of “what if” chat friends often do when envisioning ways to make the world a little better. That brainstorming session turned into Chefs of Maine, a statewide network connecting the restaurant industry with breweries, farms and bakeries and offering the public an easy way to locate all of it online with a website and an app.
“This was something on my back burner for a long time, and when Nick and I started talking about putting the pieces together, it took on a life after that,” said Goldstein.
The website is a free resource featuring profiles of restaurants, breweries, bakeries, and farms along with stories and reviews of the restaurants. Since both Sarro and Goldstein are both fully employed in their own industries, this network has developed as a side project — a labor of love.
“I always thought it would be so cool to have a site like this out there for people who want to know where to go and get food and just for industry people to see what’s happening and what’s going on,” said Goldstein.
Chefs of Maine provides the public with a geolocation filter to let people know what restaurants are open in their area, which ones are doing takeout, and which are open year-round, among other filters, which provides an additional publicity boost for an industry hit hard by the pandemic.
Despite Maine’s Governor Mills Stage 4 of the Restarting Maine’s Economy plan which started October 13, 2020, increasing indoor seating capacity, many restauranteurs are still very worried going into the fall and winter about sustaining their businesses.
The Chefs of Maine network is still fairly new; the app has been downloaded around 1,000 times.
“People are finding out about restaurants from our app and site in their own neighborhoods that they never heard about,” said Sarro.
“We wanted to create a site that went more in-depth into the various Maine industries,” he continued. “We also wanted to connect those industries together, so for example, maybe you go to a local brewery and see they are offering food produced by a local farm; then you can check out that farm on our site and learn more about them. I had a bakery call me last week who wanted to sell their bread wholesale, so they took a look at all of the restaurants on our site to choose the one nearest them. And we wanted to focus on chefs; to have readers learn about the kitchen, how they make their food, and a bit of a spotlight on what they do. That was the end goal to make a connection to all of these places in Maine and let you see the real people in those industries.”
For restaurants, breweries, bakeries and farms, the site allows a free personal profile. “If they join the site, they can all the photos they want; can add videos full descriptions and events for free,” said Sarro.
The site is also a hub for job seekers and employers specific to the restaurant industry, something Sarro encourages all restauranteurs to use, as job listings are also free”
“We’re really trying to get this in front of restaurant and brewery owners and use us as a resource for them,” said Sarro.
Don’t want to face the crowds at polling places on November 3 in order to vote? Your two choices are to vote early (up to October 30 in person at your municipal office) or to vote by mail. Given this unprecedented time when COVID-19 will be requiring social distancing at the polls and limitations on how many people can be inside their municipal offices at one time, it’s important, more than ever, to get a jump on it now.
We Mainers have a strong voting turnout history. According to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Maine (EOC) was one of five states that had turnout rates exceeding 70 percent. However, with every election, inadvertent mistakes by voters can be made when mailing in ballots.
Results of a survey done by the EAC on the 2016 election reported: “Approximately 80.1 percent of absentee ballots that were transmitted to voters were returned and processed, with 1.4 percent of transmitted ballots returned as undeliverable and 2 percent reported as spoiled (e.g., the voter returned the ballot and asked for a replacement). Some of the reasons for ballot rejection included: missing the deadline, submitting without a signature, returning the envelope with no ballot in it or multiple ballots in it, or incomplete information on the ballot.”
To clear up the confusion on what constitutes the proper way of sending “multiple ballots” in one envelope, Seth Nelson, a spokesperson for the Maine Democratic Party, said, “A voter should only return his or her own ballots in a return envelope. However, many Maine voters will have multiple ballots they've completed themselves, i.e. a federal and state ballot, and a municipal ballot with elections for their town or city. As such, these voters will likely need two stamps to return their ballots by mail.”
Nobody wants to go to the trouble of getting an absentee ballot only to accidentally screw it up. Here are five things you must check before mailing it:
1. Mail it in 15 days early or drop off in person
According to a July letter from the U.S. Postal Service made public, absentee voters should mail their ballots in with a regular stamp 15 days before November 3. Better yet, if you’re not sure you’re going to make it in time, drop it off at your municipal office, or in the official dropbox in front of the building. Do not just drop it into any random or “official-looking” dropbox you find on the street, as in this case of the California GOP who placed illegal and unofficial drop-off receptacles.
2. Look it over twice—don’t forget to sign your name
It seems like a boneheaded move, but the reason 20 percent of ballots got rejected in 2016 was that there was no signature on the ballot.
3. Don’t get fancy with your signature
Get this, Maine compares your absentee ballot signature with the signature on your voter registration records, so do the same signature you always do and never try to forge a family member’s (it’s a crime for obvious reasons) but also because it will likely get rejected!
4. Don’t sign with non-standard ink—and keep your coffee cup far away!
That pink gel pen your daughter likes to color with is not going to work when officially signing your ballot. Follow the instructions carefully on your ballot and if it says use blue or black ink–use blue or black ink! Also, because ballots can’t have any stray marks, keep your ballot safe from coffee stains, spills, or other unnecessary marks.
5. Sign the outside of the envelope, as well
Every state requires voters to sign the mailing envelope containing their ballot in order to affirm their identity and eligibility to vote and will then match it to their signature on the absentee ballot. (Again see #3 for what not to do) So, make sure this is your final step.
Help! I might have spoiled my ballot. What do I do?
“If a voter makes a mistake when completing a ballot, he or she can call their clerk to request a replacement,” said Nelson. “The first ballot will be marked as ‘spoiled’ in the Central Voter Registration System. Alternatively, the voter can bring the spoiled ballot in person to the resident’s town office or city hall, where he or she can then cast a replacement ballot in person. Or they can vote in-person at the polls on Election Day.”
Here’s all the info you need to register, vote early and vote by absentee ballot
BANGOR—Going into a turbulent fall filled with pandemic stress, election and political pressure, and a ramped-up divisiveness America has never before seen, we all need a little kindness in our lives.
“Serve A Neighbor” was the simple idea generated in September by a group of friends in Bangor that turned into a grassroots initiative.
Cheryl Crabtree, one of the group’s spokespeople said: “We were complaining and moaning about all of the changes in 2020 that were happening beyond our control. We were all in a holding pattern waiting for things to return to normal and with three months left out of this year, we decided to switch it up and control whatever we could in our own sphere of influence. That really came down to feeling good about doing one good thing a month for someone else.”
The concept is to be of service to a neighbor, which, in turn, often inspires other neighbors after seeing the service offered.
The group’s simple edict is: “Over the next three months plan to do one thing a month that helps or uplifts a neighbor in some way. The projects don’t need to be large in scope or take a long time.”
Here are a few of their suggestions:
During the month of October, Serve a Neighbor by helping with outdoor autumn cleanup, write a note, send a card, phone a neighbor who lives alone, rake leaves, complete small home repairs, wash outside windows, or clear away brush. Ask your neighbor what would be helpful.
In November and December, Serve a Neighbor by sharing a gift of nonperishable food; write a note; send a card; phone a neighbor who lives alone; deliver food baskets; create seasonal decorations to share; shovel snow – a walkway, a mailbox, path to fuel tanks; phone a neighbor and check if they need food or fuel; call 211, the State of Maine Resource hot-line, for help identifying resources.
'A rising tide lifts all boats'
“By doing something good, it makes me feels better; the other person is lifted, and often, others who witness it, are further inspired to help someone else,” said Crabtree. “This has been a message that people have been really happy to refocus on. What’s surprising to me is how many people have told us ‘I do this anyway; this is a way of life for me.’ We hear a lot of negative sad stuff about humanity in the news, but out here in the quiet sphere are people doing good things for each other.”
Tired of being hunkered down in your home, Serve a Neighbor
Tired of bad news, Serve a Neighbor
Make someone smile, Serve a Neighbor
Shut off the TV, put down the phone, Serve a Neighbor
Isolation and loneliness are real, Serve a Neighbor
Shine the light of hope, Serve a Neighbor
Days are getting shorter, extend the light, Serve a Neighbor
Serve the one, look after the one, Serve a Neighbor
End 2020 with kindness, Serve a Neighbor
Though the initiative started in Bangor, the word quickly spread through Facebook and Crabtree was hearing back from people all over the world. “We have heard from people in Canada, Australia, Japan, England, and nearly every state on Facebook,” said Crabtree, who added we'd love to see a Midcoast Maine presence.
Citing one story shared on their Facebook page, “One woman had seen the Serve A Neightbor page and had gone into The Dollar Store where she witnessed an elderly gentleman bring up some pots and pans to the counter. The credit card he tried to use wouldn't function, so he began to put the items back on the shelf when this woman ran over to him and said, ‘Bring your things over here; I’ll take care of it today.’ He thanked her and off he went, feeling good. These are the kind of things that choke me up.”
If you’re in the Midcoast and are inspired to do a good deed for someone or are the recipient of a good deed, email PenBayPilot a photo and some description.
‘Tis the season to talk about supernatural happenings, spooky legends, and way-out-there stories —and author Earl Brechlin’s got them.
From Kittery to Eastport, from Fort Kent to Monhegan, Maine is home to natural wonders, quirky characters, remarkable inventors, and haunting ghosts and legends. Whether it’s Moxie Nerve Food, the North American Wife Carrying Competition, UFO abductions along the Allagash, or Katahdin’s role in creating Bambi, this book by long-time journalist Earl Brechlin celebrates all that makes the state unique—both real and imagined
—partial book description
In fact, his latest book, Wild! Weird! Wonderful! Maine, published by Islandport Press, has more than 300 true stories about Maine culled down from some 600 stories he gathered over a period of years as a journalist and in his travels as a Maine Registered Guide.
“When you try to define ‘Maine’ there’s no one thing that can, which is why it’s neat to find all of these legends and stories about the culture and spirit of Maine is and how it has gotten to where it is today,” he said. “All of these stories are pieces of it.”
Brechlin, a journalist for more than 35 years and author of four Maine and New England books, traveled all around the state in search of every left-of-center and unexplained story he could find.
“As A Guide, and someone who just loves Maine, I was everywhere, up in Aroostook County, over in Rangeley, down in the southern parts of the state and there are always these quirky little things about each town to discover.”
In his book, for example, readers will be introduced tothe Meddybemps Howler, the Phippsburg Screecher, the Ghost of Catherine’s Hill and the Cherryfield Goat Man to name a few.
“The early farmers, loggers, settlers, and the original Native Americans had this connection to the land and you’re walking with those ghosts everywhere you go in Maine, so the spirit of those folks is part of the landscape,” said Brechlin.
Brechlin also painstakingly acquired more than 2,500 drawings, engravings, photographs, and illustrations to go with each story.
The book is broken up into regional sections with a map and grid number that corresponds with The Maine Gazetteer, so the book itself is a road trip guide.
Best and Worst Of Baby Care Share Cemetery
(Excerpt from ‘Wild! Weird! Wonderful! Maine’) One of the saddest events in Midcoast Maine history was the discovery of the naked body of a five-month-old baby boy floating in water at the bottom of a Rockport lime quarry, near the town dump, on April 20, 1940.
Authorities determined the baby was already dead when it was put in the water. No cause could ever be determined. Birth records were checked and a $500 reward (Nearly $10,000 in today’s money) was offered but no leads were found and the body remained unclaimed.
Touched by the little boy’s plight, people donated money to give him a proper burial in the Sea View Cemetery....
A simple stone marks the spot. Caretakers frequently find toys, coins, stuffed animals, and other mementos at the grave site.
Ironically, in the same cemetery lies the grave of one of the world’s foremost child care experts, Pediatrician Benjamin Spock. In 1946 he wrote the “Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care,” which became the definitive source on raising children during the 1950s, 60s, 70s and beyond. More than 50 million copies have been sold. Dr. Spock, as he was known, had a house in Camden and loved to sail his boat Turtle. He died in 1988. M14, E3
The Unknown Baby Grave in Rockport
One of his stories from the Midcoast region centers around what he calls “The worst and best childcare in Rockport.”
“There was a baby found floating in a quarry in the 1940s and nobody knew who the baby belonged to,” he said. “So, people got together and put the funds into a gravestone in the Sea View Cemetery.”
The gravestone is engraved with the words “Unknown Unwanted, Baby Boy.”
“People still leave memorials and toys at this baby’s grave, but at the other end of this cemetery lies Dr. Benjamin Spock, the best of child care, who wrote The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, published in 1946,” said Brechlin.
If any of these stories bring to mind the kind of topics that prompted many of Stephen King’s novels and stories, Brechlin said another bizarre story he collected involves a real-life pet cemetery that Governor Baxter created on his property in Portland.
“Governor Baxter created this cemetery for all of his Irish setters and one horse,” he said. “And you can visit it to this day; it’s part of a walking trail on Mackworth Island. He had 17 Irish setters and 15 of them were named ‘Gary.’ He set off a controversy in that when one of his Garys died, he lowered the flag at the capital flown at half-mast, which the opposition party didn’t care for too much.”
To read more stories —not all of them spooky, some just wacky— visit Islandport Press. Read more of Brechlin’s background on his website.
‘Tis the season to talk about supernatural happenings, spooky legends, and way-out-there stories —and author Earl Brechlin’s got them.
From Kittery to Eastport, from Fort Kent to Monhegan, Maine is home to natural wonders, quirky characters, remarkable inventors, and haunting ghosts and legends. Whether it’s Moxie Nerve Food, the North American Wife Carrying Competition, UFO abductions along the Allagash, or Katahdin’s role in creating Bambi, this book by long-time journalist Earl Brechlin celebrates all that makes the state unique—both real and imagined
—partial book description
In fact, his latest book, Wild! Weird! Wonderful! Maine, published by Islandport Press, has more than 300 true stories about Maine culled down from some 600 stories he gathered over a period of years as a journalist and in his travels as a Maine Registered Guide.
“When you try to define ‘Maine’ there’s no one thing that can, which is why it’s neat to find all of these legends and stories about the culture and spirit of Maine is and how it has gotten to where it is today,” he said. “All of these stories are pieces of it.”
Brechlin, a journalist for more than 35 years and author of four Maine and New England books, traveled all around the state in search of every left-of-center and unexplained story he could find.
“As A Guide, and someone who just loves Maine, I was everywhere, up in Aroostook County, over in Rangeley, down in the southern parts of the state and there are always these quirky little things about each town to discover.”
In his book, for example, readers will be introduced tothe Meddybemps Howler, the Phippsburg Screecher, the Ghost of Catherine’s Hill and the Cherryfield Goat Man to name a few.
“The early farmers, loggers, settlers, and the original Native Americans had this connection to the land and you’re walking with those ghosts everywhere you go in Maine, so the spirit of those folks is part of the landscape,” said Brechlin.
Brechlin also painstakingly acquired more than 2,500 drawings, engravings, photographs, and illustrations to go with each story.
The book is broken up into regional sections with a map and grid number that corresponds with The Maine Gazetteer, so the book itself is a road trip guide.
Best and Worst Of Baby Care Share Cemetery
(Excerpt from ‘Wild! Weird! Wonderful! Maine’) One of the saddest events in Midcoast Maine history was the discovery of the naked body of a five-month-old baby boy floating in water at the bottom of a Rockport lime quarry, near the town dump, on April 20, 1940.
Authorities determined the baby was already dead when it was put in the water. No cause could ever be determined. Birth records were checked and a $500 reward (Nearly $10,000 in today’s money) was offered but no leads were found and the body remained unclaimed.
Touched by the little boy’s plight, people donated money to give him a proper burial in the Sea View Cemetery....
A simple stone marks the spot. Caretakers frequently find toys, coins, stuffed animals, and other mementos at the grave site.
Ironically, in the same cemetery lies the grave of one of the world’s foremost child care experts, Pediatrician Benjamin Spock. In 1946 he wrote the “Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care,” which became the definitive source on raising children during the 1950s, 60s, 70s and beyond. More than 50 million copies have been sold. Dr. Spock, as he was known, had a house in Camden and loved to sail his boat Turtle. He died in 1988. M14, E3
The Unknown Baby Grave in Rockport
One of his stories from the Midcoast region centers around what he calls “The worst and best childcare in Rockport.”
“There was a baby found floating in a quarry in the 1940s and nobody knew who the baby belonged to,” he said. “So, people got together and put the funds into a gravestone in the Sea View Cemetery.”
The gravestone is engraved with the words “Unknown Unwanted, Baby Boy.”
“People still leave memorials and toys at this baby’s grave, but at the other end of this cemetery lies Dr. Benjamin Spock, the best of child care, who wrote The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, published in 1946,” said Brechlin.
If any of these stories bring to mind the kind of topics that prompted many of Stephen King’s novels and stories, Brechlin said another bizarre story he collected involves a real-life pet cemetery that Governor Baxter created on his property in Portland.
“Governor Baxter created this cemetery for all of his Irish setters and one horse,” he said. “And you can visit it to this day; it’s part of a walking trail on Mackworth Island. He had 17 Irish setters and 15 of them were named ‘Gary.’ He set off a controversy in that when one of his Garys died, he lowered the flag at the capital flown at half-mast, which the opposition party didn’t care for too much.”
To read more stories —not all of them spooky, some just wacky— visit Islandport Press. Read more of Brechlin’s background on his website.
OWLS HEAD—The Owls Head General Store, shuttered for nearly three years, is back in operation under new owner, Maya Newsam, 27.
“We originally planned to be open the Fourth of July, and here we are, Columbus Day Weekend,” said Newsam with a laugh.
The Owls Head and peninsula communities are overjoyed to have their convenience store back and one of the most frequent questions Newsam has been asked is: “Is the 7-Napkin Burger on the new menu?”
The answer is yes. The famous burger made national news when The Food Network deemed it “Best Burger in Maine.”
“I didn’t think the burger was that big of a deal until I bought the store and it was every person’s question I got,” she said. “They told me ‘bring back this burger!’ and so I had to do it.”
Newsam officially opened the store on Friday, October 9, to a packed parking lot. Many locals dropped by just to check out the new menu, see the store and pay respects to Newsam.
Bringing the store back to life was a family affair. “I had so much help,” she said. “My step-dad did almost all of my contracting and renovating—he was amazing.”
The renovated store still has the same layout as before, but most of the inside tables have been removed due to capacity restrictions as a result of COVID-19.
“My mom cooks all of the fudge herself and she put the entire shop together,” said Newsam.
Noticeably different were a number of displays offering practical items one might need down in a peninsula, where tools and household supplies are hard to get. One sign above a shelf of practical items reads: “Would you happen to need?”
“The whole purpose of us being here is for the community,” she said. “We’ve got groceries, breakfast items, sandwiches, and everyday items you could possibly need.”
Newsam has had her hands full getting ready for the opening and dealing with the rush of visitors, getting up around 4 or 5 a.m. and leaving at 8 p.m. each night. She works the cash register, while a crew of cooks takes orders in the step-down kitchen behind her. “I have a couple of employees from the previous owners who came back and my staff is absolutely incredible,” she said.
The store’s hours are currently:
Monday - Thursday 5 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Friday & Saturday 5 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Sunday 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
For more info on the store follow their Facebook page
ROCKLAND—Forty-five Maine artists have paired up with 50 downtown Rockland businesses to spread awareness of the impact of domestic violence this month for Finding Our Voices (findingourvoices.net), a nonprofit founded and led by photojournalist Patrisha McLean.
With window exhibits displaying banners and original art, as well as an online auction to help end domestic violence currently taking place from October 1 to October 31, all proceeds benefit findingourvoices.net
After several successful window exhibits of the “Let’s Talk About It” banners— featuring the faces of 20 Maine survivors and the local 24/7 domestic abuse hotline number that was displayed in 20-plus Maine towns this past summer, McLean, a Midcoast resident, wanted to focus on Rockland, and Midcoast artists, for October’s National Domestic Abuse Awareness Month. Some of the artists she contacted herself; others reached out to her and the project came together with the support of the Penobscot Chamber of Commerce and the downtown Rockland businesses.
“Bags Packed But A Pie In The Oven” Photo of artwork by Barbara Sullivan
This painting was created in 1997 about the relationship break up. "I wanted to paint a woman who was courageous enough to leave because of the abuse. There are all kinds of abuse; you don't necessarily need to be hit. I think it often takes women a long time to leave, but sometimes you want to do something good before you leave. It's the context of balance within an unbalanced relationship—softening the blow with a pie."—Barbara Sullivan
“Pretty much every business up and down Main Street was on board with the idea of putting a banner and/or artists’ work in their windows for the month of October to provide domestic abuse-awareness,” said McLean. “Sometimes artists gave me a choice of images and all the art pieces in the exhibit resonate with me, such as [photographer] Joyce Tenneson’s image of poppies, the beauty of it. Art heals. When you see something that beautiful, it represents the healing that takes place after domestic abuse.” Tenneson’s artwork can be seen in the window of the Dowling Walsh Gallery.
“There are two aspects to domestic violence—when you’re in it and when you get free and that’s what is represented in all of these artworks,” said McLean.
Given that the project was pulled together in a matter of weeks, some of the artists provided previously made artwork that resonated with the theme, and some created the artwork specifically for the auction.
“Silence” 1of 2. Photo of artwork courtesy Alan Magee
“Miss Corona” Photo of artwork courtesy Amy Lowry
“The testimonies of the women who have suffered from male violence are unsettling to hear. The discomfort we feel is the proof that we have to listen, and finally recognize, that even our silence is a form of complicity. the stories told by courageous Maine women, collecting by Finding Our Voices project, insist that we can no longer tolerate silence, nor excuse violence against women in any of its forms.” —Alan Magee
"Miss Corona" is the original title of this piece in Lowry's series of digital prints. "It had to do with the coronavirus, but extends to the theme of domestic abuse. She's a porcelain bisque figurine with firecrackers coming out of her head, wearing a necklace of crystals and shattered glass. This is a piece about emotional and physical abuse - a plague of violence. Shattered glass, shattered dreams, shattered lives.”—Amy Lowry
“During this process, a number of people let me know that they grew up with it or have been through domestic violence,” said McLean. “With others who had no experience with it, we had a good discussion of the variables of domestic abuse, to help them figure out what they might create or submit. For instance, Colin Page gave me a watercolor of the Camden Yacht Club and to me, that absolutely goes with the theme because it says domestic abuse also happens to the demographic in the Camden Yacht Club. Another example: Susan Williams gave me a painting of an island and that fits as well, because when you’re suffering from domestic abuse, it feels as though you are separated on your own island. Fred Kellogg gave me a boat in fog and yes, your brain is in a fog when you’re in domestic abuse. Or Julie Crane gave me a painting of a rabbit tumbling and it represents to me tumbling down the rabbit hole like Alice In Wonderland when you’re in domestic abuse. Domestic abuse is so complicated that if someone has been through it and they walk up and down Main Street, I can guarantee you they will find something in every one of the 45 works of art that they can relate to.”
Photo courtesy Finding Our Voices
Maggie's “Let’s Talk About It” banner paired with Antonia Munroe’s Indigo antique damask in the window of four-TWELVE. Antonia’s piece is an homage to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, with the RBG initials forming the decorative pattern. Ginsburg was Maggie’s inspiration to help others avoid what she went through and that is a statue of the late Justice on her office desk where she is a court advocate for domestic abuse victims. Antonia’s artist statement in the fourTWELVE window includes this quote from Ginsburg: “We have yet to devise effective ways... to ward off domestic violence in our homes.”
Finding Our Voices marshals Survivor Voices and community creativity to promote awareness and understanding the insidiousness and ubiquity of intimate partner abuse, including emotional, financial, physical, and sexual, while ending the shame for victims and empowering them to safely leave, heal, and thrive.
The event’s business sponsors are Pen-Bay Glass, Reny’s; McLean Hospital (parent company of the local Borden’s Cottage); Rockport Automotive, Camden Real Estate Co. and Camden Hospital for Animals. For more information on the auction visit: FindingOurVoices.net/Auction
ROCKLAND—The day after the first presidential debate is the perfect time to talk about Chris Gamage’s latest art piece.
Gamage, a Rockland sculptor, got the idea to make a giant aluminum coin with the pun “Common Cents” as his theme. One side depicts the United States with the other phrases “Common Courtesy” and “Common Decency.” A flip of the coin reveals the unmistakable caricature of Donald Trump next to a partial Thomas Paine quote: “O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth!”
“Five or so years ago I had the idea for this art piece given how this world was lacking common sense, but after Trump got elected, and everything started going haywire, the piece changed and started focusing more on him,” said Gamage.
Gamage said he thinks Trump’s decisive and belittling conversational style has had a negative impact on the way most Americans discuss issues. After watching the Sept. 29 presidential debate he said: “Focusing on this piece right now couldn’t be better timing. It was obvious from last night’s debate he doesn’t have any decency or courtesy—even for his own peers.”
The 300-pound welded aluminum art piece was fashioned in his studio and encased with concrete. It was given a greenish patina to resemble an oxidized coin. Each letter was hand carved.
Gamage decided to unveil his message with his art piece in a very stealthy way: he and some friends loaded it up to a truck and took it down to the Rockland Ferry Terminal and rolled it into place.
“The Ferry Terminal has three sculpture pads already there; there hasn’t really been much on them, so, people don’t even know the sculpture pads are there,” he said. “But, that’s what they are made for, so this piece was a perfect place for it. Plus, it was prime location for traffic.”
The only caveat? The Ferry Terminal had no idea that the sculpture would be there. It’s sort of a guerrilla installation, one might say.
However, it has not been removed, so it might be worth looking at in person before anything changes.
Chatter about town has gotten back to Gamage. Some knew exactly who the piece belonged to given his signature “G” mark on the rim of the coin.
“Some have been confused about what it means; some have thought it was great,” he said. “And it’s been re-posted on friends’ Facebook pages, so it’s getting all kinds of back and forth comments.”
It’s not ironic that the art piece itself would generate discussion—the only question being, would people be civil about their opinions?
Whether people agree with the content of his art piece or not, Gamage thinks last night’s debate gave the American people nothing of substance.
“Everything’s become a lack of reason, logic, and common sense,” he said. You can’t argue with emotion.”
Spectators used to pack the Rockland Breakwater to watch the Great Schooner Race from Islesboro to Rockland every year, but this year, with the race canceled due to COVID-19 restricting public gatherings, the seas were pretty quiet.
According to Marti Mayne, spokesperson for the Maine Windjammer Association, most of the schooners were grounded this summer, many still sheathed in plastic.
But, Capt. Noah Barnes co-owner with his wife, Jane Barnes, of Stephen Taber, wasn’t going to end the season with “there’s no joy in Mudville.”
On Friday, September 18, he and his crew put the challenge to Ladona, the sister ship co-owned by both Barnes and J.R. Braugh to compete in a friendly race using the same route setting out from Islesboro.
By 3 p.m. with Barnes helming Taber, the Coaster just passed the tip of the Breakwater when a thunderous cannon boomed, signaling their win. Ladona came in shortly after.
Flanked by several daysailers, Taber and Ladona decided to keep the fun going in the afternoon.
The Hodgepodge Sailing Club, started by Sam Sikema of the Victory Chimes, wasn’t operating this season, but they came out for the afternoon. Barnes invited Club members and everyone else to have a race around the schooners and handed out lobster rolls, beer, bags of Fritos, and awarded prizes for best costume, best listener, and saltiest rig.
‘In seasons past, we’d all be operating at 95 percent for years running and this year, we’re at 20 percent.
‘If you’re not making money with them, they are one step closer to being an oyster bar in Red Hook.’
—Noah Barnes
It was a celebratory moment after a solemn season for Windjammers.
“The reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic for the entire Windjammer fleet was to cancel the season—many didn’t even take their covers off,” said Barnes. “We didn’t even have protocols from the government to resume operating until mid-July, so along with bars and restaurants, we’re all struggling, operating half of our season with half capacity.”
Asked why he would take his boats out while others chose not to, Barnes replied: “I would say many of my colleagues had good reasons to not operate. Some in their families were immune-compromised or most of their business dried up. Going into January we were 70 percent full before the blood bath started. Cancelations were coming in so fast, it looked like we weren’t going to operate either, but in July, we’d had just enough reservations still clinging on to say ‘Let’s give this a try.’ ”
For Barnes, who has spent his life on these Maine waters, the thought of shuttering Taber and Ladona was too much to bear.
“These boats are very expensive to own; it costs about a quarter of a million dollars just to maintain them,” he said. “But, we’re stubborn. We could keep some continuity going with the fleet; we could maybe get some lessons in on how to operate because let’s be honest, there’s no guarantee that next year is going to better.”
The dire reality is that if some these boats go two seasons without operating, they are vulnerable to going out of business.
“I fear for the industry,” said Noah. “Many businesses are holding on by a thread, and state and federal assistance may be necessary to keep this industry from going out of business and perhaps leaving the state. As our industry is unique in the country and made up primarily of National Historic Landmark vessels, we are fighting to keep that from happening.”
“Tell your friends who live out of state and for those of you who live here and have visiting relatives who’ve never experience Penobscot Bay on the water, to come sailing,” he said. “Book reservations for next year, if you can. We’ll take you to spectacular places. We’ve learned how to do it safely—and what we have is a lot of fresh air and open spaces. And we’re doing more with deserted islands and to some select islands who welcome us there.”
Currently, Stephen Taber and Ladona are the only two large Windjammers operating, along with the Schooner Mistress out of Camden, until the season ends in mid-October. Other daysailers are also still operating. Check each page for more information.
To stay current with next year’s Great Schooner Race visit: sailmainecoast.com
What else does 2020 have in store for Mainers? The browntail moth rash, ticks, Lyme Disease, a pandemic...and now you can add great white sharks to the mix.
Award-winning journalist Ret Talbot gave a Zoom talk last week on the return of the white shark to New England (see embedded video). As a science writer who covers fisheries and ocean issues, he has spent the last year researching the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias). After Maine’s first recorded shark attack fatality in July, there has been a renewed public interest over this predator, which has roamed New England waters for thousands of years.
While Talbot understands the fear and fascination over the tragedy and wanted to convey respect toward the woman’s family, he didn’t want to focus on that angle for his talk. Instead, he wanted to highlight the fact that the increased white shark presence in Maine waters is actually a conservation success story.
“It is remarkable to have an apex predator return to an ecosystem in larger numbers,” he said. “It’s not something we see all that often.”
A mistaken conception about why white sharks are appearing in higher numbers in New England waters has been attributed to global warming and ocean temperatures rising, but in fact, according to Talbot, and other shark experts, it is the causal relationship between two simultaneous factors.
Jaws didn’t help matters
“People have always hunted sharks, but we know during the ‘70s and ‘80s, shark populations declined due to commercial fishing. And yes, the movie made it acceptable to go out and kill this ‘monster.’”
Ret Talbot
In 1972, Congress passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) which prohibits humans from hunting and killing seals.
“In 1973, a census of gray seals on the coast of Maine found something like 30 animals total,” said Talbot. “Today, their population has swelled into the tens of thousands.”
Then, in 1997, due to a decline in sharks in U.S. waters, the National Marine Fisheries Service banned the killing of five species of sharks, including white sharks, allowing their populations to swell, as well.
“The ban on killing sharks combined with the ban on killing their preferred prey contributed to this resurgence,” he said.
If it happened once, can it happen again?
A shark attack is extremely rare, according to numerous scientists who have equated its occurrence on par with getting struck by lightning.
“Depending upon whom you talk to, there have been 12 unprovoked shark attacks in Massachusetts between 1724 and 2018 and if you break that down, six of those attacks occurred between 1724 and 1965,” said Talbot. “But, if you look at the data between 2012 and 2018, that’s six recorded attacks in just seven years with the most recent fatality, the first in more than 80 years, in 2018. There have only been three recorded unprovoked shark attacks in Massachusetts.”
Talbot was careful to say some of the evidence he has researched is anecdotal, “but it does suggest that there may be an abundance of white sharks in the northwest Atlantic is on the rise,” he said. “And that is certainly borne out by the anecdotes and the data that researchers are still in the process of collecting.”
“We’re going to have a lot more data soon,” he continued. “The state has partnered with the Department of Maine Fisheries in Massachusetts to connect their research with Maine researchers. By tagging sharks, they will be able to track sharks into Maine waters. At least 20 percent of the sharks that are showing up on the outer Cape are making their way north to Maine.”
Talbot clarified that this data is not an immediate cause for alarm.
“I think it’s important to point out that the majority of unprovoked attacks are usually the case of ‘mistaken identity.’” he said. This tracks with this incident in Maine, whereby the victim was wearing a black wetsuit when attacked. Sharks have poor eyesight and officials surmised the attack occurred because the swimmer resembled a seal on the surface of the water.
“When we have more data about their predatory behaviors, it will help public safety officials forecast when and how they are attacking their prey and how better to avoid them,” he said.
To learn more about Talbot’s work, blog, and upcoming speaking events, visit www.rettalbot.com
STONINGTON—My neighbor, a long-time lobsterman, told me the other day: “There’s this guy you gotta check out, named Leroy. Friend told me about him. On YouTube, old guy like me whose been in the business all his life. He’s answering people’s questions and I hear he’s pretty funny.”
He was talking about Leroy Weed, 79, a Deer Isle lobsterman who is getting some statewide and national attention as a spokesman for the lobstering life in an online video series by the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries, where he answers any and all questions about fishing and commercial fisheries in Maine.
Last summer, the Center hired Leroy to be an educator in their interpretive center in Stonington Harbor called “Discovery Wharf.” Leroy greeted visitors, answered questions, and told stories to more than 7,000 visitors. You could say Leroy was one of the Center’s biggest attractions. He loved his role and told Executive Director Paul Anderson it was the “best job he ever had.”
But with COVID-19 changing the Center’s summer plans, they decided, instead, to ask their visitors to call in questions for Leroy and sit him down in front of a camera with a microphone to answer them. The results have been a viral hit on the Internet called “Ask Leroy.”
The big part of Leroy’s appeal is his dry and cheeky humor. In Episode 5, the video starts with Leroy pressing the wrong button on an Amazon Echo speaker, when Alexa pipes up with a complaint that she can’t connect to the WiFi network, to which Leroy answers: “Is that a question or what? You send Alexa down there and I’ll straighten her out. She’ll be connected to sumpin–I don’t know what.”
Weed grew up in a family of 10 children on Deer Isle, which he explains in Episode 10.
“Growing up was very rural, a lot of big families on the island, six to 10 kids per family was common,” he explained. “Everybody worked for the group. You worked for the good of everybody and working the water was our mainstay. Scalloping was a winter project and most of the lobster fishermen stopped in November and then went scalloping. Lobster wasn't worth a whole lot back then, maybe 30 cents a pound. We worked year-round—daylight at 3:30 a.m. until it got dark. It was hard work, but we learned how to be self-sufficient. We knew how to dig clams, catch scallops, mussels. Important staples. And we built our own traps, half rounds. We learned and how to work on the house, how to butcher animals, pigs, chicken, ducks, geese, and goats. We could hunt...could pick blueberries, blackberries, apples. There was never a shortage of something to do. You never forgot the lessons because they were hard lessons, and you stayed at it until you learned it.”
We decided to ask Leroy a couple of questions of our own.
Q: Some lobstermen are annoyed by tourist questions—after a lifetime of them, what made you want to jump right in and answer them?
A: Well, I don’t tell them how much money I make, and that’s the only one I won’t answer. Some people will get upset if you ask how much money they earn, and then they’ll just stop answering questions. They’ll say ‘Yup, I gotta go, can’t be bothered, and that’s the end of that.’ So, if you want to know what’s involved in how lobstering works, we can answer that. I don’t know all the ins and outs of it, but I’ve been doing it for 58 years, so it’s a learned profession—learn by doing. We’ve had questions on how boats are designed, how a trap works, how to cook up a lobster and get the meat out. Well, wouldn’t you know, we had all kinds of calls from restaurants too! Some chefs don’t know how to get all the meat out of a lobster. They just rip the claws off and throw the rest of it away. We’re gonna do a video to show them how to use the whole lobster. You grow up the way I did, you eat everything but the eyeballs.
Q: Speaking of, I was most interested in learning how you grew up on Deer Isle...
A: Well, I haven’t growed up yet—I’m still a kid! If you grow up, you get serious, you see? And then you won’t have any fun...
Q: I was going to say, with the pandemic and even before then, there’s been this resurgence in learning self-sufficient outdoor and homesteading skills—what do you think of that?
I think that it’s a good thing—if it drives them, go for it. My son goes fishing and tonight, he brought in a big cusk. That’s what we’ll have for supper tomorrow night. I got seven grandkids. And my grandson went lobstering with me. He wanted money for college, so he got on the boat and earned it.
Q: What’s the craziest questions you’ve ever gotten from the public?
A: Well, some of ‘em have asked me, ‘How do you know there’s lobsters in the traps?’ so, I tell ‘em, ‘We got this fiberoptic line; we look down the line and see if he’s in there.’ The other question we get a lot is ‘Why are the boats all parked in the same direction?’ And I just say, ‘So, they can all get out and not run into each other.’ But, then, I follow up with them and explain it and say ‘It’s the way the wind and the tide turn them.’
According to the Anderson, the Center just completed Episode 11 right now and plan on continuing through October. They have the videos posted on their website, on their YouTube channel, and on Facebook. The series has been very popular with some episodes racking up nearly 20,000 views and their YouTube channel gaining more than 500 subscribers.
ROCKPORT—Italian born-and-raised restaurateur Sante Calandri was not about to let a pandemic stop him from opening his new restaurant, Ports of Italy, in Rockport last week.
With a sister property in Boothbay Harbor, he’d always had his eye on the Midcoast and when the Helm restaurant came up for sale, he jumped on the opportunity. For the last year, he set to work on redesigning the place, adding two decks that overlook the forest-covered river in back. Set originally to open this past spring, the pandemic put up obstacles to his plans.
But, you don’t start working in a famous Italian restaurant at the age of 13, move to New York City at the age of 24 to work as a dishwasher at a restaurant in Little Italy, and then earn your way up the restaurant ladder, absorbing everything you can about the industry in one of the most competitive cities on earth just to quit when a few obstacles come up.
A driven self-starter, Calandri imbues the same level of excellence to his food and service. Having brought Italian chef Alessandro D'Alessi with him to Rockport, Calandri ensures his pastas are all made by hand with semolina flour, no egg.
“Egg is too heavy; we just use water and flour—it’s nice, light pasta,” said Calandri. “And we don’t do anything fried,” he said. “I won’t do it.”
D’Alessi has 35 years in the kitchen, and like Calandri, also moved from Italy to New York as a youth to work in Italian restaurants, bringing the craft of fine Italian cuisine with him.
His dishes, such as the Ravioli Di Astice, made with Maine lobster and local ricotta floats on a dream of creamy prosecco and aurora sauce. It’s something with which you want to curl up with on the couch and watch your favorite movie.
With a simple menu consisting of appetizers, salads, vegetarian options, homemade pasta dishes, and Secondi—or traditional Italian meat dishes, Calandri and d’Alessi aim to introduce the real flavors they grew up with.
Most Americans who’ve never had those flavors, might come to expect that “Italian food” consists of lasagnas, chicken parmesans, or spaghetti and meatballs, but he prefers to surprise people with handmade sauces and fresh, local ingredients in dishes they can’t get anywhere else.
Diners have raved about the Calandri’s Rollantini Di Melanzane, rolled eggplant stuffed with local ricotta and parmesan cheese, fresh herbs, garlic, tomato sauce and topped with fresh mozzarella. The Porchetta Di Ariccia, is another hit, an arricia-style roasted suckling pig.
With a couple of friends-and-family soft opening nights to work the kinks out behind them, the new restaurant officially opened Friday, September 4, for dinner. It was fortuitous that he contracted with Colson's Excavation & Landscaping Inc. to construct a deck and patio seating into the building plan, because for the remainder of the fall when the nights are still warm, outdoor dining is an option, with seating for 60 inside with spaced-out tables and a cozy bar that is ideal for individuals or couples who want an even more casual ambiance with a nice dinner and a glass of wine.
Speaking of wines, Calandri’s extensive wine list is a veritable book, and it has taken him 27 years to compile it, tasting and vetting each one.
“If I don’t like it; it won’t be on the menu. These are all the ones I like,” he said.
For Calandri, the move to Maine after a long stint working and living in New York City, has been the right move, both professionally and personally.
“It’s relaxing up here,” he said.
He will divide his time between Boothbay and Rockport, with a trusted friend, Jeff Teel, general manager, overseeing the day-to-day operations.
Ports of Italy opens at 4:30 to 7 p.m., seven days a week. For more information, visit their Facebook page.
ROCKPORT—Italian born-and-raised restaurateur Sante Calandri was not about to let a pandemic stop him from opening his new restaurant, Ports of Italy, in Rockport last week.
With a sister property in Boothbay Harbor, he’d always had his eye on the Midcoast and when the Helm restaurant came up for sale, he jumped on the opportunity. For the last year, he set to work on redesigning the place, adding two decks that overlook the forest-covered river in back. Set originally to open this past spring, the pandemic put up obstacles to his plans.
But, you don’t start working in a famous Italian restaurant at the age of 13, move to New York City at the age of 24 to work as a dishwasher at a restaurant in Little Italy, and then earn your way up the restaurant ladder, absorbing everything you can about the industry in one of the most competitive cities on earth just to quit when a few obstacles come up.
A driven self-starter, Calandri imbues the same level of excellence to his food and service. Having brought Italian chef Alessandro D'Alessi with him to Rockport, Calandri ensures his pastas are all made by hand with semolina flour, no egg.
“Egg is too heavy; we just use water and flour—it’s nice, light pasta,” said Calandri. “And we don’t do anything fried,” he said. “I won’t do it.”
D’Alessi has 35 years in the kitchen, and like Calandri, also moved from Italy to New York as a youth to work in Italian restaurants, bringing the craft of fine Italian cuisine with him.
His dishes, such as the Ravioli Di Astice, made with Maine lobster and local ricotta floats on a dream of creamy prosecco and aurora sauce. It’s something with which you want to curl up with on the couch and watch your favorite movie.
With a simple menu consisting of appetizers, salads, vegetarian options, homemade pasta dishes, and Secondi—or traditional Italian meat dishes, Calandri and d’Alessi aim to introduce the real flavors they grew up with.
Most Americans who’ve never had those flavors, might come to expect that “Italian food” consists of lasagnas, chicken parmesans, or spaghetti and meatballs, but he prefers to surprise people with handmade sauces and fresh, local ingredients in dishes they can’t get anywhere else.
Diners have raved about the Calandri’s Rollantini Di Melanzane, rolled eggplant stuffed with local ricotta and parmesan cheese, fresh herbs, garlic, tomato sauce and topped with fresh mozzarella. The Porchetta Di Ariccia, is another hit, an arricia-style roasted suckling pig.
With a couple of friends-and-family soft opening nights to work the kinks out behind them, the new restaurant officially opened Friday, September 4, for dinner. It was fortuitous that he contracted with Colson's Excavation & Landscaping Inc. to construct a deck and patio seating into the building plan, because for the remainder of the fall when the nights are still warm, outdoor dining is an option, with seating for 60 inside with spaced-out tables and a cozy bar that is ideal for individuals or couples who want an even more casual ambiance with a nice dinner and a glass of wine.
Speaking of wines, Calandri’s extensive wine list is a veritable book, and it has taken him 27 years to compile it, tasting and vetting each one.
“If I don’t like it; it won’t be on the menu. These are all the ones I like,” he said.
For Calandri, the move to Maine after a long stint working and living in New York City, has been the right move, both professionally and personally.
“It’s relaxing up here,” he said.
He will divide his time between Boothbay and Rockport, with a trusted friend, Jeff Teel, general manager, overseeing the day-to-day operations.
Ports of Italy opens at 4:30 to 7 p.m., seven days a week. For more information, visit their Facebook page.
“Maine offers a quality of life that appeals to those living in highly populated and more congested areas of the U.S.”
This quote from a July press release from the Maine Association of Realtors is not news to those who live here year-round.
The COVID-19 pandemic that has upended the world has also produced a silent shift felt in Maine with more out-of-state residents fleeing to the state in search of home and rental properties.
A July report by Maine Listings, a subsidiary of Maine Association of REALTORS shows a sales jump of 12.43 percent with “evidence of increasing out-of-state buyer activity” from 2019 to 2020.
“It’s definitely a mix of in-state to out-of-state buyers and has been a mix for the last 10 to 15 years,” said Chuck Brawn, a real estate agent with Dwelling In Maine. “COVID-19 has likely accelerated some things that were already in place. I would say 10 years ago, one in three home buyers was from out of state and now it’s more like 50 percent—there are definitely more.”
Nancy Hughes, owner and Designated Broker of Camden Coast Real Estate, said that it’s not just home buyers moving into Maine. She estimates 40 to 50 percent of the inquiries she’s getting from people out of state are to rent apartments and houses.
“They don’t know if they want to commit to living in Maine full time before buying, and not all want to completely cut ties with the larger cities that they are coming from,” said Hughes. “The intent is to live here to escape what is happening in the more populated and dense areas for a simpler way of life while keeping the door open to return in a year or so when things will hopefully revert back to 'normal'.”
Still, she added it will be a culture shock for some. “A lot of people who are moving here are still city people and they know that they can’t be in a small community for the long term; it's such a disparity in the way of life, such a change,” she said.
(Photo by Kay Stephens)
What is ‘cottagecore” and the appeal of rural life?
A recent NPR article points to Taylor Swift’s new album as she frolics like a wood nymph in a primordial forest as an indicator of a new trend: “cottagecore.” As NPR’s author Emma Bowman explains, the trend “epitomizes a romanticization of the rural lifestyle...sourdough bread starters, foraged mushrooms, open meadows, freshly picked flowers, homegrown produce, knitting, baking pies, and, yes, rustic cottages.”
However, those who aren’t into pagan cosplay or laboring under fiddlehead foraging delusions have more practical reasons for moving to Maine.
“Ten years ago, you saw people moving up here up for the culture, the quality of life, a sense of community, and natural beauty but two other things also stand out,” said Brawn. “Most of the major towns have reliable Internet access for people working remotely. And waterfront or waterview property is still relatively cheap, than say on the north shore of Boston or the Hamptons, so Maine is still a relatively good value for oceanfront property in New England and the Northeast Corridor.”
With Maine’s diligence in containing COVID-19 comparatively to other states and as one of two states where coronavirus cases are decreasing, the appeal to breathe fresh air, have plenty of physical space to move around in and encounter fewer people is all too understandable in its attraction.
‘In the past there was a saying: people come to Maine because there's no crime. Well, now there's no crime and (low) COVID-19.’ —Chuck Brawn
Cities with high concentrations of people are losing their appeal. One only needs to read a slew of urban-bashing articles proclaiming that NYC is ‘dead forever’ to understand why so many city people want to trade their bustling lives to become country people.
How urban flight is affecting Mainers
But for all of those people coming in from out of state who are still retaining high-paying jobs remotely, it feels to many Mainers, whose average earnings fall well below the median income across the entire U.S., that they are getting priced out of the market for homeownership as well as squeezed out for apartment rentals.
The ability to afford a house or an apartment in Maine was already stretched to a thin edge—and that was before a pandemic that put 80,000 Mainers out of work, according to recent state data. An April 2019 report prepared by the Maine Development Foundation for Maine Economic Growth Council concluded that housing affordability in Maine has been declining since 2014.
The report stated: “In 2017, homeownership costs met or exceeded the affordability threshold... in nine of Maine’s 16 counties, but rental housing was not affordable in any county.”
“There is a small, local housing supply,” said Hughes. “Presently, there are only 32 houses available for sale in Camden. This is opposed to the last five to eight years where there were closer to — and sometimes over — 100 housing units to choose from. As such, there are actually more brokers in Camden alone than there are houses available to sell.”
She went on to say, “Of those homes available, there are more homes listed for sale for over $400,000 than under that figure. The accelerated market values are rapidly outpricing locally-waged people who want to buy in the area, and are opening the door more to buyers from out of state with higher waged occupations than can buy at the accelerated price points.”
"It’s 100 percent true that if the average Maine homebuyer who has a price limit is put in a competitive situation with an out-of-state buyer who can buy in cash, and doesn’t have a financing contingency — that the Maine home buyer at a strategic disadvantage,” said Brawn. “There is a shortage of affordable housing that has been evident for the last 20 years and now is getting worse.”
A 2014 photo of the Midcoast Mini Maker Faire by Kay Stephens
The upsides to a diverse population
People “from away” have always moved to Maine. I happen to be one of them who moved here by myself in 1993, when apartments were still cheap and plentiful. Since then, I’ve seen scores of young people moving out of state. This has been in tandem with the last decade of steady demographic growth and “bumps” such as the years after 9/11 with incoming residents. Throughout, I have taken a particular interest in observing the impact of out-of-state attitudes and behaviors on Maine residents and vice versa.
There is sufficient evidence that people from away have strengthened the arts and cultural side to Maine since the back-to-the-landers started coming here in the 1970s. Bringing diverse experiences and knowledge with them, they have undoubtedly contributed to Maine’s burgeoning arts, entertainment, restaurant, and brewing scenes in the last 20 years. Not to mention, their contributions to local tax bases. This winter, people who stay past the summer in Maine’s economy who have the means to work remotely and continue to bring in substantive income will also contribute to an economy that has taken a bashing from the pandemic.
“When someone from out of state buys a house, they often do improvements, additions and I think a lot of contractors, the builders, the septic companies, the landscapers, etc are a lot busier than they've ever been, so it's keeping people working,” said Brawn. “A lot of people who make their income somewhere else are spending it locally.”
“I do know a number of people who have what are typically summer residences and who are planning on staying in those summer residences well into the winter season,” said Hughes. “The upshot is that community businesses may benefit from this shift, because the loss of business through March, April and May through COVID-19 may be recovered in September, October, November, and December because there will be more people here using those commercial services.”
Fishing/lobster industry is fundamental to the Maine economy and way of life. Photo by Lynda Clancy
The long and short of it
But, those who choose to come to Maine right now as a “safety net” state would do well to open their eyes to the entire Big Picture, not just their own little slice of Vacationland.
COVID-19 has scared a lot of people be it from away or from Maine. An out-of-stater wanting to flee a city that is ravaged by the novel coronavirus and political violence is understandable, particularly if they have vulnerable members of their family at risk.
To echo Maslow’s Hierchary of Needs, everyone has the right to safety and security. However, those who move here to escape a lifestyle they no longer want must also empathize with year-round Mainers who also have the right to those very same needs as well. People who think they are escaping to the safety that is rural, bucolic Maine, are arriving at a time when tens of thousands of people are under- and unemployed, fearful, and out of their wits that they may be homeless themselves by winter.
Tensions are high in our small communities; we’re seeing it in more road rage incidents, confrontations over masks, ugly online comments. The sternman with a girlfriend who now cannot afford an apartment in Rockland where he works is fearful. The young couple with a baby on the way who consistently get outbid on an affordable house is fearful. The teacher who is watching more and more students from out of state enrolled in local schools this fall, now knowing her exposure to the virus will now be compounded, is fearful.
Those who are moving to Maine at this time must recognize that despite their cultural and economic contributions, there is a verifiable squeezing of housing resources. And native Mainers who are seeing their neighborhoods gentrified, or cannot compete economically to afford the homes and apartments in their own state are experiencing negative feelings—and to a degree, deep resentment—over these dwindling resources. These are the realities. And if you’re coming here from away, accept those realities with humility, empathy, and awareness.
I will never say anything as corporately trite as “We are all in this together.”
But we are here together. Let’s do whatever it takes to understand and help each other out.
CAMDEN—Patrons looking for your garden variety dogs and burgers will be pleasantly surprised to see what’s on the menu at the newly opened roadside takeout shack just outside Camden Hills State Park. Deirdre’s Roadside, co-owned by Chef Ean Flanagan, former owner of Ebantide and Kenny Corson formerly of the catering/banquet department of Point Lookout, are putting out an elevated comfort food menu with the emphasis on high quality, eclectic tastes.
After only being open two weeks, the owners said people are not just discovering them as they drive by, but their Facebook followers are also going the distance just to try the food. Already out of the gate, the hot sellers are the smoked slow-roasted pork Cubano sandwich—roasted for 16 hours— followed by the Bahn Mi. The Duck Confit Empanadas are another delight.
“I cook the thighs and legs for about 12 hours so it falls apart, cook it down and make the empanadas ourselves,” said Flanagan . “It comes with traditional Spanish beans and rice with sauteed onions, garlic, and spices. This is my passion. I’m taking my French training and updating roadside food.”
“People are very happy to see an eclectic, interesting menu, especially those folks who’ve never come by here,” said Corson. “They’re raving about the food and people have been back again and again in the very short time we’ve been open. We’ve already built a very good community.”
Speaking of burgers, the Roadside Burger is dressed up a bit on Flanagan’s menu. “I take an 85-percent chuck six-ounce burger and form into a hand patty, put a bourbon bacon marmalade on it, along with a fried egg and local cheddar cheese, then serve it with truffle fries,” said Flanagan. "People are shocked; they take a bite and tell me it’s the best burger they ever had. ”
He’s also bringing back Ebantide’s famous pork cheek po-boy, a 12-hour roasted pork cheek with fried green tomato served with a mustard gastrique.
They also do ice cream and custom shakes and located at the bottom of the menu is “The Obligatory Lobster Roll with Salad”—something for the tourists.
“We’re doing a Gypsy street food theme,” said Corson. “We just want people to come, have a nice time. We always have music playing; we’re happy to chat through the window.”
The decor is not the only colorful element of Deirdre’s — named after Flanagan's Irish grandmother. [See related story of Ebantide’s culinary inspirations]. Corson decided he wanted his tattoo of Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” painted on the opposite garage wall. So, armed with multiple cans of spraypaint, he did the artwork himself.
Given how late in the summer season they just opened, the time to reap a profit is growing short. “We’re going to stay open definitively until October 15, but if the demand is high enough, we’ll attempt to go longer into November,” said Corson.
Woodward said fans of the Facebook page will see perks for following their page. “We’ll have a special menu for locals with a special code phrase you can ask for,” said Flanagan. “I love the locals and we’re doing this for the community.”
Dierdre’s will be open six days a week, except on Mondays. For more information follow them at Deirdre’s Roadside.
NORTHPORT—In the trailer for the new PBS digital series SELF-EVIDENT which premieres on Monday, August 17, Moxie R., 10, has some important thoughts about being a kid in the era of COVID-19.
“I just like embracing my childhood, while it’s still here,” she says to the camera in the digital series trailer. “Embracing being able to order from the kids' menu because soon I’ll be 12 and I won’t be able to...”
With her bold purple glasses, Moxie is one of a diverse group of 10-year-old kids from all over the U.S. who were interviewed for the premiere episode, titled “Being Ten in 2020,” in which kids open up and talk about the ways they’ve adapted and stayed resilient in world upended by a pandemic. Some of their thoughts range from thoughtful to downright funny.
Moxie’s mother, Taylor, happened to be friends with some of the producers of the show, which is how she got involved. Residents of Rhode Island, Moxie and her family have ties to Northport, where her grandfather lives in Bayside and were up here for several weeks this past June and July.
Moxie just turned 11 this summer. “Being ten is in your pre-teen years, where you are kind of figuring out who you are and what you want to do in your life,” she said. “I loved being the oldest of my cousins, but not too old, so I was still in charge— but not too old to not be having fun.”
This is most definitely a weird summer to be a kid, as Moxie acknowledges; she hasn’t been able to see her friends very much. “They asked me how I was feeling about all this [COVID-19’s after-effects] and what have I been doing to calm myself down,” she said of the show’s producers. “While we were in Maine, I just played a lot with my cousins at the beach.”
The episode touches upon one important thing Moxie did this summer. With the help of her parents and younger brother Frank, she organized and led a socially distant Black Lives Matter protest in Bayside.
“We did make some flyers and print them out and were all out there in person, wearing masks,” she said.
Being interviewed remotely by the producers on Zoom didn’t faze her, as she and her friends had mastered Zoom even before the pandemic.
“Before this all happened, me and my friends started using Zoom as a way to talk. After school, there was still stuff we wanted to talk about and didn’t have time to, so at night, we’d all get on a Zoom chat and it was like being in person. So, we were already used to Zoom already.”
Having fun in a pandemic summer may seem an anathema to certain adults, but for kids such as Moxie, it is precisely that resilience that allows her to still feel optimistic about the future.
“I think this year can turn around; I don’t know if we’ll go back to hugging people again, but at least I’ll see my friends again,” she said.
Now back in Rhode Island, she still isn’t sure whether she’s going back to in-person school or remote learning, which starts September 14. “I think it’s gonna be great, because my teachers and my brother’s teachers have been really working hard to get school ‘back.’”
Watch the trailer where Moxie appears at the 1:46 mark.
SELF-EVIDENT is inspired by PBS’s 50th anniversary storytelling initiative AMERICAN PORTRAIT and is informed by the central question that PBS AMERICAN PORTRAIT examines: “What does it really mean to be an American today?”
View the episode on PBS’s website on August 17 at 11 a.m. (EST) or its YouTube channel, PBS Voices, its Facebook page, and PBS Video App.
THOMASTON—Sixteen-year-old Alexa Barstow is about to see her first book of short stories published later this month — an enviable accomplishment for someone so young.
A soon-to-be-senior at Oceanside High School, she has been able to see her dream come true through Portland’s nonprofit writing center for young people, The Telling Room.
The Telling Room is a writing program and youth publisher, focusing on writers ages 6 to 18. It is an emerging niche of the publishing industry, as it teaches kids and teens writing and publishing skills alongside professional editors and designers.
Her forthcoming book, Truth Be Cold, contains 16 short stories around the concept of home and family and about discovering truths within ourselves.
Her book description reads: “We all have ghosts, specters of our past we’re too afraid to confront. The young characters in these sixteen stories, which blur the lines between the supernatural and the real, face their phantoms. Haunting but hopeful, ‘Truth Be Cold’ is a debut collection about fear in its many forms and the liberating truth to be found within it.”
“The earliest story I remember writing was in third grade, a Nutcracker retelling, which was about 20 pages,” she said.
Writing since then, Alexa got involved with The Telling Room in ninth grade, when she learned they were hosting a four-day February camp in Damariscotta.
“I persuaded my mom to drive me down there all during February vacation,” she said. “It was an amazing experience and I met a lot of young writers there who influenced me.”
One of the exercises at this camp was called Paint Chip Poetry.
“They give you a paint chip and ask you to create a story or poem from that color,” she said.
The camp’s objective was to complete a story by the end of that week. Alexa wrote a story from that four-day immersion, titled, “Greased Lightning,” which subsequently won the Maine Literary Awards for Youth Fiction in 2019.
“I’ve gone back to the camp every year,” she said.
With momentum behind her, she decided she wanted to continue her commitment to The Telling Room.
Last year, Alexa applied for The Telling Room’s Young Emerging Authors program, a year-long writing and publishing fellowship that offers successful applicants the chance to plan, write, edit, design, and publish their own books in a single year. Out of applicants from all over the state, Alexa was chosen as one of the four teenagers selected for the fellowship.
That meant Alexa would now have to produce a book in a year’s time.
“It was a lot on my plate as Portland is 90 minutes away, but my dad would drive me down every Tuesday,” she said. “I‘d miss class every Tuesday afternoon, but I’d write in the car, I’d write at night, I’d write on the weekends. Any free time I had, I was writing.”
With a program leader and a writing coach she laid down the first draft, then polished it with input from professionals in the writing and publishing industries, including authors, editors, agents, designers, and publishers. From there, she learned how to re-arrange the structure of her writing, how to copyedit, how to give select a cover design, and even how to market her book once it was launched.
“I felt nervous about making big changes to the manuscript at first from what I originally planned, but then going back and looking at it now, I see that I made the right decisions,” she said. “It’s partly letting your own walls down a bit and trusting that people in this business know what they’re doing.”
Where some teen writers are shy, Alexa is self-assured and it’s easy to see that her entire experience with The Telling Room has laid the groundwork for a future writing career. She now knows what it takes some adults in an MFA program or a writing & publishing college degree years to learn.
While she said the soon-to-be-launched book is thrilling, the pandemic has put somewhat of a damper on the physical in-person launch itself—as many authors releasing a book in 2020 have been disappointed to experience.
“I do think this is the saddest thing about the pandemic for me, personally,” she said. “Okay, missing out on my junior year is fine, but missing out on the book launch is disappointing. But, The Telling Room is always there for us and making the best of the situation.”
With movie theaters closed half of the summer and most concert venues canceled during the Covid-19 pandemic, trying to find innovative ways to provide entertainment to crowds has been an extraordinary challenge for Midcoast’s arts and theatre venues. As a result, some have taken a page from history and revived the old-fashioned Drive-In. Here’s a look at three venues that are making it work.
The Shotwell Drive-In
CIFF films, Rockport
The Shotwell Drive-In is the Camden International Film Festival’s latest brainstormed solution as a way to offer the Midcoast community a place to come together and enjoy films during COVID-19 and beyond. “The Shotwell Drive-in” is named in honor of Bob Shotwell, a longtime supporter of CIFF and member of the Points North Institute’s Board of Directors. In August, the outdoor theater will be screening the best in new and classic documentaries, with a few special community films mixed in. On Sunday, August 2, CIFF is screening “John Lewis: Good Trouble,” a film that explores Lewis’s 60-plus years of social activism and legislative action on civil rights, voting rights, gun control, health care reform, and immigration.
The Shotwell Drive-In will be used as the primary venue for 2020 CIFF events, October 1-12. Space is extremely limited and due to COVID-19 safety precautions, they will be limiting attendance. All screenings are pre-registration only, with no tickets sold at the door. Tickets are $20 per car. The doors will open at 7:30 p.m. and no cars will be admitted after 8:15 p.m. The film will start at 8:30 p.m. Concessions and restrooms will be available on site. For more information on upcoming films visit: their website and follow CIFF on Facebook.
Strand Theatre Drive-In
Owls Head Transportation Museum, Owls Head
The Strand Theatre had to completely re-think how to screen films during COVID-19 when movie theaters were banned from re-opening until July 1, per the Mills Administration’s Stage 3 Restarting Maine’s Economy Plan. First, they had to find a place to host a large-enough parking lot complete with a giant screen. Collaborating with the Owls Head Transportation Museum, they began their screenings Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights throughout July at the museum campus. Coming up Thursdays in August, Jurassic Park (August 8) and Get Out (August 13) will be on the docket.
Tickets are $20 per car, and will be available starting at 2 p.m. each day for that evening’s show. Availability is limited, so movie-goers are encouraged to buy their tickets early to guarantee their spot. Showtime will be at 8:30 p.m. each night, with gates opening at 7:30 p.m. Though a concession stand will not be available, a complimentary bag of popcorn will go to each car, and attendees are welcome to bring their own snacks. Film audio will be broadcast over FM radio on 87.9 FM; movie-goers can listen with their car radios or with a portable radio.
Tickets can be purchased on the Strand Theatre website, or by calling 594-0070 between 2-4 p.m. For more information about each screening visit their website.
Outdoor Film & Music Festival
The Pour Farm, Union
Additionally, socially distant outdoor movie events have become a popular way to gather. Union’s only nano-brewery, The Pour Farm, is showing an outdoor film every Friday and Saturday evening in September on their wooded property. Interestingly, most of the films chosen are from the silent era of the 1920s. That’s because owner Bill Stinson had the idea to pair each movie with a live band who will be playing throughout.
“One day we were sitting on the deck and looking out in the woods and said ‘This would be a great place to screen a movie,’ so we’re going to put up a big 13-foot-screen and hang it from the trees,” he said. “It’s more than just a film festival though; I’ve got a few friends who are composers and musicians and they want to write original scores to these old movies and perform live during the screenings.”
Some of the vintage movies are family-friendly such as The Red Balloon (1956) and Balloonatic (1923) along with The Lost World (1925), but Stinson is throwing some horror genres in there —Nosferatu (1922) and Night of The Living Dead (1968), along with Reefer Madness (1936), so you might want to leave the kiddies at home for those ones.
For more information on the film details visit their website.
ROCKLAND—Something sweet has come out of the Summer of 2020 and it has rolled out in a pink-and-white food truck with a logo of the Eiffel Tower.
Eric Boyce has always had the dream of opening a breakfast spot; it just has taken awhile.
“I’ve been in aviation for 58 years, both as a helicopter and airplane pilot and as an aircraft maintenance engineer, and lived in Alaska for 21 years, but with COVID-19 happening, and losing my job in April, this seemed like the right time.”
With his partner, Shirley A. McAfee, Boyce launched the grand opening of his new food truck on July 25, which is parked on the Rockland-Thomaston line (next to The Zack Shack) calling itself Crepes Crepes Crepes.
How did a pilot go from crosswinds to crepes?
“My mother was a French cook who learned under a French chef in Quebec and she taught me to cook,” he said. “I’ve always loved cooking. I ‘ve always loved crepes and have always had tastings at my house. They’re my own recipe I’ve modified over the past 30-40 years.”
McAfee, who also owns a bed and breakfast has the “breakfast” part down pat.
Their breakfast-and-dessert menu comes from Boyce’s many years perfecting the perfect crepe. Their best-selling crepe, so far, is the Banana Nutella with Strawberries, with recipes focused on sweet offerings such as Lemon Ricotta and Cheese and Apple Cinnamon. They also offer Creme Brulee and Flan, amongst other handheld desserts.
“We’re open until the batter runs out.”
-Daughter, Erin Hustus, on the food truck’s hours fo 6 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Women make up about 75 percent of their business right now, said Boyce, who deliberately chose the pink-and-white theme for his menu and truck. It took four months to completely renovate and paint the camper and turn it into a mobile food truck.
“We have a few bistro tables outside and ladies like to come by with their friends and have coffee and crepes or dessert,” he said.
On Thursdays, Boyce and McAfee are working with Rockland’s Salvation Army to give away free pancakes and coffee to those in need, as a way to give back to their new community.
To learn more about Crepes Crepes Crepes, visit their Facebook page.
MIDCOAST—A barbeque restaurant and a food truck serving Middle Eastern street food have opened on the coast in recent weeks. Here’s the skinny on both.
RasDal Falafel — Belfast
Canaan Jordan recently opened his new food truck, RasDal Falafel on Front Street by the footbridge earlier this month. Specializing in Middle Eastern street food, which is mostly vegetarian and vegan, Jordan said, “I’ve been cooking for almost 20 years and this is the kind of food I really like to eat, so I’ve been cooking this for a long time tweaking recipes.”
“Ras means the ‘head’ or ‘top’ and ‘dal’ means a bean, sort of a ‘top bean’ Falafel,” he explained of the food truck name.
His menu is very simple with only three or four items.
“We do a couple of wraps with flatbread that I get from a bakery in Portland,” he said. “I make mostly falafel and a sandwich called Sabich, which is fried eggplant, egg, and a tangy, pickled mango sauce, which people really like. We also do a kebab, which rotates out depending on what kind of meat I get.”
With a take-out food truck model, Jordan was already positioned to do better in the pandemic. “People are finding me, they’re liking the food and they’re coming back and telling people,” he said. “Some people love Falafel and are happy to find it here in Belfast and some have never tried it and want to, so it’s a good mix of customers.”
Learn more about Rasdal Falafel through their Facebook page.
Troy Crane and Andrew Bridge opened a BBQ restaurant, Station 118, located at 118 Main Street in Thomaston on July 16 to a crowd that formed a line around the door.
“We probably had close to a couple hundred people come through before we sold out,” said Crane.
The garage where the converted restaurant is located has been completely remodeled and it took Crane and Bridge a little over four months to put the finishing touches to it, along with adding three outdoor smokers and some outdoor seating.
Crane describes their version of BBQ as “Maine-style” featuring brisket and Louisville ribs, pulled pork, and chicken.
“Both Andrew and I really love barbeque and the process behind it,” said Crane. “We pay a lot of attention to the food, which we get from local farms and use our experience to make it our own.” Both Crane and Bridge have worked as chefs in the area for a number of years and say that their biggest seller has been the brisket and ribs, along with a brisket taco. “
The owners didn’t feel that opening in a pandemic was a hindrance.
“I felt pretty confident that we didn’t have a huge outbreak of COVID-19 in the Midcoast, so we just played it day by day,” said Crane.
With only outdoor seating available for the summer, they said they plan to open up some tables in the interior of the restaurant in the fall.
Given their local popularity since they opened, they are poised to do well.
“It’s been great,” said Crane. “we couldn’t ask for a better reception during this time.”
Learn more about Station 118 through their Facebook page.
Like most restaurateurs, Jordan Benissan expected he’d be running his popular restaurant Mé Lon Togo in Waterville this spring, but the pandemic had other plans for him. Not able to keep the restaurant open, and falling behind in rent, his landlord evicted him. These setbacks led to his announcement to close his restaurant in March.
An acquaintance, a food blogger, who followed Benissan on Instagram, reached out to the food community in Portland and organized a Go Fund Me campaign for him, generating $16,000, which put Benissan back on his feet again, and allowed him to acquire a location in Camden at 56 Elm Street, formerly a furniture showroom next to Children’s House Montessori School.
Benissan, who also owns another restaurant of the same name in Searsport, has decided to focus all of his energy on the Camden location in 2020. He brought all of his furniture, kitchen equipment, and even a full bar down from Waterville and has been busy painting and renovating with the aim to open for dine-in service by the end of July.
Some might think it’s risky to open a restaurant during a pandemic, but Bennissan is optimistic that the 2,000-square-foot space is large enough to socially distance diners, and with multiple dining rooms, a private area, outdoor dining with five tables and a 40-seat capacity, he’s hoping he’ll be able to turn a profit.
Benissan, who moved to Maine from Togo, a country in West African, 20 years ago, started off his career as a professional traveling musician. A music professor at Bowdoin and Colby College and a musician who specializes in West African drumming, Benissan has roots in Camden, having taught high school students at the Watershed School.
He’s also done cooking classes through CHRHS and Adult Ed, which has introduced his food to a variety of people in innovative ways.
“I’ve always been part of the Camden community, quietly, and have done fundraising dinners for the Watershed School,” he said. “So, now I’ve been given an opportunity to really be part of Camden and to have people get to know me.”
Known for his West African cuisine fused with European influences, his menu will be prix fixe at $40 per person with four courses. His Cognac Chicken is one of the more popular dishes.
“It’s a European recipe, but I put my own spin on it,” he said, with spices he imports from West Africa.
Mé Lon Togo translates to ‘I love Togo.’ Self-taught as a chef, Benissan uses as many local ingredients as he can in season. But, it’s the flavors, he creates, that people cannot get anywhere else.
“People love the Gumbo and the West African Chicken in Peanut Sauce,” he said, of his signature West African dishes.
He cites his vegetarian stew as another hit, made with sweet potato, plantain, eggplant, zucchini, portobello and shiitake mushrooms, celery, garbanzo beans, and spices.
While Maine is known for its creative culinary scene around seafood, Benissan said, “I have a different idea of how to prepare seafood than other restaurants. When I think of really modern seafood dishes, I am inspired to create a Cioppino. This is a dish, when presented to you, you know you’re going to enjoy seafood in a way you haven’t before.”
Traditionally, an Italian-American fisherman's stew, Benissan makes it his own with lobster, shrimp, scallops, crabmeat, and snow crab legs with a vegetable broth cooked with wine and spices.
“That flavor is gold,” he said.
The restaurant will also be offering curbside take-out. Follow the restaurant’s Facebook page at Mé Lon Togo.
MIDCOAST — Charles Darwin had it right when in The Origin of Species he said: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”
As Maine enters mid-summer during a pandemic that has changed how businesses operate in absolutely every way, four Midcoast businesses have pivoted toward a new model of business—doing what they do best—in order to reach more customers.
Hoxbill rebrands to BLAZE Camden
Following a pop-up test kitchen weekend on July 4, Hoxbill owner Matt Haskell has rebranded the oceanfront restaurant into Blaze Camden, a signature member in his stable of Blaze restaurant group with locations in Bar Harbor and Bangor. Citing that the move was in place before COVID-19, the changes will include a new pared-down menu featuring wood-fired grill dining, a new sign, and premiere outdoor seating on the Camden waterfront. The brewing company Blaze is attached on-site and the restaurant/brewery will now be open seven days a week. FMI: Facebook
Bell The Cat’s Spin On ‘Hello Fresh’
Two years after the Belfast deli restaurant Bell The Cat re-opened in a new location, as we reported in 2018, owner JoJo Oliphant, has taken his model of fresh, locally sourced breakfasts and deli-style lunches and added on a new component, a meal plan system, offering organic fresh meats and produce and menu items and vegan meals with delivery on Mondays. FMI: Website
Boynton McKay Turns to Tacos and Donuts
With a tight space inside the Camden eatery, owner Brian Beggerly announced in May that COVID-19 had altered their summer plans, and instead, starting June 1, they would operate as a take-out only service offering two signature items: tacos and donuts. Cold Toes Tacos is one side of the business with locally sourced ingredients such as halibut and lobster tacos as well as pre-order taco kits, nachos, and other goodies. The other side of the business is Ruckus Donuts. FMI: Facebook
Trillium Caterers Opens New Division: Trilly
In April, Belfast-based Trillium Caterers owners Abigale Avey and Michael Casby saw the writing on the wall when COVID-19 prevented large gatherings of people—a very necessary component of their Wedding and Event business. From there, the couple decided to expand on their cooking skills to provide a new delivery service that is part meal kit, part take-out with an emphasis on “being fancy to yourself.” They call it Trilly—a pet nickname their staff gave the business.
From homemade dips, sauces, and appetizers to Meals & Sides for Two, as well as to-go pre-batched cocktails, the service allows you to order on the weekend with a Thursday/Friday delivery to areas in the Midcoast. “We provide you with everything such as edible flowers or pea tendrils so that it looks beautiful on the plate at home and that’s a really big component we’re trying to push,” said Avey. FMI: Website
