I’ve been thinking lately. A lot. About food. My wife is convinced that by now dreams about lamb, fennel, and peaches from Maine farms are invading my sleep each night.

But there’s a good reason for this, honestly!

If you spend any time cooking at all, you already know that planning ahead is an important part of successful meals. I’ve been doing a little more planning than usual lately to get ready for a dinner – in September. That’s when some of us from Vignola will travel to New York to present a dinner at the James Beard House. All of us at the restaurant are looking forward to it and are proud to represent Maine. But I’ve been thinking about, and planning for this dinner since this past Christmas.

Why all of this long-term planning? For starters, we’re growing lots
of the ingredients ourselves, and in some cases that means working back
from the menu to think now about the seeds we plant. If we’re going to
serve beets in a salad, we need to plant beets! And we also need to
think about what will be at peak freshness in mid-September and plan
our menu around that. Foods from Maine – produce, lamb, cheeses – will
be the stars of the evening, and there’s a lot of discussion on this
blog about the timing of fresh ingredients. I have a hunch many of you
have enjoyed fiddleheads and ramps this spring, and will live with
those fond memories for another year until their time rolls around
again.

That’s the neat thing about being connected to the farming and
production process of the foods you eat: you realize that there’s a
particular time of year to enjoy different foods and that foods have
seasons. Try getting a fiddlehead in the fall, or finding a
knock-your-socks-off think-you’ve-died-and-gone-to-heaven tomato in
April. Can’t be done.  And that’s as it should be – it makes us
appreciate the food when we get it, and it makes me do crazy things
like begin thinking about a meal when it’s months away.

Lee Skawinski is Executive Chef at Cinque Terre and Vignola restaurants in Portland.