A highlight of my trip to the West Coast was last night's potluck with friends, the perfect prelude to a weekend of Independence Day festivities. Instead of grilling outside where a relentless heat wave was keeping evening temperatures stuck in the 80s, we gathered around the dining room table in the air conditioning.
Continue reading "July 4th: Salmon Comes Indoors This Year" »
When I'm in California to visit family, I always have a list of favorite things I like to do while I'm there, and a trip to the local farmers' market is my Number 1 To-Do. The market in Ojai, a little town about 75 miles outside of Los Angeles, never fails to knock my socks off. Not only is the produce and fruit available almost year-round, but it's where I am guaranteed to run into old friends and catch up on their news. Not surprisingly, it takes me a couple of hours to make the rounds, all the while sampling the wares of farmers showing off their strawberries, tangerines, and apricots.
With a decisive stamp of culinary approval, the Portland Press Herald devotes two full pages to Rockland in today's food section. Finally putting to rest the reputation for which Rockland has suffered for too long (smelly, low-brow, depressed), food editor Meredith Goad declares Rock City a go-to destination for good eating and good art.
Here in Maine we're aware that our local restaurants, antique shops, crafts, and farmers' markets are cherished by urban renegades who flock here to enjoy "life the way it should be." Among our more high-profile part-time residents is none other than Martha Stewart who runs a media empire and escapes to Bar Harbor whenever she can.
Continue reading "Maine Farm Gets the Nod from Martha Stewart" »
Midcoast Maine is abuzz this summer with all things Wyeth. I had just attended the opening reception at the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland for Jamie Wyeth’s exhibition “Seven Deadly Sins” when I received an email from a longtime friend whose new book had just been released by National Geographic. “My Favorite Place on Earth: Celebrated People Share Their Travel Discoveries” was written by Jerry Dunn, a former neighbor of mine who had told me a year ago that he planned to include two Mainers in his book, Jamie Wyeth and Paige Rense.
Last night, the James Beard awards gave honor to some outstanding chefs and their restaurants in Maine. Our congratulations go out to those who were nominated and honored in this prestigious annual event.
Chef/Owner Sam Hayward's always local (ingredients) and excellent Portland restaurant, Fore Street, was one of five restaurants nominated for the Outstanding Restaurant Award by the James Beard Foundation. This nomination is a national one, and goes to a restaurant that serves as a national standard-bearer for consistent quality and excellence in food, atmosphere, and service. Sam had been Maine's only previous winner of the Best Chef category for the Northeast in 2004.
Chefs Clark Frasier and Mark Gaier of Arrows Restaurant in Ogunquit (check their blog posts here) and Chef Rob Evans of Hugo's in Portland were among the short list of nominees for Best Chef: Northeast (includes CT, MA, ME, NH, NY State, RI, VT). The nod this year went to Chef Rob Evans of Hugo's.
Congratulations to our amazing chefs and their restaurants, you do us all proud.
From the staff at Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.
I've never been one to march in a parade, plant a tree, or visit a farm to celebrate of Earth Day, but when it comes to doing something that centers around food, count me in. The good folks at Sustainable Table remind us that any recipe is sustainable if its uses local, fresh, and sustainably-raised ingredients -- and since we all have to eat any way, eating a sustainable meal on April 22 is a perfectly good way to honor Earth Day.
If you, like me, have struggled with how to keep up the good intentions every day, here's their list of Ten Steps to Eating Sustainable. Baby steps can lead to huge changes in the way we live.
I'm going to usher in the Valentine's Weekend by joining a wine tasting at Rockland's Wine Seller on Friday, February 13.
Merrill Williams is the publisher of Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.
Nothing like a freezing night in January in Maine.
In support of Share Our Strength, we attended the opening night of The Ice Bar at the Portland Harbor Hotel. Their courtyard was all decked out in ice, ice sculpture, that is.
Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine publisher Merrill Williams appears with Chef Steve Corry of Portland's 555 restaurant on "The Chef's Kitchen", broadcast this Thursday at 10am in Maine on WPXT-TV (12) CW
Watch Chef Corry prepare "Not Your Grandmother's Stuffed Chicken," and then talk with Merrill about the role of the magazine in Maine's food scene
From the staff at Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.
I traveled to the West Coast to visit family for the holidays, and although the tangerines and avocados were irresistible, I was soon pining for fresh Maine seafood. My friends Joan and John McNeil (aka King Cioppino) knew I was getting homesick, so they invited me to join them for a homemade meal that would satisfy my yearnings.
Everyone’s childhood favorite and quite possibly a cultural icon: the classic tollhouse chocolate chip cookie.
This was the first recipe I ever made with my mother and then—ta da!—the first recipe that I could manage alone. The smell of these cookies baking evokes so many happy times gone by. Neighborhood "best girl friends" joined in the fun. My wonderful mom not only let us take over the kitchen but let us add holiday colored sprinkles and those marginally edible silver dragées that were so popular back then. Gilding the lily to be sure!
President-Elect Obama has not announced his choice yet, so there is still time to make our voices heard. Please join those who are urging him to appoint a Secretary of Agriculture who cares more about small farmers than industrialized food production.
Lovers of vegetarian food can rejoice! So can vegans, and fans of Asian cuisine. And it can all be found at Portland’s Green Elephant, a restaurant that has taken the local dining scene by surprise.
We spent a day with owners Dan Sriprasert and Bob Wonsaichua who have created an inventive menu that appeals to health-conscious diners who are flocking to their doors to order dishes like Peanut Curry, Malaysian-style Roti Canai, and Siamese Dream Curry Noodles. Not to mention desserts like their creamy vegan tofu cheesecake and a chocolate orange mousse pie garnished with fresh oranges dipped in chocolate.
In the new issue of Maine Food & Lifestyle, we share their recipes for Spinach Noodles with Shiitake & Ginger Sauce and Vegetarian Thai Cucumber & Carrot Salad, two light and healthy dishes that would be welcome interruptions to holiday over-indulgence.
My surrogate grandmother and mentor, the late Ethelyn Morse, was the founder of Morse’s Sauerkraut in Waldoboro. A great lady, a graduate of Bates College, a traveling nurse who tended to the Midcoast island communities, a great keeper of local oral history, and a fine cook. I was honored to have been chosen as her friend.
Until my mother died in May, I never gave tourtière pie much thought. It was the wonderful, spicy meat pie she made each Christmas, and my only job was to enjoy it. But with her death, I have become the matriarch of the family, and now it is my responsibility to make tourtière pie, which goes back through my Franco-American family all the way to France.
If Jerry Shriver and other food mavens have it right, Maine should be sitting in the catbird seat next year when it comes to cashing in on dining trends.
Those of us who live here, know that the coast of Maine is the home of world-class oysters with names that have become “boutique” brands for the restaurants and oyster bars everywhere who demand nothing but the best. Glidden Point. Basket Island. Flying Point. Weskeag. Pemaquid Point. Penobscot Bay. Oak Point. Cape Blue. Their names alone are enough to make your mouth start watering in anticipation of their incredible fresh flavors.
In our new issue, we devote a lot of attention to the crisis in the Maine lobster industry. As everyone is now aware, a perfect storm of depressed demand, low prices, rising fuel and bait costs, and tougher regulations has combined to plummet what has been the cash cow of our fishing industry into an economic disaster.
I never knew I always wanted to ride in a dump truck until I saw it on the auction block.
I was raised by a mother who sat down every afternoon to a cup of hot tea. No, she wasn't British or from any Commonwealth nation where the ritual of tea time is religiously observed. She was just a lady who appreciated the finer things in life, and a mom with three kids and a husband which meant she had barely a few hours before the "night shift" began: dinner, homework, baths, pet feeding, the evening paper to read, and countless other invisible chores that can gobble up an entire evening.
So when I read about the "Winter Wonderlands Holiday Tea" at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens on December 6, I was transported back to that magical interlude called Afternoon Tea. CMBG is getting all dolled up for the holidays, and is serving sweet and savory treats like scones, tea sandwiches, and, of course, pots and pots of hot tea. What an elegant way to usher in the season! And for those of us who are bracing for the storm of holiday shopping, cooking, and entertaining, this may our last chance to enjoy a dignified "cuppa" together.
Merrill Williams is the publisher of Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.
The Maine Literary Festival took place this weekend in Camden, and it was a doozy. The theme, “For This Earth: Visions in Literature” featured writers who tackled topics like Science and the Environment, Spirituality and the Environment, and Eco-Poetry. But it was the session entitled “The Sustainable Kitchen & Table” that knocked my socks off.
In the new issue of Health magazine, the editors reveal a nationwide survey of supermarkets they deem to have the healthiest food products and in-store consumer education programs designed to help shoppers make the best choices. A regular inventory of organic, seasonal, and local produce, meats, and poultry was a big consideration.
In light of the current downturn in Maine’s lobster industry, I spoke with a local fisherman to get his take on the situation. Captain Gary Libby is a groundfisherman who also lobsters out of Port Clyde. His thoughts:
“It’s very alarming that the number one fishing industry in our state has fallen on awful economic times at a time of year when the lobstermen make most of their income.
Our spectacular fall weather lured me back into the garden this weekend. It's well past growing season, although a few stubborn cherry tomatoes were clinging tenaciously to vines that had snaked their way across the ground and up the wire fence. Knowing that all those pale green and yellow tomatoes were never going to reach maturity, I put them out of their misery and jerked them unceremoniously out of the ground. Basil and peppers that had blackened after a few nights of near-frost, met a similar fate. Still robust were parsley, thyme, and Swiss chard, which I picked and brought in to the kitchen. But it won't be long before everything in the garden will finally give up and lie down for the winter.
In the New York Times food section, famed California rancher Bill Niman is touted as "breaking away from the herd" to raise goat meat for chefs who are discovering the merits of this sweet-tasting, low fat meat. But Maine gets its due as well as a leader in this fledgling industry. Thyme for Goat in Dresden, a collaborative of four Midcoast family farms, says there is good customer demand for their products that they sell at farmers' markets and online.
In case you're a bit squeamish about having goat meat on your dinner plate, think of it as "chevon," a more palatable, Frenchy kind of word that might get you to try the most commonly consumed meat in the world.
Merrill Williams is the publisher of Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.
I first tasted this soup many years ago at a friend's house and fell in love with its flavor and the easy, no-fail recipe. When my kids were old enough to appreciate curry, I started serving it as the first course at our Thanksgiving feast, then again at Christmas, and whenever a cold night warranted a spicy, warm-your-innards kind of dish.
I served it again this weekend to friends who came by for dinner and we paired it with a crisp Chardonnay from Graceland Cellars' signature wines collection. It was a great way to jump start a lively evening of reminiscing and laughter by four Baby Boomers who grew up with the King of Rock 'n' Roll.
We're just barely into fall, and here we are already reminiscing about the highlights of the summer. Since my summer was split into 2 parts, here's how I remember my favorite summer meals:
Continue reading "Favorite Summer Meals: Left Coast vs. Right Coast" »
I'm on a pie-making jag. The abundance of late-summer fruit and fall apples, coupled with an instinct that -- as the days grow shorter -- draws me into the kitchen to bake up a storm. I indulged my jones by purchasing a new pie plate, a new silicone rolling pin, and a new pastry-making mat and then hit a neighborhood farm stand to select my fruit-of-the-week. That was the fun part.
When I got home with my new baking equipment, I was immediately disappointed that my jazzy new rolling pin with the contoured handles, nonstick silicone surface, and stainless steel ball bearings "counterbalanced for smooth rolling" collects more patches of pie dough than my cheap, old plastic rolling pin that I'd just discarded. But the bigger source of frustration was my new non-stick silicone mat that is touted as the "perfect countertop work station" for kneading and rolling out dough. In years of pie-baking, I've never had a round of pie crust dough stick to the work surface like it sticks to my new non-stick mat.
There I was, standing under the tent at the Midcoast Food & Wine festival in Rockport last weekend, sipping a hot beverage whose flavor I couldn't readily identify. The morning fog and wet grass under foot was enough to get me moving around looking for something warm to drink and I found exactly what I needed at the Maine Gold booth. Hiding behind all the lustrous glass bottles of Maine maple syrup (their signature product) was a thermos of piping hot --- something. It was satisfyingly sweet and tart at the same time, and spicy enough to warm me up even if it had been stone cold.
Owner Perry Gates gave me credit for identifying the spicy orange flavor, but had to fill in the blanks for me. The sweetness, he explained, came from pure maple sap, something they have lots of at their Rockland store. He serves Sap Tea from time to time at the store, but if you can get your hands on maple sap, you can make it yourself. To two gallons of pure maple sap that has been boiled to 180 degrees, add 8 bags of Celestial Seasonings "Mandarin Orange Spice" herbal tea. Steep to taste.
Merrill Williams is the publisher of Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.
It used to be that when friends or neighbors wanted to meet up with each other, they’d usually say, “See you at the coffee shop.” And there they’d sit, nursing a latte and catching up on each other’s news.
While visiting California last month, I was eager to connect with longtime friends I hadn’t seen for many months, and suggested getting together at the corner coffee emporium. I was surprised – and delighted – when my idea was amended to, “Let’s meet at the farmers’ market.”
I was afraid I’d missed the whole thing. A family emergency took me to California this summer for longer than I’d planned, and I fretted that I wouldn’t get back to Maine in time to enjoy the bounty of my garden. But I lucked out; in fact, there was an unexpected edible bonus waiting for me.
The cilantro, lettuce and bush beans have gone by, but the basil, thyme and parsley are still abundant. Two rows of green peppers look healthy, and a dozen fat cucumbers are begging to be picked. And the tomatoes! Oh, the tomatoes. There are thousands of sweet, golden-yellow cherry tomatoes just waiting to be plucked, and bulbous Brandywines hang heavy on the vine.
There's nothing worse than misplacing a favorite recipe.
A couple of summers ago, I got hooked on a marinade for ahi tuna that a friend in California had given me, and used the recipe at least a million times during the grilling season. And then I didn't. The seasons changed, I got out of the habit, and I guess the hand-written recipe just disappeared into an unmanageable pile of loose recipes in my kitchen.
Years ago, I had a Satsuma plum tree in my backyard that yielded an egregious amount of dark purple plums every August. Even with friends and neighbors helping to gather the bounty, I couldn’t keep up with the volume of fruit this one tree produced. So I started to collect plum recipes and learned to make everything with plums: chutney, coffee cake, cobblers, tarts, preserves, tatins, pies, jam, turnovers.
Continue reading "Summer Fruit Served Chilled with a Spoon" »
I have known John McNeil since 1972 when we became neighbors in California. John is an athlete, outdoorsman, and bon vivant. He lives to ride his bicycle, backpack in the Sierras, sail boats to Mexico and back, run marathons, host parties for large groups of his many friends, drink wine, and cook.
It was John who did all the open-fire cooking when our families camped together, cheerfully feeding small armies of exhausted kids and adults who sat around whining about their sore feet and aching backs. It was John who organized the annual men-only Super Bowl Sunday feasts in our town, a tradition that lasted for years and years. It was John who planted more than 100 grape vines in his suburban front yard and made incredibly lush Cabernet Sauvignon every fall. And it was John who contributed vats of his signature cioppino to all manner of local fundraisers, earning him the moniker King Cioppino.
Well, Yuki has done it again.
While enjoying a plate of sushi rolls at Suzuki Sushi the other day, creative genius Yuki Goseki greeted us at our table with a tiny bowl containing her latest East-West culinary experiment: pickled kelp.
When met with our blank stares, Yuki quickly explained that she and owner Joe Steinberger and seaweed chemistry expert David Myslabodski, had ventured out to Ash Point on Owls Head to harvest Oarweed (Laminaria longicruris). Wading out into a thick forest of the stuff that grows below the low tide mark, they cut the kelp and brought back the wide blades and long stipes, or stems, to consider how it could be used in the restaurant. Yuki was especially interested in the thick brown, tubular stems, and started experimenting.
After cutting the stem into smaller pieces, she blanched them quickly and pickled them in a mixture of mirin (sweet rice wine), rice vinegar, and soy sauce infused with a hot Japanese chile pepper. She served them to us chilled and stacked like little Lincoln Logs, garnished with a fresh chive blossom.
Crunchy like a pickle, sour like a pickle, they look nothing like a Morse’s pickle. But we liked them. You would too.
Merrill Williams is the publisher of Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.
There’s no finer time in a magazine office than the launch of a new issue. Our issue #2 for 2008 has arrived from our printer, and we think it embodies the spirit of Maine in the flush of summer.
Perhaps the story that was the most fun to work on took us on a cruise around Penobscot Bay to enjoy the delicious food that comes out of the galleys of Maine’s historic windjammers.
We also went on a culinary tour of Isle au Haut to gather a collection of great recipes from some of the island’s best-known cooks, from appetizers to dessert.
Continue reading "Schooners, Islands, Art, and Summer Food" »
It was opening day at the Rockland Farmers’ Market and I headed straight to the public landing to see who was there. It was like a block party, filled with old friends and familiar faces, plus some new vendors I was eager to meet.
Kerry Altiero from Café Miranda was there with his line of piquant sauces and salsas. Kate and Steve Shaffer were sampling their exquisite handmade Black Dinah chocolates, and Judy Getman had a sumptuous display of artisan breads from Atlantic Baking Company.
I got reacquainted with Caitlin Hunter of Appleton Creamery who was introducing cultured butter made with organic cream from Caldwell Farm. I bought some tomato, pepper and basil seedlings from Josh and Ning Oxley from Rolling Acres Farm for my garden. (Now that all the cardboard is gone, I can start the hard work of tilling in compost, building the furrows, and setting out seedlings.)
But the big surprise of the morning was running into Jim Freyenhagen who was there selling his maple syrup and baskets of freshly picked fiddleheads. We had done a feature on “Froggy’s Sap Shack,” as Jim calls his place, in the 2007 winter issue, and we’d heard he may have retired from the sugaring business. Not so fast, as it turns out. Jim looks better than ever and he’s just as busy as he ever was.
Even though the morning was overcast and dark clouds threatened, the first farmers’ market of the season is the official beginning of summer, as far as I’m concerned. It couldn’t have been a brighter day.
The Rockland Farmers' Market continues until mid-October on Thursdays, 9-1.
Merrill Williams is the publisher of Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.
With May weather getting warmer every day, I was itching to pull away the cardboard shroud that had covered my garden since January.
I was skeptical that my experiment had worked at all. Was it guaranteed that grass and weeds that had spent the winter in darkness would really die, roots and all? Or would they be lurking beneath their cardboard blanket, rested after a long winter’s nap, and ready to burst into bloom?
I approached my garden warily, and was immediately outraged to see that a small clutch of dandelion leaves had found its way through two layers—landscape cloth and heavy packing cardboard—to emerge into the light of day. “Stinker!” I hissed at this unwanted survivor.
Continue reading "The Cardboard Garden, Part 3: The Big Reveal" »
Last night, we headed to Suzuki’s Sushi Bar in Rockland to satisfy a sushi jones that we could no longer ignore. As always, the sushi was excellent, but we didn’t expect to be blown away by a special item on the menu: a spring dandelion salad.
Created by Yuki, who is known for her extraordinary desserts and her inventive use of seasonal ingredients, the salad was delightful. The dandelion greens were about as local as you can get: Joe Steinberger, who owns the restaurant with his wife Keiko, picked them himself. That’s when Yuki took over. She garnished the greens with very thinly shaved Vidalia onions and fresh tuna tartar, then dressed the salad with a vinaigrette of oil and rice wine vinegar blended with yuzu, a Japanese citrus fruit, shiso, a Japanese herb, pickled plums sweetened with some sugar, and finely ground white sesame seeds.
Followed by sushi rolls made with fresh crab and raw salmon, and a small bottle of Hyorei Junmai Genshu sake, the meal was a highlight.
Merrill Williams is the publisher of Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.
This morning I dragged more cardboard out to my garden. Temperatures in the 40s had melted all the snow so it was easy to pick my way across the frozen ground that crunched under foot. I stepped into the fenced 15 x 20 foot space that in a few short months will be alive with tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, and scallions.
But today it felt like walking through a cemetery. It was still and lifeless. Slabs of flat, brown cardboard covered the bare ground and were frozen into place. I slowly surveyed the blocks of scrap wood I’d placed at regular intervals to anchor the cardboard down. They looked like makeshift headstones marking the modest and untended graves of poor souls whose names had been long forgotten.
Some of the cardboard pieces were wet and limp, and hugged the furrows of last summer’s garden rows. The sturdier pieces – thick, packing boxes made of double wall construction -- were still holding their shape, even after all the snow and freezing rain. I wonder how much the cardboard will have disintegrated by the time the weather is warm enough to start planting. I hope I will be able to simply lift the cardboard off the ground and drive it off to Roland and Bill at the local recycling center. My worst fear is that it will have turned into papier maché and will have plastered itself to the ground. I may have created a death mask for my garden.
Merrill Williams is the publisher of Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.
I look forward to Saturdays because I can clear out the mudroom that
is the repository of all the newspapers and other recyclables that
accumulate in our house during the week. B
y mid-morning I drive a
loaded car to the local dump where I do my part for the environment:
paper, bottles, cans, and plastic in one bin, cardboard in another, and
real garbage in the big hopper.
It’s at the hopper where enlightenment occurs. Bill and Roland are in charge of the dump, directing where to put stuff so it all goes where it’s supposed to. I’ve learned a lot about single-stream waste from these gentlemen, but I recently got unexpected words of wisdom when I arrived one winter day with a plastic bag full of discarded shrimp heads and tails.
“So you peeled your own shrimp,” said Bill, eyeing me with both suspicion and disbelief. “Where are you from, anyway?”
“Well, yes,” I stammered. “It’s shrimp season and I couldn’t resist buying five pounds from the roadside peddler. I have a bunch of recipes I’ve waited all year to try.”
“But where are you from?” he persisted, his eyes narrowing.
“I moved here a few years ago,” I replied, dodging the question. I felt guilty of something, but didn’t know what.
“I thought so. Same mistake I made when I moved to Maine,” he explained. “When the season opened, I rushed out and bought 100 pounds of fresh, Maine shrimp. Couldn’t wait to taste them succulent little morsels I’d heard so much about. Took me all day to peel five measly pounds and it was really, hard work! I gave away the remaining 95 pounds I couldn’t face. Broke my heart.”
Now it was my turn to regard him with suspicion and disbelief. “How
could you DO that?” I shrieked.
“You walked away from all that shrimp,
the best in the world?”
“Not really,” he said, his voice soft. “Like all Mainers, I eat tons of shrimp. I’m just happy to pay more for the processor to peel them for me. Whatever they charge per pound for peeled shrimp, it’s a fair price for all that work. And you’re right about one thing: It’s the best shrimp in the world,” he declared, grabbing my garbage bag from me.
I watched as he pitched the bag into the hopper and started the motor that would crush my shrimp shells into oblivion. I hope they end up as fertilizer.
On the way home, I stopped at the fish peddler’s truck and picked up another bag of just-caught shrimp.
Merrill Williams is the publisher of Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.
It was snowing when we headed inland to Forest Peaslee’s buffalo ranch, the largest in Maine. Like so many places in rural Maine, the ranch doesn’t have an address that Map Quest can track, so we drove along tentatively, looking for signposts and landmarks that Peaslee had described to us.
We had scheduled a photo shoot to get images for a story on buffalo ranches in Maine. The weather was perfect for the photos we had in mind: a snowy winter day with brooding bison standing firm against the elements in a desolate landscape. But what would these icons of the Western plains look like in the Maine woods?
Turning off the highway onto dirt roads that hadn’t been plowed yet, we followed the tracks made by the locals who, we were sure, drove pickups, not PT Cruisers. The low clearance of our little compact put us at eye-level with the snow banks on either side. “Just pray we don’t get stuck,” I said quietly. “Nobody would find us until spring, and I bet our cell phones would be useless out here.”
An overhead wooden sign, hanging Western-style over the deeply rutted road, announced that we’d finally arrived at Rocky Mountain Ranch. Another quarter mile and we’d found the subject of our quest: big, dark brown, wooly bison that glowered at us with black beady eyes. “They’re gorgeous!” I yelped. This was a big moment for me: I’d never seen buffalo up close and personal.
Jim pulled on knee-high insulated boots and trudged slowly over to the fence with his camera and tripod. The bison eyed him warily, gathering around a small calf that we later learned was only a couple of months old. With the snow falling heavily now, and temperatures in the 20s, Jim stood stock still for several minutes until the small herd started to graze again, a sign that they were relaxing a bit. Very slowly, he set up his tripod in two feet of snow and started clicking away.
Just then, a ranch hand arrived in a huge tractor pulling a load of hay bales for the animals. He opened the gate so Jim could get even closer, but when the bison smelled the hay and moved toward us, Jim and I both retreated behind the fence. “Not a bad idea,” the rancher said. “These are wild animals and they will never become domesticated. You shouldn’t trust them completely.”
We were invited to meet Peaslee further up the road where a much larger herd was being introduced to some 15 new head that he’d just purchased from Missouri. They were all skittish. So were we. When the newcomers ventured too close to the main herd, they were charged until they backed off. “If they decided to stampede,” Peaslee said, “you wouldn’t be safe, even in your car.”
Jim took hundreds of shots, moving carefully and slowly around the edges of the herd. The buffalo never let him out of their sight. With every click of the camera, they glared at him, a clear warning that they were only tolerating the interruption for now.
As the day darkened, the herd retreated into the shadows and became virtually invisible. We left the ranch, retracing our route through the snowy woods. Rounding the last corner, the headlights of the car threw a beam of light on a massive bull standing alone in the dark, his black face and horns reminding us one last time why these animals deserve our respect. Jim grabbed one more shot. It was the best image of the day.
Merrill Williams is the publisher of Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine
I am experimenting with cardboard. I am laying down large, flat slabs of heavy cardboard over my garden this winter to test a theory. I’ve read that by preventing any light from reaching the soil during the winter, weeds will be prevented from germinating in the spring.
My friend Sean is contributing to my experiment by giving me the boxes from a large flat screen TV, two bookcases, and a queen-sized bed she bought for her new house. I dragged these huge pieces across my backyard and anchored them into place with rocks, chunks of scrap lumber, and some heavy branches that had fallen during a recent windstorm. A blanket of fresh snow the next day ensured the cardboard slabs wouldn’t sail away with the wind and careen into a neighbor’s window.
The best that could come of this experiment, I suppose, is that it actually works and my vegetable garden will be weed-free by May. The worst outcome is that the cardboard has kept all those weeds warm this winter and they will return with a vengeance. I can hear those little buggers laughing now.
Merrill Williams is the publisher of Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.
“Plating up” is a term used in restaurant kitchens to describe the last step taken by the culinary team to get the food onto the plate before it is taken out to the dining room.
A similar process takes place behind the scenes of Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine: proof-reading, fact-checking, deciding which sidebar or recipe makes the final cut. And for every story that makes it into print, there is a back-story that deserves to be told. In fact, we have so much more material to share, that's why we have launched Plating Up. Enjoy.
Merrill Williams is the publisher of Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.
