Tag: local food

Celebrating small, local businesses with the microMaine Trolley Tour

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What do beer, bitters, wool felting, pie and qigong have in common? They were all things we got to try on a unique tour  hosted by Benchmark Residential & Investment Real Estate which focused on micro living in Portland. The tour highlighted smaller local businesses so was different from typical city tours.

The tour started at the Press Hotel which is a cozy themed hotel on Exchange Street. This past March, we did Spirit Quest for Maine Restaurant Week and the Press Hotel had my favorite tasting and cocktail combination. This micro tour also had a food component as we were treated to Korean BBQ vegetable chips and house made carrot & ginger effervescence shooters upon arrival. The carrot and ginger juice, was especially amazing.

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Ten things I learned on my first trip to the Common Ground Country Fair in Unity Maine.

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Normally, I am an exceptionally prepared person but when I decided to head up to Unity for the last day of the Common Ground Country Fair I jumped into the car on a whim and with no supplies. We had just celebrated the first day of fall but the temperatures were rebelling and heading up towards the 90s. A few basics like sunscreen and water would have been helpful, but fortunately it didn’t ruin my first experience at the Common Ground Country Fair.

The Common Ground Country Fair is a sponsored by the Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association (MOFGA) and celebrates organic agriculture and rural life. This scouting trip gave me a basic overview of the event and will help me be better prepared next time I head back for hopefully a longer visit.

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A to Z Challenge Bonus | Galaxie Salsa finding a delicious new use for zucchini.

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One of my favorite non-fiction books is Barbara Kingsolver’s  Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. She is a beautiful writer.  I was mesmerized as she journeyed through a year of eating locally. It’s something I fantasize about trying.  However, since I have zero gardening skills, I don’t think I would be as successful as she was eating only foods grown myself or purchased from local farmers. Other than tomatoes and the occasional herb, I have limited knowledge on how I would actually feed myself.

I did consider jumping into the backyard chicken trend when we first moved back to Maine but then I remembered that we own a lab. My understanding is labs and chickens don’t always play nicely. It’s the whole retriever thing. While I might have been able to train my dog to “leave it” when it came to the chickens, overall it seemed too stressful especially for a novice chicken wrangler like me.

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V is for Vintage Maine Kitchen | Creatively flavored, all-natural potato chips.

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One of the first snacks I ever made for my Dad was a french fry sandwich which was exactly what you think it would be: french fries slathered in ketchup served between bread. This was not because I was young and creating whimsical food combinations. My Dad had requested it. He liked french fry sandwiches. It may have been an unusual way to eat french fries, but it’s not surprising that potatoes would be on the menu.

One thing Maine has is potatoes. We usually show up somewhere in the top ten for states that grow the most potatoes. We’re never at number one, but are always well represented. It’s something in enough abundance that I can almost always buy local ones during my food shopping excursions and I was happy to discover a local company making something especially delicious out of Maine potatoes. Now I have another fun way to support Maine potato growers.

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N is for Northwoods Gourmet Girl | The special joy of a Blueberry Dessert Sauce.

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I’m sure it’s no surprise that blueberries would come up in my A to Z posts. As my previous blog post shared, Maine is the largest producer of wild blueberries in the world. And, there are some great local business incorporating blueberries into their product lines.

I stumbled upon Northwoods Gourmet Girl Blueberry & Green Tea Dessert Sauce randomly while shopping at Bow Street Market in Freeport. I was intrigued as even though I’ve eating blueberries all my life, I’d never had them in a dessert sauce.

I’m sure this will date me, but I pulled out my “Cooking with Friends” (as in the TV show) cookbook. When my husband and I bought our first house, we hosted a housewarming party and asked guests to bring either a bottle of wine or a cookbook. I know it’s a little greedy to ask guests to bring something so specific, but we do have an amazing collection of cookbooks now. The wine however is long gone.

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