In pursuit of real cider

I admit it. I was culturally deprived child. Hard not to be, when you grew up in Presque Isle, waaaay up north in Maine.

It's true: I never had real cider until I well into adulthood. At least as far as I can remember.

The cider of my childhood was the Bessy's Cider my grandmother served children at family gatherings, which came in gallon jugs, crystal clear, probably pasteurized,  and was indistinguishable from apple juice.

Real cider, I found out, is unfiltered, unpasteurized, untreated, with no added preservatives. It is cloudy, a rich golden brown, a tad thick, and absolutely delicious. What passes for real cider in the supermarkets these days has sodium benzoate added as a preservative. Not good.

The first Real Cider that I remember was from the Lollypop Shop, midway between Bangor and Bucksport. The Lollypop Shop was a modest place that carried bolts of yard goods, catering to women who sewed, but had the good fortune of being located in an apple orchard. So in the fall, the Lollypop Shop sold the most wonderful cider, the bench mark for all cider since. Ice cold from the fridge, just the right mixture of sweet and tart, no one could drive off before uncapping the gallon jug and taking a big swig. Or two.

The Lollypop Shop disappeared years ago, so I had to switch to Merrill Farms, on the road from Bangor to Ellsworth. I can still smell the store, cold inside with bags of several varieties of apples, cheddar cheese, and a fridge full of cider. Then, Merrill Farms got sold in 2001 and the orchard disappeared. Lloyd Capen's orchard and cider press here on Deer Isle substituted for a couple of years, then Lloyd's age got in the way (he died in 2008), and no more cider.

I noticed in the Island Ad-Vantages that the historical society here was hosting a cider pressing a couple of weeks ago, so we went. Here is the process:

 Cut up the apples, then grind them (That's Drew working the crank):

Then pour the crushed pulp into the cider press:

Crank away at the press:

And out comes cider:

Magic!

But this was just a demo. Where can we buy the stuff locally?

Presto!

On route 175 north of Brooklin, and sort of half way between Blue Hill Falls and the Flye Point Road, you'll find 5 Star Nursery and Orchard. We bought some super fruit trees here last spring and got a quick tour of their cider pressing operation. And they are pressing. Here is the result:

Yummy cider, and we hear the aged cider vinegar is fabulous. Plus peaches and cherry tomatoes.

But we went for the cider!

P. S. We are going to Maine Apple Day later this month. Stay tuned for a report.

P. P. S. I forgot. My college roommate was from Union, in the heart of Maine apple country. She went home every weekend and brought back a gallon of real cider. We kept it cold on the window sill, and by Thursday, it was hard. Talk about good...

Mushrooms, mushrooms everywhere!

Drew and I have been doing shrooms -- not the psychedelic kind that get you high, but the ordinary kinds that anyone can find when walking around in the forest. Some edible (we only trust ourselves with a few species), some highly poisonous, and a lot we don't know.

We went on a couple of mushroom walks last week, one in Surry sponsored by the Blue Hill Heritage Trust and the other on Deer Isle by Island Heritage Trust, both led by David Porter, a local expert on mushrooms who retired several years ago from the University of Georgia at Athens. David knows his shrooms.

David said you can't go five feet without seeing plenty of mushrooms, and with about fifty sets of eyes helping out, he was right. The "walk" was more like "take a few steps and then stand around looking at what people found." It was great fun.

I seemed to have an eye for yellow -- here's what turned out to be yellow earth tongues:

And an unknown one:

Here's David with a clump of honey mushrooms, a new variety for me, edible, and Drew and I found plenty of them on our own land later:

And I found "the catch of the day" on the Deer Isle walk, a lovely patch of chanterelles. As David said, "Now we are talking!" Chanterelles are edible and choice. This was the biggest and best one I had ever found, and I got to take it home. We had it with pasta that night for dinner:

I found out about these walks in the Island Ad-Vantages, in the "Coming Events" section. It can be a nuisance to read through all the notices, but that's where the best info is. I also found out, via the "Coming Events" section, about a cider pressing that I will write about in the next post ... stay tuned!

Homage to Maine Drive In Restaurants

It's hard to imagine, but life used to exist before McDonald's. The precursor to the golden arches were the drive-in hamburger and hot dog stands. In Presque Isle, where I grew up, Keegan's was THE place to be. Never mind that it was essentially the ONLY place to be for young people. If you had a few dollars, you could go there and get something yummy (i. e. full of sugar, salt, and fat) for a reasonable price. Maybe you would see your friends. "Lights on for service" meant you didn't even need to get out of your car.

If you didn't have any money, or even a car to drive around in, you were in rough shape. The other activity was "tooling Main Street," which meant driving from one end to the other, turning around, and then doing it again. Yeesh. No wonder I was desperate to get out.

Keegan's closed years ago, but the other favorite was Winnie's which I loved because of their great onion rings:

Sadly, according to the web, Winnie's has closed in the past year, but not before the owner made a bundle with her lobster stew recipe. (How hard is lobster stew, anyway? Maybe I can make a bundle too...)

Back in 1967 when I was dating my first husband, he took me to the Mcdonalds on Broadway in Bangor, one of the first in Maine and certainly the first I had ever been to. I could not believe how fast he was in and out with a bag of fifteen cent hamburgers, and the fries and milkshakes that set the standard from then on, probably for not much more than a dollar or two for us both.

Thank goodness that the drive in restaurant is alive and well here in Hancock County. Maybe because we haven't got the population to support a Mcdonalds or Burger King, though the appearance of a Dunkin' Donut in Blue Hill this summer is sobering.

So here are the three drive-in treasures on the Blue Hill Peninsula: The Bagaduce Lunch, the Fish Net, and Madeline's. Both the Bagaduce and the Fish Net have been around for years.

Bagaduce Lunch gets the "Stunning Location" award hands down. Located right beside the reversing falls of the Bagaduce, in good weather, chomping down on a fish sandwich at the Bagduce Lunch's picnic tables cannot be beat. And how many times will you dine at a place that won an American Classic James Beard Award (2008)? Click here to see a video about the Bagaduce and their award.

The Bagaduce is pure business, closing ASAP right after Labor Day. Whew.

The Fish Net in Blue Hill is lowest on the totem pole location-wise (on the inside corner of where the very busy Maine Street heads up a steep steep hill), but it fits perfectly with menu and style. Here's the Fish Net's menu, posted outside, which could be for each of these three fine establishments:

The Fish Net closes around October 1.

Madeline's on Deer Isle popped up a few years ago. Madeline's is not on the water, but has a woodsy location on the main road north of the village and the High School that the owners have spruced up with picnic tables and a play area. Old timers on Deer Isle remember another Madeline's across the road, the remains of which are still visible. The new Madeline's is really Madeline's 2.

For us, Madeline's wins out, unless we are in Blue Hill and hungry, or want to make a special trip to the Bagaduce. Even though the Bagaduce has the reputation (I mean, James Beard must know what he is talking about, right? -- Yeah, I know, he is dead...), the food at the three places is pretty much the same. Hamburgers, crab and lobster rolls, fried clams or scallops, french fries and onion rings. And ice cream.  Who could ask for more?

Madline's closed for the season the last week of September. Now there is no place to go on a sunny day for a greasy hamburger, until next spring. Sigh.