Ellsworth Feed and Seed

Well, we are back. Way earlier this year, for several reasons: We pulled in to our driveway on April 18. We watched spring go backwards while we were on the road north, leaving daffodils and cherry blossoms behind in Washington, D. C., almost a month ago. Now here on Deer Isle, daffodils are in full bloom, and cherries and apples have yet to appear. Only a few trees show any signs of green yet.

After we have been in residence a day or two, we always head to Ellsworth and one of our very favorite stops, Ellsworth Feed and Seed, tucked in behind the L. L. Bean Outlet on High Street. We stumbled on it a few years ago, and it is So Cool!

Elllsworth Feed and Seed is not a fancy place, which is part of why we like it so much. Despite it being housed in a sort of newish metal building, it feels like an old fashioned store. It is CRAMMED with stuff for the farm and garden.

So cold it was on the day we were there, as you can see by the mud and puddles in these photos. The last time we visited, there must have been a dozen tractor trailer boxes being used as extra storage for hay, straw and the like. Plus multiple stacks of bags of fertilizer, peat and potting soil.

Inside is a warren of crowded aisles. Most delightful (and terribly hard to resist) are the baby chicks for sale:

Three different kinds were in this display, and a poster beside listed many varieties and when they would be available, including ducks and turkeys. Every once in awhile a man would appear with a cardboard box that cheeped, and he would pour in a dozen or two more of the fluff balls. Another poster featured handmade chicken coops for $500. And as if that weren't enough, you could order a piglet. Or two or three:

The sign says: "Pick up service provided when your pig is ready to be butchered." Now that is service.

We were there for seed potatoes:

There were plenty of varieties to choose from. We got some of the old fashioned ones that I recognized from my Aroostook County past: Kennebecs, Green Mountains, and Cobblers.



Then to the bird seed department, which had mixtures so tasty looking that you could put out for hors d'oeuvres. 

Then to the cash out, not so bad a hit as other places that are a lot more expensive, but you have to pay in cash or check. I always forget that they do not take credit cards. And then see if you can make it out the door without buying more, like these strawberries:

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!

Strong Beer for Strong Men ... and Women

A few weeks ago, I noticed a classified ad in the Island Advantages that was sure to capture Drew's interest: a beer tasting at a fledgeling brewery in Sedgwick. We had no idea where we were headed, but typed the address into our trusty GPS and set off. Imagine our surprise when we ended up directly across from the stop sign at the end of the Mines Road (Route 15 from Blue Hill, where you take a left towards Deer Isle): set back from the road is a chicken and duck pen, then a modest raised ranch house. In the last week, a rather swank sign has popped up:

Al and Mia Strong moved to Maine from New Jersey, largely drawn and inspired by the growing micro brewery activity here. The Strongs are starting what they call a nanobrewery, in their basement garage.

Tiny and modest though it is, Strong Brewing has a real professional flair. The tiny garage cum brewery is tidy and spotless. I've been in a few, so I know.

Al and Mia have worked this past year or so to raise money to get the brewery going. According to Kickstarter, they raised $8,385 by April 16, 2013, and continued their fundraising efforts using a model called Community Supported Brewing, similar to the more familiar Community Supported Agriculture, where people buy shares in a farm's produce, to come later in the season. Same with CSB: you buy a share or half share that then entitles you to fill a 32 or 64 oz. growler a certain number of times (48 or 24 -- see the Strong Brewing website for details).

Drew has been waiting anxiously for the word from Strong Brewery that all was in place (they had recently gotten licensed by the State of Maine), the necessary plumbing needed completing, and the first big batches brewed and ready for dispensing. The word came last week: It was a "Go!" and Strong Brewery was hosting Open House tastings over the weekend. We visited Saturday when  music and food would add to the delights.

Red hot dogs! My father loved them, and the beer would have put him in seventh heaven.

Brewmaster Al mixed with the guests and talked about his favorite topics, Beer and Strong Brewery:

Mia was in the tap room, dispensing the day's four varieties:

And Drew finally got to take home his growlers of Strong Brewery beer:

Here's what Strong Brewery had on tap:

We tend to be dark beer fans, and the Soulpatch Porter was decidedly yummy. The Localmotive, with a bright, clear taste, was a very nice summery beer. The Blue Barren, a lovely pink with a light frothy head, was fruity without being sweet -- flavored with blueberries, of course. They are looking for help peeling peaches this weekend, so sounds like a peach beer is coming down the pike.

Strong Brewery is definitely a home-grown effort, similar to Tinderhearth and Millcreek, with a rustic appearance and appeal. All are putting out a quality product at a fair price, with no golden arches or big corporations backing them up. Let's support them, and buy local! And, btw, eat and drink fabulously.

Great scene, greater pizza!

First, you need to plan ahead.

Tinderhearth in Brooksville only makes their delish wood fired pizzas on Tuesday and Friday nights. You have to order early in the day, after they post the varieties they are making that night on their Facebook page. When you call to order, don't bother leaving a message, because they won't call back. Keep calling until you get a live person.

Then, ask what time slots are available for your pizza: they will tell you, to the minute, when yours should be done. Ours was 6:38pm.

Next, pack picnicking gear (silverware, paper plates, napkins/paper towels) and drinks and maybe a salad. We saw folks with beer and/or wine. And head on over. Depending where you live on the peninsula, it can be a bit of a drive. From our house in Sunset, it was a little over a half hour.

The cars parked along the road were the first sign (beyond the GPS lady's instructions) that we had arrived, in front of a rambling, unassuming farmhouse. We ventured in through an open door to a maelstrom of activity -- these photos actually seem much more serene than the actual event:

The sort of host guy in the gold sequined sun visor gave us the ETA of our pizza, told us to look for a place at a table out back, and let him know if we could not find a place to sit: "We'll make it work, bring out more tables," he said.

Just outside the back door were picnic tables, with more hidden further out in the orchard. Folks were already there (pizza making starts at 5pm, so many probably had come and gone), and the scene was down home, old hippies and the newer generations, and so pleasant.

Then the wait as fabulous looking pizzas came out one and two at a time from the same back door that we came through. It wasn't too long before ours arrived:
 

That's my hand reaching for one. It was HUGE, and I thought for sure we would have left-overs. But it was so good, and the crust so thin and crispy, that we ate all but one slice.

Rumor has it that sometimes there is entertainment on Fridays (a ukelele band?). On Tuesdays, there are movies in the barn just down the road at David's Folly. Talk about home-grown entertainment!

Mountain pose: Yoga at 1500 feet

I saw a photo in a recent Downeast magazine that I couldn't get out of my mind: a woman in the yoga half moon pose on top of Cadillac Mountain. Even though something in Downeast really can't be called undiscovered, I was so intrigued by the thought of yoga, outside, on top of a mountain, that Drew and I drove over last week to give it a try.

Yoga in the Park does yoga classes at one place or another every day in Acadia. See here for the summer schedule, but be sure to check to make sure any class you want to attend is actually going to happen. The home page has notices of cancelled classes. I emailed to make sure that the Sunday evening class was happening, since we had to drive at least an hour and a half to get there from Deer Isle. It was, and we headed out, with a picnic to enjoy beforehand.

Here's the site, the Blue Hill Overlook, just a short ways from the summit, an hour or so before class -- that bump on the horizon, right side, is Blue Hill:

Right on schedule, just before 6:30pm, our teacher Karen and about a dozen yoga folks showed up. A couple of people wandered by, asked if this was a class and could they join in, and they did. Karen said it was the biggest class she had had yet for this Sunday evening session.

Karen warned us that we would be dealing with wind, a hard and uneven rocky surface, curious people, children, dogs, and even a religious service nearby. She was correct. She started by talking us into a lovely extended mountain pose, the connection unmissable, and then a number of poses that went in and out of down dog, made ironic by two gorgeous canines nearby, doing their own playful doggy thing:

We were very fortunate with the day, because it had been cloudy, but cleared during the class, and the sun actually went down right after the class was over. The Blue Hill Overlook appears to be popular for sunset gazers, and there were plenty of souls beyond us willing to brave the cold wind.

We were so busy trying to follow Karen's clear instructions, and Drew was also taking pictures, that it was hard to truly enjoy what a spectacular experience this all was. It was wonderful. So much so that it is surprising that the whole mountain side was not filled with folks doing the yoga poses. We are going back: there are morning and evening classes on Sand Beach that I want to try, and the Blue Hill Overlook another time.

Peak experience!

A Scottish Tattoo: Not just a blue thistle on your bicep

When my 89 year old mother was visiting in July, I noticed a sign at the post office (the best place to discover interesting upcoming events) for a Scottish Tattoo at Fort Knox in Bucksport.

What is a Scottish Tattoo? It's not body art, though there does seem to be some tie in or confusion with skin decoration -- just Google "Scottish Tattoo" and see. Here's what Wikipedia has to say, under "Military Tattoo":

The original meaning of military tattoo was a military drum performance, but subsequently it came to mean army displays more generally.

The term dates from around 1600 during the Thirty Years' War in the Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands). The Dutch fortresses were garrisoned with mercenary troops that were under federal command since 1594. The Dutch States Army had become a federal army, consisting mostly of Scottish, English, German and Swiss mercenaries, but commanded by a Dutch officer corps. Drummers from the garrison were sent out into the towns at 21:30 hrs (9:30PM) each evening to inform the soldiers that it was time to return to barracks. The process was known as doe den tap toe (Dutch for "turn off the tap"), an instruction to innkeepers to stop serving beer and send the soldiers home for the night. The drummers continued to play until the curfew at 22:00 hrs (10:00PM). Tattoo, earlier tap-too and taptoo, are alterations of the Dutch words tap toe which have the same meaning.

Mom's recently deceased 94 year old husband was very proud of his Scot ancestry, and I knew she would enjoy it. So we packed up a picnic and headed over to Fort Knox, across the Penobscot opposite Bucksport. It was a beautiful evening, crisp and clear, and bagpipers in colorful kilts were scattered all over the place. We got a great place to sit inside the fort: when the marchers came in, they headed right for us, in the front row. First were a small fife and drum group of Civil War re-enactors just returned from the 150th anniversary of Gettysburg.

But next came the really colorful stuff: the bagpipers, with drums:

There were five groups in all, from Maine and New Brunswick. The outfits were so dramatic, fitting with the stirring music (but ya have to love bagpipes!):

 Even some of the audience dressed up in their Scots finery:

We left before the end because it was getting pretty chilly (note to self: dress warmer next time), but we were in for a treat when we got outside the walls of the fort. The groups who were already done or waiting to perform were milling about, and the setting sun cast a gorgeous light on the swirling kilts:

Even Bucksport looked pretty in the light:

Watch for the next Scottish Tattoo, at Fort Know, probably next summer. Best place to find out: the Fort Knox events page.
 

Do you know what a MOOC is?

I lived on Deer Isle full time for ten years. I am a Maine native, from Aroostook County, and I know cold and isolation well. Much about living on Deer Isle in the off season is wonderful. In fact, I still say that July and August are my least favorite months, and the day after Labor Day my favorite, when the traffic suddenly thins and I see people who have been busy making a living and entertaining summer visitors for the past couple of months.

It's hard to believe, but when I moved away in the early 1990's (I got a taste of how nice Florida was in the winter after my parents retired there), I had never sent an email and the Internet was just a rumor. Even though I had bought one of the first Macintosh's in 1982 and thus became computer literate, it took moving to Tallahassee and Freenet there to first get online (SLOOOOW dial-up, all text driven, hard to imagine now).

Even more than the connectivity to others and the world that email and the Net affords, beyond Amazon and online shopping (the UPS truck knows my driveway by heart), not to mention online dating (I met my husband Drew on Match.com in 1998), the most recent innovation is nothing short of miraculous. Yet few still seem to know about MOOC's. Do you?

MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Courses. Coursera.org is the major player in the field, with Edx.org (with the really big name universities like Harvard and MIT) is a strong second place. See one of Coursera's founders Daphne Koller talk about MOOC's in this TED talk.

Essentially, MOOC's offer real college and university courses, in somewhat real time (the lectures are recorded, but there is a real beginning and end to the course) with assignments, chat forums, etc. And get this: They are completely FREE. That's right, free. The courses are open to anyone in the world with computer and Internet access. The first course I took had 180,000 students world-wide sign up. Now, the drop out rate is high, for various reasons, but imagine the results if only 10% finish! The MOOC's are trying to figure out how to give people real credit for the courses, that will come fast. But for the time being, access to top level courses and material, for FREE, is unbelievable.

I have taken so far: A History of the World since 1300,  A Beginner's Guide to Irrational Behavior, The Modern and the Postmodern, Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society, Introduction to Art: Concepts & Techniques.  Right now, Drew and I are both taking The Science of Gastronomy.  The instructor is from University of Hong Kong.

Now, when I say "took," what I mean is that I watched all the lectures and did the readings. I did not do all the assignments or take all the quizzes or tests. But that is okay, it was all I wanted. Like auditing a course without having to drive to campus, find a place to park, and sit in a crowded class with a bunch of undergraduates who were struggling to stay awake.

What a difference living in island isolation would have been with MOOC's.

Lobster Trap Furniture -- Funky!

Our snail mail address is Sunset. The post office used to be one of the smallest imaginable. In "you can find anything on the Internet" spirit, here's a very old postcard:

The placement of the P. O. here, on the right, is not as I remember, so it must have been moved at some point, across the road. A few years ago, it moved again, to the Historical Society:

Even in this incarnation, it is double the size that I remember from the 1970's.

Anyway, this is not about the Sunset Post Office, but about what I noticed this summer on my trips to get the mail. Right in the hall outside the Post Office lobby were these oddly appealing chairs:

Then I saw one in front of the Grasshopper Shop in Ellsworth, and then again on the deck at Pilgrim's Inn on Deer Isle. They are so CUTE! Obviously made of the same coated wire mesh as lobster traps, they have woven pot heads underneath and bait bags on the arms to put your beer or cocktails in! My father loved anything to do with the Maine coast, and proudly acquired a coffee table made of an old fashioned lobster trap. This is the new-fangled version.

The only identifier was a tag for Island Approaches in Stonington, so I made a trip down and talked to two very nice, very Maine ladies who worked in the store. They couldn't tell me much, but the chairs are made by "some fisherman in Scarborough." He's out fishing now, so they won't get any more this summer, and they are selling fast.

These are so original, I just love them! They even come in a delicious array of colors (black, green, yellow, blue, lime, grey, and white, with twine for the bait bags in yellow, orange and blue). The one problem is that they are not so comfortable to sit in. But I am eying one of the little tables (sorry, there weren't any for me to get a photo of), maybe in lime with blue twine? What do you think?

Millbrook Company takes over the old Country View -- and it is totally new!

One of the seeds for me starting this blog has been watching the old Country View drive in  on Route 15 between Blue Hill and Deer Isle fade away. I don't know how long ago the Country View got started in the first place, but seems to me that it has been around for at least as long as I have been coming to the area in the early 1970's. It closed about six years ago, and every time I have passed since I have had a sinking feeling. An old fashioned drive in with soft serve ice cream and fried everything, plus pies, even rhubarb, it was a favorite of many more people than just me. I remember how when it opened every spring (Mother's Day??), they'd give away free ice cream. One year on opening day it was snowing, and people were lined up to the road for their free cone.

When we got here in May, for the first time in ages, there was action. Pickup trucks were in the parking lot and guys with hammers scurrying around. The building got a fresh coat of white paint with snappy red trim. Gossip had it that it was going to be some kind of combination sit-down restaurant and bakery. The Country View? How could that be?

Last week new signs went up and "Open" flags. We stopped in mid afternoon -- and it was closed! The sign said "7am to 2pm." A drive in that closed at 2pm? What was the story?

Well, a trip the next morning revealed the secret: The old "front' with walk up windows has been turned into a combination bakery and kitchen, and a door on the side led into a cozy dining room in what had been the old kitchen. What a surprise!

The place has a brand new name, Millbrook Company.  The owner, Jill Smith, has quite a local reputation as a baker under the same name and a following via area Farmers' Markets.  I had already heard about her sticky buns.

Jill's skills as a baker are clear when you walk in the door: a big glass display case is loaded with tasty treats, too numerous to list here, but including muffins, coffee cake, scones, cookies, bars (I adore date squares -- Jill had me there), toll house pies (guaranteed sugar shock), and a tip to the healthy with granola.

Jill has done a particularly good job with the menu: not too many items, and an accomplished straddle between traditional breakfast and lunch (two eggs, home fries and toast $5.25 and the Millbrook Charbroiled Burger -- bacon, cheese, carmelized onion on a ciabatta roll [a tad less tradional]) and items that are more contemporary and even exotic and/or healthy (Breakfast Burrito $7.50, Cambozola Plate -- cheese wedge, roasted garlic, soaked apricots, fresh fruit, olives and hunks of fresh bread -- $12.95, and various smoothies with spinach, beets, ginger, fruits and veggies $5). Can't imagine hardly any of that on the menu at the Country View. Here's Jill in the kitchen with a mess of home fries:

Seems that there are specials every day too, just take a look at the blackboard in the dining room. When we were there, I saw one of her crew picking out lobster. While not on the menu every day (Jill will put fish on when it is good and fresh), her lobster roll will be a traditional one on a grilled hot dog roll -- Jill says she knows better than to fool with a proven winner. Even better is the probable price: at $12.95, a bargain.

In fact, one of the biggest, and welcome, surprises are the prices -- only a couple of the menu items were over $10. That is nothing short of astounding. Summer prices for everything around here tend to be high, and this year the prices have seemed to take another big jump. With her prices and menu, Jill is clearly trying to appeal to a broad range of clientele, and the dining room showed it: A table full of workmen in paint covered pants. Older single men eating breakfast. Couples who looked like they were "from away." A table full of women talking about going shopping in Bangor. Several young women in knee high rubber boots.

Nothing is from the deep frier -- Jill didn't even put one in, on purpose. Other places up and down the road cover fried stuff just fine.

Jill says she'd like to stay open year around. The Millbrook will serve breakfast and lunch, for now, not shutting the door on longer hours, but with a "wait and see" attitude. Now scheduled to be open five days a week (closed Mondays and Tuesdays), that alone is a heavy obligation.

So want to see what we had for breakfast?   Drew had the basic:

And I had the Eggs Benedict:

Eggs Benedict can be tricky -- poached eggs can be over or underdone, the hollandaise greasy, the English muffin soggy. These were perfect, absolutely delicious.

Both of our breakfasts, with coffee (great big cups), came to well less than $20. Really.

Fair warning: just barely open, the word has gotten around. We went for breakfast on a drippy cold Saturday morning around 9am and the tables were full. In nice weather, you could eat in the old Milt's Dream outside dining pavilion. But this place stands to be a real winner. You may have to wait to sit inside.