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:

The John Steinbeck Connection

I've lived on and visited Deer Isle for many years and only recently discovered that John Steinbeck visited here in 1960. He stayed on Dunham's Point just a short walk from my house, and his time on Deer Isle sounds magical -- as Deer Isle can be. He described it early on in "Travels with Charley": "One doesn't have to be sensitive to feel the strangeness of Deer Isle. ... It is an island that nestles like a suckling against the breast of Maine ... The sheltered darkling water seems to suck up the light ... The pine woods rustle and the wind cries over open country that is like Dartmoor."  And later: "This Isle is like Avalon: it must disappear when you are not there."

So if he visited on Eleanor Brace on Dunham's Point, then where is the exact place? Well, the Internet being what it is, it didn't take a lot of sleuthing to find that the house is now owned and lived in by her niece Brenda Gilchrist. Now, I wouldn't violate Brenda's privacy by writing about her here if she hadn't been writing about the house and the Steinbeck connection herself. Brenda is an author of a newish book (2012) about her move to the lovely old house. I ordered up the book from Amazon and just finished it: "Waltzing with Bracey," available on Amazon and mailed right to your house.

I LOVED this book. It is so Maine, so Deer Isle. While my house can't compete with hers as far as age and family history (I designed and built my house myself, the history is mine alone), I do have friends who have similar old family connections to local gorgeous places and world-wide travel and orientation, just as the author does. The book is full of photos of the older times: I've seen the pictures before, in the baskets and albums in other houses, of the women dressed head to toe in white, the men in bow ties while on a picnic, the boats and the sailing.

If you want a taste of what summering on the Maine coast used to be like, and what year around living is like now, take a look at "Waltzing with Bracey."

Whoopee Pies Part 2

The ultimate whoopee pie taste testing could take just about forever. Considering that the most likely place to find The Real Whoopee Pie is beside the cash register in a convenience store or gas station, the search as well as the eating could take a bit of time.

With that in mind, I stopped at the Eggemoggin Country Store . Eggemoggin has its own bakery and turns out the sweeties every day. I love their molasses ginger cookies and the date squares. It took me three separate stops to find the whoopees actually in the bake display case. Probably I was too early in the morning -- donuts are on the menu then, selling out by 10:30am or so. We bought three donuts a couple of weeks ago to sample -- they were very pretty and BIG, but so heavy we couldn't finish them and fed them to the birds. Though we wondered if the birds could fly after eating...

Here's the Eggemoggin version of the whoopee:

If you think this whoopee looks a little strange, sort of like a drunken toadstool, you are right. Believe it or not, you can now buy a PAN specifically dedicated to whoopee cake baking. It's like a big flat cupcake pan, and called a 12-Cavity Whoopee Pie Pan. I do not think that the manufacturer sees the irony in having "cavity" in the pan name.

Now, this starts right off with a cheat. The whoopee pie bun batter should be rather dense and able to hold its rounded shape without a pan with sides. To use a molded pan implies a looser batter that needs to be contained like a cake, and that is what this whoopee seems to have had. It results in a bun that has a spongier bite, rather than the drier, breadier version that is traditional. Maybe it was from a cake mix? Possible, with the pan. Plus, the resultant shape (drunken toadstool) is just not esthetically pleasing, and the touch is stickier, somewhat gluey. See the crumb stuck to the plate below?

One really should never complain about a whoopee pie. Even the bad one are lick-your-fingers good. And so is this one. But I'd like less of the frosting filling and a traditional drier bun. Interestingly, I had on the counter the remains of the Frank's Bakery whoopee that I wrote about earlier, and I found myself eating away at it rather than the Eggemoggin one, even though it was a day older, had ridden all over the state of Maine, and was somewhat squashed. Frank rules.

 

Okay, just one more, this one from The Galley (same owner as Burnt Cove, same, though less, inventory). This one, the Classic Wicked Whoopie, was made by Amy at Isamax Snacks in Gardiner, Maine, who also made the maple whoopie my niece gave out at her wedding. (Nice touch, Julia!)

Now, this time I remembered to take a picture of the ingredients label, though it is so small that it was essentially unreadable, maybe on purpose:

Sorry, folks, but that is a lot more than flour, sugar, crisco and cocoa.  Remember that these whoopie's need to sit on the shelf for who knows how long.

Okay, my first thought is "That is a LOT of filling." I was right.  However, no drunken toadstool look, and clearly no use of the dreaded 12-Cavity Whoopee Pie Pan. Those cookies hold their shape.

Taste test: Fudgy, chocolate-y, drier than the Eggemoggin, but not the nice bready tooth that the Frank's Bakery had. Way too much filling. And a vaguely chemically taste, I swear I was not influenced by trying to read all that fine print on the label.

Interesting that the Frank's whoopee was the least fudgy, the driest, but tasted the most authentic. Since Franks probably makes theirs every day, even with riding it around Maine all day in the car, it was still the best of the lot, even the next day. No ingredients label, but I suspect just the honest flour, sugar, Crisco and cocoa.

The lesson (so far): The best is probably the freshest and without all the chemical preservatives and long shelf life. If you are going to be bad and chow down on a whoopee, try getting the freshest one you can, from a baker you can trust.

But they are all good.

The Maine State Dessert -- Whoopie Pies

It used to be that if you knew what a whoopie pie (or whoopee pies -- both spellings work) was, you came from Maine, Massachusetts or Pennsylvania. Ever since Oprah declared whoopie pies one of her favorite things, you see whoopie pies everywhere. The traditional pie is chocolate with a white sugary filling, but nowadays, you see every possible combination. Red velvet (a Southern bastardization), pumpkin, orange, strawberry. But for the true whoopie pie lover, chocolate and white is the only way to go.

When I was growing up, you could find whoopie pies in any corner grocery or gas station. You were really lucky (and popular) if your mother made them. It's not hard to find recipes, but why go to all the trouble when it is so easy now to find them? Plus, they are so rich and fattening and delicious that it is not a good idea to have more than one around at a time.

Last week we went to my niece Julia's wedding in New Hampshire. Julia filled the reception with many creative touches, but the best was the pile of wrapped whoopie pies to pick up when leaving. We got two:

Yum. We were hungry that night, so opened one up to snack -- and it was MAPLE, not chocolate! Well, we were in New Hampshire, after all, so maple fit, but for a true whoopie lover, nothing will do but chocolate.

So I decided to do a whoopie taste test. You get the benefit.

Here's the first in what will probably be a long line, right off the shelf of the Burnt Cove Market here on Deer Isle:

Now, this photo is upside down and I apologize, but if you stand on your head you will see it is from Steve's Snack Bakery .  The bakery seems to be in Skowhegan, and no place is more Maine than that (Margaret Chase Smith was from Skowhegan -- google her).  Steve makes TWELVE different flavors of whoopie pies -- one of them maple. I had to paw through the pile to find the classic chocolate and white.  Here it is sliced:

All too often there is too much of the white sugary filling, but Steve has it just right. And the cake is plump, dark chocolate-y. The whole is very tasty, fudge-y, moist (even after sitting around on a grocery shelf for who knows how long?), and altogether yummy. But there is something just intrinsically wrong with a manufactured whoopie pie, and the label speaks to the problem, a long list of additives beyond the flour, sugar and Crisco (the basic three food groups in Maine). Sheesh.

OK. So yesterday I was in Bangor and stopped at Frank's Bakery on State Street. Frank's has been around forever, and I will write about his donuts later, but suffice it to say that if Mainer's love it and it is sweet, Frank makes it. Here is Frank's whoopie, after riding around in the car all day:

Not so dark chocolatey as the Steve's version, thinner cakes (but they HAD been in the car all day). Taste test: the cake is drier, not so intensely chocolate, a bit more filling vs: cake. Taste good. But the best part, is that because it was fresh from a bakery, we can assume (hopefully) that the ingredients are fresh and wholesome, at least as wholesome as flour, sugar, cocoa and Crisco can be. No label, no additives, right?

The verdict: The Frank's is first choice, because of the freshness and lack of additives (hopefully if it had had a label, none would be listed). But the Steve's is a worthy contender, despite the label. PS Another "fact" from the label: Calories 390.

Martha's Diner and a Half Benedict

My chum Bill told me about Martha's Diner in Ellsworth, and when I asked people about it, they said "Oh yeah." Since Martha's is in a little old strip mall right next door to Reny's (one of my favorite Ellsworth stops, that and Marden's), it was an easy choice for a late breakfast. Martha's a modest looking establishment and looks like it has been around awhile.

There's a dining room and a counter section. Both definitely court a diner-like atmosphere.

I was by myself this trip -- my usual photographer husband was away -- so I took a bit of a risk and sat at the counter which I practically never do.

And I struck it lucky. I sat down next to a regular named Tim.

Tim said right off that I had sat in the right place, in front of the action. I asked him if he came here often, and he said "Not much. Only twenty or thirty times." Love that Maine understatement. Things were busy in the open kitchen behind the counter, but Tim said it was quieter than usual because Martha and her husband were taking an infrequent vacation. Martha is known for loudly greeting customers when they walk in the door. The staff all knew their roles (regulars get their favorites without having to ask) and were cooking like crazy. Usual waitress Marinka was behind the cash register:

The menu was huge, two full pages of breakfast selections, and then one more for lunch. Almost all items were under $10. Charlie had french toast with strawberries and whipped cream, with a side of corned beef hash:

I struggled to find something that wouldn't put me into sugar or fat shock and settled on the Half Benedict -- eggs Benedict, with a single egg rather than two. The English muffin was toasted on the grill -- why do they taste so wonderfully different when they are cooked that way? That pink stuff at the upper left was an inch think hunk of ham -- I had to slide it out from under the egg to get into small enough pieces to tackle.

Marinka told me that Martha was the only one around still boiling fresh potatoes for hash browns, that most used frozen ones. I am pretty sure though that Jill at Millbrook does fresh, click here to see her frying up a mess.

Don't go to Martha's if you want fruit and yogurt or granola, and don't look for vegan style smoothies. But if you want diner food in a folksy place that has a loyal following, give Martha's a try.

And the best for last -- here's my check, for a Half Benedict and big cup of coffee:

A deal.

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.

Keep your eyes peeled and discover -- strawberries!

This morning on the way to checking out the resurrected Country View (more about that in another post), we passed this sign just beyond the Eggemoggin Country Store:

Set back from the road was this unassuming farm stand:

With a great view of a big pile of rocks:

Not a very promising package, but strawberries are strawberries, and $5 per (heaped up) quart is at the low end of current price. I bought.

I am putting the $5 in a coffee can labeled "Money can." Unattended stands with similar cash registers are all over the place. Somehow it works.

Two days ago it was a sweltering 88 degrees. Today it was 56, and I have on two sweaters.

What Surry has that Deer Isle does not: The Lobster Shack

Awhile back, we moaned with some new friends about the lack of a real old-fashioned lobster restaurant on Deer Isle. Even though Stonington tops the state in the pounds of lobster caught, you can't just sit at a picnic table on a dock and eat a messy shore dinner or a lobster roll, at least at a "reasonable" price.

I've been telling everyone that I need to hear from you and them about favorite yet little known places and activities (email me!), and did we get a good lead as a result or what: Althea of Mainescape in Blue Hill who is friends with my friend Wendy who is married to Bill of Nanatoo fame passed on a "must do" on Newberry Neck in Surry: The Lobster Shack. I'd never heard of it, and had never gone down Newberry Neck either. After all, Surry is just a bend in the road on the way to Ellsworth.

So yesterday, which was blisteringly hot and we had nothing planned for lunch, Drew and I headed out in search of lobster rolls. It felt like we drove and drove and drove, but in reality, The Lobster Shack was only 5+ miles from the turn off route 172 going into Surry towards Ellsworth. You can also get there from Blue Hill through East Blue Hill, about 11 miles. Finally we saw it: a long dock with red umbrellas. Perfect setting for lunch on a hot day.

Clinging to the narrow strip of land between the road and the water was the actual Lobster Shack:

A little rickety-tickety, just my style:

Past one o'clock, we were the only customers, and owner Bev Long yelled a welcome. The heat seemed to be keeping folks indoors, except for those down at the town beach  who we passed coming in. A few more brave and sunburned people straggled in after we did. We settled down with the menu while Bev sent down the waitperson who had been picking out lobster.

Now, I ask you, when was the last time that you saw dried fish ($5.25) or pickled wrinkles ($6) on the appetizer menu? Would never be too soon? We ordered lobster rolls (at $15 a fair price), cole slaw, and an ear of corn, cooked in the lobster water our waitperson told us. That was a first for me too!

Take a look at those lobster rolls: yet another "first ever," on a Bangor Rye Bakery bun (world's best rolls, for those in the know). It's hard to appreciate the amount of lobster, but look at that bun in the back. The lobster layer was an inch thick. The cole slaw was pickley vinegary and slightly sweet, the corn crunchy with a hint of lobster flavor. Yummy scrummy. We went at it.

Afterwards Bev came down to chat. Bev is my kind of person, real Maine (like me).  She and her husband Perry started the Lobster Shack 13 years ago. Basically, they service the lobster boats that tie up at the end of the dock, opening mid-June and staying that way sometimes into November (??!!) when the lobstermen haul their boats. Of course, that's where they get their seafood, too, so fresh is an understatement.

Even though traffic was light when we were there, Bev says they get swamped when they open in June, then steady and very busy through July and August. They have never advertized.  Clearly, don't need to. Hours are 11am to 8pm or whenever. A few nights before had been a full moon (hard to see with the fog, but the "moon peepers" were a determined bunch) and they were packed until closing and beyond. Call before if you take a lot of people (8 or more) (207) 667-1955. Oh, I forgot: you can bring your own drinks, they don't serve alcohol, and what they do have is sweet.

The Lobster Shack is a real find. The perfect place for enjoying lobster and crab in the traditional way. And the view is free.

As Lobstermen go, so go the nation...

Maybe everyone has seen this Saturday Night Live clip, I don't know, but it fits my "delightful" guideline.

Yes, the accent is more Norwegian bachelor farmer than Maine coast, but they got the details right, like Mainer's being low key (not like folks from New Hampshire), and registering their wedding at L. L. Bean.

Best of all is the recognition of Maine's passing by popular vote (the first state to do so) the right of gay people to marry each other, just like other couples who happen to be straight. The Maine gay rights movement has a very long history, and the right to marry could not even be imagined at the beginning.

Yea, Maine!