Chocolate-maker Dean Bingham, of Dean’sSweets, has found inspiration in the bar—the chocolate bar. The Portland, Maine, chocolatier has introduced three chocolate bars to his line of handmade truffles and caramels. Not just any chocolate bars, mind you, but three in intriguing flavors: Maine potato chip, brandied orange peel, and mocha latte.
The brandied orange peel is a dark chocolate stunner, and the mocha latte flavor comprises crunchy espresso beans in a double layer of white and dark chocolate. But the Maine potato chip flavor is the one that’s a match made in Maine-made foodie heaven. Dean uses Fox Family Potato Chips, from Aroostook County—I’m huge fan of Fox Family chips; best I’ve ever tasted. He enrobes these perfect Maine potato chips in milk chocolate. (Egad! milk! Dean, I’m begging you to make this one in dark, too).
Dean’s is in the East End foodiehood, the Middle Street block shared by Hugo’s, Rabelais, Pepperclub/Good Egg, Duck Fat, Ribollita, and East Ender, and bookeneded by Micucci’s, Two Cats, Amato’s, and Coffee By Design.
… which is why she hasn’t been posting regularly. Scrambling to make deadline on a new edition of Moon Acadia National Park. In the meantime, I am attempting to share event news via Facebook. I’ll be back soon, consider that both a threat and a promise. I have plenty to share.
In the meantime, thank you for your patience. AND, should you want a copy of the current edition of Moon ANP, have I got a deal for you! Signed, sealed, delivered along with the promise of email consultation when you’re planning your trip. Interested? Contact me through this site (see envelope icon at right, below my mug shot).
Life doesn’t get much sweeter than creating a successful gourmet chocolate business on a Maine island that’s home to a remote section of Acadia National Park, and that’s what Kate and Steve Shaffer have done with Black Dinah Chocolatiers on Isle au Haut. And now, Kate is sharing the secrets of her success, along with the charms of island life, in her cookbook Desserted: Recipes and Tales from an Island Chocolatier.
Kate and Steve never imagined living on a remote island off the Maine coast, but after marrying in 1999, the couple, who met in a California commune, packed their low-impact lives into a 20-foot RV and headed for the Pine Tree State.Their introduction to island life began when Kate took a job cooking at the former Keeper’s House, a lighthouse B&B on Isle au Haut.
“Maine was certainly never a place I had considered living, and certainly not an island,” Kate says. “Nor did I ever imagine I’d be making chocolate for a living, it never once crossed my mind.” But when the inn closed, they combined Steve’s business savvy with Kate’s long-standing yearning to work with chocolate, and opened Black Dinah Chocolatiers, an Internet cafe and truffle-making company, naming it for the local landmark behind their home.
Desserted is a must for chocoholics and island-dreamers. As the title promises, Kate weaves tales of island life in with her recipes, which range from her signature truffles to savory preparations. The book opens with a Foreward by Isle au Haut fisherman and author Linda Greenlaw, then after Kate tells her story, it progresses into all chocolate, all the time, beginning with Chocolate 101. That detailed primer is alone worth its weight in chocolate gold.
Kate learned from experience that “anyone can work successfully with chocolate using very common tools in a small home kitchen.” That said, she does recommend a few tools, including a few surprises, such as a drywall spatula and a hair dryer.
Recipes are divided into chapters titled: Truffles; Chocolate for Breakfast; Tarts, Pies, and Cakes; Cookies and Sweet Snacks; Ice Cream, Sorbets, and Puddings; and A Few Savories. Two things I love about her recipes (other than they’re all for chocolate) is her use of real ingredients: eggs, butter, cream, milk are constants, and her preference for natural ingredients; in addition to sugar, sweeteners might include honey or molasses.
I’ve included two recipes from the book. For other recipes as well as more on island life, read Kate’s blog. You might also enjoy a short article I wrote forIslands. And here’s a post on Isle au Haut.
Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Blondies
One day, in an effort to come up with a recipe for an energy bar that I could actually choke down, I accidentally came up with this. Not exactly what I was going for, but each day found me more in love with them than the last. Despite the absence of flour, the bars have a super-tender, cakey texture that seems to be just barely holding on to each melty bit of chocolate.And as far as energy? Well, or now, they get me where I want to go. Makes 16.
1 cup natural peanut butter
¼ cup raw honey
1 large egg, at room temperature
½ cup sweet potato puree, or 1 banana mashed
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and line an 8” by 8” square baking pan with parchment paper.
Place the peanut butter, honey, egg, sweet potato puree, baking soda, and salt in a food processor and whir together until smooth.
Remove the blade, stir in the chips, and then scrape the mixture into the prepared pan.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the pan comes out almost clean. Allow the blondies to cool completely before cutting into 16 portions.
Bittersweet Chocolate Pudding
Though my single mother did an admirable job of keeping us kids fueled-up on unprocessed foods and fresh vegetables, she had a few breaking points. They were: canned tomato soup, boxed macaroni and cheese, and Jello-O instant pudding. In fact, I remember more than a few post-work Monday night meals that consisted of exactly these three items. Occasionally , even now as an adult, if I’m feeling like I need a little comfort food, these are my instant stand-bys. Luckily, the island store happens to stock all of these items, but even I can admit there is nothing like pudding made from scratch. All the comfort, none of the chemicals. Serves 6 to 8
2/3 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup corn starch
½ teaspoon salt
4 large egg yolks
3 cups milk
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped and melted
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped and melted
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
In a medium-size saucepan, whisk together the sugar, corn starch, salt, and egg yolks until smooth. Whisk in the milk, and then place the pan over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture boils.
Simmer for 1 minute, and then remove from the heat. Press this hot mixture through a sieve into a heat-proof bowl, and then stir in the chocolates, butter, and vanilla. Mix thoroughly until everything is melted and the pudding is smooth.
Press a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding and place in the refrigerator to chill thoroughly.
Serve the pudding in parfait glasses with a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream.
Portland, Maine’s, annual Harvest on the Harbor food and wine experience has become the culinary event in a state renowned for its locavore culture, in the town named “America’s Foodiest” by Bon Appetit. Since it’s inception in 2008, the October food-and-wine celebration has grown each year, fed by locals who seem to have an insatiable appetite for anything food related and culinary travelers, who want a tasting course in Maine’s best.
New events for 2011 include:
• Top of the Crop: Maine’s Best Farm-to-Table Chef
Four Maine Chefs—Derek Federico, of five fifty-five; Eric Flynn, of the Harraseeket Inn; Joshua Mather of Joshua’s; and Masa Miyake, of Miyake—compete for the coveted title, creating entrees from specified local roducts. Wines will be paired by Cellardoor Winery.
• The Ultimate Seafood Splash: Familiar Name, New Twist
Five chefs (Sam Hayward, of Fore Street; Mitchell Kaldrovich, of Sea Glass; Adam White, of Salt Exchange; Cassady Pappas, of Havana South; and visiting celebrity chef Michael Ruoss, of Salu) are partnering with local fishermen to highlight lesser known sustainable species from the Gulf of Maine: red fish, whiting, cod, northern shrimp, and pollock. This is an educational event, with opportunities to learn more about sustainably harvested seafood from the chefs, fishermen, and representatives from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. Wine and other seafood is available, too.
These events join three others that serve to dish out Maine’s best:
• Grand Tasting on the Harbor
Nibble and sip your way around the room, tasting small portions prepared by local restaurants complemented by wines, brews, and spirits.
• Savory Samplings Marketplacen
A nibble of this, a sip of that… Watch culinary demonstrations and presentations; get cookbooks signed; enjoy live entertainment; and sample your way through beverages provided by more than two dozen wineries/breweries/distilleries and plentiful bites from Maine restaurants and producers
• Lobster Chef-of-the-Year Competition
The title says it all. This year’s finalists are:
Kristian Burrin, of The Seasons of Stonington, preparing Trio of Maine lobster rolls
Ryan Campbell, of Lake Parlin and Cabins, preparing Maine lobster menage a trois
Thomas Regan, a private chef in the Kennebunks, preparing slow poached lobster tail Nipponese
Complementing these signature events are other culinary-centered activities, including dinners at local restaurants.
Some events are already sold out, so if you want a taste of Maine’s best, get crackin’!
A soaring bridge tethers Deer Isle to the Blue Hill peninsula. @Hilary Nangle
Maine’s Blue Hill peninsula exudes the essence of what what many people picture when dreaming about the Maine coast. It’s off the beaten track, with a rolling landscape carved in granite, fringed with spruce, splashed with ponds, sprinkled with galleries, salted with farmsteads, and peppered with those classic big-house, little-house, back-house, barn homes that art directors love to put on magazine covers.
Every time I visit, I wonder why this spectacular chunk of Maine remains so untouristed. And then I smile and thank God that it does
To that, add a diverse yet unusually complementary population of back-to-the-landers and trust-funders, boat builders and bakers, artists and entrepreneurs, chiseled-in-granite umpteenth-generation Mainers and drawn-by-the-vibe New Agers.
Now web this landscape with byways that reveal spectacular views, provide access to underutilized parks and land trust trails, and pass honor-bar-style farmstands. A mosey here validates the ages-old concept of taking a Sunday Drive just because.
Every time I visit, I wonder why this spectacular chunk of Maine remains so untouristed. And then I smile and thank God that it does.
Blue Hill anchors the peninsula, but here I’m highlighting a mosey looping via Route 175 through Brooklin, Sedgwick, Sargentville, and Brooksville, with a detour loop around Cape Rosier. Do it in one day, or break it up to allow time to immersie and enjoy the area.
This is a gorgeous drive any time, but it’s particularly pretty in autumn, when the colors of the season reflect in the ocean, rivers, and fresh waters that color so much of the region’s map blue. Updated Dec. 27, 2019
Brooklin: wooden boats and E. B. White
Brooklin, the self-proclimed Wooden Boat capital of the World lives up to the moniker. This village on the Blue Hill Peninsula is home to WoodenBoat Magazine and the Wooden Boat School as well as plentiful boatyards, large and small. Most, of course, build wooden boats. Ann, but that’s not all Brooklin is famous for. It’s also where renowned writer E.B. White, author of such beloved children’s classics as Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web, lived.
Just east of town, veer off Route 175 on the Flye Point Road to view work by Maine artists at Flye Point Sculpture Garden & Art Gallery.
Now downtown Brooklin isn’t particularly large—maybe three-blinks—but it’s well worth stopping for a browse about. Smack downtown is the Brooklin General Store, an updated classic, and next to it, Leaf and Anna, a delightful shop filled with intriguing gifts, garden goods, books, and cookware.
Drive down the Naskeag Point Road for a look-see at the Wooden Boat School‘s campus and poke into its store, then continue to Naskeag Point for the view. It’s a perfect spot for a picnic.
A bit west of downtown, Virginia G. Sarsfield handcrafts paper products, including custom lamp shades, calligraphy papers, books, and lamps at Handmade Papers.
Can’t bear to leave? Book a room at the recently updated Brooklin Inn, which has a good dining room and a pub.
Route 175 parallels the famed sailing waters of Eggemoggin Reach, where it’s not rare to sight windjammers under full sail.
Detour a bit north on Route 172, then left on Christy Hill Road. Just before it ends in a T intersection with Old County Road, look left for Pushcart Press Bookstore, which bills itself a “the world’s smallest bookstore.” Easy to believe; but the adorable, one-room shop is jammed with good reads, both used and new. Be sure to check out the editions of the Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses annual series.
At the intersection with Route 15, jog north to stay on 175. You might not expect good Mex is a rural coastal Maine community, but you’ll find it, scratch-made and with a down east accent, at El El Frijoles (That’s El El Beans for you gringos).
Brooksville: food, farms, and Congdon’s Garage
Fans of author Robert McClusky might recognize Condon’s Garage from his classic Maine children’s books. @Tom Nangle
Now you could sidle back up to Blue Hill on Route 15, but stay on Route 175 (requires a left). At the intersection with Route 176, detour right following Route 175 for visit to Makers’ Market, a double find. It carries wonderful works by local artists and artisans and doubles as Ecouture Textile Studio, with handcrafted one-of-a-kind scarves, art, and clothing from all-natural and sustainable textiles.
Now, return to Route 176 to loop through Brooksville and out to Cape Rosier. On this side of the peninsula, you leave behind E.B. White’s Maine and enter that of another beloved children’s author, Robert McCloskey (One Morning in Maine and Blueberries for Sal). Hard to believe the Blue Hill peninsula could become more rural and rustic, but it does.
A bit further on, you arrive in Buck’s Harbor, home to Congdon’s Garage, mentioned in McCloskey’s books. If you didn’t eat previously, Buck’s Harbor Market is another great spot to pick up picnic fixings, sandwiches, and other goodies.
Now you need a place to picnic, and Cape Rosier is it. Loop out to the Holbrook Island Sanctuary State Park. Here you’ll find a fine picnic area, a small rocky beach, and easy-on-the-eyes views. Work off lunch on one of the hiking trails.
It’s worth the effort, while on the cape, to visit Harborside for a dip into this town’s back-to-the-land legacy. The Good Life Center at Forest Farm, was home to the late back-to-the-land gurus Scott and Helen Nearing; check the schedule for hours and programs. Internationally renowned gardeners Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch own Four Season Farm. You’ll never see more gorgeous produce than that at this lush organic farm.
When you depart Cape Rosier, finish looping through Brooksville on Route 176. Along the way, be sure to pull over every now and then to take in the views over the water toward Castine.
And, keep an eye out for Tinder Hearth Bakery, source of organic breads and pastries that put all store-bought ones to shame. Tinder Hearth also hosts Open Mic sessions and pizza nights. Check the website for details.
Ready for another nibble or feast? Bagaduce Lunch overlooks the Bagaduce River’s reversing falls. This seasonal takeout stand, named an American Classic by the James Beard Foundation, turns out awesome fried clams and other seafood favorites.
If you’re smitten by Brooksville, two cottage colonies make it easy to spend a week: Oakland House, on Eggemoggin Reach (where a new generation has added smart guestrooms in the original homestead), and Hiram Blake Camps, on Cape Rosier. Blake’s includes meals in season. And of course, you can always stay at the Blue Hill Inn, a classic country inn in Blue Hill, and circle out from there.
In Maine, eating fresh, local food is easy. The state was farm-to-table in homes and in many restaurants long before it became trend. Now that it’s harvest season, farm stands and farmers’ markets are overflowing with fresh produce, but sometimes figuring out how to prepare those veggies and fruits can be a challenge. Lisa Turner, of Freeport’s Laughing Stock Farm, comes to the rescue with The Eat Local Cookbook: Seasonal Recipes from a Maine Farm.
I love this cookbook, published by Down East. It provides new ways to deal with the overabundance of zucchini (besides leaving in an unsuspecting neighbor’s car); shows how to prepare less well known produce, such as fennel, spaghetti squash, and baby bok choi; provides new takes on old favorites, such as chicken with dumplings, red flannel hash, and even tuna noodle casserole; and delivers ethnic accents, such as recipes for kimchi, moussaka, and Thai-accented lobster and native corn bisque.
Turner not only shares her own recipes, but also those from some of Maine’s best-known chefs, including James Beard award winner Sam Hayward, of Fore Street; Abby Harmon, of Caiola’s; Dave Iovino, of Blue Spoon; Richard Lemoine, of the Cape Arundel Inn; Joe Boudreau, of Havana South; and many others.
Recipes are presented by season, so whether it’s pea shoots and radishes or potatoes and leeks crowding the market, there’s a recipe at hand. With the chill of fall in the air and apples, cranberries, and pumpkins coloring local fields and farmers’ markets varied shades of orange and red, I’m sharing two of Turner’s fall/winter recipes.
Apple Cranberry Cake
From The Eat Local Cookbook: Seasonal Recipes from a Maine Farm, by Lisa Turner.
This is a wonderfully moist cake. You can make it in a ring pan and have a pretty and delicious cake.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, cream together:
1 ½ cups brown sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
Add and beat well:
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Sift together:
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well. Stir in
2 cups peeled, cored, and diced apples
2 cups cranberries
Bake in a greased and floured ring pan for 50-60 minutes or 9” X 13” pan for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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In honor of the whoopie pie being named Maine’s official snack food, here’s Turner’s recipe for Pumpkin Whoopie Pies.
Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
From The Eat Local Cookbook: Seasonal Recipes from a Maine Farm, by Lisa Turner
Who doesn’t love a whoopie pie? I’m pretty sure that making them with a vegetable (pumpkin) doesn’t even begin to make them “healthy,” but it doest make a fabulous variation. This one is courtesy of our CSA member Shari Broder.
With an electric mixer, bet together until blended:
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
¾ cup sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
Gradually beat in:
½ cup vegetable oil
Add one at a time, beating between each addition:
3 large eggs
Beat in:
2 cups Pumpkin Puree* ( if you want to make your own, see below)
In a separate large bowl, sift together:
2 cups white flour
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¾ teaspoon ground allspice
In a third small bowl, mix together:
½ cup sour cream
3 tablespoons milk
Add half of the dry ingredients into the electric mixer bowl and mix well. Add the sour cream and milk mixture and mix well. Add the second half of the dry ingredients. Coer the batter and chill for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Line two cooking sheets with baking parchment. Spoon the batter onto the baking sheet to make the cakes. Use about one heaping tablespoonful for small pies, or two heaping tablespoonfuls for large one. Leave some space between the pies as you put them on the pans. The batter may not all fit on the two sheets, in which case you’ll need to do this a second time with the remaining batter. Remember, you need two cake pieces per pie. Let the batter stand on the cookie sheets for 10 minutes.
Set the racks in the oven so that one is 1/3 of the way down from the top and the other is 1/3 of the way up from the bottom
Bake the cakes for about 11 minutes for small pies or 16 to 20 minutes for larger pies, switching the sheets to the opposite racks halfway through baking. They are done when a toothpick stuck n the center comes out clean. Cool the cakes completely on the cookie sheets on a rack. Gently remove the cakes from the parchment.
In a clean bowl, beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed until smooth:
½ cup unsalted butter
one (8-ounce) package cream cheese
Blend in:
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon maple extract
With the mixer on low speed, add slowly and mix until smooth:
3 cups sifted powdered sugar
Once the powdered sugar is fully incorporated, mix at high speed for about 3 minutes to incorporate some air into the filling. Spoon 1 to 2 tablesspoons of filling onto the flat side of a cake. Top with another cake, flat side down. Repeat with the remaining cakes and filling. These can be made ahead and stored in a single layer in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week, if you can resist them for that long!
*Pumpkin Puree
From The Eat Local Cookbook: Seasonal Recipes from a Maine Farm, by Lisa Turner.
To turn a big fat pumpkin into the stuff that comes in the can, you need to cut up the pumpkin and remove the stem and seeds. Cook the pumpkin either by simmering it or baking it until tender—maybe 20 to 30 minutes of simmering or 45 minutes of baking at 400 degrees. Remove the insides from the skin and run it through a food processor or buzz it in the blender, or run it through a food mill. This will make it a uniform consistency.
What better way to spend a glorious autumn morning than hiking in Maine’s Acadia National Park. It’s not only views that make hiking the Beachcroft Trail up Acadia’s Huguenot Head so rewarding, but also the trail itself. It’s an engineering masterpiece, comprising nearly 1,500 pink granite steps that snake through woods and over ledges.
According to The Rusticator’s Journal, a collection of articles from Journal of Friends of Acadia (published 1993), the Beachcroft Trail predates the park. It was constructed in 1915 as a memorial gift from Mrs. C. Morton Smith, who named it for the family’s summer cottage.
From the trailhead across from the parking lot at The Tarn, a glacial lake, on Route 3, the Beachcroft Trail climbs roughly a half mile to the granite headland.
It progresses through deciduous forest to a series of stepped, hairpin switchbacks that rise quickly to granite ledges. Glimpses en route take in The Tarn with Dorr Mountain as a backdrop and eastward to Bar Harbor, Frenchman Bay, and the Porcupine Islands. The hiking is easy to moderate; the views get better and better as you climb.
The trail wraps around the headland then descends into the woods before rising steeply to the summit of Champlain Mountain, but if you’re not up for the effort, leave the trail where it begins to wrap around and instead scramble up the ledges to Huguenot Head. It’s not signed, but it’s pretty easy to figure out the route. You’ll have to navigate around bushes, but the it’s worth the trouble. Just keep ascending and within 10 minutes, you’ll arrive at the top.
The bald headland is a fine place for a picnic. Chances are, you’ll have it to yourself as most hikers here are destined for Champlain’s summit. If you do choose to continue to Champlain’s summit (yup, the views get even better), you can connect with the Bear Brook or Precipice Trails.
The Tarn parking area, on Route 3, is just south of the Sieur de Monts Spring park entrance and just north of The Tarn. It’s on Route 4/Blackwoods of the Island Explorer bus.
Most of my friends who live beyond Maine’s borders think I live in the most ideal place. And they’re right, to a point. But I think there’s an even better place, and that’s one of the islands off the Maine coast. Especially in autumn, when the crowds are gone, the light is soft, the air is clear, and the fire-singed colors of the season are beginning to glow. Take North Haven, for instance. I recently spent an all-too-brief overnight on this island, roughly 70 minutes across Penobscot Bay via the Capt. Neal Burgess ferry from Rockland.
North Haven Oyster Co.
I went for a taste of local fare and began at the North Haven Oyster Co., where Adam Campbell raises the shellfish in Heidi’s pond, a brackish mill pond, near Pulpit Harbor. When he’s around —he’s also a lobsterman, so that’s not too often—he’ll walk customers to the pond and explain the farming process as well as the proper way to open an oyster and—very important—how to eat one without ending up with gunk on the tip of your nose.
Back in the mid 1990s, a marine biologist visited the island to see if the smelt runs could be restored. He noted as a postscript in his report that the pond would be a great place to grow oysters.
Since Campbell’s land fronted on the pond, he decided to pursue it, obtained an aquaculture lease from the state, and began raising oysters from seed. It takes up to four years for an oyster to mature, and when its ready, a diver harvests it by hand.
Turner Farm
Next stop, Turner Farm, a Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association-certified organic farm on the site of a farm dating back 200 years. This is, perhaps, one of the most visually pleasing farms I’ve ever seen. The land slopes down to the Fox Island Thoroughfare, a watery passage where lobster boats and sailing yachts pass between North Haven Island and neighboring Vinalhaven Island. On a September late afternoon, it’s simply gorgeous, with the light shimmering on the water and the crops coloring the fields.
A magnificent barn tops the landscape. It’s one farm manager James Blair hopes will stand the test of time, that visitors here 200 years from now will be still admire. The farm could be viewed as a rich man’s folly, but it is intended as a profit-making enterprise, and while the setting and buildings are expensive and innovative (the greenhouses are mobile, for instance), the farming practiced here could be practiced in far less fancy locations.
After visiting with the herd of goats penned behind the barn, I sampled a few of the cheeses made from their milk. Cheesemaker Jamien Shields makes fresh chevre and aged goat cheeses in the farm’s Maine state-certified creamery. I immediately regretted not bringing a cooler with me, because I would have loved to have brought home the one ribboned with dulse (seaweed).
Nebo Lodge
Turner Farm partners with Nebo Lodge, an inn located just a couple of minutes stroll from the ferry dock. Upstairs are nine rooms decorated in Maine cottage-meets-Maine island style, with accents by famed designer and islander Angela Adams. It’s really quite sweet, but while I love hardwood floors, the combo of those and thin walls means you’ll hear everyone who walks around at night or who rises early. Be forewarned. Also pack a robe if you’ll be staying in one of the rooms with shared bath, as they aren’t provided (although I hope they will be soon, as I highly recommended it to the manager).
While the rooms are lovely, the heart of Nebo is the downstairs bar and restaurant, a cozy spot favored by islanders—be sure to make reservations if you want to land a table. Turner Farm provides much of the produce and meat served here. The menu is small, but highlights island grown or raised fare whenever possible. Be sure to share a table order of the crispy kale ($4), and don’t miss the North Haven Oyster Bisque, North Haven Oysters on the half shell, or the North Haven Oysters Mosca ($9-14). Entrees begin around $24; lighter fare, including pizzas, burgers, and a fried North Haven Oyster & Maine shrimp po’boy, are $9-16.
Afterwards or in the early morning, walk around the village. There’s little as soul-satisfying as a Maine island in the quiet of an autumn night or by first light, when the sounds of an island awakening include the chug of lobster boats and birdsong.
And let me leave you with one more image of those luscious North Haven Oysters.
UPDATE: ZU Bakery moved to 81 Clark St., Portland, in 2022.
BIG UPDATE: The James Beard Foundation named ZU Bakery its 2024 “Outstanding Bakery,” defined as “A baker of breads, pastries, or desserts that demonstrates consistent excellence in food, atmosphere, hospitality, and operations, while contributing positively to its broader community.”
Barak Olins is passionate about bread. Every Friday, he handcrafts 200 loaves, using traditional French bread-making methods and certified organic ingredients, including whole grains that he mills just before mixing the dough. Then, he bakes the loaves in a brick oven he built on his South Freeport, Maine, property. (Update: He moved to Portland in 2022)
ZU Bakery: Bread & Life
Olins’ ZU Bakery breads are as beautiful to behold as they are delicious to eat. That each loaf is a work of art is not surprising for a man who is an artist as well as a baker. He’s also the grandchild of Jewish Holocaust survivors, and that leads him to some disquieting questions. He writes:
My artwork is derived from the unsettling recognition that my wood-fired brick oven is in many ways indistinguishable from the crematoria of Auschwitz. This observation, as it turns out, is not simply one of frivolous similarities. Indeed, J. A. Topf, the company that designed the crematoria also designed grain roasting ovens for breweries and bread ovens for bakeries.
Strangely, I have found myself working next to a machine that so closely resembles an icon of vast destruction. What would it mean to bake bread in these ovens? How might I consider the space between the life-providing and life-reducing potential of such machinery? How do the mechanics of memory and its inevitable blurring with the present further complicate this quandary? What it means to be a Jewish-Artist-Baker is unsettled — it offers and perhaps even insists on its own questioning.
Is he driven by the desire to bake bread, something deeper and innate, or a combination?
Olins’ breads reaffirm the goodness and sanctity of life.
Making the miche
Here’s a photo sequence depicting ZU Bakery founder Barak Olins work the dough and shape loaves of miche (I was fortunate to watch him at work way back in 2011).
Last week, I had the good fortune to visit a number of Maine farms with the Maine Farmland Trust, an organization that’s working to preserve Maine’s working farms and agricultural landscape and support farming’s future. Some of the farms I visited are supplying restaurants, such as Fore Street, in Portland, and the Harraseeket Inn, in Freeport—both early adopters of the farm-to-table movement—or Nebo Lodge, on North Haven Island, which works with the island’s Turner Farm. Others sell direct from stands on the farm or through farmers markets.
Penny Jordan’s ancestors were some of Cape Elizabeth’s earliest settlers. Although now considered an upscale suburb of Portland, it wasn’t that long ago that the town had plentiful farmlands, such as the Jordan Farm on Wells Road. The homestead, as Jordan calls the big farmhouse, has sheltered four generations of the Jordan family.
What makes the property even more extraordinary are the views, which extend over the Spurwink River and Marsh. Those views made the property highly likely for development at a time when the farm was financially in crisis. “We had to strategize to save the farm,” Jordan says. The community wanted to preserve the view.
“We worked with the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust and the Land for Maine’s Future program. After three grueling years, we sold the development rights to the property across the street, which put us in the financial position to take on growth.” Which it has been able to do, thanks to community support.
Volunteers built the main part of the farmstand. “We paid for lumber and food, and volunteers built it,” Jordan says. They’ve since expanded it. Available are not only farm-fresh produce, but also artisanal breads, cheeses, dips, sweets, and other goods. The Jordans also put the farm on the road via a brightly painted bus that brings fresh produce to schools, the Maine Medical Center, and other places.
In the summer of 2010, The Well, which is the epitome of farm-to-fork, opened at Jordan’s Farm. Jason Williams, a Culinary Institute of America grad and a sous chef at Back Bay Grill, used to come to the farm regularly to purchase fresh produce. He was ready to open a restaurant of his own, so he approached the Jordan family with a unique concept: a mobile kitchen (That met deed restrictions in the easement).
“I wasn’t thinking food truck,” he says. He had no plans to drive it from location to location. His goal was to be on a farm. “The whole idea was to be the town cook,” he says. He says he overbuilt the kitchen (complete with wood-burning oven), but it allows him to make everything from scratch. He can walk outside and handpick fresh vegetables, so diners are truly getting farm to table fare.
Chef Williams prepares a four-item menu, and those fortunate enough to snag one of the stools on the porch looking into the kitchen can watch him at work preparing it. Guests order at the counter, then choose a picnic table on the grounds. Jordan says she hopes to add a gazebo for 2012 to help shelter diners from the elements.
In an interesting twist, all prices are suggested. When people question the price, he tells them to order and after eating, tell him whether it was worth it. No one yet has argued.
The Well at Jordan’s Farm is seasonal and cash-only. Iced tea is available, but beyond that bring your own beverage. A kid’s menu is available.
Chocolate-maker Dean Bingham, of Dean’sSweets, has found inspiration in the bar—the chocolate bar. The Portland, Maine, chocolatier has introduced three chocolate bars to his line of handmade truffles and caramels. Not just any chocolate bars, mind you, but three in intriguing flavors: Maine potato chip, brandied orange peel, and mocha latte.
