Monday—The weekly Piatto per Tutti cooking class and the Foodie Trivia Contest are taking place this evening. As is the Full Moon Cask Beer Night at Sebago Brewing.

Tuesday—Bar Lola is holding a beer dinner featuring brews from Belgium and France, and there’s a Japanese cooking class taking place at SMCC.

Wednesday—The Monument Square Farmers’ Market takes places in the morning. I the evening, The Salt Exchange is running their weekly wine and canapes event, and Black Tie Bistro is holding a cooking class.

Friday—First Friday Art Walk is taking place. Restaurants tend to be very busy during FFAW so make your reservation early.

Saturday—The Deering Oaks Farmers’ Market takes places in the morning. The Maine Brewer’s Festival has sessions planned for both the afternoon and evening at the Portland Expo.

For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.

An obituary for James Ledue, a pioneering Portland restauranteur, appeared in today’s paper (via Meredith Goad).

Mr. Ledue, who helped start Portland’s restaurant renaissance with businesses such as The Good Egg, Alberta’s Cafe and Bella Bella, died Oct. 23 after a lengthy illness. He was 57 years old.

Mr. Ledue had a limitless range of interests, from surfing to acting to wine and poetry.

“He crowded in an awful lot,” said his father, Herbert Ledue of Portland. “If he wasn’t at the restaurant, he’d be out surfing or kayaking.

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram has an article about the state’s small but growing cranberry crop.

While those efforts have fallen short – in part because of high startup costs of cranberry farming – Maine’s acreage has steadily increased from 40 acres in 1997 to nearly 299 acres today, according to the 2007 U.S. Department of Agriculture census. Maine’s harvest pales next to Wisconsin’s. Wisconsin is the nation’s top cranberry producer with 17,700 acres followed by Massachusetts at 13,000 acres.

The 10 eateries looked up most often during the month of October were:

1. Grace (5)
2. Paciarino (1)
3. Shima (-)
4. Bresca (2)
5. Caiola’s (7)
6. Rachels L’Osteria (52)
7. Food Factory Miyake (6)
8. The Farmer’s Table (9)
9. Veranda Noodle Bar (-)
10. The Corner Room (3)

The numbers in parentheses indicates their rank last month.