The winter edition of the Farmers’ Market starts on December 5th. This year the market is moving to a new home at 84 Cove Street which is just around the corner in East Bayside from the Urban Farm Fermentory.
The winter market began February 13, 2010. In its first year it was located at 85 Free Street, for the next 2 years it operated out of the Irish Heritage Center and it has been held at the Urban Farm Fermentory for the past 2 seasons.
Today’s Boston Globe includes a report on Ocean Approved’s seaweed aquaculture operation.
At the vanguard of New England’s nascent seaweed farming industry is Paul Dobbins, president and cofounder of Ocean Approved, a kelp farming operation based in Portland, Maine.
“The majority of seaweed gets imported from Asia,” Dobbins said. “We see an opportunity to provide a local alternative to that, and the response has been tremendous.”
Today’s Press Herald features a story on this year’s bumper crop of apples in Maine.
Experts and apple orchard owners say a combination of factors is likely behind this year’s bumper crop. Apple trees tend to be cyclical, so this year’s higher yield follows a lighter harvest last year. Good spring and summer weather also played a role, although the warm late-summer conditions have pushed back the ripening for some popular varieties by a week or two.
The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald reports on the growing interest in heirloom apples.
Bendzela and Essman are among a growing number of Mainers who have developed an appreciation for heirloom varieties of apples that for the most part disappeared with the rise of big agriculture. They have replanted varieties that were originally grown on the farm and added more that were once popular in Maine – apples with different textures, unusual tastes and whimsical names, such as King of Tompkins County, Fallawater, Esopus Spitzenburg (a favorite of Thomas Jefferson) and Hubbardston’s Nonesuch.
The paper also has an article on vegetarian chef and Maine-native Matthew Kenney.
Matthew Kenney’s restaurants and books are a force in the plant-based food world, but his biggest influence may be in the new chefs he teaches.
Today’s Press Herald includes an article about the Maine Seaweed Festival and the rising interest of seaweed as a cooking ingredient.
But the story is a good metaphor for what’s going on in the world of seaweed right now. Consumers are discovering a local food source that has been around for millennia, but has rarely been used in American cooking and is little known except when ordered in a dish at a Japanese restaurant. Now Americans and western Europeans are beginning to embrace it, and at the same time realizing here in Maine that we’ve got our own handy local supply right on the coast.
Visit seaweedfest.com for more information on the Maine Seaweed Festival.
The Out on a Limb heirloom apple CSA is now signing up members for this Fall. Shares are $150 and get you 5 deliveries of ¼ bushel each which contain “varieties of rare and highly flavored apples with a wide range of uses, appearances, histories and flavors”. See the OOAL website for more info.
Today’s edition of Source in the Maine Sunday Telegram includes articles on the increase in rabbit farming,
Central Provisions usually has a rabbit-based dish on both the lunch and dinner menu, like a rabbit confit panini and a smoked rabbit salad. Gould goes through about 45 pounds of rabbit a week. Other high-end Portland restaurants that serve or have served rabbit include Hugo’s, Petite Jacqueline, Emilitsa (in phyllo with spinach and feta) and Sur Lie. Up the coast, it appears on the menus at Primo in Rockland and Francine Bistro in Camden.
and the steps Maine brewers are taking to be more sustainable.
Since water accounts for up to 95 percent of beer’s content, Nathan Sanborn of Rising Tide Brewing Company says his company’s sustainability efforts focus on water conservation. His team monitors water usage and has consolidated equipment-cleaning procedures so less water and cleaning chemicals can be used to sanitize more gear. These efforts have helped the company cut usage by 35 percent.