Wasted food, when someone goes hungry while another throws away what never gets eaten.
Something wrong with that situation. So for starters, how to avoid wasting food which can make greenhouse gases, methane that does not help the Earth’s environment. It does start at home and food waste reduction. And when you raise what you eat, it can stay in the garden and be drawn on like a food bank. Or stored in your root cellar with sometimes little preparation or a process in canning that is a family tradition.
Fresh Maine Food, Like This Cabbage Organically Grown At Nature’s Circle Farm In Aroostook County.
There is nothing like a trip around supper time during a nippy winter night in Maine and getting an armful of potatoes, bread and butter pickles, stewed beets or whatever the food pantry holds to dine on with a little imagination and a hunger that always improves the taste.
The journey down the cellar steps into the root cellar that yields much for lovingly made produce. For more close to home, farm to table all natural items to feed the Maine family. What you eat, how much is available and knowing you or your community members had a role in the growing and final preparation is a beautiful thing. No worries about what this foodstuff was sprayed with, how it was handled all disappears when the farming is done in your backyard, out in the rear fields.
But think about that staggering amount of food raised but never eaten by anyone. A third of the World’s food goes to waste, unsampled. The nutrition never channeled into someone’s diet and the fuel never put to use. Maine is a place with close to home grown quality food. To think of all that food in other places of the World that ends up on a trash pile or plowed up, in a composting container is truly sad. Starvation is not just having food or going hungry too. Food insecurity is another topic of discussion that
Maine Rutabaga Farm Produce Is Tasty Food From The Field.
everyone in the World can appreciate.
Maine has started a healthy trend to being the top in the country for lower age farmers and is bucking the national average age of hovering around 59 for farmers in the USA.
It used to be about 48 years old for the guy and gal in the overalls, back after World War Two’s cease fire. More on the trend for aging farmers in the USA. In Maine, agriculture’s resurgence is tied to the tourism too. Sometimes the farming is a agricultural festival that creates the buzz and traffic to small Maine communities.
Ways To Slice, Dice, Eat Red Cabbage. Just One Of The Locally Grown Maine Farm Foods Available To Buy, The Fields To Gleen.
Instead of picking up a package of food and not being so sure where it came from, the tendency to gravitate to the farmer’s markets is a healthy habit. To have a rich experience jawing and rubbing shoulders with the local grower who delivers the Maine farm food. Who shares the growing experience and learns what the shoppers prefers for future planning on what seed to buy. Knowing just which field on the Maine farm he will be growing what next year because the customer has spoken.
Eyeball to eyeball and face to face in the exchange between shopper and Maine farmer.
Organic farming in Maine is a growing part of the agriculture landscape too. Fighting for it’s bigger share of the market with conventional farming operations in Maine. There is a reason many Amish settlements have popped up around Maine. Cheap Maine land, fertile soil, not overly regulated with permits and licensing and low crime, no traffic. Lots of love and it makes for an idea backdrop to a farmstead in Maine if that is the lifestyle you want to carve out for yourself, your family.
Food, Maine, you and some land around where you live. Because you and no one else either should go hungry. Ever thought of scratching the dirt, planting the seeds and seedlings and tending the crops to get them to the bountiful harvest? Maine is one big state and farming is such an important part of the heritage of every single ones of the communities surrounding the four corners of Vacationland. Ever thought of owning a farmstead you build from the ground up and renting out rooms at your country inn, or scheduling tours for the tourist who decides to wander into your region of Maine? Hold that thought, can help you put together the dream in ownership of your own farming property in Maine.
Food insecurity, what do the two words mean if you live in Maine?
Well for starters, the first time I heard the expression “food insecurity” I did not think about not having enough or any. But where did the food come from and what was it sprayed with, how was it handled by field workers, in transport from field to my point of purchase, etc. I grew up on a Maine potato and grain farm and we had lean years but always ate well. With big vegetable truck gardens, an endless supply of potatoes and a root cellar stocked from dirt floor to over my head to draw from to make it close to home hands on foodstuffs. For true field to table, fruit orchard, poultry, beef, dairy critters to provide what went into the meal production.
Food insecurity is defined as …
Trimming Beets At Nature’s Circle, A Local Organic Farming Operation In Northern Maine.
“food in·se·cu·ri·ty
noun
the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. 1.”more than 800 million people live every day with hunger or food insecurity as their constant companion”.
Not knowing where your next meal or snack is coming from messes up the three meals a day routine, the you can’t have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat.
In a state like Maine where farming is big, agriculture is all around us. Going hungry is harder to fathom. You can always glean fields, there is plenty of food harvested but lots more left behind to just rot into the ground. Help yourself, just ask the farmer and say thanks. Because more mechanized farm operations don’t get everything from the field that could be what’s for your breakfast, lunch, dinner. But it is not economical for the big scale farmer to go back and scour because hundreds of acres to harvest before frost sets in and that’s all she wrote.
But the quality of the food, the nutritive value especially for youngsters with developing brains, growing bodies. Plenty of good food wins the day. Not tons of convenience items with empty nutrition that can be bought cheaply. But rob dietary nutrition of the essential vitamins and trace element ingredients. The eight out of ten folks living in a city where the most jobs are don’t have the same options for free food straight from the field to supply what is on the grocery list. They can’t have a garden because just no space around them in the hustle bustle.
Reduced quality, less variety adds to the food insecurity discussion to broaden the scope as defined by the USDA. Discomfort, weakness, illness with prolonged food insecurity is a cancer of a different type. Than the ones that attack certain organs or that like to spread and travel around the body like wildfire. That claim the lives of loved ones in our families and communities.
Do you worry about food running out and your cupboards being Old Mother Hubbard bare?
In cities, just in time grocery store stocking the shelves would mean havoc if trucking stopped for two or three days. Storms and weather disturbances bear this out as panic happens on the retail level.
Family Farms, Maine Has An Increase And The Average Age Of Farmers Is Dropping!
Like a cold Maine winter challenges the wood pile supply when you have five cords stacked in the shed or filling your cellar but are chewing it up quicker than you planned.
Knowing you may not have enough fuel or food for your family to keep them warm or fed is what keeps a parent awake at night. When money is short, programs to take up the slack get over taxed, reduced or phased out altogether.
Food and shelter, safety are the biggest basic needs a person could have. Providing for your family, the young sprouts is a component of love as a good parent. Which everyone needs to feel important, to feel loved, worthwhile and have hope. Good food, in great supply is a wonderful basic staple. And can the locals in a small Maine community prepare it just so.
Anyone working in education knows the anxiety of kids skipping meals because there is nothing to to feast on.
And what it does to add to the distraction and dull the focus of the student needing the education. But the lack of energy or oomph. Just not feeling up to par because of sheer hunger. The week before a school vacation are happy times for those heading out on a tropical sea cruise or a visit to see Mickey or Minnie in the sunny south. But when your Maine home is cold, there is no food and the atmosphere is stressed because of missing parents or ones that fight, there is nothing to look forward to when a vacation arrives. School is the routine, with food injected to round out the day in the classrooms and roaming the halls in the educational shuffle from the gym to the library and hopefully not detention.
The days heading out of a school vacation back into the three “R’s” in the classroom are hard on educators and students too.
Because the adjustment from a week, a holiday that was not fun with no food, cold and harsh conditions at home. All that follows the unhappy student back into the rows of desks with the black board upfront and the apple on the desk. The hungry child living in poverty conditions did not get a real vacation and has to begin feeding the mind and nourishing the soul to develop skills to be self sufficient outside of the educational bubble.Have you ever run into someone that was poor growing up and did not like it, carries a chip on their shoulder of bitterness and regret? It isn’t fair for a kid to be hungry, to go without food.
The Bees Are Busy Pollinating The Maine Potato Fields In Summer.
Or I know of someone that knew hunger growing up and missed meals, went to bed hungry and who now works at a food pantry because of it. To make sure less kids and older know that same feeling down in your gut of going without food or good nutrition.
Do you support a cause like backpack for kids in your local area?
Who fill up the empty sack to have bus drivers distribute to households that lack much in the cupboards at no fault of the child in those homes.
During the school year, backpacks with non-perishable items are filled up on a Wednesday, taken to the school on Friday, and head home with the children to be returned via the child turning in the empty bags on Monday.
Everything repeated the following Wednesday which is fine as long as the yellow school bus is on its run. Reducing hunger for children is so important to their education, esteem, general well being. Summer away from school’s dinner bell ringing or if the back pack support team needs a break in the food line bucket brigade, kids go hungry of the good stuff, any foodstuff and on their own in fending for themselves.
Low cost or free meals that are nutritious and balanced are provided to over 31 million American students in our country.
When you scan a row of kids at a concert or at a sporting event or out in the community and obesity seems to be another dietary problem. Not because of not enough food but poor eating habits of the wrong items or too much that adds the weight and affects the health of the youngster. Who is carrying around the physical weight beyond the design of his or her body along with the self esteem issues for being large.
Seed Potatoes In Maine, The Best Creates Large Yields Of Great Nutritious Produce.
Part of fixing health care and making it more affordable starts in good eating habits as a kid.
Obesity affects genetics, alters the behaviors and attitudes of kids that get less and less exercise the larger they become. A healthy diet, a child physically active is happier and not eating out of boredom or self medicating to band-aid a larger dietary wound.
Good diet, eating habits and nutritious food helps children grow strong, maintain a healthy weight throughout childhood. And leads to less burden on the expensive health care system because a healthier population does not depend on it so greatly.A harmony, a balance of energy goes into activity and calorie consumption. From the right foods and beverages to prevent excess weight gain.
Healthy eating, being physically active helps to prevent chronic diseases that are killers like type 2 diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. Eating balanced meals, combined with exercise improves mental clarity and helps reduced mood swings. To stave off depression because of the poor self image from overeating, under exercising and being out of control with food consumption.
Did you or anyone grow up exposed to Maine farming?
Do you have a garden, is there space to have one where you live or does your community provide space to scratch the dirt, plant seeds to cultivate and nourish to get to the harvest stage?
Maine, lots of space and more are turning to homesteads, farmsteading because what is most important is missing on their dinner tables. Good food and Maine farming tie in with healthier lifestyles and being outdoors, working the land to be in better shape as the secondary gain. Maine farming agriculture numbers are up in more ways than one.
The coastline as far as you can see and wildlife filled Great North woods surrounding you can make Maine vacations pretty peaceful.
But when you vacation in Maine or live here full or part time, Canada is always near your Maine doorstep. Just a short hop across the border in many Maine locations means tap into the magic of Canada too. For an international blend of Maine and Canada on tap for vacation fun.
Atlantic Canada is the region of Canada that the is closest to where I live in Maine.
It comprises of four provinces located on the Atlantic coast, the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. Quebec is the other Canadian province that borders Maine and offers more vacation options. With the loonie worth less than the American dollar, the vacation value of crossing the Maine border into Canada combine to be a change of scenery / sound fiscal decision all rolled up into one.
Maine Is Next To Three Atlantic Canada Maritime Provinces
I have lots of Canadian relatives and my two youngest children, boys, each played lots of hockey on “over home” polished sheets of frozen solid ice.
Ice hockey arenas are a cornerstone of many Canadian provincial towns and cities. Hop in the Jeep, let’s take you through the Canadian immigration and leave Maine for a view minutes. Ski areas in New Brunswick Canada account for some of the cross border traffic in our family.
If you follow the Me In Maine blog you see different areas around Vacationland high-lighted as possible places to visit. But being this close to the Atlantic Canadian provinces means it is time for a blog post rotated in to the mix of over 1000 about what lies just a few miles away.
My first visit to Halifax Nova Scotia was because one son was thinking about attending Dalhousie University in Canada.
We visited Fairlawn Cemetery while in Halifax Nova Scotia which has the remains of many who perished on the wreck of the HMS Titanic during her maiden voyage. I plan to visit Prince Edward Island Canada this summer and will post images and blog a post or two on that vacation adventure. In Quebec, on vacations growing up my three older brothers and I made several trips to that Canadian province and usually during Winter Carnival. Staying at the Hotel (Chateau) Frontenac in old Quebec City Canada, the frozen toboggan runs, skating on iced over ponds added to the history lesson of this province where French was the primary language.
In New Brunswick Canada that borders Maine, there are vacation options from the Fundy coastal area into the river valley and Miramichi River route.
Lots of cultures clashed and melted into the landscape and history of casting the rod and reel line along the Miramichi River region of New Brunswick Canada. Life is a beach and in New Brunswick Canada there are fifty of them to spread out your towel or set up a folding chair to just unplug and recharge as you gaze out over the waterfront that expands well beyond the eye sight of you or me.
Longest Covered Bridge In The World, Hartland New Brunswick Canada. Hold Your Breath Like The Kids Do Crossing It!
You decide the mode of transportation in the site seeing on your vacation weaving back and forth from Maine to Canada too.
Maybe what works best is a combination of biking along Eastern Canada’s best mountain trails, hiking to the waterfalls hidden in the wildlife filled forests, or camping and cooking outdoors under the stars of New Brunswick. One New Brunswick Canada park in particular to scope out is Hopewell Rocks located on the shores of the Bay Of Fundy. The Hopewell Cape location is one of the Marine wonders of the World and is the site of some of the World’s highest tides. When the sea is removed, the walks on the ocean floor who unique rock formations that have been carved by the wear and tear of tides and wave action.
The “flower-pot rocks” as they are called are over a thousand years old in the Hopewell Rocks region of New Brunswick Canada.
The tides manipulate the water to rise to four story high levels. Kayaking around the rock formations is one memorable way to explore the Hopewell Rocks. More on the New Brunswick province region called the Bay of Fundy. More on the festivals of New Brunswick Canada. The food of New Brunswick Canada includes a lot of seafood, because like Maine, the rich fishing grounds of the Atlantic Ocean include the gulf of St Lawrence and Northumberland Strait. Enjoy lobster just like in Maine but also year round the arctic char, salmon, haddock, trout, sole, crab, clams, and blue mussels.
The propaganda I read from the tourist sites say the Bay of Fundy scallops are fat and juicy like the lobsters.
Oysters are harvested from September to the end of November and to really load up on them visit the Acadian Coastal Drive as part of your New Brunswick Vacation. Used to ski Mont Fralagne when the kids were little in Edmunston New Brunswick Canada.
The food in the Edmunston New Brunswick area offers unique Acadian dishes that were part of the local 39th Acadian Festival highlights showcased last year. The Acadian Festival spanned both sides of the Maine Canadian border. Events included a re-enactment of the first Acadian Landing in Northern Maine, traditional Acadian supper, entertainment, cultural displays, a festival Parade, Party du Main Street.
The Acadian Festival is held each year in conjunction with a large family reunion, honoring one of the Acadian pioneer families. Edmunston New Brunswick Canada is one of eight cities. In Houlton Maine a quick trip where I-95 connects to the Trans Canada highway to shop in Fredericton the capital of New Brunswick Canada is abut 70 miles. Fredericton provides a city setting and going on to Moncton, to St John New Brunswick Canada’s largest city just adds to the road trip.
If you are in Downeast Maine, you might consider a ferry boat trip across to Roosevelt Campobello International Park.
The 35 room historic International vacation home of President Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt called Campobello is one worthwhile visit on Vacation in Maine or New Brunswick Canada! FDR’s family vacationed here for 65 years on his beloved small Canadian island where he could be himself! On an island, you and I are all the same. Watch the video on Campobello Island with its 35 foot tidal waves and total privacy away from the high society of New York and training to be mentally tough, to wrestle with polio at age 39.
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Like Maine, whale watching, visiting the museums, learning about the history and sampling the local food served by friendly Canadian locals make your two nation vacation one to remember. To continue year after year as you straddle the border between Maine, New Brunswick and the rest of Atlantic and Quebec Canadian provinces we will highlight in detail in the future!
The best coffee in Maine is found served up at a sporting camp in the great, deep woods.
With a group of guys traveling from many different states on a yearly pilgrimage up to Maine. The recreational camp in T4 R3 or whatever unorganized township and range number where property taxes go directly to Augusta Maine. No pressurized water, the woods retreat serviced by an outhouse with very outdated reading material. The damp, musty smelling sparse camp interior used by mice most of the year is stocked with plenty of bunk beds, a center pot belly wood stove just a crackling, sputtering as it cranks out the heat.
Coffee Early In The Morning The Old Fashion Way!
The coffee server making his rounds like a private after the day’s hard fought battle to catch some type of wildlife with the Choke full o’ Nuts, Eight O’clock, Wally World Classic Roast coffee beverage.
Served up inside the hand peeled cedar or pine log Maine woods camp. Using a pot holder, gripping a very old smoke charred metal pot tipped slowly to spill where intended its precious brewed contents.
The blackened coffee pot like the cowboys used out under the stars, on the open range leaning against their circle of western saddles gazing into camp fires. Collecting positive ions as a summer breeze circulates around the idle conversations.
Back at woods camp, the metal coffee cups gripped by their handles by the partridge, deer, black bear or moose slayers. Transported out onto the open porch after a gut busting supper of fresh game, local veggies, out of state dessert pies their better half packed in coolers for the trip north days earlier.
Fresh coffee to start the day tastes mighty fine, extra special at a Maine lake cottage or ocean front property too.
With Grampy cooking a breakfast of eggs, sausage, bacon, ham, baked beans, home fries, pancakes, homemade biscuits and jam. The chef telling his three grandsons to shake a leg. “We’re wasting daylight lads, the fish are waiting, I can hear them calling your name.” A glance at his Timex shows the cook and chief bottle washer it’s a whisker before five AM.
Hot Coffee Fixed The Way You Like It Best! To Keep The Lobstermen Caffeinated.
The excited boys, a trio of cousins under the gun to finish their breakfast eggs, flap jacks, whatever remains. Mopping up their plates using the last biscuit what was served up from iron frying pan atop the antique wood cook stove. The heater/kitchen cook center of making the hash passed down family heirloom surviving two World Wars and the Great Depression.
The eggs, Maine blueberry pancake stacks and the charge of so much else just dined on, all cooked just the way each young boy liked them best. While now their grandfather cleans up, turns to drain one more cup of early morning coffee. He gave up the cancer sticks, the nails for the coffin three decades earlier that would have died up one coffee drinking hand in the pair.
Filling a thermos with the excess brew to nurse on later to remain percolated chipper, to stay IV slow drip caffeinated out on the open chop, the swell and roll, fishing troll along Maine water front.
As a day of fishing and stories with a grandfather out in the sea worthy boat unfolds for the memory making. The competition for the biggest fish bragging rights about to launch from the boat tied to the dock out front the Maine lake cottage or rock bound coastal vacation venue.
The best coffee in Maine, you can find it in quaint small town, a few city venues all established that stand out brightest. But the map from the hand picked beanery dispensers touted online seems to stop in Bangor heading north. It forgets the coffee served daily at the corner stores, local Northern Maine diners, restaurants and cafes. The church, grange, service and snowmobile, sporting clubs. Morning coffee tastes best in anything but a Styrofoam cup and spiked with the conversation. The catch up on grapevine local-state-national news with the other fresh ground bean worshipers public opinion that makes the eye opening coffee time almost a religious ritual.
Just try to skip that morning coffee and the rest of the day seems to back peddle and you feel big time out of joint.
Ninja Coffee Mug. Become Cat Like Quick Slurping Joe Out Of This Container.
Maine like it’s barley pop beer micro breweries has lots of coffee bean roasters. Clever names attached to the coffee to tie in with the Maine regions it is from and all of them pushing hard on the branding levers to stand out as the best bean to start, maintain or end your day. What’s the slogan of the double DD brand of coffee? Oh yeah, the World runs on Dunkin’ (coffee).
My World rocks on Tim Horten’s and with my boys playing hockey in Canada for years I noticed there is a Timmy Ho Ho’s on every corner eh? My addiction grows for the place with the pull up the rim to win, and fruit explosion muffins that make me a coffee Ninja. (Hi yahhh chop drop kick move.) Hey, hold it while over home in Canada… Back it up in Hartland New Brunswick where the World’s longest wooded covered bridge spans the St John River. Let’s pull in to Dixie Lee for some of their wicked decent chicken, fish, a couple tubs of that oh oh so so fine, the sweet fine chopped coleslaw would you Sport?
Forget the brand of java bean you like best, how do you enhance it to your liking with the aftermarket fixings?
If straight up, Darth Vader black is not your color or choice for coffee enjoyment then roll in the condiments tray. Add the cream and sugar, or slew of substitutes for sweetness or flavoring infusion options. A shot of Jack, Jim, Jose, Crown whiskey or hit me. Like a little splash of raspberry Chamboard, orange Grand Marnier, Bailey’s Irish Cream, B&B liqueur? No thanks. Keep the stopper in the Jeanie in the bottle like gold strip wrapped decanter. But please do. Latte this, double shot of turbo that, triple triple espresso over here as you make the coffee pouring rounds. To have it your way in the cup of Joe held with clasped hands. To heat the palms of your paws as you reflect. All the enhancement additives leaves little room for center stage coffee among pump up the volume foamy lather.
What are the heath benefits coffee, of this oxidant rich elixir of the God’s besides extra energy, clear thinking, burning fat? Well decreasing heart and diabetes disease is one reason to keep it up. The chug a lug makes you a regular percolator. Who started the coffee break, the coffee cluck reach for filter brewed squeezin’s of the big bad bean? More on the history of coffee. Sometimes it is less is more in the good to the last drop with little demitasse, half the cup size coffee squirt. But talk about horsepower and an eye opener from the coffee shot between the eyes. Iced coffee anyone? Cool off on a hot day, shift to the hot stuff when the mercury sits lower in the glass temperature tube. Or fire up the single serving Keurig unit for some like it this way, some another or when drinking alone.
Single Shot Coffee … Load Your Favorite And Here It Comes Without The Wait For 8,10,12 Cups Or More In The Big Pot Of Java Joe.
Remember, it’s not the coffee all by its lonesome but the people and Maine setting that improve the overall taste experience. Coffee moments, ahhhhh. Got time for coffee?
Oh sure, sometimes it’s just you and the coffee in the holder with drive time tunes or the news on the morning commute. But the sense of community among coffee drinkers after their morning fix is strong. Truck drivers guiding the 18 or more wheels with the jake brake through all kinds of Maine weather and winding roads. The guy or gal with the chain drive wallet, the high watt squawk box linear “got your ears on” CB needs the road juice. Not a flashlight full of bennies under the bunk mattress. To stay extra alert, to avoid flattening texting teenagers with new licenses and plenty of other distractions. That’s a big 10-4 to skip the 10-55 that leads to the meat wagon or hearse call.
What’s that, you are a tea toteler?
Being this close to the merry old dominion of Canada which learned the love of a spot of tea at three in the afternoon from across the pond, Mainers are no strangers to the power of the tea leaves. Don’t have clouds in their coffee and reach for Red Rose, Sleepy Bear, Earle Grey, Lipton or whatever their favorite blend of tea in the bag to heat, steep and pour. Some hot items for tea drinkers if it is no no to the cup of Joe.
Fresh Hot Coffee, Whatever Meal Tastes Improves After Maie Farm Chores Are Done.
The best coffee bean grinder on the market today to own because some argue fresh ground of any variety that trips your trigger is the single most important ingredient. Or what about French pressed coffee? It ain’t rocket science as this coffee camp blog post sputters.
Anything but those Folger’s coffee crystals for me please. Like warm water with a brown crayon dipped in it. Yikes. And what about cowboy coffee that is only the beans, the water, the pot? True two wheel hog riders don’t mind the bugs in their teeth but the grounds from really bad cowboy coffee can stick with your gritty smile and spoil the day.
I think the water is right up there with what’s most important to pay attention to making the morning coffee.
Don’t spoil the coffee with chlorine and fluoride municipal H2O IMHO. Tap a spring, draw from a private well of pure water. And push back, run away from those burnt over-roasted beans that taste like Moxie, roots, bark and bug parts mixed with dirt. I know folks line up in droves, beat a pathway to the door of Starbucks. And I’m a some like it fine just midnight black, straight up no thank you to anything extra slid into my coffee cup. To wrestle with the taste, to interfere with the clear, crisp liquid buzz. But just don’t feel the love for Starbucks. Sorry and hope you do support the establishment if one is handy and on your haunt circle.
What you park the coffee in for a vessel for the road ride or just standing around hearing about how the Red Sox, Celtics, Boston Bruins or local sports team did last night.
With the shuffle stop and go at the Piggly Wiggly corner pit stop.
Happy Coffee, Warm Up Your Hands, Heart, Let the Buzz Give You A Kick In The Pants.
Where talk about the brown trout biting out on Secret Pond or the river with the first settler’s name, Meduxnekeag that means “Rocks at its mouth”.
Here’s one fine coffee tested container for road or camping trips where you need more than one 8 ounce fix and the thermos is as precious as the green tank with the air cord is to folks short on breath.
The coffee cup better not be Dixie brand or hydrocarbon styrofoam. That’s right up there with drinking water out of a garden hose on a warm day experience when you are a kid. And your peers say “he’s just a young sprout, don’t know no better”. (Speaking as an aside of the dialect expressions in Maine check out this wicked decent video story about the trusty, crusty clammer with his hoe, boots, on the mud flats in search of the friggin’ purple clam that removed his finger. He could have used a squirt of French Vanilla coffee to his sweeten his sour mood.)
Here are some local Maine bean roasters and distributors.
Wicked Joe’s pushes not just a better coffee bean but fair trade with the Juan Valdez farmer on the other end of the trade. Carrabassett Coffee Company is headquartered in Kingfield, Maine near Sugarloaf USA ski area. Here’s a Maine map with more coffee roaster locations to located the ones nearest you. Will double back and add more from the list as we delve into who they are, where they are in Maine for your coffee hounds.
The location of Downeast Maine, where the region starts and stops is hard to nail down.
The term Downeast or Down East Maine has been used loosely since the word first appeared in a dictionary in 1825. “Downeast” is a sailing term too. The prevailing winds along the Maine coast blow from the southwest in the warm months, so ships from Boston were able to rundownwind as they sailed along Maine’s north-easterly-trending coast. Or so reported like a true skipper Colin Woodard with his explanation of where the term originated in his bookThe Lobster Coast.
Ever Been To Downeast Maine? Learn More About The Region In Washington And Hancock Counties.
Woodard examines Downeast Maine’s complicated relationship with Massachusetts that combined with what else was happening almost a decade before the pilgrims spied and named the rock.
When European settlers were barely eking out a living along the rocky Maine coast. Where their weary, weathered descendants fended off aggrieved Indians, French raiders, self serving English lords. And greedy land speculators all had a hand in the forces forging. Shaping the unique lobstering communities of coastal Maine.
Downeast Maine is small fishing communities, a little less touristy than coastal sections closer to the Granite, Bay states.
The terrain is hilly, soils rocky, sandy. Nd not like the Caribou loam profile of Aroostook County, the garden of Maine. Downeast Maine is not easily accessed by simply turning on a right hand turn signal. No quick zip trek to reach from an Interstate 95 off ramp. It takes time to weave in and out along old US Rt 1. Like threading the eye of a needle. Downeast is more difficult to reach from land than from sea. During periods of fog, when it is snowing and blowing fluffy flakes or through a weather spell of freezing rain. Those batton down the hatches, zip up your rain or winter wear snuggly during a weather northeaster.
The distance, difficulty for travel insulates and protects like lots of far away corners of Maine.
Where on a day trip you just arrive and like travel to the Moon have to quickly shift gears and think about heading for home. Low on the fuel of precious time. That is part of what protects the craggy, rock bound coast of Downeast Maine. And why there are not easy directions for tourists when wanting a quick answer fix to finding tourist attractions and getting a slow, dry reply of “you can’t get there from here”. (The correct pronunciation “You caunt get thar from here-ah”)
Rough Seas Outside Maine, Come Ashore, Land Your Vessel.
When the native asked for the tenth time today gives up, because the travel help just causes grumbles about what a stupid way to lay out your town. When the locals have no trouble at all and like it just fine.
Downeast Maine is not like anywhere else, not trying to be and hangs tough to what helped it keep going and survive the storms of life.
Don’t expect cookie cutter like modern grid row communities and remember the terrain, weather, tight economics all add more wrinkles to the Downeast experience that defies zoning and does not seek perfect order. Clinging instead to the days before the steamers and when clipper ships, King pines, fishing canneries, maritime folklore of dance and music, rich sea coast history and tradition ruled the day.
So back to the drawing the dotted line on the cake of Maine to cut deep and carve out a piece of tasty Downeast Maine.
Downeast Maine, where exactly does it start or stop again? The tourist information people slice the watery eastern side of Vacationland to include “sections” of the Maine coast so the local merchants can focus just on their backyard. Because on a three day weekend, you are not going to be able to sample all of Maine coastline. Pace yourself as a traveler with only so much time. Focus on your area as a merchant not wishing to waste a drop of the expensive promotional dollars. It’s regions, not one of the sixteen counties easy to figure out the where the travel slide show is taking you today in Maine.
Hancock County has the longest coastline of any of Maine’s sixteen land sections. In Washington County no democrat has led the county since Hubert Humphrey back in 1968. What about the Downeast Maine lighthouses included in this northern most section of coastline? I know Cape Elizabeth’s Portland Headlight gets most of the press, but West Quoddy Headlight is one of the prettiest in Maine in her crisp, clean, dramatic red and white attire. She is the Eastern most lighthouse in Maine, the USA.
Float Your Boat To Maine. Get Here Anyway You Have Available. Cutler Maine Pictured, Downeast.
I think West Quoddy Headlight’s northern coastal location across from Maritime Canada, Campobello Island makes her a jewel the average traveler runs out of gas and never gets to see.
We took a little road trip down to Machias Maine, the county seat for Washington yesterday. Had some fried clams, fish chowder at Helen’s Restaurant and admired the Downeast setting. Less tourists, much snow than Northern Maine today, plenty of fractured ice along the waterways. A visit to Roque Bluffs State Park is one recommendation if you are in the Machias area of Maine. For the smell of salt air, vision of coastal eye candy and to feel the breeze that makes you pull up your collar, tug on your zipper.
Blueberries, one more word to describe Downeast Maine. Like Central Maine children collect eggs out of the hen’s nest, Northern Maine children pick potatoes out of the ground, Downeast youngsters and their families rake blueberries from the barrens.
Machias Maine, County Seat For Washington Is Part Of Downeast Maine!
Front page insertions about food pantries, winter fuel heating assistance, volunteers sought to count homeless residents all show how Maine coastal communities ban together. To help each other, and leave no one out in the cold or overlooked. Especially during the darker, snow filled months, the stark off season tourist months. When folks hunker down and wait for spring. Your turn to deal in the cribbage board game Chummy. Pass the sardines please Bub. You going ice fishin’ this weekend? Heard the catch was wicked strong off the point. A yuh. Headin’ upta camp.
In both newspaper publications, towns grapple with local regulations for marijuana gets front page press ink in larger font type. Fifty two percent of Washington County did not support the latest pot referendum but Maine as a whole did by about four thousand votes.
Now talk about moving forward with how best to handle pot out in the open suggests moratoriums for a year. To figure out regulation, enforcement, penalties, how to guide best, how to test for sobriety and what about edibles that all on the table in small Maine communities. Who are looking to the Maine Municipal Association for guidance on legalize pot. Some towns in Maine reaching out to learn about how Oregon, Colorado and Washington state rolled out legalize marijuana growing programs to study for the private and retail sector.
Fresh Fish, Your Are In Maine Remember?
The veteran of the month is highlighted in the Machias Valley News Observer, the local Maine newspaper serving its region for over 160 years.
In the newspaper edition I held up, opened wide for the peek into Downeast Maine, a World War Two vet was the topic of discussion. Many in the audience no doubt somehow related to this service vet. Veterans are gone but not forgotten and remembrance is the least you can do for the many who gave some, the some who gave all. Amen.
Local sports teams like all of Maine towns are big news as thoughts of another or the first gold ball for the school trophy case are entertained by everyone young and old. ” The Narraguagus Lady Knights basketball team slays the Woodland Knights” the headline reads. Local photos from Steuben, Jonesport, Barney Cove in Beals, Maine all add to the literary seasoning of the local newsprint of Downeast Maine.
News highlights in the local Downeast press edition we scanned highlighted the Calais Maine hospital marks it’s 100th anniversary.
It shows a 1917 image from back when it was on Church Street. An image of Bohemian Waxwing birds flying in and out to feast on apples and berries was showcased for readers. New books at the Pembroke Library highlighted… one titled “The Kamikaze Hunters” by Will Iredale.
Maine. The Jewels Are Out In The Open, Glistening, Sparkling The Daylight. Not Trapped, Under A Light In A Locked Up Tight Display Case. Cutler Maine Island.
Contra dances, Celtic music, boat builders meeting, benefit suppers, bug delicacies tasting and education, senior socials, a beam raising ceremony, soul foot pot luck supper, mind reading, workshop on making sauerkraut, moon light snow shoe/ski/food hike. Everything happening in the local setting make the news announcements and gets coverage in the weekly papers Downeast.
To mark the new year, the Great Sardine pictured, dropping from the Tides Institute and Museum of Art building in downtown Eastport at midnight. Also a historic tug boat that parted from its mooring in St Andrews Canada because of high winds during a winter storm was pictured listing to one side on shore in Robbinston, Maine.
The 60 foot T.B. McClintic was built in 1932 at Bath Iron Works and had a rich maritime history racking up the nautical miles out at sea. Luckily the sea vessel was able to power off on the incoming tide the following day with calmer seas and the journey across the St Croix River to return to St Andrews.
Who says there is nothing going on in a small Maine town?
Downeast Maine, you want to vacation but need some ideas on what to do and where in Vacationland. The Pirate Festival in Eastport and Lubec Maine is one worthwhile outing. There is an Eastport Ferry Service to help get you on the water, from land lubber point to point. To help you during the Pirate Festival develop your sea legs. Wicked fun time if you can make it to Downeast town wide celebration. Now let’s go clamming! Ready?
Bar Harbor Maine is part of the lower end of Downeast coastal sections but seems so much more prosperous and polished that something is lost in the authenticity.
Maine Has A Slew Of Waterfront Options For Vacations, Like Downeast Maine Up North On The Coast.
There is spin in that four color high gloss representation of Downeast that seems a little slick, a lot more expensive. Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park are a tourist attraction that is hard to resist and she is the rich relative because of the wealth. The old and new money people that all had the same idea in where to head. In migration to this coastal Maine destination for summer vacation homes and nightly sea cruises where breakwaters were installed to avoid spilling your cocktail while conversing and spotting whales, seals, bald eagles and lighthouses.
Lobster recipes in Downeast Maine. The crustaceans start out dark green and end up bright red. But if I had my druthers, just set me in front of a very large bowl of steamed clams with the broth for dipping, in the stripping and bathing in butter before down the gullet. With a splash of micro red or white something from a local brewery of barley pop and topped off with a seaside setting with your family in Maine. It does not get better than that.
Sample Maine, all of her. Even if it takes a lifetime.
Fishing For Something Missing? Maine. Find It Here.
When you say you vacation at the Maine coast, that does not nail down the where exactly about are you talking? And don’t make the trip the same season if you want to get a completely difference travel experience. Often times the best Maine coastal vacation is without all the people like the open highway when it is not drive time busy.
Vacations, time away to be below radar and unplug, to recharge in Maine.
Come at the beginning, ends, before and after the tourism season’s highest pitch for the down low, real connection.
Fill your lungs with the sea salt air, your eyes with the expanse of rock and coastal fresh water. Your plate with another helping of fish, clams, lobster but save room for a slab of blueberry pie topped with drizzling scoops of ice cream. Learn about the Acadian and Canadian history. Lots of stories to hear. Pull up a chair, roll down a window, make the trip.
The reading material in Maine, what you find yourself holding as you ride shot gun traveling up the I-95 pike into Maine.
Vacationland is a tall, wide, vast state and securing the right publications can help the experience while roaming the Pine Tree State.
I live in the Crown of Maine, up in “The County” and Aroostook folks like the rest of the state all enjoy looking for the latest Uncle Henry’s buy, sell, swap guide that hits the new stands on Thursday of each week.
Maine humorist Tim Sample who is from Fort Fairfield Maine weaves Uncle Henry’s into his comedy routine.
The Scenery In Maine. What You Look Up And See While Reading Uncle Henry’s, The Delorme Maine Atlas Gazetteer, A Stephen Kind Book.
The long time premier Maine comedian quotes one gem as he scans leaning back on a stool holding an Uncle Henry’s as far out as his arms will carry it. Under a hot spotlight shining down from overhead he reads carefully. “Size 14 wedding dress. Never worn. Will trade for shotgun.”
Then the ad proceeds to provide contact information so the trade can be completed between the disgruntled bride that did not tie the knot and has a little unfinished business that will be probably classified under the crimes of passion column of the Portland Press Herald, the Bangor Deadly News or whatever newsprint you get your fix and open wide for an eye full in the read read read.
Uncle Henry’s is a key to making a native’s hard earned pay check go further, to get more from their small fixed income retirement dollars.
Like the funnies, the comic section and which strips your eyes bee line to in sequence, Uncle Henry has sections that appeal to everyone in the audience. I like to check out the airplanes, farm machinery and use the real estate section for business.
The Maine Atlas Gazetteer Map, a Delorme company based in Yarmouth now owned now by GPS giant Garmin, a Swiss company that plans to continue press of one valuable book.
To struggle with tucking it under your arm as you trek Maine’s back woods roads and trails. “You can get there from here-ah” if your are carrying the big, bulky latest updated Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map book that is depended on by many around the state. As the pickups full of hunters, fishermen, sportsmen dressed in camo and blaze orange ply the back roads of Maine looking for wildlife and highly scenic adventures.
How’s This For a Back Drop Reading Your Favorite Book In Maine?
And the Stephen King book, there are so many to select from if you find yourself are caught up, not nursing on any other reading material while in Maine.
Most make you appreciate being inside a Maine home or woods camp, lake cottage, wherever you find yourself reading. About the only time you find yourself locking your doors in Maine. And when you are a little jumpy but it all improves the take away from reading.
When the heightened state of awareness just serves to draw you deeper, to the place of no return into the literary works of the Bangor Maine author. See the Maine house where Stephen King lives in Penobscot County. The guy responsible for too little sleep from too much ready into the week hours of the night when you tell yourself, just one more page.
One thing for certain in Maine, you will not be reading billboards as you motor through the state. Maine billboards were banned back in 1970’s. No shortage of No Trespassing signs and some are pretty humorous and keep you guessing about venturing onto the land of another after reading them and weighing the odds of is it worth it to go against the sign’s advice on posted property when on the trail.
Reading material in Maine, the menu at the eating establishments can be entertaining too.
Remember a family vacation trip to Big Squaw Mountain to ski with the kids and the special of the day at the local Greenville Maine restaurant being “whatever the UPS package delivery driver hit on the way over recently”.
Maine Is A Popular Venue For Weddings, Vacations Where You Are In The Woods, On The Water. And You Get To Mesh With The Local Small Town Community Settings.
Road kill, MMMmmmmm good and nutritious. Pass plenty of the Frank’s hot sauce please. Drive careful and keep those eyes peeled for clusters of deer, black bear, moose or wild turkeys. You can surprise them when you come around a corner on a back road in rural Maine. And suddenly they can not get out of their own way due to the numbers pushing, shoving. As you pile on the brakes to avoid stoving up, fender bending all to heck whatever you are driving exploring the great state of Maine.
Take your pick. The reason for coming to Maine is from a long list of personal needs.
It is what has been missing. Once Maine gets into your system, she tugs on your heart and you can not stay away for long. Maine, come for a day, end up spending a lifetime. Don’t stand her up. Sample her drop dead gorgeous sights, sounds, smells and throttle up all of your senses.
So much to discover, only so much time to fit it all in when you put Maine into your GPS and here we go. Hang on, it will be a ride you will never forget. The friendly locals in the Maine small towns guarantee it.
