SWF BLOG
Hosting a Meal: Salt Water Farm Style
After five years of hosting a supper club for 22 people at Salt Water Farm, we have become professionals at menu writing, grocery shopping, meal planning & execution, plating and even socializing with our guests. Our class “A Summer Meal for Friends” has been the most popular of the season, and our new friend, Lindsay Morris from Edible East End, sent along some photos from our most recent party planning class. If any of you would like to join us for the next “A Summer Meal for Friends” class, we have a few spaces remaining in our August 23rd class and you can sign up on our website at www.saltwaterfarm.com. Read More
SWF BLOG
Summer Happenings
This past weekend was an exciting one at Salt Water Farm. Saturday night promised to be beautiful, with clear skies, a full moon, and wonderful company at our second Full Moon Supper of the season. A morning trip to the Camden Farmer’s Market filled our kitchen table with baskets of strawberries, half a dozen of Common Wealth Farm’s chickens, and armfuls of vibrant summer vegetables. We fired up the grill and spent the day preparing for our guests, a menu including grilled broccoli and chicken, garbanzo bean soup, a speckled lettuce salad, strawberry galettes with elderflower whipped cream, and so much more. Our event started as our guests began to arrive around 6 p.m., and drew to a close on our patio with the full moon in clear view. It was an enjoyable evening to say the least, and I am already looking forward to our next supper in August.
Classes, SWF BLOG
Solstice
With recent weeks gone by in a whirlwind, there’s hardly been a moment to reflect on the latest happenings here at Salt Water Farm. The summer season has brought long, sun-drenched days wiled away in the garden, trips to the farmers market, bustling mornings in our café, and the first of the workshops in our cooking school. Our kitchen has quickly filled with summer’s bounty, brimming with live Maine lobster, Halibut steaks fished right out of Penobscot Bay, oysters, and armfuls of greens n’ things harvested from our own backyard. Participants were taught basic knife skills, shown how to shuck an oyster, learned to make sourdough bread start to finish, picked the first strawberries of the season, and instantly filled our kitchen with delicious scents and the clinks and clamors that promise a wonderful meal.
SWF BLOG
Memorial Day Asado at Salt Water Farm
By Lizzy Ott (Salt Water Farm apprentice)
The layered smell of salty air and aged wood, the gentle sounds of cleansing waves and birds’ soft songs, a reflexive eye blink and a glance towards the window through a misty fog and varying shades of green tree tops. The inevitable just-woke-up-in-a-new-place confusion encroaches. Where am I? Ah, yes, the coast of Maine.
This is how my mornings have started over the past two weeks. I’m the new apprentice at Salt Water Farm, diving into everything from the farm to the restaurant to the cooking school. After four years of student life in New York, this Northern migration has offered a very welcome breath of fresh air.
My first day at Salt Water Farm was the annual Asado. An asado is a traditional South American barbeque. The SWF asado was done true to form, with sustainably slaughtered lamb and rabbit, tasty side dishes made by friends and family in the cooking school kitchen, and a keg from a local brewer. We enjoyed the feast on a huge picnic table by the sea. It was the perfect introduction to the Salt Water Farm experience. I felt so thoroughly charmed by the camaraderie, the exceptional food and drink, and the backdrop of rows of vegetables. I immediately sensed the special quality to this place and the people who inhabit it.
SWF BLOG
A Visit to Dooryard Farm
May 20, 2014
I am lucky to live across the street from one of the only farms in Camden, Maine: Dooryard Farm. For you locals, it’s the beautiful green rolling fields on your left when you’re headed out of town towards the Snow Bowl. Cooper Funk and Marina Sideris are the proud owners, along with there darling son Julian and their black & white boarder collie. Previously, they managed a farm in Northern California called Dinner Bell Farm, where they focused on growing vegetable and raising chickens. At Dooryard Farm, they are growing beautiful salad greens, tomatoes, peppers and raising chickens as well as their first few pigs. They invited some friends over to meet the piglets and feast on their very own grilled chickens, pickled ramps, green tomato jam and a rhubarb crisp: a perfect spring meal. As I looked around at all of the young parents, mumbling toddlers and homegrown food, I was reminded of why I live here in the Camden Hills. A community of ambitious young farmers, artists, writers, craftspeople and entrepreneurs like myself grows in each passing year that I live in midcoast Maine. Together, we live fuller, richer lives and eat absurdly well.
Classes, SWF BLOG, Website
A Stew or a Story
med after MFK Fisher’s book “A Stew or a Story,” (a collection of short stories about food and life), we recently taught a class at Salt Water Farm focused on stewing techniques and all three of our recipes turned out divine. The first was a Coq au Vin, made with a beautiful chicken from Village Farm, a pile of mushrooms, cipillini onions and plenty of red wine. The second was a traditional beef stew, made with large cubes of locally raised beef, fingerling potatoes and rich beef stock made by our friends at Maine Meat. Lastly, we made a wonderful Mediterranean Fish Stew with salt cured olives, last-of-the-season tomatoes, lemon rounds and firm filets of cod from the Penobscot Bay. It was a delightful class and they kindly offered to help clean up afterwards. One of our very own students, Lisa Adleburg, stepped up and helped me to teach the class and it was great to see her confidence in the kitchen.
Classes, SWF BLOG, Website
Braising on the Bone with Mark and Sue Mildrum
After our Braising on the Bone class in early October, two of your students, Mark and Sue Mildrum, tackled some recipes at home. Below are photos of the beautiful meal that they put together.
SWF BLOG
A Dinner with Kathy Gunst
We were thrilled to have Kathy Gunst join us for our first collaborative chef’s dinner on Friday, June 7th. Around our beautiful farm table, 12 guests enjoyed a procesion of spring dishes, all inspired by Kathy’s most recent book, “Notes from A Maine Kitchen.” Our head chef, Justin Barrett and Kathy collaborated on meal that was not to be forgotten consisting of a bright green lettuce soup with a poached egg, a ramp and mushroom tart with a creme fraiche crust, grilled pork form Terra Optima Farm with braised rhubarb chutney and a strawberry shortcake, made with season’s first berries. All of the food came out on big, stunning platters in generous amounts, making a feast of a meal. Kathy read a chapter from her book about hunting for ramps, the most prized of spring foraged greens and we discussed how enjoyable it is to eat in Maine in the quieter seasons. It was a wonderful start to our guest chef supper series and we thank all of those who attended and hope to see you again soon. You can buy Kathy’s book in our marketplace.
Website
One month in
Croissant on the Deck
I’d like a cookie please
Coming right up little one
It’s been quite month. In a very short time, we have rolled out breakfast, lunch and dinner and having sampled a little bit of everything, I can say with certainly that the food at Salt Water Farm is exquisite. The breakfast sandwich, made with a homemade English muffin, spring greens, a farm egg, Smith’s Smokehouse bacon and ricotta salata always hits the spot. The croissant, made by our pastry chef Caitlin Macrae, is a thing of absolute bliss and brings me back to my time in Paris every time I eat it. The view in the morning from our deck takes my breath away, each time I step onto the porch and stepping back inside, it feels as if entering a lovely home, with a sea breeze and natural light coming in from all angles. At lunch, a spread of colorful, open faced sandwiches rest on thick cutting boards, with mounds of beautiful greens and homemade pickles as an accompaniment. On colder days, such as today, a soup simmers away on the stove. After lunch, out of the oven comes sea salted chocolate chip cookies for big and little hands alike. In the evening service, the sun moves West to the mountains and our incredible staff prepares food from area farms, showing off the bounty of produce and catch from that morning’s harvest. We have made huge strides in a very short amount of time and will continue to do so. We are looking forward to welcoming all those who have not yet stepped through our doors and welcoming back those who have found a warm seat at our table. Thanks for all of your support . . . without it we could not have taken such brave steps.
Written by Annemarie Ahearn
SWF BLOG
Testing Recipes for Salt Water Farm at Union Hall
Sardines
Baguettes
Bay Leaves
In the Pan
English Muffins
English Muffins, Jam and Baguettes
Rising
Lemon, Rosemary and Sea Salt Foccacia
Country Boule
Coq au Vin
Acorn Squash, Lincolnville Pig, Vinegar, Honey
Tarragon Cured Halibut, Shaved Beets, Escarole