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.
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.
Classes, SWF BLOG, Website
A Visit to Dorolenna Farm
Yesterday, I drove out on Moody Mountain Road through a soft fog, admiring the lush green fileds of Lincolnville. Victoria Marshall, one the many women in our community that inspires me, operates Dorolenna Farm with her husband, Andrew and their two sons in Montville on Berry Road. They bought the place in 2007 and have incrementally built the foundation for a productive and breathtakingly beautiful farm. The property is blessed with an assortment of fruit trees: pears and apples of many varieties, a mulberry tree, a peach tree laden with fizzy fruit. In addition to their 1800’s farmhouse, they erected a barn in 2009 and a number of greenhouses that provide much need warmth for hot crops such as tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and tomatillos. They also raise meat birds, which is more Andrew’s thing. Victoria shared with me that the farm is a labor of love: it’s a chosen lifestyle that allows her family, friends and community to eat better and ultimately live better. It’s stories like these that bring warmth and richness to Mid Coast Maine.