The Metro bus service is considering eliminating their free lunch time service known as the Lunch Hop, according to a report in the Portland Daily Sun.
“We need revenue, we need farebox revenue,” explained David Redlefsen, general manager of the Greater Portland Transit District METRO bus service. “We want to eliminate the Lunch Hop.”
and the newspaper has also published a brief profile of the Fishermen’s Grill and it’s owner Tom Hincks.
The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes a pair of articles on the large number of people who go to the Saturday market in Deering Oaks Park,
So have you been to the farmers’ market lately?
I’m talking about the Saturday market at Deering Oaks, the one that has become so successful (yay!) it’s now become a little stressful (boo!) to squeeze through the throngs of humanity, dodging the long lines and the illegal bakers and the lookie-loos – the people who are there only to socialize and excessively fondle the produce without spending a dime.
and the prices of the produce,
This year, I’ll have to find something else to do with the pecorino romano. Why? Because $2 is over my limit.
This year, those tiny bunches of basil at the farmers’ market jumped to $2 a bunch. In case you hadn’t been keeping track, that’s a 100 percent price increase from just a couple of years ago.
as we as an advance report on the food at the Common GroundFair which is taking place this weekend.
“The food vendors, more than any other vendors, really earn their place at the fair,” said Jim Ahearne, fair director for the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, which hosts the event. “We don’t make it easy for them.”
Common Ground organizers require that all the food served at the fair, which is now in its 34th year, be Maine-grown and organic whenever possible.
The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes a pair of articles on the large number of people who go to the Saturday market in Deering Oaks Park,
So have you been to the farmers’ market lately?
I’m talking about the Saturday market at Deering Oaks, the one that has become so successful (yay!) it’s now become a little stressful (boo!) to squeeze through the throngs of humanity, dodging the long lines and the illegal bakers and the lookie-loos – the people who are there only to socialize and excessively fondle the produce without spending a dime.
and the prices of the produce,
This year, I’ll have to find something else to do with the pecorino romano. Why? Because $2 is over my limit.
This year, those tiny bunches of basil at the farmers’ market jumped to $2 a bunch. In case you hadn’t been keeping track, that’s a 100 percent price increase from just a couple of years ago.
as we as an advance report on the food at the Common GroundFair which is taking place this weekend.
“The food vendors, more than any other vendors, really earn their place at the fair,” said Jim Ahearne, fair director for the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, which hosts the event. “We don’t make it easy for them.”
Common Ground organizers require that all the food served at the fair, which is now in its 34th year, be Maine-grown and organic whenever possible.
The Tuesday Portland Daily Sun includes an article about “offbeat tourist attractions” including the Fortune Cookie Museum located in the Wok Inn on Forest Avenue.
The Museum is housed in glass cabinets with shelves of photographs, explanations and fortune cookie knick-knacks in the lobby of the Wok Inn on outer Forest Avenue. A plaque indicates that the museum was dedicated in 2004 to the “Beautiful People of Maine” by Ricky Yue.
Ricky Yue is one of the partners that opened the Wok Inn in 1981.
Both Down East and Maine magazine have just released their October 2010 issues, and both have a number of Portland food articles.
The new issue of Down East includes a survey of brunch spots in Portland, an excerpt from Fresh from Maine a new book by Michael Saunders and Russell French, and the official program guide for Harvest on the Harbor with a Guide to Good Eating in Portland.
The new issue of Maine magazine has a 48 Hours in Portland feature article with a plethora of eating recommendations, an A-List of the best diners in the state (Marcy’s made the list), and a review of Boda.
Neither publication’s articles are available online yet. The magazines should be showing up in subscriber’s mailboxes soon, if they’re not there already. You can usually find copies of the latest issue of Maine magazine in their free distribution rack at Bard Coffee on Middle Street.
The weekend edition of the Portland Daily Sun reports on an effort to allow community gardens to run farm stands that sell to the general public.
The planning board will review a proposed draft that would allow produce sales as follows: “A single produce stand shall be permitted on the premises of a community garden for the sale of flowers, vegetables, herbs or fruit produced on the premises; provided that the stand is no more than two hundred (200) square feet in floor area, and that sales are limited to two days per week between the hours of 9:00 am and 6:00 pm during the growing season from June 15 through October 15…”
and an article about G & R DiMillo’s new Great Bite Hope challenge meal which consists of 2 1-lb meatballs and 2 pounds of spaghetti.
Those with eyes bigger than their stomachs will face no shortage of embarrassments should they fail to finish the meal. DiMillo said that the restaurant will feature a wall of shame with photos of the gastro-poseurs, who along with the shame of it all have to pay the $22.95 bill.
The weekend edition of the Portland Daily Sun reports on an effort to allow community gardens to run farm stands that sell to the general public.
The planning board will review a proposed draft that would allow produce sales as follows: “A single produce stand shall be permitted on the premises of a community garden for the sale of flowers, vegetables, herbs or fruit produced on the premises; provided that the stand is no more than two hundred (200) square feet in floor area, and that sales are limited to two days per week between the hours of 9:00 am and 6:00 pm during the growing season from June 15 through October 15…”
and an article about G & R DiMillo’s new Great Bite Hope challenge meal which consists of 2 1-lb meatballs and 2 pounds of spaghetti.
Those with eyes bigger than their stomachs will face no shortage of embarrassments should they fail to finish the meal. DiMillo said that the restaurant will feature a wall of shame with photos of the gastro-poseurs, who along with the shame of it all have to pay the $22.95 bill.
The Portland Phoenix bids farewell to the Summer tourists and welcomes Fall as a season for the rest of us.
Perhaps we’ll see you again on your way back from apple-picking and leaf-peeping, but for the next few weeks Maine is wide open to those of us who braved summer traffic jams and regular denials from our favorite restaurants for attempting to dine on a weekend night without a reservation. But it was well worth the aggravation, because these next few weeks promise all those things that tourists come to Maine for — and more.
The Maine Observer has published a piece about the Portland Farmers Market.
Located directly across from the Portland Public Library and surrounded by the high-standing buildings of corporate offices, the market is hard to miss. You know you’ve entered it when you see the reusable shopping bags decorated with cheerful images of trees and animals. Stamped messages like “I am a plastic bottle” or “I am earth-wise” gloss over the underlying goal of buying and grown locally: to personally meet your food’s producer and to pollute less.
The weekend market is taking place this morning in Deering-Oaks Park and will be there until noon. For more information on the market, visit their website.
The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes an article about this year’s apple harvest,
“We have two orchards, and at the one in Manchester, which is near Augusta, we ended up with half a crop because of the frost when we were in full bloom,” said Marilyn Meyerhans, who owns the orchards with her husband, Steve. “But the rest of the crop is good. And then our Fairfield orchard, it’s a full crop but it’s coming so early that we’re picking like crazy about a week before we should be. But they’re ready.”
a report on the Apple, Swine and Wine menu taking place all this month at Evangeline,
“Since the apples are in microseasons all through September and October, and the pig has so many parts, it will give me the opportunity to do a new preparation every day,” Desjarlais said.
Look for shaved Liberty apple with peameal bacon and fennel.
and an interview with Lisa Fernandez and David Whitten on their permaculture backyard farm in Cape Elizabeth.
Tucked into a typical suburban neighborhood in Cape Elizabeth where lawns and flower beds dominate the landscape, Fernandes and her husband, David Whitten, have done away with their lawn and packed their third of an acre lot, just two houses from the South Portland line, with a growing backyard farm.