The Press Herald reports that turkeys remain plentiful this year.
Despite concerns about a shortage and soaring prices, Maine’s larger grocery stores say that avian influenza did not affect their turkey supplies or retail prices.
Category: General News
Urban Sugar Kickstarter
Urban Sugar Donuts has launched a $25,000 Kickstarter campaign. Owner Kevin Sandes plans to use the funds to complete to “properly outfit” the new Urban Sugar store at Sugar Loaf, and to pay for new equipment and repairs to the USC food truck “Miss Rosie” so it can be back on the streets of Portland.
Maine Cider & Salt Water Farm
The November issue of Down East contains a feature on Maine’s burgeoning cider industry,
Buchanan, who just launched his hard cider operation this year, is one of more than a half-dozen Maine orchardists who’ve recently commited themselves to reviving the craft of brewing hard cider. The American colonists’ beverage of choice and a popular drink well into the mid-19th Century, is enjoying a renaissance in Maine on the heels of the state’s boom in craft beers…
and an intimate look at the challenges restaurant owner Annemarie Ahearn experienced as she launched the Salt Water Farm in Rockport.
Last year 170 new restaurants opened in Maine. Statistically, more than a quarter of them won’t make it through their first year. This is the story of one that did – restaurateur Annemarie Ahearn’s ambitious Salt Water Farm – and what it took to get there: bruised egos, broken friendships, and tough lessons about what Mainers want.
The articles aren’t yet available online but you can find copies of the magazine on your local newsstand.
Harvard Report on Maine Food Industry
The Press Herald has published a report on the recently released Harvard study of the Maine food industry.
The grant-funded report, by the university’s Maine Food Cluster Project, is based on months of research that included a survey of more than 300 businesses. Its authors set out to answer the question: How can Maine grow its food industry to create jobs and generate economic growth in the state?
Download the report: Growing Maine’s Food Industry, Growing Maine
City Food Policy
The Press Herald reports that candidates for mayor and city council will be asked to share their views on food policy at a pair of upcoming forums.
To state the obvious, Portland is a food city. That doesn’t just mean it’s a fantastic place to go out to dinner, it means anyone who wants to be elected to the City Council or become mayor of Maine’s largest city better pay attention to the politics of food. Next week, candidates will be gathering for two food policy forums for the first time in the city’s history, and they should be prepared to discuss everything from food insecurity to raising goats within urban limits to whether chefs should be able to put moose on their menus.
Open Call for Beard Awards
The James Beard Foundation has put out a public call for entries for the 2016 Awards.
Is a restaurant you know deserving of consideration from the Beard Foundation? Then fill out this online form and your submission will be considered as the Foundation is putting together the list of semi-final nominees due out in February. The deadline for submissions is December 31st.
In 2014, the Beard Foundations received more than 38,000 entries through this process.
Maine (Kitchen) Tool Library
Press Herald food editor Peggy Grodinsky tries out borrowing kitchen equipment from the Maine Tool Library.
The library offers kitchen tools, alongside saws and bolt cutters, which means you may not need to own that Vitamix.
Boston Globe: Small Plates in Portland
Former Sunday Telegram restaurant critic Nancy Heiser, has written an article about Portland’s small plate restaurant trend for The Boston Globe.
Small plates have taken hold as a culinary craze in many cities, but in Portland, arguably New England’s small city most revered for food, they are hot, and we’re not talking temperature. Several restaurants that have opened to some acclaim are offering only small plates, and most are doing so in small spaces too. Don’t come expecting full-blown entrées with trimmings.
But you will eat well. Very well.
Central Provisions, Lolita, Sur Lie and Bao Bao are all featured.
Mirabelle Delayed
The Press Herald reports Mirabelle House is delayed pending a zoning appeal.
The ruling by code enforcement office Justin Browns means that the house’s owner, Marc Christensen and his business partners, must delay the beginning of cooking class slated to begin Oct. 10, until the town’s zoning board of appeals meets later that month to consider his application for permits to operate. Brown also ruled out other potential uses for the elegant home, barring the use of the property for weddings, as a production studio, or as a general event venue for corporate retreats or parties, uses that the business’s website had mentioned as possible options.
Empty Pockets
Both the Press Herald and the Bangor Daily News report claims by staff from the short-lived Pockets eatery in the Old Port that they were unpaid by their former employer.
Employees of a sandwich shop that opened and closed in the Portland’s Old Port this summer say they were never paid for their work.
Pockets, which sold sandwiches 24 hours a day, opened on the corner of Fore and Market streets around the beginning of July and closed last week.