Category: General News

Local Butchers & Maine Maple Sunday

| Posted in General News, Events

The Press Herald has published an article about local butchers,

A growing number of consumers like Graf are buying their meat from neighborhood butchers who work with locally raised animals, rejecting the idea of pre-cut, pre-packaged meats shipped from large, anonymous farms hundreds or thousands of miles away.

The Hannaford ground beef recall, and federal investigators’ failure to find the source of the salmonella contamination, has prompted some local butchers to change their meat grinding practices and encouraged a “buy local” attitude among shoppers like Graf.

and a report on yesterday’s Maine Maple Sunday.

Steam billowed out of the Nash Valley Farm sugarhouse, sending out the usual welcome to Maine Maple Sunday visitors.

But not much else was usual at the farm. The buckets hanging on the maple trees stood empty, the maple trees were bursting with flowers and there was a green carpet of grass instead of the usual mix of snow and mud underfoot. And it was water, not sap, boiling away in the evaporator.

Maple Syrup & Vegan Cooking

| Posted in General News

The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes articles on the potential health benefits (and good taste) of maple syrup,

And now there’s even more reason to stick with the real thing and attend Maine Maple Sunday events at participating sugarhouses this weekend: Recent research has uncovered a hidden benefit to eating maple syrup — it’s swimming with antioxidants that may help keep you healthy.

and an interview with vegan chef Christy Morgan.

A book signing and recipe demonstration will take place at Whole Foods Market on Thursday. On Friday night, she will offer a full-blown cooking class at the Five Seasons Cooking School, where she’ll take attendees on a culinary world tour and show how to prepare Indian-spiced sweet potato cakes with mint coconut chutney, Moroccan vegetable tagine, tofu larb (a spicy Thai appetizer) and fruit-kissed ceviche.

Union Bagel, Farmers Market and 2012 Maple Season

| Posted in General News, Farming

This week’s Forecaster includes articles about Union Bagel,

On the 18th day, the Kickstarter crowd spoke, and the word was “bagels.”

Paul Farrell, a burly boat-builder turned labor organizer turned bagel baker and the driving force behind the upstart Union Bagel Co., couldn’t be happier.

an effort by farmers to gain more direct control over the management of the Farmers Market,

Market coordinator Dan Price asked the city to give the Farmers Market Association the power to determine membership, enforce association rules, and collect fees from participating farmers, according to a memo from the city’s associate corporation counsel, Anne Freeman.

and the 2012 maple syrup season.

“It won’t be a banner year,” Gorham resident Lyle Merrifield said. “This may be a about half to three-quarters crop.”

Change in Ownership at Hugo’s

| Posted in General News

According to their liquor license application filed with the city, partners Arlin Smith, Michael Wiley and Andrew Taylor are in the process of buying Hugo’s from the current owners, chef Rob Evans and Nancy Pugh.

Smith, Wiley and Taylor are not new faces at Hugo’s. They’ve served as the general manager, chef-de-cuisine and sous chef at the restaurant for the past 2 years.

A letter filed with their application states,

Today Hugo’s is a restaurant with a firm footing, a national reputation and a loyal following of vacationers and locals alike. With continuity as its primary goal, AMA LLC proudly accepts the responsibility, passed down from Rob and Nancy, to lead Hugo’s into another profitable decade. We are confident that the transition of ownership will be seamless: employees, patrons and our purveyors will continue to enjoy their profitable relationship with Hugo’s.

For additional information, read this article from the Press Herald.

Crowdfunding: Union Bagel & Gelato Fiasco

| Posted in General News

Owners of Union Bagel Company and Gelato Fiasco were interviewed for a story on MPBN Radio about how Maine businesses are using funding sources like Kickstarter to expand and establish their businesses.

Once you’ve got that, you post a video to the Kickstarter website and a pitch, set a minimum funding goal and a timeframe, then spread the word so that people go to the website to make a donation. Union Bagel met its goal of $7,500 in just 18 days, and donations are still coming in.

First Meeting of Food Truck Taskforce

| Posted in General News

The Munjoy Hill News has published a report on the first meeting of Portland’s Food Truck Task Force.

Proximity to restaurants and other businesses in the city was the focus of the discussion . . . Experienced food cart operator Ron Gan tried to assure Dick A. Grotton, President & CEO of Maine Restaurant Association and Steve DiMillo, DiMillo’s Floating Restaurant, that they won’t be overun by food trucks. “There is not enough business for all of them out there. It’s too expensive. I understand the concern of the ‘bricks & mortar’ people, but people prefer them. Don’t get too worried that several food trucks will hurt restaurants,” he cautioned them.