Farmers Market & Commom Ground Fair

| Posted in General News, Events

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.

Fortune Cookie Museum

| Posted in General News

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.

October Issues

| Posted in General News

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.

James Simpkins, Culinary Fellow

| Posted in People

James Simpkins is the inaugural Culinary Fellow at the Quimby Colony Artist in Residence program. Simpkins has been writing about the experience on his blog, The Quimby Gourmand. During his 6-month fellowship he’ll be, “creating meals inspired by  depictions of cookery and hospitality taken from nineteenth-century domestic literature”.

I already know I will not find all recipes that I want/need, and I will undoubtedly error in recreating them; the language is quite apart from contemporary English, I assure you.  Not only are these dinners imbued with historical influence (a perfect recreation being quite impossible), they are also to ascertain current cultural value via interviews with dinner attendees.  Direct table conversation and informal interviews to inquire into symbolic meanings these meals may still impart today.  Alongside the historical and cultural context laid out in the texts, I am hoping to find quite an overlap in the semiotic worth of the meal… [read more]

This Week's Events

| Posted in Events

Tuesday — David Buchanan and Eli Cayer will be teaching a class on apple selection and usage for making cider at the Urban Farm Fermentory. Many local restaurants are participating in Portland Ovations’ 15th Epicurean Auction Benefit.
Wednesday — Wine Wise is teaching a class on Chardonnay at The Wine Bar.
Thursday — there will be beer tasting at the West End Deli.
Friday — To kick-off their Grand Opening weekend for the new store, Rosemont is having an Italian wine tasting. It’s the first night of the NERAX cask beer event at Novare Res (30 cask beers), and the first day of the Common Ground Fair taking place in Unity, Maine.
Saturday — The ribbon cutting for the Rosemont is taking place in the morning and there’s another wine tasting at the store that night, the 7th Annual Lakes Brew Fest is taking place in Casco, Maine, the NERAX event at Novare Res continues into its second day as does the Common Ground Fair.
Sunday — the last day of the Common Ground Fair.
Farmer’s Markets — the traditional series of Farmer’s Markets are taking place Monday (Monument Square), Wednesday (Monument Square) and Saturday (Deering Oaks Park). Cultivating Community is running their new series of markets Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at various locations around the city.
For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.
If you are holding a food event this week that’s not listed above, publicize it by adding it as a comment to this post.

This Week’s Events

| Posted in Events

Tuesday — David Buchanan and Eli Cayer will be teaching a class on apple selection and usage for making cider at the Urban Farm Fermentory. Many local restaurants are participating in Portland Ovations’ 15th Epicurean Auction Benefit.

Wednesday — Wine Wise is teaching a class on Chardonnay at The Wine Bar.

Thursday — there will be beer tasting at the West End Deli.

Friday — To kick-off their Grand Opening weekend for the new store, Rosemont is having an Italian wine tasting. It’s the first night of the NERAX cask beer event at Novare Res (30 cask beers), and the first day of the Common Ground Fair taking place in Unity, Maine.

Saturday — The ribbon cutting for the Rosemont is taking place in the morning and there’s another wine tasting at the store that night, the 7th Annual Lakes Brew Fest is taking place in Casco, Maine, the NERAX event at Novare Res continues into its second day as does the Common Ground Fair.

Sunday — the last day of the Common Ground Fair.

Farmer’s Markets — the traditional series of Farmer’s Markets are taking place Monday (Monument Square), Wednesday (Monument Square) and Saturday (Deering Oaks Park). Cultivating Community is running their new series of markets Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at various locations around the city.

For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.

If you are holding a food event this week that’s not listed above, publicize it by adding it as a comment to this post.

The Business of Farming

| Posted in Farming

Charles Lawton’s column in today’s Maine Sunday Telegram takes a look at the business side of farming in Maine.

In 2008, the total value of crop and livestock sales, government payments and the value of products consumed on the farm by their owners amounted to approximately $750 million for all Maine farms. Deducting production expenses and declining inventory values left net income of approximately $106 million.

Of this, approximately $40 million derived from corporate farms, and the remaining $66 million from sole proprietorships and partnerships. According to Bureau of Economic Analysis data, this income supported just over 7,200 farm proprietors.

Community Gardens & Farm Stands

| Posted in General News

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.