It is a bitterly cold March morning. Pick-up trucks are clustered on a patch of frozen dirt behind the Marden’s store in Ellsworth. The bed of each truck is loaded with brightly-colored rope; the cab of each truck is loaded with disgruntled lobstermen. They’re awaiting the start of a rope-exchange program sponsored by the Gulf
Journal of an Island Kitchen
We started with island apple wine and beer brewed in Lincolnville, sweetened rhubarb juice and currant shrub with appetizers of Bacon Bomb served on baked potato slices. (The Bacon Bomb recipe came straight out of the New York Times and is that outrageous item made of a mat of woven bacon slices overlaid with Italian
Fellow working to help solve island affordable housing problem
As Mary Terry describes it, a pivotal moment in her decision to work as an Island Fellow for the Island Institute came about 10 years ago. On a trip to the Common Ground Fair, she and her friends took a side trip to Rockland, where she was stopped cold by an image in Peter Ralston’s
From the Deck
You have a new boat! She is a neat little sloop of which you are sinfully proud. You need a good picture of her. Surely you have a friend with a small power boat and a camera. On the appointed day subject to proper conditions of sun, wind and water, be ready. Scrub off any
At tourney time, island schools were there
It was a great year for Penobscot Bay basketball teams. Both the North Haven and Vinalhaven girls’ teams made the quarter finals of the Maine Principals’ Association Western Maine Class D tournament, while the Vinalhaven boys went as far as the semifinals. The annual competition is held every February. One might wonder how island schools,
Shrimp season succumbs to sinking economy
Port Clyde fisherman Randy Cushman estimates his income from shrimp this season has been cut in half. Shrimp are abundant at sea but the market on shore has dried up. “It’s not good when you’re sitting on a mooring and the shrimp are out at sea,” said Cushman. This year’s shrimp season is 180 days,
Champlain’s Dream
One of the giants of the Age of Exploration has become a relatively unknown figure in recent years. “Champlain,” the author was asked a few years ago, “why are you writing a book about a lake?” In the wave of political correctness, Champlain’s name had all but disappeared from school curriculums, the author tells us.
Maine’s working waterfront, fish processing supported in Pingree bill
The state’s working waterfront access program would receive $5.5 million if a bond bill proposed by Speaker of the House Hannah Pingree makes it through the State Legislature and is approved by voters. The bond bill also includes money to preserve farmland and help create food processing for both the fishing and agriculture industries. Pingree’s
“Water Dogs”
Random House, 2009 Hardcover, 246 pp, $25 Dysfunctional Maine family and a paintball game gone wrong Lewis Robinson’s debut novel opens with lines from the final stanza of Wallace Stevens’ famous poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”: “It was evening all afternoon./It was snowing/And it was going to snow.” Stevens’ imagery fits the
Task force hears concerns from lobstermen
How to get a better price for lobster, how to better market it, lack of trust between fishermen and dealers, sustainability of the fishery and how better to diversify the fisheries and take the pressure off lobster: These issues and more held everyone’s attention for four hours on March 10 in Ellsworth at the task