Although the sun has long since set on the dawning of the Age of Aquarius and a bad moon is on the rise, occasionally the planets still align in the heavens. And so it was that on a trip from Portland to New York and back followed by an early morning breakfast meeting in Boston
BILL ATWOOD: A Lifetime in the Lobster Business
Ten thousand dollars’ worth of prime Maine lobster belonging to Atwood Lobster, of Spruce Head Island, crashed into one of the twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001. That event, reported at the time, suggested how far William Atwood had come from his first buying station at Spruce Head in 1962, a tiny wharf he called
News and the Season
There is a seasonality to the news in Maine…not surprising when we remember how intimately connected we all are to the land, the sea and the weather. Many of the stories in this month’s Working Waterfront (our winter double issue) reflect these ties between events and the calendar: how the right whales that visit the
Islands Coalition discusses taxes, other issues
To learn about some of the tools that exist to address island housing and taxation issues, and to discuss possible legislative efforts for the next session, the Maine Islands Coalition met in Rockland in early November. Judy Mathiau, Assessor with the Town of Rockport; Dennis Doiron, Director of the Income Tax Division at Maine Revenue
Small Misty Mountain
Pushcart Press, 2006 Hardcover, 280 pages, $22.00 Vulnerable to the Holy Sacred places are not always human-made (such as a cathedral, for instance)–they are “often at the meeting of land and sky,” writes author Rob McCall, and visited for renewal and inspiration. A passionate nature observer of his own locale, McCall affirms that Blue Hill’s
FAMILY TRADITION: On North Haven, Brown’s is a community institution
J.O. Brown & Sons boat yard: On North Haven this phrase is as deeply ingrained in the daily vocabulary as are the worn paths of foot traffic across the 150-year-old building’s floorboards. More often than not, the phrase is shortened: “headin’ down to Brown’s,” someone might say, and there is no question what the terse
The Fish, the Fishermen, and the Government
For decades, the federal government and its regional councils have “managed” stocks of fish by limiting effort, telling fishermen they may only go out so many days each year. The results, everyone knows by now, have been catastrophic all around: fishermen have been driven out of the business, fishing communities have suffered, the stocks of
Journal of and Island Kitchen: Cooking by Strategy
A couple years ago, all hell broke loose on these pages when the flour went missing from the gingerbread recipe we printed here. Trusting souls went bravely ahead flourless, bucking all their instincts and ending up rightfully dismayed when all they had to show for their time, ingredients, and effort was a pan of sticky
Cookbooks
Ocean Friendly Cuisine: Sustainable Seafood Recipes from the World’s Finest Chefs By James O. Fraioli, with a foreword Jean-Michel Cousteau Willow Creek Books, in association with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, 2005 Hardcover, 231 pages, $35.00 North Atlantic Seafood: A Comprehensive Guide with Recipes By Alan Davidson Ten Speed Press, 2003 Paperback, 512 pages We Are
An American Good Samaritan
The American, Squanto, was born in the late 1500s in the village of Patuxet on Cape Cod Bay, later named by the English Plymouth, Massachusetts. Lacking written records, we may assume that he grew up there learning to catch fish, plant corn, hunt deer, ducks and turkeys and other wild game. His people often traveled