A Tale of Winter in the 1950s
Take a step back in time with this story of life in a small Maine village in simpler days.
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Wait, don’t throw out the babies! Or, sautéed fish roe is mighty fine
The ice is still safe–it was twenty-two inches at Long Pond yesterday–but I hear a suspicious dripping sound coming from the trees behind the house. This time of change is when many fish are laden with eggs, or roe. Yellow perch roe sacs can be up to five inches in length, their smaller cousins, white […]
On your mark, get set, write
Day 1 This is the first time I have ever blogged about blogging. The stories I want to share are about life in Otter Creek, where I got chased by an otter (really!), people, food, Maine, my views on all of these, but not writing. I am about to embark on a thirty-day blogging adventure, […]
Maine vulture misses Florida flight
Backyard birding in Maine suggests chickadees, cardinals, and perhaps a few mourning doves on the ground, not a turkey vulture with a five-foot wing span. And not in the middle of winter. Our feeding station is larger than most bird feeders. A wide platform for food scraps, it attracts mostly crows and ravens. It gets […]
Hey Baby, look at all that Bayberry!
I forage as much for the pleasure of the hunt as for the tasty reward I bring home to my kitchen. Sunny autumn afternoons peering at the base of oak trees for maitake and dark summer evenings jigging for squid are deeply satisfying ways to spend time. Some harvests are so plentiful, however, that there […]
summer sumac ade
With vivid red berries and exotic leaves, staghorn sumac is distinct and recognizable along the roadside. My dad, who had solar hot water in the 70’s, collected wild onion, kept a few chickens and was generally up for what was called “back to the earth” stuff, would point out the dark-red sumac fruit. “Loaded with […]
Gather spruce tips while you may.
For several years the spruce tip oil served at one of my favorite restaurants has had me in thrall. This vivid green liquid is drizzled across a mélange of grains and roasted vegetables and has astringent, slightly resinous flavor. I had never heard of it before, and it had a mystique that added to my […]
Consider the oyster mushroom
The fleeting oyster mushroom season is here. In early June I start scanning the Aspen groves for a flash these luminous, pale fungi which grow in layers like shelves off the tree trunks. It is usually a week or even three after I start looking that I spot the first ones. We go to collect, […]
The Light Fantastic—Painting Bridges in Acadia
Voices softly call greetings as we approach Waterfall Bridge in Acadia National Park. People arrive in pairs, alone, or in small groups. It is dusk, and we have come to paint the bridge with light. As day fades to dark shadowed figures are positioned below the bridge, perched in the snow bank behind it, and […]
Maple syruping—sweet rite of spring.
Maple syrup is made in the short span when winter is over, but it is not quite spring. In between times—the soft colors of dusk when it is no longer day, but not yet night, or those awkward years when a child is turning into an adult—are passages and celebrations of change. The annual rite […]
