SWF BLOG
Coffee Cupping
By Annemarie Ahearn
In selecting a coffee brand for our cafe and marketplace, slated to open in the spring of 2013, we wanted to explore a range of brands and varieties before reaching a decision.
It turns out coffee has come a long way in the past few years, and coffee companies are thinking about sourcing their beans the way we think about sourcing our ingredients: through building relationships with purveyors. It has become more standard for coffee companies to offer an educational component to their service, training baristas across the country how to make the perfect cup of coffee. They also guide new companies through the purchase of equipment, its installation and its continued use.
Yesterday, we tasted 6 brands of coffee and 19 varieties in all. We followed strict coffee cupping etiquette, measuring out the grinds carefully, letting it steep, breaking the seal and so on. We judged each cup on its smell and then its taste.
There were 7 judges in total, some with more knowledge about coffee and others with less. Then we discussed packaging, carbon footprint, brand ethos, and brand services among other things. It was an interesting process, one that will ultimately help us to make a decision about what coffee we will serve at our cafe and marketplace.
Below were the competitors:
– Counter Culture (Durham, North Carolina)
– Stumptown (Portland, Oregon)
– Handsome Coffee (Los Angeles, California)
– Bard (Portland, Maine)
– Matt’s (Portland, Maine)
– Green Tree Coffee (Lincolnville, Maine)
– Rock City (Rockland, Maine)
SWF BLOG
Dogfish Head Asado at Salt Water Farm
By Irene Yadao
Summer at Salt Water Farm is a time of go-go-go. Cooking workshops, classes, supper clubs and private events fill our calendar. The months fly by in a blur.
But every once in a while we have a chance to slow down, share in the joy of food and drinks with great friends, and remember why we love summer days in midcoast Maine.
On a supremely gorgeous August day, we had the great privilege of hosting a summer Asado for our friends, Dogfish Head’s Sam and Mariah Calagione.
Our good friend, pit master and chef Ben Dorr, cooked up a whole butterflied lamb that was perfectly tender and delightful. Also on the menu were dishes from Annemarie: beef short ribs and roast pork , grilled local sausages with chimichirri, raw Pemaquid oysters, mussels steamed in white wine, and decadent provoloneta. Rebecca offered a desert of dulce de leche flan.
Of course it wouldn’t have been a Dogfish Head event without beer, which was plentiful and so very delicious. In addition to having a selection of Maine craft beers on hand, each course was paired with kegs and bottles of Dogfish Head favorites, such as Theobroma, Red & White, Hellahound and Bitches Brew to name a few, all courtesy of the wonderful Sam and Mariah.
At the end of the evening, we were treated to a patio concert by New York based singer-songwriter Melaena Cadiz. Together we listened and watched the ascending moon against the sky.
Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck, creators of the Cinemagraph who blog on the website From Me To You, took some gorgeous shots of the Asado. They were kind enough to let us post some of their photographs on our blog. Check out more from them here.
A big thank you to Sam and Mariah, and to our friend Jou-Yie Chou.
All photos courtesy of Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg.
SWF BLOG
Maine Street Meats
By Annemarie Ahearn
In early June, Maine Street Meats opened their antique red doors in The State of Maine Cheese Company building in Rockport.
Sarah Bleecker Greer, a devotee of the local food movement; Andrew Flamm, a walking food encyclopedia; and Craig Linke, a master butcher who taught our pig butchering class last year, have opened a European style butcher shop that sources local and sustainably raised meats from Maine. They also have an extensive selection of imported cheeses, in-house and imported charcuterie, olive oils, mustards, anchovies, pastas, sweets and much more.
As a chef who’s spent quite a bit of time in Europe, I’ve been waiting for a shop like this to open in my home town for a long time. I think I could subsist entirely off of the goods at Maine Street Meats and thankfully, they sell a little local produce as well. If you haven’t stopped in, do so immediately.
Maine Street Meats
461 Commercial Street
(in the State of Maine Cheese Company building)
Rockport, Maine 04856
(207) 236-MEAT
All photos by Annemarie Ahearn. Logo courtesy of Maine Street Meats.
SWF BLOG
Levi’s: Finding Inspiration in Maine
By Annemarie Ahearn
On July 24th, the San Francisco-based creative team from Levi’s, accompanied by a group of editors, came to Salt Water Farm at sunset for sour cherry cocktails, a selection of locally crafted beers and a spread of garden crudite and local charcuterie.
They traveled to Maine to reveal the inspiration behind their Fall 2012 line: the coastal landscape, the ocean, and generations-long traditions of handmade crafts. Their journey started in Portland and they gradually made it Down East, stopping along the way at Fore Street, Swans Island Blankets, Salt Water Farm, the Haystack School and a number of other destinations.
It’s always a pleasure to host a group that has traveled all the way from the West Coast and show them what life is like here in Maine.
Here are some photos, shared by the editors of Grungy Gentleman, Honestly WTF and Highsnobiety. Check out Refinery 29’s write-up of the Levi’s visit here.
Wiscasset lobster shack. Photo by Jace Lipstein.
The group takes in the ocean view. Photo by Peter Williams.
Shelves of wool at Swans Island Blanket Co. Photo by Jace Lipstein.
Levi’s Kelly Moss and Ibby Clifford touring Swans Island Blanket Co. in Lincolnville. Photo by Jace Lipstein.
Also check out this stunning video of Maine inspiration from the Levi’s team.
SWF BLOG
Salt Water Farm in the New York Times and Down East Magazine
By Irene Yadao
Salt Water Farm was featured in the New York Times Travel Section on August 2nd.
In an article that toured the most unique, historic and burgeoning aspects of Midcoast Maine in 36 hours, spots like the Rockland Breakwater, the Brunswick mills, and some of our favorite nearby restaurants — including Primo in Rockland, Chase’s Daily in Belfast and Shepherd’s Pie in Rockport — were lauded for the ways in which they give Midcoast Maine a “cool, innovative spirit.”
Writer Brendan Spiegel nicely summarized what we do at Salt Water Farm:
Ms. Ahearn and a roster of guest chefs teach classes on everything from pie making to chicken raising in a hip, natural-wood-filled setting that epitomizes the new midcoast aesthetic.
Click here to read the entire article.
We also got some wonderful local press in Down East Magazine‘s August issue. Here’s a snippet of Will Bleakley’s interview with Annemarie:
“What makes Maine unique is how, even with a limited growing season, people still eat locally 365 days a year — which means pickling, preserving, salting, smoking, and freezing. I never experienced that kind of resourcefulness anywhere else. The more time I spend in Maine, the more I realize that kind of resourcefulness is what’s missing from the knowledge base of people who live elsewhere.”
You can click here to read the full interview, or pick up a copy of Down East Magazine.
For more information on our single-day cooking classes, three-day workshops, guest-chef classes and suppers, visit www.saltwaterfarm.com.
SWF BLOG
A Tour of the Salt Water Farm Garden
By Rebecca Sornson
Oh, it’s a beautiful sunny day here at Saltwater Farm. I’ve been meaning to write a blog entry for weeks now, but instead find myself watering, weeding, planting, picking, cooking, teaching, swimming, hiking, etc. etc.
I had been contemplating as I watered, weeded, planted, and picked a philosophical blog on peas.
I would begin with a story about how I knew it was summer when the peas were ripe on the fence line of my dad’s vegetable garden. Then, I would pontificate on the various trellising systems of peas and how some peas grew and straight tall and some refused to twine at all and instead flopped on the ground or grew into the neighboring row. I was considering comparing peas to people and the various paths we tread.
But then, I decided this was way too heady for summer. Instead, I would take you on a little tour of life in the garden and save deep contemplation for the depth of winter.
Here we are. The gardens are in full bloom.
I always have a moment of panic in June when it’s been four or five weeks since we have put most seeds in the ground and yet, there is no substantial food. Then, all of a sudden, overnight it seems, the gardens are full and we can’t keep up with the harvest.
Here is a bed of lettuce, raddichio, chard, onions, and nasturtiums. Did you know that nasturtium leaves make a delicious pesto?
Our asparagus is done for the year. Our bed of about 40 plants fed us well this spring. We were still harvesting asparagus into the middle of June. Now, it has grown tall into wavy ferns and will blow in the breeze until winter comes.
The monarda, also known as bee balm, bloomed last week. The flowers are magnificent and edible! We garnished a beautiful cherry-studded farro salad with the monarda blooms at our last moon supper.
Oh look! Here are potatoes that went into the compost pile and decided instead of breaking down that they were going to grow into big beautiful potato plants.
Here are a few of our last garlic scapes. Garlic, like most plants, sends up a flower stalk and that is the garlic scape. The farmer or gardener quickly snaps it off so that the plant will send its energy down into making big garlic cloves rather than up into making flowers that will soon turn into seed pods. Garlic scapes are delicious and can be used in any way that you might use a green onion.
Here is dill flower and if you look closely, you will see a pollinator hard at work.
Sometimes farming is hard, but then the raspberries get ripe, and you walk around the garden humming a little tune about how glorious life is.
The first slim, soft green beans.
Our fava beans. I had never grown fava beans before and when I opened my first, I was struck by the thick, fuzzy white layer that protects the beans. Plants are incredible!
This beautiful lacy flower is growing all over the state of Maine right now. It is valerian and a really gentle, calming medicinal plant. I get so excited when medicine grows of its own accord.
Here is another beautiful white flowered medicinal plant. It is called an elder, and the flowers will be turned into magnificent fritters at Sunday’s Supper.
And here is me and an elderflower.
And there’s the ocean. Rocky and calm at low tide. This is midsummer at Saltwater Farm. We are mighty grateful.
SWF BLOG
Workshops at Salt Water Farm
By Annemarie Ahearn
Hard to believe that we’ve already completed two workshops at Salt Water Farm and the season has just begun. The students came from all across the country (in fact, across the Atlantic too) to spend three days studying traditional skills in the kitchen and in the garden. In the off hours, they experienced all that mid coast Maine has to offer, from hikes up mountains, to beautifully made shaker-style furniture, to culinary delights and micro breweries in nearby coastal towns.
The students learned everything from how to bake a crusty loaf of bread with a homemade starter, to how to make fresh butter from cream, to how to plan a culinary garden. Many of them shucked (and ate) their first oyster.
During the first workshop, we went to the Harbor Master’s House, where Mike and Lynn Hutchings, (who have been in the lobster fishing business for decades) told us all about size requirements, depth of traps, bait, the life cycle of lobsters and much more. Mike and Lynn sell lobster and steamer clams out of their home and I’ve been going there to pick ’em up since I was a kid. They are the feistiest lobsters around.
In our second workshop, we headed down to the shoreline at low tide to collect mussels, periwinkles, welches and the occasional baby crab. The students particularly loved cooking in our wood fired oven and learning about how to make pizza dough that is airy, flavorful and cooked to perfection.
Most importantly, over the course of three days, the students shared stories from home, knowledge from their own culinary endeavors and three meals together around our table. It’s always bitter sweet at the end of the class, when everyone must leave the warmth and good spirit that’s been created in our kitchen.
There are a handful of workshops over the course of the summer and into the fall for those interested in broadening their skill set in the kitchen and garden. For more information on dates and times of upcoming workshops, or to register, visit www.saltwaterfarm.com/schedule.php.
SWF BLOG
The Daily Prep visits Salt Water Farm
A big thank you to Muffy Aldrich for the wonderful and warm post about us on her popular Coastal New England lifestyle blog, The Daily Prep. Below are some photos she and her family took during their visit to the farm. We enjoyed her visit and look forward to having her over for one of our suppers very soon.
To read the full post, click here.
SWF BLOG
Escape to North Haven
By Irene Yadao
North Haven is a gem of an island — just an hour ferry ride from nearby Rockland and a stone’s throw from the island of Vinalhaven. It is a place of understated beauty, and it is also the home of Nebo Lodge and Turner Farm, two places doing some really amazing and inspiring work.
Its quiet roads can be toured by bike in one day and the views are breath-taking: rolling hills, lupine-dotted fields of grass, large, looming trees, ocean expanse in the background.
If you haven’t been to North Haven, here’s a glimpse.
The ferry from Rockland to North Haven.
North Haven, Maine: The way life should be.
Charming rooms and creative dinners make for a special experience at Nebo Lodge. Photo courtesy of Nebo Lodge.
Turner Farm is a certified organic farm with pasture-raised pigs, chickens, cattle and goats, four greenhouses that produce vegetables year-round, and a creamery. Photo courtesy of Turner Farm.
To learn more about Nebo Lodge or Turner Farm, which offers tours on certain days of the week, visit their websites at www.nebolodge.com and www.turner-farm.com.
For more information on North Haven, visit www.northhavenmaine.org.
SWF BLOG
A Spring Fling with Rhubarb
By Irene Yadao
When I moved to Maine several years ago, rhubarb had been something of an anomaly — I’d only heard about it, but never actually seen or tasted it. I didn’t have any great urge to, either. It was described to me as a fruit that was overly tart, and I’m not particularly fond of tartness.
I grew up in San Diego, where my mother’s repertoire of Filipino dishes highlighted noodles, stews, liver, tripe. Family desserts featured lychee, jackfruit, and coconut. Rhubarb was not in my food lexicon.
But when I worked as a baker in Rockport, I quickly learned that rhubarb strawberry pie was a popular Maine staple. I baked armies of them, especially during the summer, when tourists could not get enough of pie. I spent mornings preparing the rhubarb, slicing the crimson-red stalks into cubes, their celery-like anatomy so unfamiliar to me. Still I resisted them.
I finally relented one day after my co-worker Anne expressed shock at my not having had rhubarb. She baked a delightful treat for the shop which showcased a deep pink rhubarb jam in the center, and she insisted that I try it. It was a Hungarian Rhubarb Shortbread, and it was heavenly. Both the shortbread and the rhubarb jam were a revelation. I was hooked.
Anne passed along the Gale Gand recipe, which you can find here and here. It is an interesting deviation from the typical shortbread in that it includes egg yolks, and its dough is frozen and grated into the baking pan. I attribute both of these to the texture, which is neither cookie nor cake but something in between. It is now my go-to dessert every spring. I started earlier than usual this year when a few weeks ago, the rhubarb stalks from my friend’s garden got large enough to harvest. I couldn’t say no when she offered me an armful.
The ingredients: butter, sugar, flour, eggs.
Counterclockwise from top left: Logs of shortbread dough, Hungarian shortbread pulled from the oven, shortbread topped with confectioner’s sugar, confectioner’s sugar.
All photos by Irene Yadao