CRANBERRY REPORT
Folks on the island have taken advantage of the beautiful fall days to pick the last of the berries, harvest their gardens and put them to bed for the winter.
Lil and Richard Alley picked 68 quarts of blueberries and 65 quarts of blackberries this year from the patch between their house and the church. Karen Smallwood and I recently picked some blackberries that were still there. Karen remembers from her childhood helping her mother, Ann Fernald, pick wild plums and crabapples. The large fabric bag full of cooked fruit would be hung from a hook in the laundry room to extract the juice for the gleaming jars of apple and plum jelly. I have heard that the plum trees that once grew behind the Islesford School came from pits that were tossed out the window after students had snacked on government issued prunes in the 1930s and 40s. I had my first lesson in canning when I was a young bride in 1976. My neighbor Karen Bunker arrived spontaneously with a large canner, some jars and a huge bowl of green tomatoes. I learned to make green tomato pickles following a recipe that came from Bruce’s great grandmother, Sadie. I also learned that the “Ball Blue Book” was the canning “bible” and it is still one of the best references today. (Next to the advice from previous generations, of course.)
On a foggy Sept. 17, Steve Pagels, owner of Cranberry Cove Boating, brought three boatloads of students and parents to Islesford for the first middle school cross country meet of the season. Coach Eve Harrison organized the 1.7 mile race that was run by 56 girls and 38 boys, from grades 5 through 8. Abe Philbrook, while only a third grader, placed a very admirable 26th among the boys. Congratulations to Heather Spurling, who took first place among the girls. Other runners were Frances and Gretchen Blank and Hannah Folsom. Heather has been first in all of this season’s cross country races, with only two races remaining at press time. She follows in the footsteps of her sisters, Marya and Christy, and others who have been strong runners from the Cranberry Isles. With a small population of students in the island schools, there are not enough kids for a soccer or baseball team to compete with other schools. However, self motivation allows students to work on personal running goals and still be part of a team. In the 1970s the Westphal kids from Great Cranberry made quite a mark while running for the MDI High School track team. Gretchen Westphal even beat Joan Benoit in a championship race. Gary Allen, a Great Cranberry runner, is the founder and director of the MDI Marathon, which was three years old on Oct. 17.
Our small town helps sustain the life sport of running!
For a different life sport, a few of us celebrated the two-year anniversary of Dip of the Month Club. All members took a September dip, but Islesford Postmaster Joy Sprague managed to dip in two different seasons on one day by going in at sunrise and sunset on the first day of fall. Stefanie Alley and her crew, Rebecca Larkin, took the first October dip as a “curtsy to the queen” at the end of their work day on Oct. 3. A number of lobster boats were out working that day as the QUEEN MARY 2 approached Bar Harbor for a visit. The fine weather over Columbus Day weekend enticed other swimmers and some new guests to take a dip at Sand Beach. Tim Janecek of Austin, Texas, Rob Hollister of Cambridge, Mass., and Jeff Lauren of Baltimore, Maryland, joined Cindy Thomas, Joy Sprague and me for a double dip.
The water temperature is now just below 50 degrees from its summer high of 55, and migrating birds rest briefly on lobster boats as they head south for the winter. A windstorm on Oct. 12 knocked down several trees on Islesford, with a few close calls and a power outage for some, but no major damage. It is time to check the generators, fill gas cans, and store some water as we get ready for the inevitable windy fall weather.
– Barbara Fernald
Islesford