October has been a month of sparkling weather. The clear skies on October 6 provided an excellent opportunity to watch the rise of the full Hunter’s Moon. Those who were here for the long weekend were rewarded with beautiful days of fall sunshine.
The Columbus Day weekend has become a time for families with summer homes to return to the Cranberry Isles for one last visit before closing up their houses for winter. It is also the time when both Great Cranberry and Little Cranberry host their annual Harvest Suppers. On Great Cranberry, similar to years past, there was a delicious meal of beef stew, salads, rolls, and apple crisp cooked and served by dedicated community members.
On Islesford, it was anything but dinner as usual. In fact, it was literally “Dinner Impossible” — a pilot for a new television show to be aired on the Food Network in 2007. The theme of the reality series is to drop a famous chef off in a remote town and challenge him to find everything he needs to prepare a gourmet meal for 200 people by 6 p.m.
As co-producers Matt Berkowitz and Julie Roberts researched locations for the show, the idea of a Maine island came up. Matt called the Town Office and spoke to Denise McCormick. He asked how many people were on the island and if we had any upcoming community dinners planned. Though there are only about 80 people living on Islesford through the winter, the Harvest Supper was just the occasion to draw a larger crowd. Denise directed him to Joy Sprague, vice president of the Islesford Neighborhood House board of Trustees, and the island postmaster. Anyone who knows this effusive Islesford civil servant knows that the producers were hooked with the first phone call. For the next two weeks arrangements were made to rent houses, provide meals and organize boating for the arrival of the production crew on Thursday and the chef on Saturday. At Aaron’s and Erin’s Market, Erin Gray calmly answered daily phone calls from Matt about catering, kitchen space and available stock. When asked if she might have 25 pounds of scallions on hand, she just laughed. “Do you know how many scallions that is? No one uses 25 pounds of scallions!” Though this would be a very different Harvest Supper, sign-up sheets were still posted seeking volunteers for set up, clean up, and desserts. The novelty of a film crew may have even enticed some new volunteers.
The tide was dead low when producers, directors and the film crew arrived on Thursday. At the dock, the platform at the bottom of the stairs was well out of the water. With help from islanders, the crew of 16 made many trips to carry 2,000 pounds of equipment up to waiting vehicles.
At 7 a.m. on Saturday, Chef Robert Irvine, a renowned British chef who has cooked for dignitaries throughout the world, arrived at the pier in Northeast Harbor. He was accompanied by two sous chefs, George Krell and George Galati. They had nothing but their (very sharp) knives with them when they met executive producer Marc Summers to learn of their final destination. Joy Sprague was waiting on the Islesford town dock to greet them, and the cameras rolled steadily for the rest of the day.
People who came to set up chairs and tables at the Neighborhood House were sent to Erin’s garden to pick and wash all of her remaining lettuce. Chef Irvine checked the inventory and kitchen space at Aaron’s and Erin’s Market. Marc Summers handed him a roll of $100 bills — his budget for the day was $3500. Pots and pans, charcoal grills and gas cookers were borrowed from all over the island. All of the available meat, eggs, and produce were bought at Aaron’s and Erin’s, and lobsters were bought from David Thomas. The chef sacrificed precious time to leave the island for more supplies.
The frenzy began around noon as volunteers helped to wash mussels, chop vegetables, open packages of spare ribs and chicken, and rushed out to find large bowls to borrow for mixing and serving. The film crew was everywhere; their sound and video equipment set up in the library. The Georges were following orders from the chef and giving orders of their own to volunteers. “Watch those knives, they’re extremely sharp!” (Obviously not any that belonged to the Neighborhood House.) “Hot stuff coming to the sink, watch out!” “Move that pan!” “Is this the only sink there is?” “Can someone go to the store for red wine vinegar and bread crumbs?” “Chop these tomatoes.” “Any more bowls?” Cooking reality indeed. Additional chaos reigned in the kitchen at Dan and Kate Fernald’s house next door. Every pot and pan they owned was being used on their stove.
At the end of the day, tables were set up outside, upstairs and in the main hall. They accommodated over 200 people. There was an incredible amount of excellent food including clam chowder, muscles cioppino, lobster macaroni and cheese, salmon, spare ribs, chicken with crab avocado stuffing and barbecued beef. Side dishes were just as plentiful and varied: cole slaw, tossed green salad, tomato salad, green beans, corn salad, bean salad with cilantro, potato salad and mashed sweet potatoes. Island cooks had prepared a variety of pies and other desserts to which the chef added a peach, apple and blueberry cobbler. After dinner, Marc Summers thanked Joy and Erin for all of their help in planning and facilitating the event. Chef Irvine expressed his appreciation to everyone by saying, “I’ve cooked for kings, queens, and presidents, but never have I felt such warmth and welcome from a community.” Joy announced that the dinner had raised $2,100 from the community to put toward the purchase of a salt water pumper-tank truck for the Islesford Volunteer Fire Department. Chef Irvine added $1,000 from his own pocket. The well-needed donations are still coming in.
At the end of the evening, the cleanup crew had a super-sized task along with the first pick of some incredible leftovers. Dick Atlee left his dishwashing post at 1 a.m. and people were back at the Neighborhood House to finish the cleanup early Sunday morning. Now that we’ve seen what filming a reality TV show involves, we can look back on a memorable harvest supper, and look forward to seeing our friends who make the cut when the half-hour show airs in January.
Islesford
Oct. 15, 2006