During the cold, wet days of the past several months, residents on Swan’s Island stayed indoors to cook. The “Swan’s Island Cooks” have swapped stories with their neighbors over steaming plates of a lentil, rice and caramelized onion dish called mujaddara. They have shucked clams, baked holiday bread, made pickled beets, and learned how to
Developing dry space at Darling Marine Center
Until April 26, when a piece of aquaculture netting was cut to celebrate the opening of dry lab and office space on the second floor, researchers like Dr. Paul Rawson, who has been working to develop and test genetically improved oyster lines that will be useful to the Maine oyster industry and other New England
Selling the Boat
The oft-repeated joke about owners and boats goes this way: what are the two happiest days in one’s life? The day you buy a boat and the day you sell it. It’s true, and now I know from experience. When I bought Karma five years ago, of course, I wasn’t focused on selling her–I’d bought
Stuart Marine and the Rhodes 19
Fred Brehob is a historian of the Rhodes 19 and, not surprisingly, he is a veritable fount of information about the boat. I learned that in 1952 distinguished yachtsman George O’Day formed his own company to build affordable, trailerable sailboats. (George O’Day was the first American to win both an Olympic gold medal in sailing
The Eat Local Cookbook: Seasonal Recipes from a Maine Farm
A few years ago, Lisa Turner and her husband wrote a mission statement for their business at Laughing Stock Farm in Freeport. It is simple: to delight the palate. For the last decade and a half, they have farmed 15 acres and five greenhouses, providing flavorful produce to customers and family year-round. Local food, much
Retired keeper helps to restore lighthouse
This spring, Cutler resident Terry Rowden was honored with the Len Hadley Volunteerism Award from the American Lighthouse Foundation. He was given the award for his many hours helping to save the Little River Lighthouse, where he once was stationed. The lighthouse holds a special place in Rowden’s heart, especially since manning the lighthouse led
North Haven to Alewives: Welcome Back!
A crowd was gathered at the North Haven ferry dock on a recent Saturday morning. A welcoming committee of sorts, they were there to greet two Maine Department of Marine Resources tanker trucks arriving via the Island Transporter. In the tanks were live, adult alewives taken from the Kennebec River. Their destination: Fresh Pond, which
The Climate Change Hoax: Ask the Greenland Norse
This is going to be a little painful, but stick with me for a brief tour of how the obscure history of the disappearance of a civilization informs our emerging scientific understanding of climate change. Let’s begin with a subject we know quite a lot about-the expansion of Norse culture across vast areas of remote
Trapzilla
Every industry has its waste product, some waste more visible than others. While the lobster industry is considered more green than most, it does have one obvious byproduct that shows up on Maine shores and yards: the broken lobster trap. Big, bulky and often useless, the broken traps sometimes break free from tethers and wash
Water Walk departs from Machias
Water collected from the Atlantic Ocean began its journey westward May 7 to arrive in Bad River, Wisconsin on the Great Lakes by June 12. Josephine Mandamin, a grandmother of the Ojibwe tribe is following a spiritual calling to draw attention to the fragile condition of the world’s water. Her first Mother Earth Water Walk