sunday best

1960s slim fitting three-piece suit, dark green wool herringbone - Curlee Clothing Company, St. Louis

1950-60s medium brown leather ankle boots - The Taylor Made Shoe, E.E. Taylor, Freeport, Maine

brown circle pattern bow tie 

peter baldwin arts - brooks, maine

I feel very lucky to be partnering with Peter Baldwin for the installation of this weekend's pop-up shop in Belfast. Based in Brooks, Maine, Peter is a woodworker who produces beautifully-crafted orchard ladders. For my purposes, setting up shop in a space where the walls are to remain untouched and with the benefit of very high ceilings - these freestanding sturdy ladders are the perfect solution to pop-up fixtures. A variety of Peter's offerings - straight, pointed and tripods - will be seen. Sourced from across Maine, the wood used is bigtooth aspen for the side rails which contrasts nicely with ash for the rungs.

Peter has lived in Maine since 1971. When considering a potential product made of wood, he turned to his home state of New York where he grew up in an orchard and spent his childhood playing on tree ladders. His first year was 1984 and he built fifty ladders; the following year, one hundred. Currently he averages 1000-1200 ladders a year. His work is widely distributed and his largest markets are back in New York and in Michigan.

Everyone to whom I've mentioned Peter knows and highly regards him. I'm still new to the area, but I gather Baldwin Arts is an institution in these parts.  His generosity extended to allowing me to grab offcuts from the shop to route into hanging rods and plane into shelving. (Another byproduct will go to a friend's sawdust toilet.) The result is a flexible modular system that is high functioning and visually interesting. One more reason to visit the shop!

Pre-inventory:

there, using this

Yurt in midcoast Maine.
Well worn axe from Liberty Tool, Liberty, Maine.

nomadics: unsettlement project

The on-again off-again nomadics theme on the blog has had some resonance over the past eight months or so. Now having been a season removed from this particular step along the way, I'd like to draw attention to a project initiated by an artist I met this summer. Entitled Unsettlement, Ashley Waldvogel Gaddy of the Savannah College of Art and Design spent her summer documenting the 'migratory inhabitants' of campground and RV parks up and down the eastern seaboard. 

They are an interesting lot, having lived within such a community for several months, and a fascinating demographic to focus upon. I was stationary - doing a live/work exchange having just taken a job in the area - but my neighbors shifted daily, weekly, ranging from bare bones tenters to McMansion types on wheels. Then there were a number of folks like me whose spots were secured by dedicating a portion of the week to gardening, cleaning and generally maintaining this unique oceanfront campground and family homestead that produces its own vegetables and wool, and invites artists and craftspeople for weekly residencies and workshops for visitors at the passive solar studio on its grounds. For four months, I occupied a lovely and roomy corner space surrounded by groves of tall pines that kept it cool at all times and filtered the sunlight in just perfectly. My indoor/outdoor compound consisted of a then newly purchased, extremely high-mileage three-ton cargo van (my personal and business storage unit), a picnic table (al fresco cooking and dining), and the very efficient little 4x6' pop-up A-frame lent to me by the campground which was just long enough to sleep in and tall enough to stand at its peak (bedroom and additional storage). That little baby was a major source of intrigue for passers-by, leading to my self-proclaimed status as 'campground famous.'

Ashley's photographs can be seen on the project's website and corresponding blog, including her very adorable children. Unsettlement will culminate in a traveling exhibition opening at the school in Savannah, and the publication of a catalog.

the county

After two years of living in Maine, I finally ventured to parts far inland and north that I have been eager to explore. Aroostook County, or simply The County, is (according to the tourist board) larger than Connecticut and Rhode Island combined and the largest county east of the Mississippi. Hugging the Canadian border - but fully embraced by international cell phone charges - I saw a good chunk of the populated County, although little relative to the expanse of the Great North Woods. Aroostook's two industries are visible while on the road, passing vast rolling potato fields and being passed by huge trucks carrying lumber. All the while being kept company by a mix of country music and French radio because otherwise, there is often not another soul around. 

It was a mission that not only yielded a bounty of true and tested work wear, but afforded many big views and small town moments. As much as I love the thrill of the search, I also appreciate learning about a place through that lens. Stumbling across a thrift shop tucked away in a hardware store, a town abuzz for 'half-off day' at the church's basement shop which is also serving up free coffee and donuts, the kind old gentleman watching his wife's shop who, on the sixth attempt, is able to ring me up on the new credit card system. I'm pretty sure I am considered 'from away' since I live in the Other Maine, coastal Maine. I'm told I just missed the potato blossoms which I can imagine enliven those hills that are now dug up and put to bed for the winter. I'll also have to return to the dauntingly huge Baxter State Park, where I arrived on the first day of its winter closing. I drove through the open gate and around in Katahdin's shadow, but without a ranger or map to be found, spontaneity-turned-underpreparedness resulted in little hiking. 

I returned to my own small town, my new midcoast home, where the Main Street was newly decorated with Christmas lights that brightened the afternoon and pitch black sky. Friends who were raised here say they've never travelled those parts. Maine intrigues me but it's becoming more familiar, and with that it seems more like home.

 

french's mainers at work

Today, I am enjoying this collection of photographs by George W. French from the Maine State Archives' online exhibit, Workaday World of Maine. While he was the official photographer for the Maine Development Commission, these images from the 1930s and 40s represent his preferred genre of Mainers engaged in everyday activities at home and at work. See the images here.

talking food at the ICA

Tonight is quite the line-up of events at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the Maine College of Art as part of 'Consumption,' a week of programming that explores our relationship to food. Today's schedule includes talks by the folks behind Rabelais, Sara Kanabey from (other) Portland's Farmer General, and a butchering demonstration by Rosemont Market's Jarrod Spangler. These guests are amongst film screenings, children's programs and culminating in a pop-up Filipino restaurant tomorrow evening. See the full schedule here.

nomadics: camping season begins

I now love to camp.  It's not something I grew up doing or had much interest in until, well, I moved to Maine.  I like the ritual of setting up and breaking down the tent...rolling it, and the sleeping bag, back up into the impossibly small bags that contain them.  It also provides an inexpensive way for me to travel and pick for the shop.  Last night was my first camping adventure for the season and although it's still off-season here - which meant no running water or electricity -  the couple who own the grounds were nice enough to let me crash. The huge trade-off was an oceanfront spot without a soul around and only the sound of the waves to fall asleep to.

nomadics: by trailer, by boat

At first, I came across Andy Stewart's documentation of converting a 17' cargo trailer into a mobile living space, complete with solar panels and a wood-burning stove.

While the trailer is no longer his primary residence, it appears to have functioned well as a boathouse during his travels. I'm particularly fond of this video from last year which quietly captures his sailing adventure around Vinalhaven, Maine. 

Maine Island Trail from Andy Stewart on Vimeo.

kennebec cheesery at koons farm - sidney, maine

My introduction to Kennebec Cheesery was by way of Portland’s Wednesday farmers market in Monument Square. A farmstead producer, owner Jean Koons, specializes in chevre. Recently, the Koons were kind enough to host friend/photographer, Natalie Conn, and myself to a visit at their farm and facility in Sidney, ME.

We arrived after a little over an hour’s drive north from Portland - where slowly the landscape changes over to wide expanses of rolling hills - and were greeted by Jean and her husband, Peter, who were heading out to pasture to tend to their ten kids, just born in April. We felt welcome from the start, even the little goats anxiously vocalizing their pleasure to see us. It was time to move the fencing back so that the kids could feed on fresh, tall grass and wildflowers. Jean is a native of New Zealand, where this method of rotational grazing has its roots.

She noted how Queen Anne’s lace and clover are favorites while Peter pointed out that their tastes seem to change, one day drawn to a particular plant and the next, not having a taste for it at all. They began the operation six years ago, located on Peter's family farm, and this is the relationship these folks have with their animals… a scale of farming and production where they not only monitor the details of their goats’ behavior, but even name each one. 

After just a year, the kids will begin producing milk. Milking starts in early spring and lasts until December or January, each goat producing slightly less than a gallon per day, leaving Jean with 14-16 gallons to work with. In November, on the verge of ‘drying off’ for the winter, they eat hay that comes from the farm, living in the hoop house that sits next to the milking parlor.

The milking parlor, cheesemaking room and aging room are housed in the same building which was built in 2006 with the help of friends, family and a grant from Farms for the Future, using recycled materials and lumber primarily sourced from their land.

Here, the mature goats grazed in a separate pasture from the kids.  We observed the herd mentality of their movements.  This includes a natural pecking order, which Jean said can be seen by how they organize themselves as they enter the milking parlor. Based on seniority, the goats file through a short set of railings from pasture to parlor.

Milking is accomplished with a simple pumping system that draws the milk into buckets in an adjacent room.  From there, we each stepped into a pair of white rubber boots (brought from New Zealand) as we entered the production space.  

The process of making her chevre ‘Cobbles’ (a staple in our home) takes five days and rotates throughout the week, three times a week. Simply put, the process goes like this: 1-innoculate, 2-scoop, 3-flip, 4-salt, and 5-roll and package.

Jean dishes the curd from the vat into cylindrical moulds and allows the whey to thoroughly drain into the tray below before filling them a second and final time. The moulds are covered until the next day when they are flipped, and on the fourth day, are removed from the moulds and salted.

On the last day, she sets out three plates (made by each of her three children – the laminated marker drawings we all made in school), each holding the ingredients for rolling: dill, cracked peppercorns, and herb de provence.

Jean was also working with inoculated Jersey milk that comes from a farm seven miles down the road – contrasting greatly from the goat milk with its rich yellow hue – dishing it into pyramid shaped moulds for her Cow Cobble cheese. This cheese came about when one of her distributors asked about a product she might be able to carry on throughout the winter (cow’s drying off period is much shorter than goat’s). The finished product is stored in olive oil, additional ingredients including basil/garlic/pine nut and roasted tomato/chili pepper.

She is experimenting with aged cheeses and in particular, shared with us her Caerphally project: Welsh hard, crumbly cows' milk wheels. These are stored in the aging room between two and three months alongside shelves lined with the Cobbles and jars of her cows' milk yogurt. As we spoke, Jean was brushing the wheels with a cream wax to seal in moisture and protect the rind.

As Jean continued to work, as to be expected, our conversation drifted to regulatory issues. For one, the matter of using raw milk for cheese production. Regulated by the FDA, raw milk cannot be used for cheese aged under 60 days. The state of Maine has made it easier for small producers by allowing 'heat-treated' (reaching 150 degrees for a half-hour) milk opposed to pasteurization...a middle ground that saves hundreds-of-thousands of dollars in equipment that simply isn't viable for facilities of this scale.

But the question of exactly how much regulation isn't a simple one. In New Zealand, for instance, she explained that regulations are the same no matter the size of the producer and a move in that direction might not be a bad thing. The worry is that people can get into it producing something like cheese not realizing the potential dangers involved and as she says, "One bad experience will destroy it for all of us."

Jean was one of the founders of the Maine Cheese Guild, which has worked with the state government to help shape regulations. She described it as 'very supportive and helpful,' providing classes and workshops at all levels.  The recent re-posting on the website of their position on local food ordinances reiterates Jean's point in that it "believes that the best way for professional cheese makers to guarantee the quality of their product is being appropriately licensed...".

The amount of work Jean puts into Kennebec Cheesery is impressive.  Besides the day-to-day production and tending to the herd (which also includes Kahtadin sheep for lamb meat), this is a business and running a business also means marketing.

She began selling at farmers' markets and at local stores, Uncle Dean’s Good Groceries and Barrels Community Market in Waterville, and has since expanded to restaurants. She expressed both her gratitude and hopefulness for farmers’ markets as they have continued to grow over recent years.  Selling in Augusta, Waterville and Portland markets, she recognizes the value of such a direct method of marketing, allowing farmers and producers to think more creatively about their product due to the immediacy of the feedback they receive.

Kennebec Cheesery at Koons' Farm is a place where living and making cannot be separated. I encourage you Mainers to seek out their product, one in which they have a hand in every step, drawing a direct line from what goes into the goats' belly to what goes into ours. Elsewhere, find and support your local cheesemakers...people like the Koons whose diligence makes our lives just a little better.  

Many thanks to Natalie for collaborating on this project, the first of more to come. Visit www.natalieconnphotography.com for a full slideshow of her photographs.