Think of Maine and you’ll probably envision lobster fishing as part of the scene. This crowded pier is in Kittery at the westernmost stretch of the state’s long coastline.
Tag: Food
Mackerel by the bucket
Yes, I’ve long known the explicative, “Holy mackerel!” but have never gone beyond that until moving to Eastport, where it’s commonly fished from the Breakwater pier. Previous postings here at the Barn reflect that.
That said.
- It’s a small fish (around here, less than a foot long), oily like salmon, and to my eyes quite pretty.
- For those casting with a rod and reel, it’s caught with four to six hooks on a line, on a good day all of them emerging from the water fully loaded.
- Much of the haul here is either thrown back, as sport, or kept as bait for lobsters, or eaten smoked, pickled, or cooked fresh. Otherwise, mackerel don’t keep long. They’re bony, FYI, so they need to be fileted expertly.
- Oily? They’re rich in healthy omega-3 fatty oils, a plus when it comes to cholesterol control. And, thanks to that oil, their beautiful scales do stick to the human touch. Oh, and the fish are low in dreaded mercury.
- They exist in many species around the globe and are high on the menu of larger fishes.
- They breed near the surface of the water, with a female releasing between 300,000 and a million-and-a-half eggs that float free in the open sea.
- Ours travel in dense schools, roiling the water above.
- They’re fun and easy to catch, from what I’ve seen, and a great target for young and new anglers. There is no size limit, harvest limit is 20 a day per person, no license required except in interior waters, however that’s defined.
- They’re related to tuna and bonito. (Now we’re talking.)
- There’s an art in the cast and in the jigging of the line while reeling it in.
Happy lettuce heading up
Sometimes our vegetable beds look nearly perfect.
Kinisi 262
rooots
caroots
Deliberate fire nurtured along
Lowbush blueberries are classified a wild crop, but the barrens where they grow do require tending. One practice involves burning the fields every few years to discourage weeds, shrubs, and trees from taking over.
Price check alert
He promised lower prices. Here are ten you can bet will go up because of his promise of “lower taxes.”
- Fuel. As in gasoline, diesel, and home heating oil. We pump and refine some in the United States, but not nearly enough to meet demand. When demand outstrips supply, as basic economics theory contends, prices go up. It’s part of what’s ironically known as a free market.
- Coffee and tea. Imported and subject to new, stiff tariffs.
- Vanilla. Ditto. Along with a lot of other spices and flavorings.
- Chocolate. The beans are imported, as are some chocolate products. If you were considering cocoa as your new beverage of choice, think again.
- Olives. Yes, we raise some, mostly California, but the U.S. is not in the top five olive-growing countries. Spain and Italy top that list. As for olive oil, which many fine cooks consider essential and which nutritionists tout as healthy? There will be suffering.
- Cars, SUVs, trucks, and parts. It’s a complex picture, but you can’t build new factories and hire and train workers overnight.
- Electronics. Ditto.
- Clothing. Check those labels. As for building factories and hiring and training workers? Once again, it won’t happen overnight.
- Wine and spirits. Yes, we make these in the USA, too, but imports are major. There are no substitutes when it comes to discriminating tastes. And here’s another case of demand outstripping supply in a so-called free market.
- Bananas. Most of them come from plantations in countries formerly controlled by American owners. You know, banana republics.
One place prices seem to be going down is stocks.
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POE TAE TOE
GRAY V
Applying the Tao of food
The Chinese mystic Lao Tsu, the founder of Taoism, once said, or I think he did, that when it comes to food, we should eat what’s in season and from the region where we live.
Living in a so-called temperate climate, as I have, makes the adage difficult to maintain day to day through a full year, but as a guideline, I’ve appreciated its merits. Besides, it’s not a bad concept to keep in mind when sitting down to ponder seed catalogs and ordering, and then getting the mailings and planting the seeds under grow lights, as many folks do at this time of the year.
Here are some foods as I see them applying. Many but not all are items foodies pay dearly to obtain. Others are the basic reason for gardening – or is the practice itself the reason and any harvest arrives as one more blessing?
- Asparagus: I came to love this herald of spring when I was living in an apple orchard. The sprouts grew wild, free for the taking, and glutting out for the month they sprang forth was a delightful challenge. I repeated the celebration with a bed or two in Dover, and do miss those.
- Fiddleheads: These ferns are another herald of spring and well worth the expense. We’re hoping to raise our own, as well as asparagus, as we get better settled in here.
- Strawberries: Just in time for a few birthdays in June …
- Crabmeat: It’s available if you know where to look, but Betty’s (the best) is available only from late spring to early autumn. Fresh is definitely the tastiest.
- Lobsters: Again, year-‘round, but the price does drop as the waters warm. Not that they’re ever cheap.
- Blueberries, raspberries, currants, and cranberries: Our county leads the nation in the harvest of wild, low-bush blueberries. Cranberries are a more recent addition at a few farms. Raspberries and currants are whatever we can keep from the deer.
- Summer garden abundance: lettuce, sugar snap peas, parsley, basil, cucumbers, tomatoes.
- Potatoes: The skins are so tender when fresh, and the insides haven’t yet turned starchy. My, they are sweet and creamy, definitely worth the excuse to head up to Aroostook County, where culls can be a bargain.
- Garlic and leeks: We do store these, so the “in season” doesn’t always apply. But they do brighten up what we’re eating through the winter months.
- Scallops: Speaking of winter, getting these straight from the fishing boats is heavenly. Those you buy at the market or in a restaurant aren’t quite the same.
Fresh cider and pick-your-own apples, peaches, and pears were things we enjoyed in Dover but haven’t yet located here in Way Downeast Maine. We’re lookin’, though.
When it comes to daily bread, the French set a standard
Among the things we truly miss living on our remote corner of Maine is a first-class bakery, the kind that can turn out genuine baguettes and croissants.
Previous posts here at the Barn have touched on these distinctively French delights, but today the attention turns to matters of what makes something as basic as bread so marvelous.
Consider.
- While the roots of the baguette go back at least to the 18th century, the distinctive Parisian staple didn’t even go by that name until August 1920, when the department of the Seine regulated the product, declaring that the loaf had to have a minimum weight of 2¾ ounces and a maximum length of 16 inches and not cost more than .35 francs, making it affordable for nearly everyone.
- Today’s baguette has a diameter of roughly two to 2½ inches, a length of about 26 inches, but that can range up to 39 inches long, and a weight of 8¾ ounces. I’m sure the price has been adjusted over the years, even before the euro.
- The word itself means wand, baton, or stick. Well, from baguette to baton does make a bit of sense.
- French bakers were already using highly refined Hungarian high-milled flour, a compact Austrian yeast, and Viennese steam oven baking. Later ovens heated to more than 390 °F use steam injection to allow the crust to expand before setting. Vive la difference.
- Long loaves were already part of French culture. Some of them reached to six-feet long, resembling crow bars, in the eyes of some. Pity the poor maids trying to convey them to their master’s homes.
- The airy, chewy, crunchy-crust elongated bread loaves are made of basically flour, water, common salt, and yeast, perhaps with a few tweaks. We’re back to the importance of really good flour and yeast. As for the water and salt?
- By French law, a baguette is defined principally by its dough, not its shape. No wonder so many imitators on this side of the ocean disappoint.
- Sometime around 1920 (the accounts vary), bakers were legally prevented from working before 4 a.m., making it impossible to make traditional round loaves in time for customers’ breakfasts, as the Wikipedia account goes. (The bakers were also banned from working after 10 p.m.) Switching from the round loaf to the previously less-common, slender shape of the baguette solved the problem, especially since the bakers could no longer work later than 10 at night.
- When it comes to consumption, Algeria leads the world, with 49 million baguette loaves a day, compared to France at a mere 30 million.
- As far as history goes, we can revisit the classic quip of let the public eat cake when they’re out of French bread, even of the pre-baguette variety. Was Queen Antoinette out of her head? In my humble opinion, cake definitely finishes in second place.
Do I miss the goddess Caffeina?
Mugs of coffee laced with sugar and cream have accompanied me from high school on, especially while sitting at a desk writing or editing. Cutting back from my five or so big mugs a day did become an annual health goal, not that I ever pressed that hard. Working the night shift didn’t help, either.
Alas, since retiring from the newsroom, I’ve had to eliminate caffeine altogether from my diet. Doctor’s orders. My favorite drug of choice, it turns out, counteracts a daily medicine prescribed to me.
Here are a few related considerations.
- Tea may be the first caffeinated beverage, from 2737 B.C.E., according to one line of argument, but I’ve never found it satisfying. Sorry if you feel a need to object.
- Coffee beans are not really beans but the pit of a red or purple Coffea fruit. The leading producers are Brazil, Colombia, Vietnam, and Venuzuela.
- Was the first usage of coffee by an Ethiopian goat herder named Kaldi in 850 C.E. after he noticed his goats had extra energy after eating the fruits?
- Today an estimated 80 percent of the world’s population imbibes a caffeinated product daily – a number that rises to 90 percent of adults in North America.
- It’s also found in some soft drinks and in chocolate.
- Add to that cold, allergy, pain, and weight-control medications.
- One study found that two to three cups of caffeine coffee linked to a 45 percent drop in suicides.
- Significant daily consumption of caffeine in coffee or tea may also greatly reduce the likelihood of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Other health benefits are reported.
- The United States is the leading consumer of coffee. I doubt, though, that we can blame that on the Boston Tea Party, which was a tax protest.
- Decaf does contain a residual amount of caffeine. Not enough, apparently, to keep me awake.
It’s not like I’m suffering, though. I must say I’ve found some good decafs for my morning ritual, sometimes abetted by French chicory. Still, there are some dull days I would really like that jolt of bitter stimulant to the nervous system.
Jnana's Red Barn 