By Roberta Bailey The word “corn” denotes the staple grain of a region. In countries where wheaten bread is primarily eaten, wheat is their corn. In countries where rye is eaten most often, their corn is rye. In the Americas, our corn, our staple grain is maize. Maize is inextricably intertwined into our daily world.
By Roberta Bailey Every food has an optimal way for preserving it. Much of that depends on how you like to eat each food. Berries can be canned as jam or in syrup, made into juice, dried as leather or slices, or frozen in bulk. Greens are better frozen than dried or canned, but maybe
Celebrating Fall Flavor and History By Roberta Bailey Early last winter, a friend of mine told me about an ancient tree on the farm where she used to live. It was a Northern Spy apple tree. She said it was the old strain of Northern Spy, better than what seems to be around now. Her
By Roberta Bailey Some of my most vivid childhood memories pertain to butter: making butter in kindergarten, Pilot crackers (4-inch-round crackers with flavor similar to oyster crackers) spread with butter at my grandmother’s house, buttering my hands to form popcorn balls, and making scrambled eggs with butter in seventh grade home economics class (I had
By Holli Cederholm Gnocchi is one of my favorite celebratory meals. I usually only make this potato-based pasta a few times a year, but it’s always for a special occasion: the arrival of an ingredient that I haven’t cooked with since the last time it was in season. In the fall, I mix up a
By Roberta Bailey When I was first farming in Maine, I befriended as many elders in my small rural town as I could. My partner and I would visit them in their extraordinarily warm houses, we always remembered to dress in layers, and we would ask a steady flow of questions about how to do
By Roberta Bailey I remember a Christmas dinner where the relative who kept all her food from touching any other food on her plate sat next to one of my nieces, who proceeded to stir all her food together in a gravied whirlpool of mashed potatoes, peas, turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and yams. The isolationist
This meal, which includes several dishes including a vegetarian platter and a chicken platter, is based entirely on what John could harvest fresh at his farm during the first week of September. Every vegetable used to make these dishes was grown by John, with the help of his family! John runs Yanga Family Farms, located
By Roberta Bailey Once upon a time, but not too long ago, mushrooms were thought of as little white things that added flavor to a dish, but barely had any nutritional value. Rather they were just spongy little morsels that absorbed butter in a very delicious way. But all the while, mushrooms were building a
By Roberta Bailey Happy 50th birthday, MOFGA. Few remember a time before MOFGA was a part of Maine. It has become the mycelium that connects and enriches all of Maine’s community, from gardeners, farmers, artists, co-ops, apprentices and journey-folk to businesses and fairgoers. As with mycelia, MOFGA extends the reach of our roots and furthers
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