Working Waterfront

It’s a wet and wild world for this old man

I’m having a little trouble with the younger crowd here on the island, particularly boys but some girls too. Some guys my age might be upset by such delinquent behavior, such aggression—and it is aggression; make no mistake about it. It’s as if they get a kick out of harassing… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Let us be thankful for lettuce

‘Tis lettuce season for certain on-island. We are devouring the first planting of lettuce, which has turned into heads of glorious size, while the second planting is sizing up nicely, and the third has just been planted out to the garden from their nursery flats in the hoop house. The… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

From Brazil to Great Cranberry, the food travels well

When he visits Brazil, Cezar Ferreira is partial to moqueca, a stew of flaky white fish, coconut milk, cilantro, peppers, lime juice, peppers, and onion that’s perfectly accompanied by caiperinha, a sugar-cane alcohol and lime juice cocktail. At the food trucks, he enjoys crispy pasties, a type of empanada that goes well… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Frenchboro school sends students home to garden

When I moved to Maine four years ago, I quickly observed that Mainers are resourceful, creative problem-solvers. I have noticed this is particularly true of islanders, who, by necessity, take extra care to think about resources available on-island and how and when they come and go. When COVID-19 made its… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island images demand answers to deeper questions

Reflections is written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. On a foggy morning in June, a friend and I were down at the dock loading up his lobster boat to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Dealing with those not-so-new pests

A side effect of working from home from March through the end of May was that I became an even more obsessive gardener. We’ve been in our home, purchased through North Haven Sustainable Housing, since 2008, and I have three pretty well-established vegetable gardens around the house. I’ve managed to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Column raises important question for schools

Thank you for the Field Notes column by Rob Snyder (sent via email on June 5 and included in this issue of the newspaper, on page 20) about Maine and diversity. But I was surprised by this line: “But what if one of the underlying issues in a community is… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Gardening is a balm for worldly worries

Like many of my friends, this spring, I have found great solace in my garden. Whenever I feel pandemic depression take hold, I try to get outside. The minute I connect my hands with the earth I feel better. I’ve weeded grass from places I’d ignored for years and my… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Strained relations with the ferry service

On a late spring morning in 1920, the steamboat Governor Bodwell was docked at Tillson’s Wharf in Rockland and preparing to depart for Vinalhaven. Shoveling coal below decks was my grandfather, Edwin Maddox. His eleventh great grandparents, William and Mary Brewster, had arrived on the Mayflower 300 years earlier. Unbeknownst to him, he… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Nature wants us to cook

Mother Nature has had it with her most pestiferous species. She has answered the species’ greed and carelessness with wildly fluctuating weather and now disease. Since she has outlived all of us and our vaunted civilizations by millions of years, we can be pretty sure she’ll come out on top… SEE MORE