Working Waterfront

Finding yeast on sourdough island

In kitchens across the country, and certainly here on Islesboro, little containers of flour, water, and yeasts bubble away, giving rise to loaves of homemade bread and lots of conversations between experienced sourdough users and newcomers to the craft. A yeast shortage caused this. The world, of course, has lots… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Dinner in the time of COVID

By Sandy Oliver My parents lived through the Depression and World War II and I have thanked God and the universe that in my lifetime I have never had to endure the privations they knew during those times. As you can imagine, though, while I grew up, our household oozed… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Good reasons to eat (and live) on an island

By Sandy Oliver Recently, three days spent on the mainland prompted ponderings about what it would be like to live and eat there. For 30-something years now, I’ve eaten three meals a day on-island, the vast majority of them home-cooked by myself, or friends and neighbors. The exceptions are a… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island complexity explained by four islanders

By Tom Groening Consider the extremes in how islands are portrayed in literature, film, and on TV. The island setting often is used to show how the very best of community values can thrive, or how the very worst of human nature can fester. In Richard Russo’s Empire Falls, the protagonist’s… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Winners rise to top in decade of recipes

By Sandy Oliver Apparently, the average American household cooking repertoire contains something like 20 dishes which are the backbone of family meals, frequently repeated. I don’t know if that includes take-out fare or pizza, which are usually less common on Maine islands. Around here, the garden drives seasonal variations so… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Thankful for the garden that supplies the holiday meal

By Sandy Oliver Thanksgiving still is the holiday when people gather with family and friends to celebrate, even if it means miles and miles of travel, over the river and through the woods. With a curtailed ferry schedule, getting together on the mainland with family, or having family coming to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Fabric, fiber, and food

By Sandy Oliver The Sewing Circle cooks. There is a whole lot of sewing, knitting, crocheting, needlework, and weaving going on, but can we ever cook! The food and fiber connection is a strong one, reinforced by an island-wide lack of fast food options despite the small rotisserie chickens one… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A whole lot of canning going on

By Sandy Oliver There is a whole lot of canning going on out on Islesboro. Probably no one in Maine with a garden or access to plentiful vegetables is exempt from pickling, canning, freezing, drying, storing away. It is September, which is “Putting Food By” month… well, not officially, merely… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

It’s pie season in Maine

By Sandy Oliver It’s pie season on the island. The succession of pie-filling ingredients growing in our gardens and ready for gathering in fields, one after another from rhubarb to strawberries, cherries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, peaches, and then apples and at last pumpkins, makes a huge plenty for a range… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Everything is someone’s lunch

By Sandy Oliver Everything is someone’s lunch. I wander in the garden looking for spinach to eat as Eggs Florentine and notice that a section of seedlings has been wiped out. I dig around with my fingers and eventually turn up a fat, gray-brown curl of cutworm which, when squished,… SEE MORE