Cheryl Wixson's Kitchen

CAN MAINE FEED ITSELF?

January 27, 2010 on 9:24 pm | In Uncategorized | No Comments

As a foodie, I’ve always been intrigued with the notion of an ideal food system, a local food system, that includes products fished, foraged, or grown right here in my back yard…or let’s just say the Blue Hill peninsula. When my work for the Maine Organic Farmers became focused on an organic marketing strategy, the broader question came to mind: Can Maine feed itself? I often use the analogy that Maine produces enough calories each year to feed its 1.3 million residents. But those calories are primarily in the form of french fries and potato chips. Can we do it another way?

The short answer, of course, is yes. Generations of Maine people, including Native Americans, and my family, have provided daily nutritous diets. Can this translate to today?

So this is the start of a journey…an exciting culinary journey, as my family attempts to live off our land and sea, and that of our neighbors around us. Food is very important to us…the focal point, some might say, of our lives. I’ll let you know how we do, what we eat, where it comes from, success and disasters. and what about those things we don’t have here in Maine. Well, we’re making a list of things we really don’t want to live without. The list will probably change…we’ll learn to adapt….coffee, chocolate, cinnamon, vanilla…these are luxuries…but on the list. I’m trying to keep it to just twenty items. We’ll see.

This morning I enjoyed a glass of ruby juice, canned this summer from rhubarb, Quill’s End Farm fabulously fresh fried egg and a toasted “English muffin” (homemade oatmeal hamburg roll made from Aroostook county rolled oats and hard white spring ground flour) spread with last summer’s blackberry jam. Not a bad start to the day. The dogs and I walked the cove in search of ducks just at high tide and returned to the hill. the woodbox needs filling and there is work to be done.