Where do you go when you’re on a Maine island 12 miles out to sea to wind down the week that was on Friday night? On North Haven, the several year-old Calderwood Hall is the place to be for some of the finest pizza anywhere on the Mid Coast, even if it is on an island.
Friday night at Calderwood Hall, North Haven
Summer in Maine and the dawn comes early and dusk comes late, especially on an island such as North Haven where time and space are so precious. Island life has its idiosyncrasies, too, such as a glitch in my internet and phone service hookup under the shaky hands of Fairpoint Communications. Keeping in touch here to share my North Haven diary has been tricky business.
Daily rites of summer begin on North Haven Island: (clockwise: trimaran anchored in the Fox Island Thoroughfare; the daily arrivals on the North Haven Ferry and scenes of the Saturday farmer’s market, the first of the season
By all accounts it was a booming summer season in Maine with the state’s restaurants, hotels, waterways, mountains and coastal plains chock-a-block with the lolling tourist brigade. I chose to end the summer’s calendar season over Labor Day weekend in the peaceful hamlets of North Haven Island where this coastal idyll didn’t escape the summer crowds basking in perfect weather.
Clockwise, Brown’s Coal Wharf, Ames point, picking corn at Foggy Meadows Farm, Main Street
Pulpit Harbor was crammed with boaters, both local and summer residents. The little village of North Haven was a bustle, too. Of course all things being relative, you could still hear a pin drop as the typical quiet of island life prevailed beautifully, with pristine weather–a balmy humidity-free 75 degrees.
When you’re on an island you have to adapt to what’s available. I bring a lot with me such as a Cuisinart, my favorite rolling pin, spices, good butter, a hand mixer and even stored items such as last year’s sour cherries, which I had stashed in my freezer.
Grazing sheep at Sheep Meadow Farm on Crabtree Point, North Haven
After that you’re at the mercy of what’s available. Fortunately for the locavore minded, North Haven offers a plentiful lot of local provender within limits. When, for instance, I bought eggs from Foggy Meadows Farm I hadn’t realized that they were duck eggs, which farmer Doreen Cabot uses in most everything instead of chicken eggs. I beat them into the batter for a pound cake, thinking they were chicken eggs until I looked at the box that was clearly marked “duck eggs.” I’ve made this pound cake countless times and have featured it here (see Pound Cake for recipe). But with the richness of these eggs, with their large yolks, this was the best version ever, making the cake extremely fluffy. I’m totally converted and will use, as Cabot does, duck eggs in baking and custards for ice cream.
On 300 acres of sprawling meadow and woods cascading down to the water’s edge, Turner Farm is the mainstay for produce, beef, pork and cheese of exquisite quality from the tender nurturing by the farm’s growing practices. It helps to have such conservation-land-conscious keepers tending to such a farm. It had been fallow for years until owners US Representative Chellie Pingree, who has deep roots on the island, and her husband, financier Donald Sussman, revived this historic island property to all its glory.
The barn at Turner Farm
The produce finds its way into the kitchens of Nebo Lodge, owned by the Pingree-Sussmans and in high season even the local little island supermarket carries the bounty from their fields.
When you’re at a precious summer colony, whether on any of Maine’s iconic islands or in coastal communities on the mainland, local dining is a key element of time well spent. On North Haven that puts you squarely at Nebo Lodge and its superb kitchen with cook Amanda Hallowell at the helm.
Destination North Haven, Maine, was not immune to the flush of July 4th weekenders on Thursday jamming the lines at the Rockland Ferry Terminal that takes travelers to North Haven or Vinalhaven, the two very distinctive islands along the Fox Island Thoroughfare of Penobscot Bay.
That was my destination to spend time there for the next 10 days and fortunately the North Haven boat, which crosses the bay only 3 times a day (compared to Vinalhaven’s 6 crossings) is much less crowded for travelers and residents to the smaller island.
Boarding the ferry for North Haven
Setting up a house on an island has its idiosyncrasies, and it’s best not to make assumptions. The local store is fairly well stocked with groceries and food, with frequent deliveries from Beth’s Farm Market in Warren for berries and produce, or meats from Curtis Meats as well as the produce from the island’s Turner Farm. Though the shelves empty out fast by the weekend.
Note: This was originally published on July 10 2015 and I was reminded of it in a memory on Facaebook. I thought it was still so relevant today that I’ve posted it again. It said so much about our food world then and now with all the hoopla of cuisine, chefs and daring restaurants teasing us with greatness and triple digit tabs.
The food world is under siege with trendiness. Fried chicken has become an artisanal super-star. The rarest tomato, the sustainable fish fillet, the rigors of omikase and Asian panache–even pizza are elevated to otherworldly stardom. Canned food is left in the dust unless you can it yourself at a farm table in the middle of your highfalutin country kitchen. Then there’s the whole wide world of farm-to-table as though it were something really novel when in fact it’s how the world used to eat simply and well: food from the field—unprocessed, unadulterated, fair and fresh.
At table at Turner Farm supper
Then there’s the barn supper, a hot ticket nowadays where we pay up well over $100 per person for a famous chef who’s taken off his gloves and toque to get down and dirty with “real” food sent simply to the table in a setting that looks tailor made for a Ralph Lauren ad.
