 The bug deflector on our neighbor's log truck hints at a popular Maine winter pastime: "I MISS BACK WHEN" |
Friday, January 15, 2010 Wood Prairie Farm Newsletter This Issue: No doubt about it, a lot of time here in northern Maine is spent thinking and talking about the past. The past may not have been too awful good but after all we did get through it and who knows about the future? Truth be told we have very little hard experience with the future and that can be powerful scary to just about anybody, most especially a Mainer. Now one thing you can say about the past is that it has a tendency to get better as time goes by. Hereabouts, the pains of hardship and humiliation just seem to lessen with the passage of time as the mind dulls and glosses over events that some would just as soon have everybody forget, like remember the time that wet Fall during digging when Linnwood just barely missed that bridge and drove that truck full of potatoes clear into Whitney Brook? |
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But
sometimes the
past is chockful of goodness through and through and here's one
example. One of the popular features in our local
(well, about twenty miles away) weekly paper, the Houlton Pioneer Times
(“The
Only Newspaper in the World Interested in Houlton, Maine”) is
From
Our
Files
– News From 100 Years Ago where
items
are lifted verbatim from an issue
exactly one century before and brought to the attention of us modern
readers,
raw and untainted by the rewriters of history. Now some
might quibble with the usage of that
term “news.” A neighbor once allowed
that he liked to read the Houlton Hen – the Houlton paper's
other less than
complimentary name - every night before bed so that he could fall
asleep with
nothing on his mind.
Well, in last week's paper this little nugget from January 7, 1910 caught the attention of most everybody here in our little farming town of Bridgewater (Pop. 612): “Miss Adelle Burpee, teacher at the grammar school returned from a week of vacation in Bridgewater.” Nowadays, Bridgewater no longer has a railroad station, no more jewelry store nor hotel “The Central House” (named because it was halfway on the rough state road between Houlton to the south and Presque Isle to the north). But here was indisputable prima facie evidence that in the eyes of one young adoring school marm that our town was a rare pearl that conjured up the fun and excitement evoked by a vacation. And in the depths of subzero snowy January in Maine, no less! Fact is we have been left speechless for nigh onto a week, full of civic pride and and the contentment that comes with recognition. To think that before folks discovered the beaches of sunny Florida, our humble little frontier potato town was a winter destination hot spot for light-hearted frivolity. Bridgewater may well have a future, but for now we'll just keep enjoying our past. Jim Wood Prairie Farm Home Page.Click here for our Wood Prairie Home Page |
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| Pan-Fried
Potatoes Thinly slice 1 1/2 pounds of potatoes such as Prairie Blush or Butte Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook the potatoes until just cooked through and tender but not falling apart. Drain the potatoes and let dry and cool for a few minutes. Heat 1/2 cup olive oil in a cast iron pan and add the potatoes when when oil is hot. Cook over medium heat, stirring and tossing regulary until golden, about 15 minutes. Season with salt, fresh herbs such as rosemary, dried tomatoes or crispy bacon. Adapted from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters - pioneering cook, restauranteur, and food activist. More recipes on Wood Prairie's Facebook, including Butternut Squash Chocolate Chip Cookies |
 Photo of Prairie Blush Pan-Fried Potatoes by our friend Russell French. Come see more of his beautiful food photos here. |
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FREE
Classic Cookbook Receive a FREE softcover copy of revered Food writer Barbara Kafka's classic Food for Friends cookbook when you place an order of $65 or more! Please use code WPF908. Order must ship by 4/29/10. Hurry! Offer expires when cookbook supply is exhausted but no later than Tuesday 1/19/10. Cookbook Offer can not be combined with other offers. |
I believe it is a basic
right for a farmer (gardener) to be secure on their own farm, to be
free from the threat of farm invasion by biotech's uncontrolled GMO
pollen. And I believe customers like you have a right of
access
to good clean organic seed free of GMO contamination. |
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| Jim
& Megan Gerritsen Wood Prairie Farm 49 Kinney Road Bridgewater, Maine 04735 (800)829-9765 Certified Organic, Direct from the Farm www.woodprairie.com |
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