Amie's Orts & Reports: fog, dill pickle everything & a berry bonanza

All the News That’s Fit to Eat in 3 Small Bites

---

Small Bite #1: Vacation

Greetings from a little island in mid-coast Maine! I’m home for the summer, swapping desert monsoons for sea breezes and a 40-degree temperature drop—which, wow. On the “To Go” list: a visit to the Lost Kitchen Farmer’s Market in Freedom (my postcard did not get pulled for a supper reservation this year, so at least I can visit the place); a bakery tour around Portland; girls’ camp weekend at Sebec Lake and last week’s Grand Manan getaway with subscriber Mel L. This one’s been on my bucket list since I lived in the old Downeast bed-and-breakfast my dad and stepmom ran in Cutler, Maine a jillion years ago, gazing wistfully across the foggy Bay of Fundy at this remote New Brunswick island.

I’ll have more scenery (with fog and without) and a microstory about Grand Manan in this Friday’s island-hopping issue of the micro mashup, my other newsletter. For now, here’s the foodie edition of postcards from paradise.

Kitchen tools at the Old Well House Café; dill pickle soup and menu board at The Kitchen

New Brunswickers, we quickly discovered, are all about dill pickles. Am I the only person who didn’t know this? Dill pickle potato chips. Dill pickle tartar sauce on my haddock sandwich at the Harbour Grille. Dill pickle soup at The Kitchen. Fried dill pickles at the Seaquel Restaurant. Dill-weary by then, I did not order the pickles.

But the Seaquel, conveniently located right up the hill from the ferry dock, also features a counter-long array of baked goods including their signature “muffins that taste like donuts” (they do!) and ginger crinkles, a treat my late Nova Scotian Great Aunt Evelyn often baked. The other feature at the Seaquel? A cute couple visiting from Newfoundland—the substantially larger Maritime island also on my “To Go” list—who educated us on the partridge berries growing in their backyard. “They’re like lingonberries,” said the chatty husband, then proceeded to drop this bombshell: you can hop a ferry from Newfoundland over to France and—wait for it—the French islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. Am I the only person who didn’t know this, either?

I could and likely will write much more about Grand Manan—highest tides in the world; wild-ass fog that vanishes, Houdini-style, in the blink of an eye; lucrative weed crop (as in seaweed)—but for now I’ll just leave you with a box of dulse and a genius way to use lobster traps.

---

Small Bite #2: Staycation

When I’m not on the go this summer, my porch is the perpetual vacation—a perfect place to chill with a good book, a tall glass of limeade and a slice of molasses blueberry cake.

---

Ship City Molasses Blueberry Cake

This moist, dark cake dates back to Civil War days. The recipe originated in Bath, Maine, known as “The City of Ships” for its long history in ship building, from sailing vessels to the naval gunboats still built at Bath Iron Works, where destroyers were once produced every 17 days.

I’ve made it for potlucks and picnics and always come back with an empty pan.

• ½ c. sugar

• 2 T. butter

• ¾ c. molasses

• 1 egg

• 2 ½ c. flour

• 1 t. baking soda

• ¼ t. salt

• 1 t. cinnamon

• 1 c. buttermilk

• 1 c. blueberries

Sift dry ingredients together. Reserve ¼ cup and dredge berries with this.

Cream butter and sugar, add molasses and egg. Add dry ingredients, alternately with buttermilk. Mix well (I did it all by hand, like they did in pre-Civil War Bath, Maine) and fold in dredged berries. Pour into greased and floured 8” or 9” pan. Bake at 350 for 45-50 min or until done.

Limeade

Makes 5 cups

• 1 c. sugar

• 1 c. water

• 4 limes

• 3 c. cold water

First, make simple syrup: combine the sugar and 1 c. water in a pan, bring to a boil and boil gently for 5 minutes.

Remove the outer green zest from 1 lime, taking as little white pitch as possible. Use a good, small, sharp paring knife. Take the pan off the heat and add the lime zest to the syrup to steep. Squeeze the juice from the 4 limes (about 7/8 cup) and set aside. When the syrup is cool, strain it and discard the zest. Stir in the lime juice and 3 c. cold water. Chill thoroughly.

If you’re visiting midcoast Maine this summer like Kathleen C, an original Cook & Tell subscriber, who’s up from Pennsylvania for her annual summer family vacation this week, consider this your invitation to pop by for an impromptu porch party!

---

Small Bite #3: Blueberry Trivia and a Berry Bonus

From Local Flavor, the spiral bound cookbook compiled by the Machias (Maine) 4^th of July Committee I discovered tucked away on a bookshelf at subscriber Julie F’s lakeside camp among cribbage boards, a nude Barbie and a Ferris Bueller video.

FUN FACTS ABOUT BLUEBERRIES WE BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW

• 70% of the wild blueberries grown in the US are grown in Washington County, Maine

• Black bears have been known to travel 15 miles a day to feast on wild blueberries

• Blueberries are pollinated by 1 billion rented bees

• Many blueberries are still harvested by hand using the same type of specially-designed rake invented in 1883

And from the Cook & Tell Archives to your kitchen: A BERRY BONANZA BONUS ISSUE!

---

Your Pantry Pal,

Amie

PS: if you’re dying to try a dill pickle dip recipe, message me and I’ll send it over!