ISLANDPORT PRESS

Watch John Ford talk "Suddenly, The Cider Didn't Taste So Good" on 207

 

Fiddleheads: The First Taste of Spring

In honor of Spring and fiddleheads, we offer up this excerpt from the wonderful book,  The Cows are Out! by Trudy Chamber Price. In the book, Trudy wrote about her roughly twenty years (1960s into the 1980s) owning and running a dairy farm on Knox Ridge. Here's a picture of Trudy with John Ford Sr., (author of Suddenly, The Cider Didn't Taste So Good) in a picture taken in Waldo County just last fall.

Here's Trudy:

"I had my own fiddlehead patch, making me one of the luckiest people in the state of Maine. My favorite food since early childhood has been steamed fiddleheads with butter and salt. Growing up in Aroostook County, I considered eating fiddleheads, usually picked by my grandfather, part of an annual spring ritual. I just took them for granted. Of course today, fiddleheads are considered a delicacy in many fine restaurants.

"As an adult, I always shared my harvest of fiddleheads with friends and relatives, but I have shared my fiddlehead patch with only four other people—besides my husband—whom I trusted to keep the secret. Never ask anyone to reveal the location of her fiddlehead patch.

"My neighbor actually gets the credit for discovering it. He noticed the ferns in the woods on Beaver Hill when he was installing drainage tile in fields that we were preparing to seed down by plowing, harrowing, and picking rocks. Although it was too late to harvest the fiddleheads that spring, I was forever beholden to him for his discovery.

"One May, according to my calendar, fiddlehead season had arrived. It was my morning off from barn chores, but I still awoke at 5:00 A.M., so I decided to go fiddleheading. I should have known by the absence of blackflies that the fiddleheads weren’t quite ready. I went anyway because I didn’t want one sprout of the succulent wild vegetable to get ahead of me. My suspicions were right—not one fiddlehead had yet poked through the brown root mounds.

"After two warm, rainy days, the blackflies were out. I visited my patch again. Eureka! The fiddleheads were up—meaning mossy-green, quarter-sized coils stood ready on three-inch stems. I came home with a small mess of Mother Nature’s first taste of spring.

"On my third trip to the patch, the fresh air felt cool against my face. Along the dirt road to the alfalfa field, the hazy sunshine filtered long early morning shadows through the baby green leaves. The first dandelion blossoms—whose greens are the first taste of spring for some people—fringed the rock wall that I stepped across. New alfalfa had started to grow, but last year’s dry stubble crunched under my boots as I hiked toward the woods with my plastic shopping bags and a bottle of fly repellent, just in case. No blackflies in sight. I was up before them. I stepped into the woods and saw that some ferns had unfurled their heads. In just a few days, those exposed to sunshine had grown knee high and were too tall to pick. But there in the shade beside the spring brook grew the perfect green clumps. I began grabbing handfuls, seven or eight stalks at a time.

"Why was I hurrying? I had no deadlines this morning and there were enough fiddleheads to fill two shopping bags. Still, I continued to pick full tilt, wanting to harvest the stalks before they could grow any bigger. All the while I took care not to step on some jack-in-the-pulpits that thrived in the same damp environment as fiddleheads. I didn’t even stop to wipe the drip on the end of my nose.

"Leaving the taller stems to become ferns, I invaded the middle section of shorter plants, plucking out the tenderest and tastiest morsels that had barely popped through their brown skins. Two hours and two bags full of fiddleheads later, I realized that I had not yet spoken to anyone this morning, and no one had spoken to me except Old Sam Peabody whose song I returned by whistling. With regret that a few fiddleheads had outgrown my picking and a promise to those not yet through their brown skins that I would return, I left my favorite spot to go cook breakfast for my family.

"As I walked from the woods, the first morning blackflies buzzed my head and a crow squawked from his perch. On the way home I left my friend Mattie enough fiddleheads for dinner and later dropped some off for my sister-in-law. The rest I would put in the freezer for special occasions such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter or when we had guests. If they had never tasted Maine’s delicacy, I made certain that our guests were in another room when I drained the brown water from the cooking pot. If they were hesitant about tasting the curious coiled young fronds, the brown water might increase their hesitancy.

"For several days after the picking, my green-stained fingers and nails would remind me of the bountiful excursion and the solitude of my fiddlehead patch—no telephone, no calves blatting for morning milk, no manure to shovel. My back complained, but my soul had been revitalized for at least another week." ~ Trudy

 

Islandport Notebook: Watch video of John McDonald and Rebecca Rule Interviews

Whew! It has been an exciting and exhausting couple of weeks here at Islandport (with no end in sight!). Last  week, we officially released John Ford's Suddenly, The Cider Didn't Taste So Good to rave reviews. Already, John has spoken at two great events in Unity, while Michelle and Carole have been packing and shipping like mad to meet demand. John is an excellent and engaging (not to mention funny) speaker, as a result it seems we are adding to his appearance schedule daily. We will post a complete list of John's summer appearances soonest. Meanwhile, if you live within the signal area of WVOM: The Voice of Maine, John is the featured guest on The Maine Outdoors with V. Paul Reynolds this Sunday from 7 to 8 p.m. ... Also, this week, we began shipping copies of the brand-spanking new book, John McDonald's Maine Trivia. John was the featured speaker at the Portland Public Library's Brown Bag Lecture Series on Wednesday and was a guest on the WCSH-TV talk show 207 on Tuesday. You can watch John's interview here. John McDonald (right) will also make the rounds in Maine this summer (including, we hear tell, his debut performance at the Yarmouth Clam Festival!). We will post his schedule soon as well. ... Speaking of appearances, Rebecca Rule (Live Free and Eat Pie!, Headin' for the Rhubarb!) was the featured guest on the New Hampshire Public Television show, New Hampshire Authors, last night. The tremendously talented and tremendously nice Becky is usually the host of that interview show, but the tables were turned for last night's episode, which was hosted by Marie Harris. You can watch the interview here or in the video player below. ... The bookstore Left Bank Books has announced that it is leaving Searsport to open in a bigger location in Belfast. We wish them good luck. The Bangor Daily News ran a story that mentioned how Belfast hopes to become a "city of books." Belfast has come a long way from its chicken processing days. ... This Monday, there will be a roundtable discussion at Portland's Holiday Inn by the Bay called "The Future of Maine Newspapers: The Intersection of Business & Media." Panelists include Tom Bell, a Portland Press Herald reporter and President of the Portland Newspaper Guild and Anthony Ronzio, New Media Director for the Sun Media Group. Ronzio is a Syracuse University alumnus (sorry, can't help myself). ... And, for heaven's sake, rain be gone! ~ dll

 

Watch Rebecca Rule on PBS. See more from NH Authors.

 

 

Belfast looks to become a "city of books."

There was an interesting story this weekend in The Bangor Daily News. Left Bank Books, a small bookstore located on Main Street in Searsport (the existing store can be seen in this News photo), is heading across the Passagassawakeag River to Belfast. The store, owned by Marsha Kaplan, Lindsay McGuire and Barbara Klausmeyer, will reopen in a larger space and become part of what certainly appears to be an increasingly vibrant local shopping area in Belfast. (I know that Mr. Paperback, the biggest bookstore in Belfast, just closed, but that store was brought down by other factors and, I believe, was one of the stronger in the chain.) In fact, Dorothy Havey, director of Our Town Belfast told the News, “Our goal is to have Belfast be known as a city of books.”

That is certainly a fine goal and they seem to be off to a good start. According to the News, just within a few blocks of the new Left Bank Books, there is Artisan Books & Bindery and BellaBooks on High Street and the Old Professor’s Bookshop on Main Street. Also selling books are Gift shop Beyond the Sea on Main Street and Out on a Whimsy on High Street. Not only that, but the 2012 Belfast Bound Book Festival will take place from July 27 to July 29. The event, according to organizers,  is a three-day festival celebrating reading, writing and publishing and will feature 25,000 books.

It was also great to read a story about books and booksellers that was upbeat, positive and showed people taking a proactive approach to sales and marketing on an ongoing basis, in addition to a one-time festival. No one in the story was complaining about Amazon or ebooks or the internet or big box stores. Instead it seemed to be about energy, excitement, and good merchandizing of books. All that sounds great to us.

Click here to read the full story by reporter Abigail Curtis.

 

Questions and Answers with Johnny Law!

John Ford Sr. will sign copies of his new book, Suddenly, The Cider Didn't Taste So Good at
the Dorothy Webb Quimby Library at Unity College this evening from 6 to 7. We hope you can make it, John is a wonderful storyteller. In the meantime, John answered a few questions for us, which hopefully will help you get to know him a little better. One question that has come to us since the book's release is: "Where did the title of the book come from?" It is from a story in the book. That is all we are allowed to tell you by law.

Q: What is the most memorable experience of your career as a warden?

A: It's hard to pick out any one incident. I guess probably the most dramatic and life-changing experience for me was recovering the drowning victim from Bowler Pond, in the town of Palermo, only to end up in the hospital afterwards diagnosed with lymphatic cancer. ("One man's tragedy saved another man's life—mine.") The irony of that situation was an event that changed my life forever. In most cases I felt as if I somewhat had control of those events that I found myself in, but suddenly I found myself facing a life-threatening incident whereby my own destiny and future was in the hands of medical professionals and my own Christian faith. In other words, I had no control of the future or what the outcome might be, other than placing my trust in their hands. The final outcome was realizing that this life that most of us are so accustomed to can change in a heartbeat. Those things we take for granted suddenly are placed into a different light. The end results being that in this situation I was determined to enjoy each day as it came, knowing that tomorrow I may not be here.

Q: What is your favorite story in the book?
A: I think my favorite story was the hunting camp incident that brought about the title of this book, "Suddenly, the Cider Didn't Taste So Good." For me those were the best days, when even those who occasionally strayed across the line managed to show appreciation and a sense of friendship and respect with their local game warden. They knew the rules of the game, and they also realized if they were to violate those rules they'd be treated no differently than anyone else in the same position. There was no hostility or form of retaliation with these folks. They were what I consider good old hell-raising sportsmen, coming into the area for a good time and willing to share it with their local game warden. We always laughed and joked with each other, which early in my career I felt was the way life as a warden really should be. It was a case of true sportsmanship all the way around, and it was one of the perks that made my job so enjoyable. We still have maintained that friendship to this very day, although some of them have passed away. Nothing but great memories and a whole hell of a lot of laughs and good times. 

Click here to read the entire Q&A.