Caution: Cliche Ahead!

This is the Portland Head Light, which some folks claim is the most photographed lighthouse in America.  I noticed, however, when searching for information about the lighthouse, that several other lights make the same claim.  Whatever the numbers might be, it is true that you will find about three bazillion postcards of this lighthouse should you find yourself in Portland, ME.

And should you find yourself in Portland, ME, I encourage you to check out the local food scene.  They have a really active Slow Food convivium, a business or two offering fresh fish and seafood, and a strong independent restaurant community.

A while back, I contacted Liz at Pocket Farm (no link here, the Pocket Farm blog is no longer) to volunteer to be a resource for a professor at USM who is doing research on sustainable food and food choices.  I was recently contacted by Cheryl Laz, the Sociology Chairperson there, and arranged to meet her in Portland over the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend.

Cheryl was more than willing to come to me, but we have friends in South Portland that we don’t see nearly enough, I love to wander around the Old Port,  and since hearing Jane and Michael Stern talk about The Standard Baking Company on The Splendid Table, I really wanted to check out the baked goods!  So my husband and I made the trip on a cold, crisp New England Sunday.

First, let me say, you must visit The Standard Baking Company.  It’s a small storefront with some dedicated parking right at the end of Commerical Street, below the acclaimed Fore Street restaurant.  I had a fresh, warm, tender chocolate croissant, the likes of which I have not enjoyed since visiting Paris.  I also picked up a cinnamon raisin loaf for breakfast toast during the week, a baguette and foccacia which are in the freezer.  Believe me, this place lived up to the hype!

I met Cheryl at the bakery where we stocked up on breakfast, coffee and bread for our families.  Then we went to her office for the interview.  I really appreciated the opportunity to talk to somebody about food (besides my weary family and friends) who is interested in the values behind sustainability, but who also likes chatting about putting food by, freezer tricks, and convenience ideas.

We talked (well, mostly I talked and answered questions, I guess!) about the reasons I make the choices I make, how I find and source food, my cooking and eating habits, along with how I came to be in this place.  Interestingly, that was the most enlightening part of the conversation for me.   After all, I began this blog after reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, but lots of folks read that book and don’t get all obsessive.  So when I really think about it, the book was probably actually the last straw.

I grew up here in rural NH, with a garden and chicken coop in the backyard.  Mind you, we lived on not much more than one acre, but it was not at all weird to have the animals, and we backed up on woods.  One year, we had a couple of pigs.  I had horses throughout middle and high school (I paid for both of them myself, I’m proud to say!), and at one point we had one of them in the backyard.  I was a 4-H girl (I can still recite the pledge.  “I pledge my head for clearer thinking, my heart for greater loyalty, my hands for greater service and my health for better living, for my club, my community, my country and my world.”  Really quite appropriate, eh?  What happened to 4-H, anyway?)  I knew where my food came from and had no illusions about chicken, beef and pork.

Then, I went to college.  There, I had brushes with vegetarianism that were a result of a friend’s involvement in a residential co-op.  It turns out, however, that I enjoy meat.  And when I graduated from college, I was too involved in figuring other things out to be very interested in my food choices (other than discovering what really good Mexican food tastes like, while living in Tucson, AZ!).  Then I found myself back home, grown up, and once again able to be aware of my food sources.

I was an English teacher at the time, and when Fast Food Nation came out, I decided to use it in an 11th-grade Am. Lit. class.  Around the same time, I was given a copy of My Year of Meats, a novel by Ruth Ozeki.   The two together were too strong a force for me.  I gave up beef for an entire year.  I really didn’t realize I could make a better choice than  supermarket beef.  I had yet to meet a Rock Farm steak!

Finally, a grilled mushroom burger did me in, and I haven’t looked back.

So, when AVM came along, I was ready to hear about the other options I have.  Fast Food Nation and the Ozeki novel were the whistle-blowers for me, but Kingsolver was the one that gave me hope that there was actually something I could do, besides try to ignore all the stuff I knew about how my pot roast came to be on my plate.

I guess I’d have to say I got here because I finally saw the light!

(See, it was unavoidable!)