Growing Local: A Journey Through Maine & Its Food

Jennifer Mayo-Smith Talks to Wild About Health about Wild Blueberries, Sea Salt, and Maine’s Influential Role in Connecting Us with Our Food 

When Jennifer Smith-Mayo started paying attention to how much food is produced in Maine, she said she was astonished.  “You can find most anything that you need, from fresh greens to artichokes to berries and fruit to wheat and oats to free-range meat and bounty from the sea,” she said. Her close attention to local food led to discoveries about techniques used by local food producers, challenged her to eat food in season, and even influenced her own home farming techniques.

Wild blueberries were the inspiration for
a project and a personal journey.
Photo by Jennifer Smith-Mayo.

For example, by learning from Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch from Four Season Farm in Harborside about extending the harvest season, she extended her own harvest well into December. “Their farm is a testament to how it is done,” she said. “Last year I had spinach ready for harvesting in April.” It was good, practical work that was ultimately in service to art. It became “Growing Local”, a two-part documentary series about local food in Maine.

The project uses still photography and audio interviews along with ambient sound to document traditional recipes and trace the origin of the ingredients through their sellers and producers. A selection of photography from the project will be shown during the month of March at the Barbara Kramer Gallery of Belfast Free Library.

A Tin of Wild Blueberry Muffins

The first part of the documentary series, “Growing Local: Wild Maine Blueberry Muffins,” was sparked by one of Maine’s beloved foods: wild blueberries. It was something as simple as making a tin of blueberry muffins that became the inspiration. They weren’t just any muffins – they were muffins made completely with Maine ingredients that were locally sourced. Northport resident Smith-Mayo had picked the blueberries from her own blueberry barren and acquired the other ingredients from her neighbors, or at the Blue Hill Co-op. The idea that she could have such a unique relationship with what created the muffins had an impact. She already had a passion for cooking and for local food, and she was intrigued with the idea of exploring the connection between us and the food we eat. It became both a project and a personal journey.

A professional photographer whose work has documented rural living, farming, and  fine dining, Smith-Mayo’s images of small town life in Maine have been featured often in Down East Magazine, among many other publications, and she recently co-authored Maine Icons: 50 Classic Symbols of the Pine Tree State with her husband, writer Matthew P. Mayo. Part of the goal of investigating food and its producers and sellers for “Growing Local” was to generate awareness of the importance of using local foods by taking traditional regional recipes and adapting them for use with only local ingredients. With wild blueberry muffins as the catalyst for this multi-faceted exploration, she turned muffin-making into a deeply engaged cultural act: for “Growing Local: Wild Maine Blueberry Muffins,” she met the ingredients’ producers, learned about the recipe’s history and explored the effect that supporting producers has on the economy.

Maine’s Food & Farming Renaissance 

While iconic foods like lobsters, wild blueberries and potatoes are commonly embraced, that’s just the beginning of Maine’s role as a leader in the local food initiative, said the author and photographer. “It starts with something that most practical Mainers have done for centuries: raising veggies in their vegetable gardens,” she said. “You know spring has arrived when talk at the general store borders on frenzy about wet weather and trying to get the peas in.”

Smith-Mayo cites the increase in farms in Maine, the overwhelming amount of which are small farms, and the burgeoning number of winter and summer farmer’s markets as indications of the state’s renaissance in farming. She also gives a credit to Maine chefs and their notable restaurants, using Primo in Rockland and Chase’s Daily in Belfast as two fine examples of restaurants that grow some of the food that appears on their menus.

Documentarian Jennifer Smith-Mayo and Nessie.
Photo by Matthew P. Mayo.

Our connection to food is particularly strong in Maine, Smith-Mayo said, and is strengthened by the improved transparency in our local grocery stores and markets like the Belfast Co-op. “Signs and labels that declare where the food was grown, where it was processed, are critical in making food-buying choices,” she said.  “I look for those signs – if one bag of apples is from Argentina and the one next to it is from Maine, I buy the Maine apples. Nothing against the growers from Argentina, I just prefer to support our local community whenever I can.” She also references The Maine Department of Agriculture’s “Get Real, Get Maine” program, a successful Farm to School program, and the Seniors’ Farmer’s Market Nutrition Program, which provides Maine senior citizens with locally produced food, as initiatives that have put Maine ahead of the pack when it comes to local, healthy, real food initiatives.

That natural connection to food was all part of what prompted her to dig deeper for the project. She wanted to learn the back-story of local food – to understand the process of producing maple syrup, to learn about who grew and milled the wheat into flour in Aroostook, and to see what was involved in creating Maine Sea Salt (hint: add a little sun). We can benefit from her journey through Maine and its food by viewing a selection of photographs from “Growing Local: Wild Maine Blueberry Muffins” this month. The full Growing Local project will include an enhanced e-book and DVD and it will be avail able in the fall.

Find our more about Jennifer Smith-Mayo and Growing Local Exhibit at www.jennifersmithmayo.com.

Eating Local? If Not, Something’s Fishy

Something fishy happened recently to a Wild About Health reader.

On a quest to buy fish in the midcoast Maine area, he found swordfish from a local monger. It had just come in that day – from Uruguay. “Why am I buying fish from that far away when I live in midcoast Maine?” lamented local food aficionado D. Speer. “And,” he added, “it may have been ‘just in’, but when was this fish actually caught?”

It’s the irony of global food commerce. Lisa Turner, owner of Freeport Maine’s Laughing Stock Farm reasons in her new book The Eat Local Cookbook that while it’s a wonderful thing that crops like wild blueberries from our state can be enjoyed by others around the world in the same way she enjoys imported foods like coffee, what doesn’t make sense is buying imported apple juice when cider is available down the street. Her book – a cookbook of seasonal recipes – is based on making meals that take advantage of local treasures that actually are down the street, with a heavy slant toward vegetables and unprocessed foods.

So, how did the swordfish turn out? Speer was frank: “It was mushy.”

Small Growers

A benefit of living in the state of Maine is that local growers are everywhere. There are over 160 farms and over 6500 “shares” in Maine – some are big, some are small, some harvest herbs, some mushrooms; some grow veggies, while some offer milk and cheese. Community residents commit themselves to buying local, and farmers reciprocate by providing the best product they can. As a result, thousands of dollars remain within communities rather than being distributed around the globe.

More than ever, Maine communities are embracing the local food movement. One notable model exists in Washington County, where the Machias Marketplace provides a local buying club for residents.

One day each week, fresh, local food straight from farmers is brought to about 100 families and to the local co-op, providing residents with access to fruits and veggies, milk, meat and baked goods.

Another hint that local, seasonal eating is a growing passion in the state can be found in the trove of seasonal cooking classes and books that focus on seasonal cooking. As a complement to books like Turner’s, a series of classes taking place this spring and summer at the Portland Public Market in southern Maine adopts a hands-on approach. As part of the series, sponsored by the Maine Real Food Project, local chef Frank Giglio teaches attendees how to cook directly from the state’s bounty – both land and sea.

Reasons to Eat Local

Perhaps the best reason to eat local is that your health will benefit. You’ll get plenty of whole, unprocessed foods as well as a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables. But there are plenty of reasons in addition to health to start eating primarily food in your proximity.

  • If you are experiencing meal-making ennui, eating local can throw a wrench into your cooking, in a good way. You’ll be forced to do new things and get inspiration from new ingredients.
  • It’s all about flavor. Plain and simple, local foods are given a chance to ripen longer, and that means better taste. Foods that travel to get to your local store are usually picked prematurely so they keep longer. Those foods rate high on looks but low on flavor. (That’s why IQF, or individually quick frozen foods, are a great alternative in winter, or any season when fresh isn’t accessible.) And, when food travels less, that’s better for the environment.
  • Another reason that local foods shine in health? Because the nutrients of prematurely picked foods suffer, too. Farmers also make efforts to use nutrient-rich soil and reduce the use of chemicals. Ask a local farmer about their growing methods.
  • Eating local is good for the local economy, and it supports local land development. In addition to supporting your neighborhood farmer, it keeps dollars close to home.
  • Finally, eating local is fun. Picking up local foods means you are making a connection with the earth, with your community, and with local farmers. You get to make colorful choices, and pick from a variety of options. And that will make you feel not just healthier, but happier.

5 Ways to Start

Inspired to start eating local? It’s the perfect time! Here’s five great ways to start:

1. Find a farm. If you are in Maine, you can use the MOFGA website’s food map to find the closest farm near you, or head over to Eat Maine Foods for a map of your closest CSAs. Then, get to know the ropes of local farms so you feel at home there. You can use our tips for shopping farmer’s markets.

2. Commit to spending a set amount of your grocery budget on local food. Try one-third to one-half to start. In the summer, depending on you accessibility, there is often no reason to purchase non-local produce, and local meats are available from farms and some markets.

3. Join those who eat only food grown in a 100-mile radius of wherever they live. Or, start smaller by deciding to make one meal a day out of strictly local foods.

4. Try one new local/seasonal fruit or vegetable each time you shop.

5. Buy a cookbook that provides recipes based on the season like Turner’s Eat Local, or take a class on eating local, seasonal foods.

What’s your community doing to foster healthy eating through local food? Give us a comment or email us at editor(at)wildblueberries.com and let us know!