Delight Your Taste Buds When You Explore The Fabulous Maine Oyster Trail

“Like fine wines, oysters take on the qualities of the environment in which they’re raised. Water temperature, salinity, season, the geology of the watershed, currents, tides, and growing methods work together to produce oysters that are unique to each of Maine’s farms.

While no two varieties are identical, there are some common threads that make Maine oysters a shuck above the rest. With nearly 3,500 miles of pristine, rugged coastline, Maine is the perfect place to cultivate and harvest the best oysters on Earth. Our cold, salty ocean water is rich in nutrients that oysters love, giving Maine oysters a crisp, briny, buttery, sweet flavor.

The Maine Oyster Trail is the first interactive, incentive-based oyster trail in the U.S. and features more than 80 Maine oyster businesses, each of which offers one-of-a-kind experiences. The Trail’s interactive trip planner allows you to build your own custom trail based on different types of experiences and regions you’re interested in checking out.”

Explore the Maine Oyster Trail here.

 

Find great selections of oysters at the following restaurants.

Rockport, Maine – 18 Central

Rockland, Maine – North Beacon Oyster

Boothbay Harbor, Maine – Mine Oyster

Portland, Maine – Eventide

Portland, Maine – Maine Oyster Company

 

Have Maine oysters shipped from the Harbor Fish Market.

Find more Maine resources here.

4 Magnificent Maine Lighthouses Nearby

Maine has over 60 lighthouses.

While some lighthouses on islands take preparation to access, many are easily accessible.

Four of the most famous lighthouses are 15-45 minutes from Caponigro Arts, and they’re all quite different.

(Click on the images or titles to locate them on Google Maps.)

Rockland

Rockland Light is accessed by walking the massive one-mile-long stone breakwater. It’s magical at sunrise, sunset, and in thick fog.

Owlshead

Owlshead Light is reached by a long wooden stair, just beyond the keeper’s house, because it’s perched high on a hill overlooking the Rockland harbor (including Rockland Light) and beyond to nearby islands.

Marshall Point

Marshall Point’s light and the house are separated by a long elevated walkway over a rocky beach pointing to the surrounding islands. Made more famous by the movie Forrest Gump, it rests near Port Clyde (where you get the ferry to Monhegan Island).

Pemaquid

Pemaquid Light towers over the magnificent slabs of granite, which are constantly tossed in wild surf, but always accessible no matter what the tide. It offers 180-degree views of the open ocean, which are stunning at both sunrise and sunset.

Find a complete guide to all Maine lighthouses here.

Find more Maine resources (from museums to breweries) here.

Enjoy The 2023 Camden Festival Of Poetry Online

I read at 43:30.

I read at 11:11.

 

The 2024 Camden Festival Of Poetry Is Coming!

The keynote will be Padriag O’ Tuama.

It’s free and open to the public.

Register here.

 

2023 Camden Festival Of Poetry Highlights

Read More

Join Me For A New Poetry Reading – Ecopoetry / Voices For The Future

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Sunday, April 10, 2022 – 4-5:30 pm EST

I will be cohosting (with Meg Weston) this event and reading my poetry with fellow Maine poets Kathleen Ellis, Gary Lawless, Iris LeCates, and Meghan Sterling in an intergenerational celebration of our place in nature.

Find out more about these poets here.

Each poet will recommend a book, share a favorite poem by another poet, and read their poetry.

A lively Q&A with the audience is sure to follow so bring your burning questions.

Ecopoetry (a relatively new term) offers contemporary views of our complex interrelationships within nature, often exploring ways places influence culture. Sometimes celebratory and sometimes critical, ecopoetry looks closely at personal sensitivity and social change.

Register free now.

The poets of this gathering recommend the following books for finding further inspiration.
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Gary Lawless recommends Henry David Thoreau’s Walking
Kathleen Ellis recommends Carlo Rovelli’s Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
John Paul Caponigro recommends David Hinton’s The Wilds Of Poetry; Adventures In Mind On Landscape
Meghan Sterling John Sibley Williams’ Scale Model of a Country at Dawn
Iris Lecates Bell Hooks’ recommends Appalachian Elegy
Meg Weston recommends Charlotte McConaughy’s Migrations
 
Please consider supporting your local bookstore by contacting Gary Lawless at his Gulf Of Maine Books in Brunswick. gulfofmainebooks@gmail.com or 207-729-5083
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The 7 Best Beers & Breweries In Maine

Maine’s rocky north Atlantic coast may be short on wineries but it’s rich in breweries. With the most breweries per capita of any state, as of early 2020, Maine is home to 155 active, licensed breweries, representing over 100 unique brands with a deeply independent strain (like its people) ranging from classically elegant to off the hook inventive. It’s become a beer drinkers paradise currently applying for its own internationally recognized style.

Many Maine breweries have tasting or taprooms. A disproportionate number are in Portland. Stop by and try what you can’t find even in the best stores with their limited batches and seasonal varietals.

No store could possibly carry them all so finding specific ones requires considerable hunting and gathering, which just adds to the fun. One of the best selections in the state can be found in Freeport’s Bow Street Market.

Whether you’re a Maniac or ‘from away’, with riches that could be an embarrassment (but we’re not) it’s hard to know where to start. Here are my top picks. (My taste tests are ongoing, so check back for new additions.)

 

1

Allagash

They excel at Belgians.

Their White is a staple cloudy wheat.

Their Curieux is a stellar bourbon barrel tripel.

 

2

Boothbay Craft Brewers

They do it all without overdoing it … or is it overdoing it just the right amount?

Savor their lush Thirsty Botanist.

 

3

Foundation

They’re playful, richly rewarding, and sometimes even sweet.

Enter their radiant list with an Epiphany.

 

4

Lone Pine

Their flavors are so in step with the independence of the pine tree state.

Taste the place in their evergreen Brightside.

 

5

Bissel Brothers

Their creativity runs deep.

Ease into a wild ride with Substance an IPA with an understated name.

 

6

Maine Beer Company

They excel at IPAs.

Start with their beer Lunch.

 

7

Rising Tide

Though their list is deep, with plenty of range, they excel at lighter classic IPAs.

Try their Maine Island Trail Ale.

 

Discover more Maine resources.

Join me during my Maine photography workshop.

Maine’s 9 Best Oysters & 5 Places To Find Them

I find it mysterious and wonderful! The same oyster species grown in different places taste different. When you eat oysters you taste the seaweeds and kelps that surround them, the minerals in the rock and mud they grow on, and the salt in the waters they breathe. You even taste the temperature they live in. How is that possible? You’ve got to taste it to believe it.

Today (2021), about 150 oyster farms in Maine, extending from York to Washington counties, raise over 11 million oysters per year for the white table cloth market (an industry worth over $8 million). The Damariscotta River estuary in Maine is the largest site for oyster growth. Most Maine oysters have strong, hard shells, plump full meats, and a beautiful briny sweet flavor of a cold fresh clean ocean.

Maine offers a savory adventure with an impressive variety of oysters to choose from.

 

Pemaquid Points burst zaftig and briny.

Winter Points remain firm with brothy umami.

Taunton Bays offer a complex minerality.

Belon Rivers glide coppery smooth.

Dodge Coves supply sweet and sour tanginess.

Bagaduce Rivers balance bouquets in small creamy packages.

Glidden Points achieve an unusually crisp density.

North Haven Islands have a hint of honey.

Gay Islands share a touch of sugar.

Find more at Oyster Finder.

 

Find the best selection in Portland at Eventide.

Find the best selection in Boothbay at Mine Oyster.

Find the best selection in Rockland at North Beacon.

Find the best selection in Rockport at 18 Central.

 

Follow the Maine Oyster Trail here.

 

Want them shipped to you? Try Maine Oysters Company.

 

Discover more Maine resources.

Join me during my Maine photography workshop.

Things To Do In Maine

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There are lots of things to see and do in Maine.

Here are some resources to help make your visit even more special.

 

6 Great Maine Museums To Visit

The Best Breweries & Beers In Maine

Maine’s Best Oysters & Where To Find Them

15 Colorful Things To See During Maine’s Fall Season

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Places To Explore

 

Acadia National Park

Monhegan Island

Reid State Park

Popham Beach

Pemaquid Point Lighthouse

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Places To See

 

Portland, Portland Museum of Art, 207-775-6148

Brunswick, Bowdoin Museum, 207-725-3275

Waterville, Colby Museum, 207-859-5600

Rockland, Center For Maine Contemporary Art, 207-701-5005

Rockland, Dowling Walsh Gallery, 207-596-0084

Rockland, Farnsworth Museum, 207-596-6457

Rockland, The Strand Theatre, 207-594-0070

Owls Head, Owls Head Transportation Museum, 207-594-4418

Camden, Bay Chamber Concerts, 888-707-2770

 

Places To Eat

 

Southwest Harbor, Red Sky, 207-244-0476

Bar Harbor, Havana, 207-288-2822

Camden, The Waterfront, 207-236-3747

Camden, Natalie’s, 207-236-7008

Camden, Long Grain, 207-236-9001

Camden, Wolf Peach, 207-230-8315

Exhibit – Worldwide – Cove Street Arts – Portland, Maine

After a year of staying close to home, travel around the world through the photography of twenty-three Maine artists. Curated by Bruce Brown, this exhibition features stunning photographs from every continent but our own. From natural vistas to manmade wonders to intimate glimpses into diverse cultures, the scope of this show is truly Worldwide.

Judith Allen-Efstathiou, Linda Alschuler, Roberta Baumann, Brendan Bullock, John Paul Caponigro, David Clough, Christian T. Farnsworth, Barbara Goodbody, Ella Hudson, Knapp Hudson, Carl Austin Hyatt, Nanci Kahn, Michael Kolster, Dennis Landis, Olga Merrill, K. Min, Munira Naqui, Robert Pennington, Damir Porobic, Ni Rong, Jan Pieter Van Voorst Van Beest, David Wade, and Katarina Weslien

See the exhibit in person at Cove Street Arts in Portland, Maine.

Preview the exhibition here.