Peter Smith

Chevon: Red meat in a very white state, the goat meats of Maine, via The Atlantic Online.

“Farm City” is sort of “The Simple Life” in reverse: Rather than wealthy socialites mucking manure on a farm, the memoir depicts an educated country girl giddily exploring the heart of the city. From the San Francisco Chronicle.

Maine Potato Blossom Festival. On the wide-open stretch of farmland around the french fry processing facility grows a harbinger of hope for the fall harvest: millions of potato blossoms.

Maine Natural Oils, a new agricultural enterprise in the heart of Maine’s traditional potato-growing region, built a mobile oil press and plans to make one of the Northeast’s only regional cooking oils.

Mark Kurlansky has uncovered an archive about the Depression-era America Eats project, which put unemployed writers to work on a collection about food. (Listen to audio.)

Urban farmers: A couple blocks from Northampton Coffee, a flock of runner ducks putter around inside a pen. Welcome to Northampton’s Town Farm.

Just like Nonna’s: Food serves as a rallying point for Italians, and there’s no better place to experience this in Portland, Maine than at Paciarino (PDF).

Over at GOOD, I’ll be posting a once-a-week column about rumblings in the food world: Borborygmi.

While Brad Kessler’s lengthy poetic entries hardly qualify as a comprehensive manual, the observant, unsanctimonious read is bound to inspire hobby farmers and consummate cheese lovers.

A sapsarilla, of sorts. Vermont Sweetwater makes a carbonated, nonalcoholic drink that hearkens back to sugaring’s frugal New England roots, via The Atlantic.

The redemptive aspect of Jonah Raskin’s intensely local memoir lies in its specificity to place, although the sprawling narrative imparts more of a gauzy poetic impression than any cohesive ideas about food or farming

If only Obama were to do something really radical, it would be to reinstate the Center Market. A blog post with comments from Warren Belasco. More posts from GOOD.

The live music appears to be coming from the street, but the only busker in sight sits with his saxophone on his lap. A few people point to the silhouettes in the fourth floor window at 602 Congress Street. (Audio here).

Number of tattoo parlors in Maine in 1995: 39
Number registered in 2008: 66
Last year the Mad Hatter’s tattoo party was held: 2007 (PDF)

Like Leslie Miller’s frantic, inconsistent attempts at baking, her writing suffers from the “perils of impatience” and a lack of focus.

Portland’s home to a thriving design scene, built in part on the state’s legacy of shipbuilding and niche manufacturing: “You can’t swing a dead cat around without hitting a crafter.”

Veteran Chicago Tribune entertainment reporter Caro expands on his front-page story about a 2005 flap over foie gras with a wide-ranging investigation into the ethical debate of fattened duck liver.

DTV: The conversion from analog to digital television is supposed to be clear and easy for all viewers. One blogger in Maine doesn’t quite see it that way (PDF).

AJ Walker runs Reaching Truckers for Christ, one of the last mobile ministries of its kind and the only one in Maine (PDF). Listen to audio here.

Pino Luongo: In his meandering memoir, New York restaurateur Luongo traces his “American success story” from a hasty, draft-dodging flight from Italy to his current position as a chef at the Upper East Side’s Centolire.

Hungry scientists: While the latest developments in molecular gastronomy might be originating from the high temples of haute cuisine, a group of part-time tinkerers have been exploring quirky cooking at home.

Pedal people picks up the city of Northampton’s garbage. It’s one of the only bicycle-powered businesses picking up municipal trash. From MAKE magazine.

Organic farmer: Ben Dobson is hoping that his budding agricultural enterprise will lead to the next big thing in organic agriculture: the salad bowl of the East Coast.

Maria Alexandra Vettese and Stephanie Congdon Barnes live 3191 miles apart (PDF). They aren’t old friends, but together, every morning, they post images side-by-side on the same photo blog: 3191.

Dahlicious Lassi cultures cow’s milk into creamy, fruit-infused drinks. The company’s owner JD Sethi says, “We like to say it’s the world’s oldest smoothie.”

Multimedia: A crowdfunded audio/visual documentary site about ordinary people doing extraordinary things, like this portrait of an apple farmer. Donate here.

Looking for a sound investment in these troubled times? Try community-supported agriculture. These days the CSA concept extends way beyond weekly vegetable deliveries.

While Amanda Hesser’s collection of essays adds to the rapidly expanding genre of literature using food and recipes as essential ingredients, this compelling selection of memoirs is a welcome addition.

Betty Fussell critiques the polemical meat writing of Michael Pollan and the mythology of a rare, bloodied “he-man food” by giving an evenhanded look at the many sides of beef.

Treadle pump: Inventor Martin Fisher designs easy irrigation tools – and his organization, KickStart, distributes manual irrigation pumps to African farmers.

Author Pat Willard does not dwell on the historical circumstances of this Depression-era project. Instead she looks for the modern equivalents and her travels are the thrust of America Eats!

Wheat: There’s been no recorded tally of wheat in New England since 1946. But growing consumer demand for breads made with local flours is leading to an expansion.

This banjo-strumming Woody Woodpecker’s campfire is a constant blaze of dreamy, peculiar Americana. A review of four tracks.

Buildings: Earthquakes often result in a disproportionate number of student deaths. Engineering experts weigh in on why schools collapse. (Part of contributing research).

Daily update: The Chinese have closely guarded their plan to carry the Olympic flame to the top of the world’s highest mountain. Additional web updates on security and terrorism.

In short: Norman Mailer’s 1966 poem “The shortest novel of them all” clocks in at 80 words. In other words, way too long for this collection of ultrashort literature.

In the dairy aisle: State lawmakers are now wrestling over milk labeling, especially for milk made without recombinant bovine growth hormones.

Instant analog: Some artist lament the latest development by the Polaroid Corporation. Still, saving the film process might be a long shot. Listen to audio here.

Långfärdsskridskoåkning: Nordic ice skating, basically a cross-country ski boot crossed with what looks like a heel edge of a chef’s knife, gains traction in North America. (With audio).

A short history: A sidebar on the region with links to content from The Christian Science Monitor’s archive. See also, a similar brief about the Uighurs.

Milk man: From behind the wheel of a giant silver milk truck, Jesse Haskell gives a look inside Maine’s dairy industry. Listen to audio from the project.

Gut-centricity: Frederick Kaufman probes the obsession with eating. On his irreverent trip back in time, he wonders about all those diet gurus who promote the live-forever life and die young. (With audio).

CSF: Small fishermen borrow a page from small farmers, selling their catch directly to consumers. The marketing attempt follows the successful farm-based initiative, Community Supported Agriculture.

Starting from scratch: Adam Shepard went down and out with only $25. Ten months later, he had a car, an apartment and a small savings. (With audio).

Bike builder: Mike Flanigan welds bicycles together with custom-fitted frames. He’s convinced commuter bikes are the next big thing. (With slideshow).

Outsider: 15-year old Billy Price, from Lisbon Falls, Me., is different than most. So is the documentary film about him. In the end, maybe it’s a good thing not everything fits in.

Secret Santa: John Scott might haul trash. But around Portland, he’s known as the man in red.

Runner: A Lewiston boy says that a man in a green jacket threw an unknown substance in his eyes. Police in Cumberland launch an investigation.

10/21 at 4:44 p.m. Police turned two teenage girls in pink sweatpants and sunglasses over to their parents after the two egged a Willow Lane mailbox because they liked the boy who lived there. A short history of Cumberland here.

If bovine ruminants had their way – that is, if cows ate what they biologically adapted to eat – most breeds would be fed grass and only grass. A profile of four beef farms in Maine (PDF).