The 4th Annual
American
Folk
Festival
Saturday & Sunday
August 23 - 24
2008 Maine Folk Center
“Taste of Maine”
Foodways Area
A Taste of Aroostook / Un
p’tit goût d’Aroostook
This year’s foodways stage features Aroostook
County, know for its potato crops and French culture, where residents
celebrate their agrarian roots and the Acadian heritage that is still
alive today. The foods prepared and served all reflect the families,
farms, forests, and fields of The County and its strong sense of place.
Together these County foodways are the kinds of traditional fare that
might appear on individual supper tables or at community gatherings,
both places where people display to themselves and others who they are
and where they came from through their foods, recipes, stories,
language, and the heritage they preserve and pass on to future
generations.
Recipe demonstrations and tastings afterwards
--le p’tit gout--
will run
Saturday & Sunday
12-5 pm
at the
Foodways Stage in the Folk and Traditional Arts area
"Taste of Maine" Recipes
Schedule
Noon:
Michael Corbin, Madawaska
Cook's Bio: Michael is known in the St. John Valley for his
traditional Acadian recipes, many of which he served at the Acadian
Festival in Madawaska in June, where he hosted an Acadian breakfast, as
well as a hearty mid-day meal that included soupe aux pois [pea soup],
pot-en-pot [meat pies with game, wild birds, pork and beef], beans, and
ployes, the buckwheat pancake that is the traditional staple of any
Acadian meal. The proprietor of Café de la Place in Madawaska, in
the heart of Acadian Maine, Michael will demonstrate making a “County
favorite” and another hit at the Acadian Festival—creton [pork paté
spread]--that he’ll serve on crackers or homemade crostini.
1:00pm:
Carrie Hickling, Smyrna
Mills
Cook's Bio: Carrie comes from a long line of what she describes
as “creative and old-fashioned cooks”--meaning those who don’t measure
ingredients—and hunters. Originally a horse lover, she fell in love with
rabbits a few years ago and today she raises various breeds of domestic
meat rabbits at her rabbitry in Smyrna Mills, one of the few in the
County. She and her husband, who works on a local organic farm, are also
building their own 80-acre farm into one that is self-sufficient. Carrie
will prepare a simple rabbit dish using new potatoes just harvested at
festival time. County Style Fried Rabbit
Recipe
2:00pm: Natalia
Bragg, Wade
Cook's Bio: Natalia is a 6th generation herbalist and a
founding member of the Aroostook County Herb Association. Her roots in
the County go back to the 17th century on her family farm in Wade. Often
ill as a child, she listened to the lore and knowledge of the older
women in her family and community and began learning techniques using
natural remedies as well as how to harvest local herbs, many that she
keeps now in her “portable apothecary.”
Natalia notes that “many old farms in Aroostook
still have herbs growing around their foundations,” and at one time
knowledge of the healing and health-promoting properties of herbs were
known by nearly everyone.
Today there are only three farms left in Wade, and
furthermore, knowledge about “healthy choices” recipes is waning.
Natalia will talk about and make several kinds of “heart-healthy”
jellies served on home-made bagels and breads, and a non-chocolate
“chocolate” mint syrup with raw sugar (for those allergic to chocolate),
molasses and honey cookies.
Healthy Herbal Recipes
3:00pm:
Kristin & Tom Devoe, Limestone
Cooks' Bios: Kristin and Tom are 4th-generation potato farmers
from Limestone on each side of their families and have been running
their own potato farm in Limestone for 31 years. Both are accomplished
cooks. Each summer Kristin and Tom, a retired National Guardsman, run a
kitchen for a youth camp for two weeks. Kristin has been active in Maine Agri-Women since its founding, and while cleaning out some old rooms a
while back found a copy of The Ultimate Maine Potato Cookbook, from
which she had home economics classes in Fort Fairfield make recipes
during the month of February--Potato Lovers Month. Kristin and Tom will
make a simple potato dish and then rush home to Limestone to prepare for
harvest, which starts soon after the festival closes.
4:00pm: Maryanne Buck,
Mapleton;
Cook's Bio:
Potato farming has been in Maryanne
Buck’s family for generations, and her three sons are carrying on the
family business, Buck Farms, in Mapleton. The Bucks were named the Maine
Farm Family of the Year in 2000 and honored at the Potato Blossom
Festival in Fort Fairfield.
Maryanne continues to be actively involved in agricultural issues,
particularly through Maine Agri-Women, which educates people about the
importance of agriculture to Maine’s economy and raises money for
college scholarships for agriculture students.
Maryanne serves as vice president
of Maine Agri-Women and is the immediate past president. She’ll be
representing the organization at the American Agri-Women convention in
San Antonio, Texas, in November.
Needhams (potato candy) are
a traditional Maine favorite, made from mashed potatoes, coconut, sugar,
and vanilla rolled into balls and dipped in a coating of chocolate.
Needhams
Recipe
A perfect way to top off an
afternoon of A Taste of Aroostook!
