Slope side pantry

01/13/2025

01/07/2025

The Ultimate Guide to the U.S. National Toboggan Championships in Camden, MaineWhen February rolls around in Camden, Maine, the quiet coastal town transforms into a hub of fun, frenzy, and fearless winter warriors. The annual U.S. National Toboggan Championships are unlike any other winter event, co...

01/07/2025

Now making buck hair pottery.

Yes it has buck hair in it as you can see here with these unfired bowls (in the photos). The hair cooks off when fired.

These are nice heavy pieces, I do a primal textured wash on the exterior, smooth, oiled interior. They take on a beautiful copper brown color when fired.

If you would like to purchase a bowl or a custom set of plates and bowls, let me know, turn around time is about 3 days.

10/25/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/MhEpNwNXhYwzKv3T/?mibextid=xfxF2i

10/21/2024

https://goodmeatproject.org/about

farmer with cow people eating meat cow picture with logo

10/21/2024

https://logsmokehouse.net/

10/21/2024

https://www.herringbrothersmeats.com/

Herring Brothers Meats offers a wide variety of Maine beef and pork products along with a growing number of specialty cooked, smoked and marinated meats. One of the most popular is our Wicked Good Beef Jerky, which has been shipped all over the United States and also overseas to our troops. We are a...

05/23/2024

Cornbread was one of the main side dishes found during the Great Depression. The Great Depression version was savory and used a small number of ingredients. Cornbread back then used just cornmeal, lard, and salt. After mixing, the baker would add boiling water and mix to combine. They then fried the bread in patties similar to cornbread.

Another version used similar ingredients but baked them into a bread loaf. Most people used cast iron that they passed down through their families. Though some recipes used baking powder, others added a small amount of flour. Cornmeal and lard were always on the list. The cornbread was baked in the oven until it was cooked through with a brown and crusty top. Great Depression bakers would occasionally make frosting to turn the bread into a quick cake.

05/22/2024

Random Fact of the Day: The Samí people—an indigenous group in northern Scandinavia—have long relied on pine and birch bark as staple foods. This practice of using bark, specifically the inner section known as the phloem, in food preparation has proved essential to Nordic farmers in times of famine and food rationing.

In Finland, pine bark flour is known as pettujauho and produces pettuleipä (pine bark bread). It became particularly prevalent during a two-year famine at the end of the 16th century. Desperately in need of grain substitutes, bakers made loaves of bread from a “flour” of dried, pulverized bark. Foragers stripped the outer bark of local trees to get to the phloem, which they then dried and roasted. To make the flour, they stuffed the lot into a bag and hammered it into dust. In the 20th century, wartime food rationing sparked another bark bread revival. Resourceful cooks again began to cut flour stores with the tree meal.

Some Scandinavian bakers still work with this traditional ingredient by choice, adding small amounts to grain. Today’s chefs also take advantage of high-powered blenders, rather than busting out the hammer. While ratios of 15:85 are common in modern bark bread, traditional bark bread could’ve contained more than 50 percent bark meal, yielding a bitter, fibrous loaf. Upon biting into homemade, old-school bark bread, one reviewer determined “it has a wooden taste to it.”

02/29/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/JMqZttNjKrDTAc33/?mibextid=xfxF2i

As the first of the sea-run fishes to return to freshwater each year, Rainbow smelt are a sure sign of spring along the Maine coast!! 🌊

The Maine Department of Marine Resources, Downeast Salmon Federation, and Gulf of Maine Research Institute are offering upcoming training opportunities for community scientists who wish to participate in the annual Spawning Smelt Survey, which involves conducting visual surveys to identify the places that smelt are spawning in coastal rivers and streams, and estimating how many fish are observed. It is vitally important that we continue to collect information on these fish so that conservation and restoration efforts can aid in their recovery. 🐟

The first of the virtual trainings will take place on March 4, and is geared toward volunteers conducting surveys in Southern and Midcoast Maine, as well as in the Penobscot region. A second training for points Downeast of the Penobscot Estuary will be held on April 1 – more details will be shared as they become available.

Note: training is required for survey participation even if you helped in previous years. Trainees will be provided with all the information needed to get started, and a recording will be made available for those who cannot attend the required training in real time. See meeting link & details below!

March 4 (Monday) from 4:00 to 5:00 pm Eastern

Link: https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmeetup-join%2F19%3Ameeting_ZjQzNjNkMWYtNDM0ZC00NzQzLTk2YWMtMzA0MjAyN2JmN2Fh%40thread.v2%2F0%3Fcontext%3D%257b%2522Tid%2522%253a%2522413fa8ab-207d-4b62-9bcd-ea1a8f2f864e%2522%252c%2522Oid%2522%253a%2522753a2363-3484-4e11-8542-cad18086efb6%2522%257d%26anon%3Dtrue&type=meetup-join&deeplinkId=83df1fe7-797e-4cb8-80be-afeef98fb9bc&directDl=true&msLaunch=true&enableMobilePage=true&suppressPrompt=true

ID: 229 510 003 324
Passcode: 9e8fbL

Or call in (audio only)
+1 207-209-4724 (United States, Portland)

🐟🐟🐟

📸 Michelle Furbeck, WellsReserve.org