The chicken or the eggs?

I've turned into that person who you dare not ask, "What's new?" or "How's your spring going?" because I will tell you all about our new baby chicks and I will show show you the videos, as many as you can bear.

We've been committed to local eggs from the get go but getting enough can be a challenge.  We had a neighbor with a small flock who, mid-summer 2012, wanted to give them away.  "Pick me, pick me!" I begged. And she did. And suddenly we needed a coop and a run and a primer on chickens.  

Thanks to Derek at Camden National Bank, I was armed with a great chicken book.  And with the iPhone and Facebook page, I was ready to keep everyone uber informed.  They grow so fast!  I think by early June I'll be showing off the gorgeous eggs in the dining room.  The new chicks are Araucanas and will lay blue and green eggs! 

One of the new chicks is a white crested black polish chicken.  We named her Pom Pom.  I'm fairly certain our eggs will be beyond delicious this year!

The Four Season Farm Gardener's Cookbook, by Barbara Damrosch and Eliot Coleman, is out!  They take you "from the garden to the table in 120 recipes" and scads of lovely photographs.  You can get it from Blue Hill Books or from  Barbara and Eliot's website.

This time of year you can see what Four Season Farm has to offer at the Saturday farmers market held at Mainescape in their big greenhouse.  Vendors change week to week but Mia is almost always there with soup and noodles, Nostrano smokes ribs and has delectable rosemary salmon, Tinder Hearth has bread and croissants, Smith's Smokehouse has sausages, Bucklyn Coffee has, well, coffee, and on and on.  Pork, raw foods, candy samples, vinegar, wreathes, baskets, sea salt...  Sometimes the knife sharpener is there.  I mostly go to see if there are any puppies...

I've been dining out on your behalf again--I know how important it is to know what's happening in the area, even during this quiet season.  The Factory Tavern, in Stonington, has opened! Friends and I had a delicious pre-theater dinner recently and loved the elegant yet comfortable space, the Stonington harbor view, the service, the food--even the fancy specials card that one of the owners makes (and you can shop for something similar at their wine and fun things shop, the Clown, right down the street from the Tavern).

by Katy Allgeyer. You can see more at her website.

Rumor has it the new chef at the Brooklin Inn is great but we had to go to El El Frijoles' supper club instead.  If you aren't on their mailing list or friends with them on Facebook, you must sign up now or you'll never find out about supper clubs in time to actually get a spot.  And chef Michele just gets better and better.

We wished the Bagaduce Music Lending Library a happy 30th birthday recently.  Have you ever been? What a treasure!

Wanting to plan your Maine vacation around seeing great art?  Here's a super list of galleries and museums put together by the Maine magazine.  It's not complete--no Courthouse Gallery or Jill Hoy--but has a lot of my faves, like the Barter Family and the Turtle Gallery.

If you're planning to come to Maine this summer, make your reservations now! We are busier than ever and looking forward to a great 2013.

Happy 2013!  What a start to the new year we've had--over a foot of fluffy snow and days and days of full on sunshine. Folks have been ice skating, snow shoeing, sledding, and cross country skiing.  (And there is nothing wrong with participating in outdoor activities in order to justify hot chocolate with marshmallows!)

Blue Hill Bay, early morning

Some people think Blue Hill gets sleepy this time of year and it's true we slow down but it means we finally get time to get together with friends we haven't seen.  We also get to head back to favorite restaurants--the Arborvine (oysters!), Brooklin Inn (just in time for fresh local scallops), BarnCastle (for me it's always a toss up between the ribs or one of their pizzas or a homemade soup), and back to 66 for a cheeseburger. 

A guest was just delighted with the Blue Hill's YMCA and wanted to be sure others know about it--and this was before more machines were added.  There's no need to skip your workout just because you aren't at home.  If you're coming to Blue Hill from a New England state and you're already a Y member, you can even bring your card for free access to our Y.

Trail support donated by Charlotte Podolsky

I went into the inn the other morning just after a fresh two inches of snow and saw that a small deer had beat me to the inn!  Right across my path to the back door were delicate hoof prints!  I'm not sure if the family in the Studio that night got a peek or not.  In the past we've had a buck traipsing about the back yard as well.

Before we got all this gorgeous snow, some friends and I hiked out to Barred Island.  I was delighted to see that my friend Charlotte had sponsored the trail upkeep.  Although she's back in New York, I felt as though she were with us on the hike.  If you'd like to donate to trail support, contact the Island Heritage Trust or the Blue Hill Heritage Trust.  A goal for myself this year is to stop returning again and again to my old favorites and try exploring new trails.  Perhaps by the time you visit, I'll have new "favorites places in the whole world" to recommend.

Rackliff Pottery

I do recommend all my guests visit Denny and Margaret Rackliffe's pottery.  Their showroom is next to their studio is next to the finishing room is next to the wheel and the pile of clay!  They are such treasures of Blue Hill.  We're starting to design a Blue Hill Inn-Rackliffe Pottery egg cup--something that will show off the beautiful shells of the Acaucana chickens I'm planning to have this summer.  Wait--I'm counting my eggs before they've been laid!  The day old chicks will arrive in early February so that come May we'll have plenty of fresh--very fresh!--local--extremely local!--eggs for your breakfast.  In the past we've had brown, cream, and white eggs but now, with the expanded palette, I plan to offer soft and hard boiled eggs as an option so you can see how lovely the egg shells are.

Lobsters, rendered by Francis Hamabe

Speaking of lovely, the Blue Hill Library always has art on display upstairs.  The work of Francis Hamabe, who has long connections to Blue Hill, graced the walls in December, thanks to Jennifer Mitchell-Nevin.  Friday night is the opening reception for Katherine Greene's show.  Perhaps we will see you there?

One place to see just about everyone is at the Saturday farmers market at Mainescape.  You can get a Bucklyn cappuccino, a Tinder Hearth croissant, the most delicious vegetables from Four Season Farms, a scrumptious noodle dish from Mia, even local sea salt to put on the jalapeño bagel! We gather in the greenhouse and on a sunny day, it's fabulous!  O, did I mention there's a puppy?! A friendly, tiny, lick-you-in-the-face furball.  Photos to come!

Blue Hill Mountain from across the bay

But now it's time to head back outside, snow pants and snow shoes in hand, to explore another area along the coast here in Blue Hill.

We adore October!

Innkeeper Sarah and Chef Devin at the Taste of the Peninsula

October, with her gorgeous colors, more relaxed pace, and crispy weather, delights us.  Conversation dances around what we will hand out to trick or treaters and what we'll be wearing when we do.  Our end-of-season open house is on the 31st--come say boo.

Our last night serving dinner this season will be Friday, October 26 but if you want to come in next week, you'd better call us now.  We fill up fast on our last week.

The main building of the inn will be closed up November 1st, but you can always stay in the Cape House--both the Suite and Studio are open year round. 

Did you say hi to us at the Foliage, Food and Wine Festival's Taste of the Peninsula?  Chef Devin prepared a delicious soup and lamb ragout, I baked some cookies (the recipe is on our website), and we both had a great time.  Kate from Black Dinah Chocolatiers taught not one but two classes at the inn during the festival and left us with gorgeous pillow chocolates for our guests.  El El Frijoles took over the inn for two special wine-paired meals, serving up incredible Mexican food.  If you aren't on their mailing list, email them right now, right now, because they offer supper clubs all winter but their space is small and their dinners are popular.

Are you our friend on Facebook yet?  If not, like us, please!  (I'll admit that when I realized that my brother, George, and his Wisconsin business, Whitetail Bluff Camp and Resort, has more friends that we do, I was mighty jealous!  I could pretend that I got over it but I didn't.  I'm a Leo and I just plain want to be more popular than my older brother!  So perhaps you could like the Blue Hill Inn's page?  and get your friends to like it? and their friends? and get your mother to join Facebook so she could like me, too?)

Sarah picking pumpkins at Homewood Farm

As the innkeeper here, I am lucky enough to get fed by Chef Devin on a regular basis.  Tonight's high-five, thumbs up, could not be more amazing meal is wine-braised short ribs with mashed potatoes, local brussels sprouts and carrots, and a delicious gravy.  A gentleman at the festival last weekend described her cooking as "alchemy."  I think he is exactly right.

I'm nostalgic for certain people who have crossed my path because of the inn--Sarah Brown, we miss you and think of you every time we make that amazing toffee and each time I offer pineapple with toasted coconut for our fruit course; Jeff, it's your graham crackers and your apple squares and this week your coffee squares that have us thinking back about your time here.  Don, your quiche titles--Sealed with a Quiche,  the Kielbasa Nova quiche, and of course, your pecan mini muffins (which we glaze with Nervous Nellie's Cherry Peach Jam--delish!).  Lisa, when are you bringing us those adult s'mores?!  

Luckily there's more October yet to come!  If your month hasn't been Octobery enough, come see us.  We'll know just what you need.

October Happenings and Menus

We're a broken record here at the inn, "How can it already be October?!"  Apparently September was a surprise, too, because we exclaimed about it all month!  We are delighting in the fall colors, the cooler weather, and Chef Devin's pumpkin creme brulee!  We've gotten beautiful leeks, melons, tomatoes, greens--the harvest has been gorgeous.

Dates to remember:
Oct. 4 and 5    Chef Devin's Five-Course Wine-Paired Dinner to kick off the Foliage, Food, and Wine Festival

Oct. 6              Taste of the Peninsula, 11am-3pm.  Come see us and some of our favorite suppliers at Mainescape. 

Oct. 13 and 14 El El Frijoles takes over the inn again to offer their Foliage, Food, and Wine Festival supper club

Oct. 14            Kate from Black Dinah Chocolates will be here leading a class in chocolate making

Oct. 26            This is the last night the restaurant at the Blue Hill Inn will be open.  Come see us any night, Monday to Friday, before then.

Call the inn for reservations or more information.

Chef Devin's menu

Five-Course Wine-Paired Festival Dinner

offered Thursday, October 4 and

Friday, October 5

Venire in Italia con noi!

6 p.m., $65 per person includes food and wine but not tax and gratuity

Seared New England Cod with Crispy Calamari        

spicy soffrito, wilted Morgan Bay Farm baby bok choy, and house cured lemon

paired with Arneis, Ca’Rossa Roero, Merica, Italy, 2011

         

Old Ackley Farm Chicken Cacciatore  

garden parsley, mascarpone polenta, and caramelized Four Season Farm onions  

paired with Verdicchio, Conti di Buscareto, Italy, 2010

Five Star Nursery Apple Cider Braised Pork Belly          

native apples, Four Season Farm cabbage, and fried shallots      

paired with Poggio ai Rovi, Tenuta Villa Rosa, Italy, NV

Wild Boar Bolognese    

house pappardelle, roasted farm tomatoes, and Carding Brook Farm basil

paired with Barbera d’Asti, Cascina Roera, Italy, 2008                  

House Made Vanilla Bean Cannoli

     sweet ricotta, bittersweet chocolate, and toasted hazelnuts

paired with Moscato d’Asti, Bricco del Sole, Italy, 2011

Chef Devin Finigan