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.