Maine Event: Day 40

There was a huge crowd coming in all directions to a show at a giant arena on our way to the grocery store last night. So when I got home and had dinner I made a plum tart and, while it was baking, looked up who was attracting all the attention and learned it was AJR which is an indie pop band of three "culturally" Jewish brothers from Manhattan. Here is a great article about them in the New York Times. And if you are even more interested here is a YouTube video about the making of one of their most popular songs.

I think you all know I love to bake so not having a single baking pan other than the broiler pan is kind of hilarious. So this is how the tart/galette went. I had butter and flour so I made the crust and rolled it out with a pint jar that was more or less straight up and down and round. It stuck down horribly to the table so I pried it up and mushed it down into the broiler pan and threw it in the freezer, making it hard later to bend the edges around the fruit. It was not evenly rolled out nor thinly rolled out. Then I chopped up some pecans (no almonds in the house) and tossed them with a little flour and brown sugar (no white sugar in the house) assembled with the pecans on the bottom, quartered my prune plums tossed a pinch of brown sugar on top to help them get juicy and put it in the oven for an hour. Ta-da! Definitely, the best crust ever (more like a pie crust cookie) it was thick in places and very lumpy which just added more flaky layers - didn't measure a thing as there are no measuring devices. Pecans were a good choice. 

Today we had an inland adventure. We walked to neighborhoods about an hour away that is west of us and north. If you are looking at a map they are located on the western edge of the Back Cove. We went early enough that it was a nice walk there even though we were on big streets. We passed a synagogue and a Jewish funeral home and then arrived at the intersection of two neighborhoods Highlands and Woodfords Corner. It is out by the University of Southern Maine. The residential neighborhoods are gorgeous and there is a strip of cute restaurants and markets. By the time we were ready to come home, the traffic had started and the cute street with restaurants and markets had turned into what felt like a highway. This is a very car-centric place but especially out there. We peeled off and walked along the harbor walk (bike and walking/running trail) right on the water next to the Back Cove. Then overland to get to our apartment. 

In our efforts to learn about this new world we discovered that the rural Northwest of the state is almost entirely privately owned but an agreement has been negotiated with the landowners, the government, the loggers, and the hunters (specifically moose hunters) to provide access to hunt and log. This site about the Northern Maine Woods has a fair amount of common sense advice on how we can all get along using the same resource - even though it is privately owned. This reminded me of a Nobel prize winner in economics, Elinor Ostrom. She did a lifetime of qualitative research in economics to prove that humans develop systems in totally unregulated systems for managing commonly held resources. She goes into detail also about what are the elements that are needed for such a system for managing the commons. It is a really chewy article but very cool research. We read the Nobel lecture she gave when accepting the prize during my first semester at USF. Completely mind-expanding. Here is Dr. Ostrom's Nobel Prize speech on YouTube and the official lecture she gave on her award.

The picture didn't turn out well enough to post but on the main drag "Congress St." there is a 7-11 convenience store and gas station and around it are apple trees. This is a funny place.

Here is the aforementioned tart. Sorry for the blurry picture. I know it looks like a cookie but it was about 8-9 inches across.

Trees are starting to show off their fall 2021 fashion.

Big Sky Bread Company actually has Big Sky Bread Company in it. We saw the building from a ways off and I actually said cool building with a cool sign. Wouldn't it be cool if they were still in operation? Then we got closer and it was. I don't know if it was continuous but still. This is one of the cute places on our walk inland to Woodfords Corner.

The water is Back Cove and we are on the edge of it looking north-west.

This is the same spot just looking further out towards the ocean. More north-east.

On our way home the Portland High Bulldogs were playing a game.

The beginning of holiday decorations. The same lights change different colors for different seasons.

The bark of my friend the red oak at night.

I hope you find some adventure and beauty this weekend.

Sending love, Tawnia