Maine's Best Odds and Ends

Water
Stopping in for a doughnut at Thompson's Restaurant in Bingham one fall day, we were served a glass of tap water that put Perrier to shame. Clean, sweet, without a hint of chlorine or metallic bitterness, this water made everyone at our table remark on how wonderful it was. Turns out, we weren't alone. Bingham won the prize for Best Municipal Water in Maine, beating out Brewer (whose water we look forward to sampling) and earning the rights to represent Maine in a national competition. Thompson's doughnuts are pretty darn good, too.

Advice From a Farmer
The idea of waiting for the fireworks to fade before planting potatoes flies in the face of tradition, but years ago an old timer up near Liberty passed on the tip of planting your potatoes after July 4 to Allan and Andrea Smith at Brae Maple Farm in Union. And it works. "I find I miss a whole generation of potato bugs by waiting," observes Andrea. "We don't have to do as much pest management, and we don't have to worry about a wet spring ruining the planting." The idea makes sense in southern and central Maine where first frost now comes in mid- to late October. "We start harvesting new potatoes for the farmers' market in August - people like small potatoes - and then harvest big ones for ourselves in late September and October," Andrea says. Beating bugs with a calendar instead of a chemical seems like a timely new way to grow good food.

Strategy for Managing Zucchini
Let's face it - zucchini are a diabolical plot. They force gardeners to skulk around looking for open car doors so they can leave feed sacks full of the green squash on the back seat. Friends avoid them for fear of being sent off with armloads of stove-wood-sized zucchini. Even the pigs run away when another bushel basket of oversized zucchini is dropped in the feed trough. The trick is, don't let them get big. Small zucchini are fun - the seeds are small, the skin is soft. They can be used in salads and stir fry, shredded for breadmaking, or even pickled for consumption long after the last bag of overgrown zucchini has been left on the neighbor's porch.

Alternative Ed
Maine's pretty well set as far as institutions of higher education go: we've got public and private four-year schools, community colleges, senior colleges, even a handful of business-oriented schools that advertise on cable. And then there is the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland. This one-semester program turns students - undergrads, postgrads, idealists of all kinds - loose on the vast expanse of Maine and asks them to find a story. They come back after weeks of fieldwork with tales to tell: stories of seventeen-year-old psychics, devotees of Shiva, and hard-working mussel harvesters. Who knew school could be this interesting? 110 Exchange St., Portland. 207-761-0660. www.salt.edu

Maine Town That's Not in Maine
Life ends (or begins) when you cross the Piscataqua River, right? Well, at least that's the way we see things, but when it comes to Portsmouth we have to make an exception. From the cobblestone streets to the colonial architecture and even one heck of a current that whips through the harbor, there's no good reason why this community shouldn't be in Maine. Annexing it would also make comprehending the name of the naval shipyard (which is ours, thank you very much) so much simpler.

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