{"id":71,"date":"2008-09-21T17:15:12","date_gmt":"2008-09-21T21:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hub-dev.bates.edu\/magazine\/?page_id=5"},"modified":"2017-09-06T11:38:42","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T15:38:42","slug":"the-maine-course","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/back-issues\/y2008\/fall08\/features\/the-maine-course\/","title":{"rendered":"The Maine Course"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>From ale to zucchini, Maine foods by Bates alums satisfy both palate and conscience<\/h3>\n<p>The <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/food.xml\">Bates Contemplates Food<\/a><\/em> initiative is a call for an informed examination of food choices. For many of us, these choices involve what foods to buy. A select few, though \u2014 such as the alumni on enumerated below \u2014 are choosing what foods to produce for the people who buy.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 5px\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/Images\/Bates_Magazine\/2008-fall\/Clark7274.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"307\" align=\"middle\" border=\"0\" hspace=\"5\" vspace=\"5\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gabe Clark &#8217;02, with his wife, Amanda Waterhouse Clark &#8217;02, raise grass-fed beef on their farm in North New Portland, Maine.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The links below go to pages\u00a0featuring text, photography, audio and video:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"noindent\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/x187882.xml\">Gabe Clark &#8217;02 and Amanda Waterhouse Clark &#8217;02<\/a>: Grass-fed beef at Cold Spring Ranch, in North New Portland<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/x187867.xml\">Nicolas Lindholm &#8217;86<\/a>: Premium organic blueberries, vegetables at Hackmatack Farm, in Penobscot<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/x187872.xml\">Jason Perkins &#8217;97<\/a>: Belgian-style craft ales at Allagash Brewing Co., in Portland<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/x187975.xml\">Steve Hoad &#8217;72 and his daughter, Rose Hoad<\/a>: Sustainable produce and\u00a0heritage poultry at Emma&#8217;s Family Farm, in Windsor. Also,\u00a0see a\u00a0video story about Steve Hoad\u00a0&#8217;72<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/x187866.xml\">Beth George &#8217;85 and\u00a0Tim Kane &#8217;82<\/a>: Spelt bagels, pizza dough and focaccia at Spelt Right, in Yarmouth<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/x187873.xml\">Eric Peters &#8217;86<\/a>: Cultivated oysters at Norumbega Oyster Inc., in Damariscotta<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/x187868.xml\">Kathleen McCann &#8217;97<\/a>: Organic food to feed a family, in Freeport<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/x187862.xml\">Jim Amaral &#8217;80<\/a>: Artisan breads at Borealis Breads, in Wells and Waldoboro<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr size=\"1\" \/>\n<p>And while every food decision is a life decision, the choices made by people whose livings depend on producing food take place on planes different from the ones we occupy.<\/p>\n<table style=\"width: 259px\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"7\" cellpadding=\"7\" align=\"right\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-family: Syntax;font-size: medium\"><em>&#8220;I put my attention toward growing healthy soil, and the tomato plant just comes along very happily on its own.&#8221;<\/em><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>At one extreme, there&#8217;s the importance of dirt. Dirt is furthest from your mind when you tuck into a sustainable, made-in-Maine dinner of grass-fed beef from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.coldspringranch.com\/\">Cold Spring Ranch<\/a> and organic salad from Hackmatack Farm.<\/p>\n<p>But for Gabe Clark &#8217;02, whose cattle thrive on Cold Spring Ranch grass, and vegetable grower <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/x187867.xml\">Nicolas Lindholm &#8217;86<\/a>, dirt is all important. Soil quality can make or break their products.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s taken me years to realize that I don&#8217;t need to put so much attention toward growing the tomato <em>plant,&#8221;<\/em> says Lindholm. &#8220;I put my attention toward growing healthy soil, and the tomato plant just comes along very happily on its own.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Then there&#8217;s the macro view. By choosing to work in Maine, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/x187867.xml\">Jason Perkins &#8217;97<\/a> and the husband-wife team of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/x187866.xml\">Tim Kane &#8217;82 and Beth George &#8217;85<\/a> have engaged in a conflict that conscientious consumers face every day: what&#8217;s desirable vs. what&#8217;s local.<\/p>\n<p>Perkins is brewmaster for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.allagash.com\/\">Allagash<\/a>, a popular craft beermaker. Kane and George run a bakery dedicated to the unusual grain called spelt. Both businesses can legitimately claim to be &#8220;local&#8221; and &#8220;sustainable.&#8221; And yet: Allagash brings in hops and malted barley from across the U.S.; Canada and the Midwest produce the spelt for George and Kane&#8217;s business.<\/p>\n<p>Neither Perkins nor the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.speltrightbaking.com\/\">Spelt Right bakers<\/a> want to rely on supplies shipped long distances, with the attendant carbon emissions and loss to the local economy. All are actively seeking Maine sources.<\/p>\n<p>But in the meantime, they negotiate daily a thicket of complex food questions, just like the rest of us \u2014 except for the rest of us, the quantities aren&#8217;t in tons and livelihoods aren&#8217;t at stake.<\/p>\n<p>So, if you need a break from your own food choices or a new perspective on them, meet this group of Batesies whose most important food choice has been simply (but not so simply) to produce it in Maine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From ale to zucchini, Maine foods by Bates alums satisfy both palate&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":0,"parent":73,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_dimp_site_id":"","_dimp_override_contact":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"class_list":["post-71","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/71","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/71\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13285,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/71\/revisions\/13285"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/73"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}