Blueberries and Lobster

1. Learn about and cook more Maine food.
A lot of good food comes out of my kitchen, but there’s not much that’s specifically about Maine flavors, except the produce and local meat and fish. In 2008, I’d like to figure out more of what constitutes a Maine flavor to food. Given the big Acadian influence here, I suspect there is a lot of gravy and butter involved. But what else?

What will help me do this? Well, I currently own one great Maine food cookbook: Recipes from a Very Small Island, which has recipes and essays from Isle au Haut. Other cookbooks would help. Talking to people, and asking questions would help too. Maybe I’ll even go for a nice dinner at Fore Street Grill and call it “research.”

2. Get involved with a CSA
CSA: community supported agriculture. It’s a way for consumers to financially support local, independent farmers, and receive a large amount of fresh, locally grown vegetables in return. The USDA has a good definition.

This is going to be an easy one to fulfill. Farmer Justin will be doing a small CSA this year. I’ve already told him that I want in. I get to pick up my vegetables from an octagonal-shoped barn! (The octagonal barn has also been memorialized on a holiday card — Justin’s girlfriend is a talented artist.)

3. Learn more about the Portland Winter Cache Project and the Portland Food Co-op.
We live on the third floor of a triple-decker, with no real access to a root cellar. There is a basement in the building, of course, but the first and only time I’ve been in it was when we moved in and attempted to use the laundry facilities. Since then, we’ve learned that the laundry facilities belong to the first floor residents, and have avoided the spiderweb-infested basement ever since.

Anyway, because of the lack of root cellar, it’s difficult to procure local produce through the long Maine winter. The Winter Cache Project seems like a good way to combat this problem, as well as a way to build community. Plus, the pickup is just down the street.

The Portland Food Co-op is an attempt to bring a real, storefront food cooperative to this small city. I support this endeavor, of course. Yes, there are some things to like about Whole Foods/Whole Paycheck, but it’s very disappointing to me that we lost a local natural foods grocer in the process.

4. Grow herbs in a container garden
Every year I try doing a windowsill garden. Every year it never quite gets off the ground.

This year I would really like to plan, and do it. Maybe this means I don’t grow in the dining room, but rather in my home office, which has sunny windows that face in two directions. Maybe this means I don’t try growing food that needs pollination, like peppers. Maybe I just focus on herbs. But I need to do things like plan pot size, research herbs that do well indoors, all the kinds of things that would really make it successful.

What are your food resolutions for 2008? (Besides “eat less of it.” That’s a boring one.)