It’s formally summertime! Garments come off, sun shades go on, barbecue grills are fired up and a pandemic’s grip slowly loosens its maintain on a extremely anticipated — although fleeting — summer season season. Whereas festivals make their method again this summer season, the meals is right here and all the time plentiful.
Within the land that has every part blueberry and lobster, it’s good to seek out these treats that scream story. Wherever you go meals tells you the place you occur to be. Meals displays the place, and due to that, it’s a badge worn proudly by folks everywhere in the nation.
Right here Down East, there may be lobster, scallops, clams, fish chowder and, after all, blueberry pie. Wash all of it down with a favourite beverage, and just about all is correct on the planet. Go to an out of doors occasion or a picnic, and there you should have your introduction to some particular meals.
How about purple sizzling canines and Moxie? Now, there’s a mixture assured to offer you greater than your every day requirement of purple dye and sugar. Since discovering these two vaunted meals objects — staples, if you’ll — right here in Maine, I transfer slowly and reasonably in relation to these gastronomical treats.
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Moxie was the primary mass-produced comfortable drink within the U.S., and has a die-hard following of followers all through New England. “You both like it, or hate it,” a good friend mentioned to me earlier than attempting it for myself. I do prefer it. The beverage’s distinctive style is derived from the gentian root extract, and its identify means daring, or braveness. In 2005 it grew to become Maine’s official comfortable drink. Every year in Lisbon Falls, there may be the Moxie Competition — a celebration or, slightly, devotion — to every part Moxie.
The purple sizzling canine has an attention-grabbing story. I like sizzling canines, nevertheless it was not till my arrival to Maine did I eat a purple sizzling canine. These neon purple beauties, known as “purple snappers” due to the sound the pure lamb casing makes when one bites into it, are a Maine favourite at any yard barbecue.
Robert “Vinnie” Valente pulls out a rack stuffed with purple sizzling canines from the cooker on the W.A. Bean & Sons Inc. in Bangor. Credit score: Gabor Degre / BDN
Bangor’s W.A. Bean & Sons has been producing purple snappers since 1918. In the present day, they produce over 500,000 kilos of sizzling canines yearly. Why the purple coloration? There are two present explanations: The purple coloring is a carryover from European butchers who would add the coloring to older-than-normal meats, presumably a sale tag in purple coloration; and that it’s a advertising ploy to attract consideration to the product.
After which there are whoopie pies. The origin of this spherical, cream-filled cake-like cookie continues to be debated. Was it in Maine, or did the Amish create this confectionary goody, now thought-about Maine’s finest recognized and most liked consolation meals? In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, roadside farm stands nonetheless supply this dessert. It’s a culinary juggernaut —even Massachusetts, Virginia and New Hampshire need in on the credit score — however I say, “who cares!” It’s a scrumptious concoction of chocolate cake with fluffy white filling. In 1925, the whoopie pie was first offered to the general public by LaBadie’s Bakery in Lewiston. In 2011 the Maine State Legislature designated the whoopie pie as Maine’s official state deal with.
Rising up in northeastern Pennsylvania, I by no means thought concerning the origin of meals. I ate loads of sizzling canines and drank my fair proportion of soda (not pop) from the native bottler on the town, A-Deal with. A favourite of mine was cream soda, a frothy drink with a deeper purple coloration than these sizzling canines from the north. When poured, cream soda would have that momentary foam prime paying homage to a root beer float.
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As I bought older, I used to be launched to scrapple from the Pennsylvania Dutch, which influenced meals on many dwelling eating tables the place I lived. For these prepared to offer it a attempt, it’s finest to not know what’s in it till you’ve had it. For these of us that usually eat it, its origin or the way it turns into a loaf of meaty pork goodness — sliced, fried after which eaten plain or with maple syrup — doesn’t matter. It’s simply good.
Years in the past at a diner on the town, an outdated man mentioned to me as he handed our desk and noticed scrapple on my plate, “Ah, there’s nothing like scrapple to heat the outdated bones on a chilly morning.” He was proper. On our mornings right here in Maine, it’s both eggs from the native chickens with home made bread, or oatmeal with contemporary blueberries. It’s hit-or-miss to seek out scrapple on the native grocery store right here Down East.
All of us have meals which brings with it a definite reminiscence of yesterday. When we have now entry to that particular meals, we seize it with each arms as a result of it’s what we’re alleged to do. Its style floods the senses whereas it soothes our palette, bringing with it that “style of dwelling”.
Meals is a marker wherever one travels all through the world, and Maine is not any completely different. However I’ve solely scratched the floor of what meals right here in Maine are distinctive to the world. If the Moxie and purple sizzling canines run out, I’m sure there are many different meals to dive into.
RJ Heller is a journalist, essayist, photographer, writer, an avid reader and an award-winning e book critic who enjoys crusing, climbing and different outside pursuits. He lives in Starboard Cove.
Maine State Police responded to more than 50 crashes and road slide-offs Saturday after southern Maine woke up to some light snowfall.
Police were responding to several crashes on the Maine Turnpike (Interstate 95) and Interstate 295 south of Augusta, state police said in a Facebook message posted around 10 a.m. Saturday.
Maine State Police spokesperson Shannon Moss said that as of early Saturday afternoon, more than 50 crashes had been reported on the turnpike and I-295.
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“The Turnpike has seen 24 crashes and slide offs primarily between Kittery and Falmouth with a higher concentration in Saco,” Moss wrote in an email. “The interstate has seen about 30 crashes and slide offs also in the Falmouth area but now in Lincoln and heading north.”
Moss said no injuries have been reported in any of the crashes.
“So far it appears visibility and driving too fast for road conditions are the causation factors,” Moss said.
State police reminded drivers to take caution, especially during snowy conditions, in the Facebook post.
“Please drive with extra care and give yourself plenty of space between you and the other vehicles on the roadway,” the post said. “Give the MDOT and Turnpike plows extra consideration and space to do their jobs to clear the roadway. Drive slow, plan for the extra time to get to your destination and be safe.”
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New rules that went into effect in August changing who pays real estate commissions have resulted in more paperwork and some anxiety for home buyers and sellers but have had little, if any, impact on home prices in the state’s hot real estate market.
The changes, which stem from a settlement in a lawsuit accusing real estate agents of conspiring to keep their commissions high, altered the way commission fees are set nationally.
For decades, most home sales in the United States have included a commission fee, typically between 5 and 6 percent of the sale price.
The typical Maine home went for around $400,000 this fall. A 5 to 6 percent commission on a $400,000 home would be between $20,000 and $24,000, split between the agents for the buyer and the seller.
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Before the changes in August, the split for each agent was predetermined by the seller, who paid the fee for both agents. That usually resulted in fees being baked into the list price of a home.
In some states (although not in Maine) agents were able to search the multiple listing service, a catalogue of homes for sale, by the commission split, which critics said incentivized agents to steer clients toward more expensive properties with higher commissions.
Now, fees are negotiated sale-by-sale. Buyers and sellers are now each responsible for paying their own agents, meaning a buyer may have to come with more cash up front if a seller doesn’t want to pay the commission fee for a buyer’s agent. Sellers are also no longer allowed to include commission fees in their listings.
Tacy Ridlon, a listing agent with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate The Masiello Group in Ellsworth, who has been in real estate for 32 years, said it is a bit jarring to have a conversation with buyers about whether they are willing to pay part of their agent’s commission.
Once the commission is established and the agreement signed, she said, the buyer’s agent then approaches the seller’s agent to see what part of their commission the seller is willing to cover, if any.
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Ridlon said 3 percent for the buyer’s agent is a typical starting point.
“We have to start high. If the seller is willing to offer 2 percent for the buyer’s agent, then our buyer only has to pay one percent… If the seller is not offering anything, then we ask the buyer to pay a certain amount. Some can pay and some can’t. For some it’s very difficult because they don’t have a lot of money to play around with.”
The change has resulted in some confusion for many buyers and even some agents around the country, as rules differ from state-to-state. Photo by Kate Cough.
Some agents said they found the changes minimal; others find the paperwork and negotiating with buyers daunting. One agency owner said the ruling has done little to bring prices down.
“This ruling has done nothing to save buyers or sellers any money,” said Billy Milliken, a designated broker and owner of Bold Coast Properties, LLC, in Jonesport. “If anything, it’s made the cost of buying a home even more expensive.”
Milliken said his sellers have had no problem agreeing to pay both buyers’ and sellers’ commissions. The cost has been embedded in the price of the property.
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“The real loser is first time home buyers who are not educated in buying a home and also have limited cash resources,” said Milliken. “It puts them at a disadvantage.”
The change has resulted in some confusion for many buyers and even some agents around the country, as rules differ from state-to-state.
People are slowly getting used to the changes, said Monet Yarnell, president of the Midcoast Board of Realtors, who owns her own agency, Sell 207 in Belfast, adding that Maine’s real estate practices were already more transparent than many other areas of the country.
“I think it was a little confusing in the beginning, more doom and gloom,” said Yarnell. But sellers are still incentivized to offer something to the buyers’ agents, she said. And the changes have increased the level of communication between agents and their clients.
“It’s more how the money flows rather than the actual dollars.”
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Ridlon, in Ellsworth, said she has been fortunate that most sellers have offered some compensation toward the buyer’s agent commission. “I have not had a buyer who can’t do the 3 percent.”
Ridlon had one seller who was not willing to pay any part of the buyer’s agent’s commission. The property had a lot of showings, but many of the buyers asked for closing costs to be covered or for concessions in lieu of picking up part of the commission.
“That didn’t really work for my seller either,” she said. “Then he relented and said he would pay one percent.”
The property sold.
Debbie Walter sold her condominium in Stockton Springs via Yarnell and then bought another condominium in New London, N.H., with another real estate agent.
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“We’re kind of guinea pigs,” said Walter. “We were very concerned about that whole piece, both as sellers and buyers.”
Fearful the sale of their house might not proceed smoothly the couple readily agreed to pay a 3 percent commission for the buyer’s agent.
When they made their offer to buy the condominium in N.H., they offered as buyers to cover their buyer’s agent’s commission as well. But the seller in that case took an equally cautious approach and offered to cover 2.5 percent of the buyer’s agent’s commission, which Walters’ agent accepted.
“It was very stressful,” Walter said. Offering to cover their buyer’s agent’s commission, she said, created “one less headache for the whole closing procedure.”
Tom McKee, president of the Maine Realtors Association, said the settlement and new rules have had little impact.
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“It hasn’t changed anything for me,” said McKee, who is with Keller Williams in Portland. Now that the commission split is no longer listed in the M.L.S., said McKee, “there are just more questions in the transaction.”
McKee said there is no set percentage, that everything is negotiable.
“If we do our job right and are meeting with the client first, they already understand.”
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has proposed new rules governing judicial conduct complaints that would keep members of the high court from having to discipline their peers.
The proposed rules would establish a panel of eight judges — the four most senior active Superior Court justices and the four most senior active District Court judges who are available to serve — to weigh complaints against a justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Members of the high court would not participate.
The rule changes come just weeks after the Committee on Judicial Conduct recommended the first sanction against a justice on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in state history.
The committee said Justice Catherine Connors should be publicly reprimanded, the lowest level of sanction, for failing to recuse herself in two foreclosure cases last year that weakened protections for homeowners in Maine, despite a history of representing banks that created a possible conflict of interest. Connors represented or filed on behalf of banks in two precedent-setting cases that were overturned by the 2024 decisions.
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In Maine, it’s up to the Supreme Judicial Court to decide the outcome of judicial disciplinary cases. But because in this case one of the high court’s justices is accused of wrongdoing, the committee recommended following the lead of several other states by bringing in a panel of outside judges, either from other levels of the court or from out of state.
Connors, however, believes the case should be heard by her colleagues on the court, according to a response filed late last month by her attorney, James Bowie.
Bowie argued that the outcome of the case will ultimately provide guidance for the lower courts — a power that belongs exclusively to the state supreme court.
It should not, he wrote, be delegated “to some other ad hoc grouping of inferior judicial officers.”
The court is accepting comments on the proposal until Jan. 23. The changes, if adopted, would be effective immediately and would apply to pending matters, including the Connors complaint.
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