Gossip from the Kitchen - 2011-12 is the year of community activities
Being open year round the Winter months are still busy for us. We have guests who are working in the area as well as those passing through and friends of local families. Also the ever dedicated ice fishermen enjoy staying here. Winter is a time for planning and organizing new ideas in our small community. The Monument committee worked hard to honor our veterans with a new monument in “Legacy Square”. We supported the activity and it was put in place in October 2011. There will be a special dedication on May 25th. It is really something of which we are proud.
Then our historic Grange Hall was restarted in hopes of fixing up the building and becoming a part of the community again. This led to a related group starting a farmer’s market. The grand opening was June 30, 2011 at the Princeton ball park and ran every Thursday from 3:00 to 7:00 until October. Vendors included three vegetable sellers, one plant, two craft, a maple syrup, the Grange, the 4-H Club and we operated the Grand Lake Stream Area Chamber of Commerce booth to advertise local businesses and activities. We are all looking forward to having more vendors this year..In May, the Friends of Princeton, through donations, provided 20 barrel planters for locations on Main Street. The 8th grade students from Princeton elementary school helped plant the flowers. For our part, we had cupcakes and lemonade for the helpers. Also we made a special flyer featuring the history of the Bellmard and Princeton. Along with this we gave the volunteers a tour of the Bellmard. This is a very historic house and has always been an important part of the town.
June 18-19, our chamber along with Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife sponsored the first annual Togue Tournament on West Grand Lake with a first prize of $1000. It meant Doug getting up early in order to help Nan, our chamber secretary, register participants at 4:00 a.m. Jo-Anne and I worked with IF&W’s Gregory Burr and Joe OverLock for the rest of the day on Saturday and on Sunday with Nan filling in also. For a first time event, it was a success and we have earlier dates of June 2-3 this year and the event will be even better. I put together a flyer of Togue recipes. Here is one for fried Togue. Cut Togue fillets into strips. Dip in milk and then pancake mix. Heat some oil in a fry pan and fry fillets until browned. Set on paper towel to drain and season with salt and pepper.
In July we were very busy with our guests, some of who were canoeing the St. Croix River on their own, as well as those being guided by Sunrise Canoe Services. We also had exhibitors and visitors to the Grand Lake Stream Folk Art Festival stay with us. We got a chance to meet our local State Representative, Beth Turner, when she stayed here. Her district is huge..
August 22-23 was the second, “The Tribes of the Dawn Land Cultural and Heritage Days”, on the Passamaquoddy Tribal Lands 5 minutes from here on Route 1. It is an opportunity to see/purchase authentic native crafts such as baskets (some are in the Smithsonian), as well as wood carving, beaded/quill jewelry, paddles, and clothing. Also presented were ash pounding, native drumming, dancing, story telling, canoe making and traditional medicine.
There now is a wonderful museum on the tribal lands and the Basket Tree Gallery which will sell baskets, offer therapeutic massages, and a small cafe.
Also we had some members of the Mardavich family stay. They were the second owners of the Bellmard. Then in August we again had the pleasure of the family of the Belmores stay. Sarah (Flora’s great-grand daughter), last winter, sent me original photographs of Flora, her son Albert and daughter, Jennie. I then found a photo of Georgia, her other daughter, in the library. We already had an image of Bruce from his book. History is so important to us and we were so pleased. Sarah’s daughter played our piano in the morning after breakfast and considering it has not been tuned, it sounded very good and was a special treat for us.
September-October here are the prime scenery months. The views of Route 9 with the red colors of the blueberry barrens is a picture that we never get tired of. We had wonderful family groups of motorcyclists stop in for the night..
Also we are a very convenient and reasonably priced stopover place for those traveling into Canada.
We also had guests staying who were dedicated to Geocaching. There are lots of caches in our area and particularly the Studd Mill Road.
ATVing is supported in this area with two ATV clubs and many trails being added every year.
A new venture for us was catering a dinner for local groups. We started out with one for the art club and then one for the book club. We offered a cheese/crackers out on the porch with, salad, main entree: of pork loin, oven roasted red potatoes, glazed carrots, apple sauce, biscuits, and blueberry and chocolate cream pie and coffee/tea for dessert and the guests brought their own wine. We have since offered the same to others.
In December, The Friends of Princeton, brought back the Christmas Tree lighting. We all made cookies for afterwards. It was a very happy event.
Plans for 2012 The monument dedication on May 25 in Princeton; the Togue Tournament in Grand Lake Stream June 2-3; Tribes of the Dawn Land Cultural and Heritage Days, July 21-22 and a new Town of Princeton yard sale day on July 21; GLS Folk Art Festival-July 28-29; Princeton Summer Festival-August 11; and the Princeton Farmer’s Market June-October.