Yankee Magazine
J’adore le fromage.
The making of cheese is pretty basic. Acid and rennet (an enzyme produced in the stomachs of young mammals) are added to milk, causing it to separate into curds (solid) and whey (liquid). The curds are then drained, pressed, put into a mold and weighted. In the world of artisan cheese, when the basics end, the magic begins. An artisan, of course, is a person who is highly skilled at an applied craft. When the artisan’s craft is cheese it seems the entire universe adds to the assemblage.
Terroir, a term usually associated with the effect climate and soil have on the taste of wine, is increasingly being used to explain the complex flavors of artisan cheese. Artisan cheese is affected by even more elements than wine.
Consider the type of milk used—is it cow, sheep or goat? How about the fat content of the milk and what the animal ate before giving milk? (Writer Kate Zimmerman relays a story about a shop owner who complained about the “foul” taste of a batch of goat cheese: “… The cheese maker was philosophical. ‘Oh, you got that batch,’ she said. ‘The goats got into the garlic…‘“)
Aging or ripening time and location, molds and bacteria (naturally occurring or inoculated), temperature and even humidity can affect the flavor of cheese—as do processing techniques and the seasons. Many cheese artisans use only milk from grass-fed milch animals—alas, no cheese in winter! The beauty of artisan cheese is it allows us to experience the limitless and wondrous ways in which milk can be transformed by human hand.
Little Rhody is rife with options when it comes to sampling, savoring and consuming artisan cheese. Half the fun is gaining a good education.
Farmstead & La Laiterie
Matt Jennings—Cholesterol: Good. Favorite cheese: All selections from Twig Farm, followed by Jasper Hill’sWinnemere (both Vermont). Local favorite: “Everything from Narragansett Creamery.” At this time of year he likes to sweeten their Angelito (a whipped cream cheese) with maple syrup and use it on pumpkin pie.
Liam Mahoney—Cholesterol: On the high side. Favorite cheese:
“Right now it’s Coolea from Ireland.” Local favorite: Berkshire Blue from Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
Matt Jennings opened Farmstead in Wayland Square in 2003. His formal food education began at the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont, where he did his bachelor’s thesis on the “Symbiosis of Craft Beer and Artisan Cheese.” After meeting with him I think I can say that fancy sounding thesis was just a smidge self-serving…can you imagine the research he was obliged to do? As in, “I think I’ll need another beer and a couple more plates of cheese to complete this research…” He’s all about living well and his research is serving to Rhode Island’s benefit. A big guy covered with colorful tattoos, he looks like just a kid—and just about as happy as one in his new cheese room, filled with natural, bloomy and washed rind cheeses. He is a fount of experience and knowledge that belies his mere 33 years. Jennings feels cheese in America is where wine was 20 years ago, people are just now realizing the exquisite possibilities of cheese, and New England is on the forefront of the artisan cheese movement.
Liam Mahoney, Farmstead’s other expert cheesemonger, has been working alongsideMatt since 2006. He is also very knowledgeable and can be a great help in navigating Farmstead’s well-thought array of artisan cheeses, many of them from New England’s finest cheese artisans.
With their knowledge of and passion for artisan cheese it is no wonder Farmstead has gained a reputation well beyond Rhode Island’s borders. President of the American Cheese Society and Rogue Creamery cheese maker, David Gremmels, says Jennings is among the top five cheesemongers in the country.
Grapes & Gourmet
Frank LaPere—Cholesterol: Very good. Favorite cheese: Tallegio. Local favorite: Narragansett Creamery’s Divine Providence. Paula LaBarre—Cholesterol: Excellent. Favorite cheese: Red Dragon, an English cheddar with mustard seeds that “pop” when you bite into them. Local favorite: Same as Frank.
LaPere and LaBarre are a brother-sister team who own and operate Grapes & Gourmet in Jamestown. They have a “stinky” chart above the cheese case that uses tiny clothespins to rate cheese—one clothespin is “not too stinky” while three is “real stinky.” Interestingly, real stinky does not mean real strong. I sampled a tallegio that had three clothespins but was mild in taste. Both LaPere and LaBarre are self-taught cheesemongers. Although they keep a close eye on what’s popular in the market, they also go with their instincts when choosing what to carry.
Grapes & Gourmet is the only one of our cheesemongers that can sell wine in the same shop, thanks to an arcane Rhode Island law that limits liquor stores to only nuts and chips if the populace of the store’s location is more than 10,000. (Jamestown fits the bill.) They can help you pair your wine and cheese and send you home with both.
Milk & Honey Bazaar
Tom Jansen—Cholesterol: Hasn’t checked recently. Favorite cheese: Piave Vecchio or Roaring 40s Blue. Local favorite: A tie between Hannahbells and Narragansett Creamery’s Atwell’s Gold.
Jennifer Jansen—Cholesterol: Great. Favorite cheese: Fleur Verte or Gruyere Reserve. Local favorite: Hannahbells.
Milk & Honey Bazaar is tucked into a little building as charming as its name.To boot, if you’re lucky, you’ll see the couple’s adorable baby boys with strawberry blonde curls bouncing as they clamber around the shop. Very much a family business, Tom Jansen grew up right around the corner from the Tiverton shop.
He and wife Jennifer are lifelong “foodies” and originally thought about being cheese makers rather than mongers. When the option of opening a shop in the Tiverton location came up, they knew it was the right thing for them. They are self-taught cheesemongers and their recommendation to consumers runs in the same vein, “Trust your palate.” If you do that, the Jansens promise, you’ll taste the “facts of the cheese, its history, its life… “ In other words, you’ll taste the garlic the goats ate … or the grass the cows fed upon.
Customers atMilk & Honey tend to be well-traveled and they regularly make suggestions—which the store expands upon. They have a bustling summer business and ship to many of those customers throughout the winter.
Venda Ravioli
Tonie LaPierre—Cholesterol: Excellent. Favorite cheese: “Anything Italian.”
Local favorite: Narragansett Creamery’s Atwell’s Gold. Tonie LaPierre is the resident cheesemonger at Venda Ravioli. She had worked at Venda for years when the chance to become “head cheese” presented itself. With no formal training, she has picked up information and developed a palate by working closely with suppliers and taking classes in exotic locales (like Italy, of course). She stocks cheeses from all over the world but specializes in Italian cheeses. Venda is not devoted solely to cheese and so the cheese case is small, but Tonie’s enthusiasm keeps the stock ever-replenished and always evolving.
The Cooked Goose
Jen Gibson—Cholesterol: “I think it’s OK, I haven’t checked lately.” Favorite cheese: Epoisse (a gooey, runny, semi-stinky French cheese). Local favorite: Hannahbells fromWestport.
Jen and her husband own and operate The Cooked Goose in Watch Hill. Although she’s had no formal training, Jen is an enthusiastic cheese student/eater. Most of her cheese knowledge came from time working at Sid Wainer Specialty Foods in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She decided to carry cheese in her restaurant’s shop because not only did she love the stuff, it was easier to get a good selection and variety of specialty cheeses as a purveyor than a restaurateur. Hence The Cooked Goose’s cheese case was born. Although small, they carry a good variety of artisan cheeses. eR
Jackie Lantry is a freelance writer based in New England. Her work has been featured on National Public Radio and in Yankee Magazine and the Providence Journal.
Issues → September/October 2008 → Home & Garden →
Outdoor Brick Oven: Home Projects
Wood-fired oven for bread in the backyard
by Jackie Lantry
Credit: Madeline Polss
Kira (age 12), Cailen (age 9), mom Kylee, and dad Ciril Hitz sample the goods straight from the oven. This outdoor wood-fired Le Panyol model is great for making breads and pizzas, report Kylee and Ciril.
Credit: Madeline Polss
Credit: Madeline Polss
The outdoor oven is versatile, too, say Kylee and Ciril. Home chefs can also roast meats and vegetables in ovenproof pans right on the hearth.
Award-winning pastry chef Ciril Hitz, a department chairman and instructor at Johnson and Wales University, always carried with him a fond recollection of the aroma of fresh bread baking to perfection in the wood-fired ovens so common in his native Switzerland.
PROJECT
Wood-Fired Oven
Today, he and his wife, Kylee, live in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, in a 1786 Cape surrounded by fields of hay and wildflowers -- but in 2006, with the help of the Maine Wood Heat Company, he found a way to rekindle one small part of his childhood. Now on baking days, the couple's two children compete with chickens, dogs, cats, and an assortment of baby pheasants for the delectable crumbs that fall fresh from Ciril's outdoor oven.
PROCESS
The oven came as a kit produced by Le Panyol, France's oldest operating manufacturer of wood-fired ovens. After checking town building and fire codes, Ciril decided to situate his oven on a level piece of ground next to an outbuilding housing his baking equipment.
To prepare for the installation, a local mason first poured frost-proof concrete footings and a foundation for the base, followed by a steel-reinforced capping slab, all designed to hold the weight of the oven. Then the experts at Maine Wood Heat, the exclusive North American importer of Le Panyol kits, assembled the modular core: essentially, a dome consisting of wedge-shaped voussoirs (arch elements) resting against a central keystone at the top.
The secret to the quality of this project lies in the unique material from which Le Panyol's ovens are constructed: an all-natural, organic earthenware made from white clay mined at a single quarry just outside Provence. Once sealed with mortar, the oven's design balances the fire's radiant, conductive, and convective energies.
COST
Just under $12,000, including the concrete footing and base. Construction was part of a Maine Wood Heat workshop, which kept labor costs down.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY?
"Not a thing!" notes Ciril. "I'd just advise people to educate themselves about outdoor ovens [before starting this project] and to use an experienced mason."
RESOURCES
Maine Wood Heat Co. Inc.
Norridgewock, ME, 207-696-5442; mainewoodheat.com
Norridgewock, ME, 207-696-5442; mainewoodheat.com
Le Panyol
Tain-l'Hermitage, Drôme, France, lepanyol.com
Tain-l'Hermitage, Drôme, France, lepanyol.com
BREAD
To learn more about the art of decorative-bread baking, go to: breadhitz.com
More bread ideas? Click here for Yankee's bread recipes.
************************************************************************************************************
Artisan Cheeses
A Rhody Shopper’s Guide
By Jackie Lantry Photo by Thad Russell
I have high cholesterol. Genes are partly to blame but so are my eating habits—and this is where the cheese comes in. When it comes to cheese, I follow Miss Piggy’s diet plan: “Never eat more than you can lift.”A Rhody Shopper’s Guide
By Jackie Lantry Photo by Thad Russell
J’adore le fromage.
The making of cheese is pretty basic. Acid and rennet (an enzyme produced in the stomachs of young mammals) are added to milk, causing it to separate into curds (solid) and whey (liquid). The curds are then drained, pressed, put into a mold and weighted. In the world of artisan cheese, when the basics end, the magic begins. An artisan, of course, is a person who is highly skilled at an applied craft. When the artisan’s craft is cheese it seems the entire universe adds to the assemblage.
Terroir, a term usually associated with the effect climate and soil have on the taste of wine, is increasingly being used to explain the complex flavors of artisan cheese. Artisan cheese is affected by even more elements than wine.
Consider the type of milk used—is it cow, sheep or goat? How about the fat content of the milk and what the animal ate before giving milk? (Writer Kate Zimmerman relays a story about a shop owner who complained about the “foul” taste of a batch of goat cheese: “… The cheese maker was philosophical. ‘Oh, you got that batch,’ she said. ‘The goats got into the garlic…‘“)
Aging or ripening time and location, molds and bacteria (naturally occurring or inoculated), temperature and even humidity can affect the flavor of cheese—as do processing techniques and the seasons. Many cheese artisans use only milk from grass-fed milch animals—alas, no cheese in winter! The beauty of artisan cheese is it allows us to experience the limitless and wondrous ways in which milk can be transformed by human hand.
Little Rhody is rife with options when it comes to sampling, savoring and consuming artisan cheese. Half the fun is gaining a good education.
Farmstead & La Laiterie
Matt Jennings—Cholesterol: Good. Favorite cheese: All selections from Twig Farm, followed by Jasper Hill’sWinnemere (both Vermont). Local favorite: “Everything from Narragansett Creamery.” At this time of year he likes to sweeten their Angelito (a whipped cream cheese) with maple syrup and use it on pumpkin pie.
Liam Mahoney—Cholesterol: On the high side. Favorite cheese:
“Right now it’s Coolea from Ireland.” Local favorite: Berkshire Blue from Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
Matt Jennings opened Farmstead in Wayland Square in 2003. His formal food education began at the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont, where he did his bachelor’s thesis on the “Symbiosis of Craft Beer and Artisan Cheese.” After meeting with him I think I can say that fancy sounding thesis was just a smidge self-serving…can you imagine the research he was obliged to do? As in, “I think I’ll need another beer and a couple more plates of cheese to complete this research…” He’s all about living well and his research is serving to Rhode Island’s benefit. A big guy covered with colorful tattoos, he looks like just a kid—and just about as happy as one in his new cheese room, filled with natural, bloomy and washed rind cheeses. He is a fount of experience and knowledge that belies his mere 33 years. Jennings feels cheese in America is where wine was 20 years ago, people are just now realizing the exquisite possibilities of cheese, and New England is on the forefront of the artisan cheese movement.
Liam Mahoney, Farmstead’s other expert cheesemonger, has been working alongsideMatt since 2006. He is also very knowledgeable and can be a great help in navigating Farmstead’s well-thought array of artisan cheeses, many of them from New England’s finest cheese artisans.
With their knowledge of and passion for artisan cheese it is no wonder Farmstead has gained a reputation well beyond Rhode Island’s borders. President of the American Cheese Society and Rogue Creamery cheese maker, David Gremmels, says Jennings is among the top five cheesemongers in the country.
Grapes & Gourmet
Frank LaPere—Cholesterol: Very good. Favorite cheese: Tallegio. Local favorite: Narragansett Creamery’s Divine Providence. Paula LaBarre—Cholesterol: Excellent. Favorite cheese: Red Dragon, an English cheddar with mustard seeds that “pop” when you bite into them. Local favorite: Same as Frank.
LaPere and LaBarre are a brother-sister team who own and operate Grapes & Gourmet in Jamestown. They have a “stinky” chart above the cheese case that uses tiny clothespins to rate cheese—one clothespin is “not too stinky” while three is “real stinky.” Interestingly, real stinky does not mean real strong. I sampled a tallegio that had three clothespins but was mild in taste. Both LaPere and LaBarre are self-taught cheesemongers. Although they keep a close eye on what’s popular in the market, they also go with their instincts when choosing what to carry.
Grapes & Gourmet is the only one of our cheesemongers that can sell wine in the same shop, thanks to an arcane Rhode Island law that limits liquor stores to only nuts and chips if the populace of the store’s location is more than 10,000. (Jamestown fits the bill.) They can help you pair your wine and cheese and send you home with both.
Milk & Honey Bazaar
Tom Jansen—Cholesterol: Hasn’t checked recently. Favorite cheese: Piave Vecchio or Roaring 40s Blue. Local favorite: A tie between Hannahbells and Narragansett Creamery’s Atwell’s Gold.
Jennifer Jansen—Cholesterol: Great. Favorite cheese: Fleur Verte or Gruyere Reserve. Local favorite: Hannahbells.
Milk & Honey Bazaar is tucked into a little building as charming as its name.To boot, if you’re lucky, you’ll see the couple’s adorable baby boys with strawberry blonde curls bouncing as they clamber around the shop. Very much a family business, Tom Jansen grew up right around the corner from the Tiverton shop.
He and wife Jennifer are lifelong “foodies” and originally thought about being cheese makers rather than mongers. When the option of opening a shop in the Tiverton location came up, they knew it was the right thing for them. They are self-taught cheesemongers and their recommendation to consumers runs in the same vein, “Trust your palate.” If you do that, the Jansens promise, you’ll taste the “facts of the cheese, its history, its life… “ In other words, you’ll taste the garlic the goats ate … or the grass the cows fed upon.
Customers atMilk & Honey tend to be well-traveled and they regularly make suggestions—which the store expands upon. They have a bustling summer business and ship to many of those customers throughout the winter.
Venda Ravioli
Tonie LaPierre—Cholesterol: Excellent. Favorite cheese: “Anything Italian.”
Local favorite: Narragansett Creamery’s Atwell’s Gold. Tonie LaPierre is the resident cheesemonger at Venda Ravioli. She had worked at Venda for years when the chance to become “head cheese” presented itself. With no formal training, she has picked up information and developed a palate by working closely with suppliers and taking classes in exotic locales (like Italy, of course). She stocks cheeses from all over the world but specializes in Italian cheeses. Venda is not devoted solely to cheese and so the cheese case is small, but Tonie’s enthusiasm keeps the stock ever-replenished and always evolving.
The Cooked Goose
Jen Gibson—Cholesterol: “I think it’s OK, I haven’t checked lately.” Favorite cheese: Epoisse (a gooey, runny, semi-stinky French cheese). Local favorite: Hannahbells fromWestport.
Jen and her husband own and operate The Cooked Goose in Watch Hill. Although she’s had no formal training, Jen is an enthusiastic cheese student/eater. Most of her cheese knowledge came from time working at Sid Wainer Specialty Foods in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She decided to carry cheese in her restaurant’s shop because not only did she love the stuff, it was easier to get a good selection and variety of specialty cheeses as a purveyor than a restaurateur. Hence The Cooked Goose’s cheese case was born. Although small, they carry a good variety of artisan cheeses. eR
| CHEESE CATEGORIES: Fresh Semi-Firm Cooked/Pressed/Firm Blues Soft/Ripened Washed Rind For more information visit the American Cheese Society at cheesesociety.org. Reading List: The Cheese Plate. ByMaxMcCalman and David Gibbons (Clarkson Potter, 2005). Laura Werlin’s Cheese Essentials: An Insider’s Guide to Buying and Serving Cheese. By Laura Werling (Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 2007). In a Cheesemaker's Kitchen. By Allison Hooper and Steve Jenkins (The Countryman Press, 2009). |
| ADVICE COLUMN Little Rhody’s cheesemongers are well versed in the pairing of cheese with libations and the use of cheese in recipes too. Take advantage of their expertise—they happily share advice. The Cooked Goose 92Watch Hill Rd.,Westerly 401-348-9888 • thecookedgoose.com Farmstead & La Laiterie 186Wayland Ave., Providence 401-274-7177 • farmsteadinc.com Grapes & Gourmet 9 FerryWharf, Jamestown 401-423-0070 • grapesandgourmet.com Milk & Honey Bazaar 3838 Main Rd., Tiverton 401-624-1974 • milkandhoneybazaar.com Venda Ravioli 265 Atwells Ave., Providence 401-421-9105 • vendaravioli.com |
***************************************************************************************
From Edible South Shore Magazine, winter 2011
EDIBLE RHODY
From Edible South Shore Magazine, winter 2011
edible Notables
Sign Me Up!
(A.K.A. HITZ IN 150 WORDS)
by Jackie Lantry
I only have 150 words, so here goes:
Bake Like A PRO!: Ciril Hitz—chairman, International Baking and Pastry Institute, Johnson and Wales University, now teaching classes at his home.
Setting: Idyllic, pastoral 1700s homestead, chickens, horses, pond...more.
Equipment: State of the art, including a French wood-fired Le Panyol oven.
Schedule: Weekends (9-5).
Topics: Artisan Bread, Pizza Demo & Dinner, Breakfast Breads, Holiday Baking...more.
Bang for the Buck: Observe
and practice proper measuring, mixing, leavening, shaping, and baking;
master scones, sour dough, whole wheat; learn to make REAL pastry cream
and REAL croissants; overcome your fear of yeast and metric measurements
(OK, that might be just me...).
Results: Rise-to-the-clouds
focaccia, REAL pastry cream, melt-in-your-mouth pumpkin muffins, sweet
cinnamon rolls, crispy-edged, tender, buttery scones...I could easily go
on but I only have 150 words!
For information and class schedule go to breadhitz.com.
****************************************************************************************************************************
EDIBLE RHODY
On the Bay
By Jackie Lantry
Go Fish
Heaving Lines and Wing Pens: Reflections
from a Rhode Island Fishing Family
Much has changed since Fred Gamache was a young boy. His memo-
ries of growing up in a Galilee fishing family recall another era to which
I was transported with tales of Gamache’s father who captained the
Mary Alice and his uncles “Eggie” and Jim Gamache who fished like
their father before them. Fred Gamache is part of an extended family
tree, the Manchester, Champlin and Gamache families who, for gener-
ations past and present, have been fishing the waters off the coast of
Rhode Island.
Clouds Overhead
One of Fred Gamache’s earliest memories is standing with his dad in the
yard of their Point Judith home on the evening of Sept. 20, 1938, and
studying the clouds. The senior Gamache was a lifelong commercial
fisherman, a day fishermen, who rarely went offshore unless on an
overnight to Block Island, Nantucket or Oak Bluffs. Being a fisherman
meant being able to read the cloud formations, understanding wind di-
rection and using a barometer. It could tell you a lot about what to ex-
pect from the weather.
“Those are hurricane clouds,” he said to his son.
The next day, 6-year-old Fred’s mother, worried about what looked
to be a pretty bad storm brewing, picked him up early from school.
They spent the next several hours in their small house in Galilee, along
with 40 other people who had been cast out of their homes, in what
would become one of the worst hurricanes in New England history. He
remembers the adults ripping linoleum squares off the floor to cover
windows blown out by the storm. Eventually the group abandoned the
first floor altogether and huddled en-masse upstairs.
“Around midnight we walked out of the house. Everything was
gone: Houses, trees, whole streets had just disappeared,” Fred recalls.
His grandparents lost everything—their furniture, clothes, all of it
wiped out in a matter of hours and their house destroyed. Thankfully
his grandfather’s boat survived.
Of the 2,094 New England fishing boats reported lost to the storm,
nearly 900 of those were from Rhode Island.
Remarkably Fred’s uncle, Jim Gamache, rode out the storm in the
family’s most precious commodity, the Barbara G. “She was docked in
the harbor. In fact, Uncle Jim rescued people from the storm using a
dory from the Barbara G.”
“Yeah,” he went on, “it was the last night we spent in Galilee. Dad
continued to fish but my mother insisted on moving inland to Narra-
gansett.” It was after the hurricane when Fred Gamache senior bought
another boat, the Mary Alice, on which he sailed for many years.
Heave the Line
Fred Gamache grew up in a storied time when boats were made of wood
and built by hand. It was a time when fishing required an intimate
knowledge of and relationship to the earth and its seasons. “There were
no navigation systems on boats back then. Navigation was done with a
compass, a heaving line and charts.”
A heaving line is a lead weight attached (with a monkey knot) to a
rope with water-depth markings along its length. Standing at the boat’s
bow, the fishermen “heaved the line” into the ocean ahead of the boat.
When the boat caught up to the lead, the fisherman would record the
mark on the rope—thereby knowing the depth of the water at that par-
ticular spot.
Recording all that information over time gave the fishermen a
“map” of the ocean floor’s contours. In this way they would learn where
the water was too shallow, or where they would find rocks or sunken
ships—places where a fishermen’s net could get caught.
“It was labor intensive but the fishermen who studied those charts
got to really understand the ocean. They could visualize the ocean floor
in their heads. Today, you can use a nav system and not have to record
anything. A captain today concentrates mostly on a computer screen.”
Fishing meant long hours, many days away from home, no bene-
fits like health insurance or disability, and no vacations. If the weather
allowed it, men worked. Days they couldn’t go out were spent building
boats, repairing nets and fixing equipment.
“It was a subsistence life,” said Fred. “Not that it was a bad life. It
wasn’t. We had clothes on our backs and enough to eat but we didn’t
have extras. That’s why my father discouraged me from going into fish-
ing.” In fact Fred Gamache senior was one of the fishermen who in
1948 organized the Point Judith Fishermen’s Co-op in an effort to help
local fishermen get a better price for their catch.
Pop the Boards
Despite the difficulties, the lure of the ocean caught other family mem-
bers. Fred’s nephews Kevin and Matt Manchester have fished on and off
since they were kids, along with cousins and other kids dubbed “point
rats” because they hung out at the docks at Galilee waiting and hoping
to join in.
“My first job was lumping,” Kevin told me. “I used to watch my
cousin, Tommy Champlin, lump the boats for his dad—he got to do it
because his dad owned the boat. I was jealous. First chance I got I went
for it,” he said.
Being a landlubber I had to ask about lumping.
“Lumping is when you off-load the fish. Fish are stored in the hull,
under the deck,” he explained. “There’s an alley-way down there, and de-
pending on the size of the boat sometimes you can barely stand up. Along
the sides of the alley are pens, called wing pens—where fishermen store
the fish they’ve caught. In the front of each wing pen are boards (called
slide boards) that keep the fish in the pen. The slide boards are maybe six
to eight inches high. If you have a lot of fish you use a lot of slide boards,
one above the other, to keep the fish in the pen,” explained Kevin.
Good lumpers work with gravity and timing. They pop out the
slide boards, allowing just the right amount of fish to fall into huge wire
baskets. Pop too many boards and fish gush out of the wing pen, all
over the place. Pop too few and you’d have to reach in and pick out fish.
The best lumpers are quick and neat. And strong—the wire baskets
hold between 50 and 150 pounds of fish.
“When I started I got $2.50 per thousand fish I lumped. Most
boats [not all] use pumps now to pump the fish out.”
“I remember fishing as a family and community thing,” reflected
Kevin. “Fishermen were a tight-knit group made up of family or close
community members. You always went out with the same guys.”
Most offshore boats had a captain, cook, hold man, engineer and,
if they were lucky, a mate to help the captain.
“I was the cook for a while. Of course I had recipe cards from my
mom [Fred Gamache’s sister Mary Manchester] with me,” he said.
“Guys perfected one job. The guys who taught me knew how to make
the most of every movement, there was never any wasted motion.”
Old School
As he talks, I get a vision of men in oil cloth suits working in concert
with one another, pulleys and ropes overhead, synchronizing the clutch,
brake and winch as they hoist a bag full of fish aboard. The slippery
fish, flip-flopping on deck until shoveled into the hold where, with con-
tinued deftness, they are loaded into the wing pens, boards popping on
as fish pile higher and higher in the pen.
Captains kept a logbook and a hang-book. The logbook (there was
a new one for each trip) was a record of where the boat went, the num-
ber of “tows” they had, how long and where each tow was, the numbers Left: The Mary Alice heads out from Galilee.
Right: Fred Gamache senior working on board the Mary Alice
docked at Galilee.
set in and the numbers hauled back. The hang-book was filled with
pages and pages of hand-written notes outlining where nets were “hung”
or lost, maybe on a pile of rocks or a shipwreck. All the information
recorded by hand, with a pencil, in the book.
“There were times when I chose not to sleep at night because I
wanted to go up on deck with the captain where I could learn how to
log. Nowadays the industry is flooded with big, powerful boats and
most of the work is done by machine. It used to be so dynamic. It’s like
a big video game now.”
“Honestly, I wish they hadn’t mechanized everything,” Kevin said
wistfully.
Of course modernizing the industry isn’t all bad.
It is much safer now and sea-water systems and flash freezing have
advanced the industry. Like all of society, the fishing industry has been
touched by technological progress.
Call me a romantic but I’d take the pop of boards in a wing pen and
the toss of a heaving line any day.
Jackie Lantry is a freelance writer based in New England. Her work has
been featured on National Public Radio and in Yankee Magazine and the
Providence Journal, as well as other newspapers and publications.
Fred Gamache is 76 years old. He retired from the phone company and
now lives in Maine. Happy to have a pension from his onshore job, he is
equally happy (maybe more) to have memories of his father’s life as a com-
mercial fisherman.
Kevin Manchester is now a carpenter in Narragansett, although he still goes
out to sea whenever he gets the chance. His sister Kate is the publisher and
editor of edible SANTE FE.
**************************************************************************************************************************
| FROM THE EARTH |
By Jackie Lantry Photos by Carole Topalian
Sweet Berry Farm As the Crow Flies As I turned onto Mitchell’s Lane, I noticed two metal crows perched atop Sweet Berry Farm’s colorful roadside sign. Crows are cleansers.They take away decay. They’re intelligent birds said to have magical properties too, including an ability to divine the future and dismantle the past. Best of all, they collect trinkets and treasures, shiny things that catch the eye, which they use to feather their nests. Jan and Michelle Eckhart, owners of Sweet Berry Farm, it could be said, are very much the same. They’ve dismantled a bit of Middletown’s recent past (the practice of turning farm land into housing developments) by partnering with the Aquidneck Land Trust to preserve 80 acres of land. What would have been a housing development is now a farm market surrounded by acres of peach and apple orchards, and rows of jewelcolored strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. Flower gardens provide a seasonal supply of fresh-cut bouquets and in the fall you can pick apples or pumpkins and tag a Christmas tree. It began when the Eckharts decided they wanted to work for themselves. In 1980 they bought a small (20 acre) farm and started selling strawberries and Christmas trees. In the summer months they sold their “pickings” at a few local farmers’ markets. Tired of hauling canopies, chairs, crates and baskets off site, they began selling from home. One white canopy went up near their goat shed. It was self-service with an honor system. Before long the one canopy turned into two, then three, four, five and six. It was around this time that Jan learned about 80 acres nearby, slated for sale by an developer.Working with the Land Trust and the developer, they struck a deal, and Sweet Berry Farm grew to 100 acres. Today 80 acres are under cultivation. In 2005 they constructed a post-and-beam building, complete with a walk-in cooler, restaurant kitchen and space for a café. Strawberries, still warm from the summer sun, go from the field to the kitchen to a lucky café patron in a matter of minutes. Sweet Berry Farm is GAP (good agricultural practices) certified for its use of integrated pest management. For example, the farm grows buckwheat as a “green manure crop,” meaning the buckwheat is grown specifically to be plowed under as fertilizer. Clover, planted between crops and Christmas trees, prevents erosion. Honeybees are in on the act too. After pollinating the clover, buckwheat and wildflowers, they get busy making honey, which is then harvested and sold (raw, not pasteurized) in the market. The new barn is filled to bursting with trinkets (kitchenware, funky umbrellas, brightly colored aprons); treasures (mosaics byMartin Cheek, garden sculpture by Ben O’Brien, honey jars by Brenda Wrigley-Scott) and all manner of things to feather one’s nest. It’s also where you see, sample and buy to take home the best of the farm’s bounty. My aunt, Charlotte Bliss, and I can vouch for Chef Steve Corey’s house-made peach jam, Susanna’shouse-made Meyer lemon ice cream, their oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, wildflower honey, reuben panini, fresh coffee and an armload of freshly cut flowers. (This was all part of one visit…no kidding). The reuben panini (picked from an array of grill-your-ownselections) was almost too big to bite into. The buttery grilled rye bread gave way to tender, juicy pastrami… and just at the precipice of “too rich,” the tart, crunchy sauerkraut whacked it back in line. The Russian dressing squished perfectly out the sides, requiring some quick (yet ladylike) back of the hand slurping maneuvers. Aunt Charlotte, a true New England lady, is proper, not at all prone to silliness and a bit formal. On the ride home she dove into the lemon ice cream (“Oh dear, this may melt before we get home…”). She ate straight from the container with a plastic spoon. For a minute I thought she might tear open the cardboard container in order to lick out the rest. It was worth every fat-laden super-premium, lemony, creamy, tangy drop. The play of lemon zest against the velvety rich cream was perfection. My kids tucked into the honey as soon as they got home, slathering the dense, amber liquid over grilled Portuguese sweet bread as an after school snack. The following morning I made waffles (OK, I popped them into the toaster, but they were good toaster waffles) and spread them with a thick layer of peach preserves. It was like eating pie filling on a waffle. Nuggets of sun-ripened peaches, fragrant in justsweet- enough jam, melted into the warm waffles. On the day of our visit we watched kids play outside after picking berries, while their parents sipped coffee and looked on from the café porch. Inside, a group of ladies sat around a big table knitting and talking. The day’s main topics were the delicious food (much of which was shared) and what to name their knitting group (Knit and Nosh sounded good to me). Another couple enjoyed a quiet lunch at a table in the picnic area. All the while, the market bustled with customers picking out artisan cheeses, the farm’s hand-made jellies, jams and sausage, fresh eggs, local seafood and every manner of seasonal produce, fresh from the fields. The café serves breakfast and lunch. It’s self-service, complete with filling out your own “guest check” and grilling your own panini.While dinner is not served, you can pick it up and take it home (my sister Suzanne’s favorite type of home-made: “I made it come home with me,” she says.). The menu is based on seasonable availability and has a gourmet flair, without being pretentious. Sweet Berry Farm is dedicated to supporting local food sources as well as local artists and craftspeople. You’ll find products from Little Rhody Foods, Arruda’s Dairy, Helger’s Turkey Farm and Bristol Bakery, to name just a few. They host local authors and musicians as well. On Tuesday evenings during the summer you can enjoy a free concert (the schedule is on their website). Visitors are welcome to bring a picnic if they want (or just buy it there). New this year, the farm is available for special events—imagine a wedding in a peach orchard!' Like those crows, Jan and Michelle Eckhart are “divining the future” of their neighborhood through Sweet Berry Farm—and the rest of us can come and enjoy their local treasure. Jackie Lantry is a freelance writer based in New England. Her work has been featured on National Public Radio and in Yankee Magazine and the Providence Journal. Sweet Berry Farm Jan and Michelle Eckhart, Owners 915 Mitchell’s Lane Middletown sweetberryfarmri.com ******************************************************* 
Nubar Alexanian
Jackie
Lantry is a part-time hospital clerk in Rehoboth, Mass. She and her
husband have adopted two girls and two boys from China. When Jackie
asked her children what they believed in, they said "family."
I
believe in the ingredients of love, the elements from which it is made.
I believe in love's humble, practical components and their combined
power.
We
adopted Luke four years ago. The people from the orphanage dropped him
off at our hotel room without even saying goodbye. He was nearly six
years old, only 28 pounds and his face was crisscrossed with scars.
Clearly, he was terrified. "What are his favorite things?" I yelled.
"Noodles," they replied as the elevator door shut.
Luke
kicked and screamed. I stood between him and the door to keep him from
bolting. His cries were anguished, animal-like. He had never seen a
mirror and tried to escape by running through one. I wound my arms
around him so he could not hit or kick. After an hour and a half he
finally fell asleep, exhausted. I called room service. They delivered
every noodle dish on the menu. Luke woke up, looked at me and started
sobbing again. I handed him chopsticks and pointed at the food. He
stopped crying and started to eat. He ate until I was sure he would be
sick.
That
night we went for a walk. Delighted at the moon, he pantomimed, "What
is it?" I said, "The moon, it's the moon." He reached up and tried to
touch it. He cried again when I tried to give him a bath until I started
to play with the water. By the end of his bath the room was soaked and
he was giggling. I lotioned him up, powdered him down and clothed him in
soft PJs. We read the book One Yellow Lion. He loved looking at the colorful pictures and turning the pages. By the end of the night he was saying, "one yellow lion."
The
next day we met orphanage officials to do paperwork. Luke was on my lap
as they filed into the room. He looked at them and wrapped my arms
tightly around his waist.
He
was a sad, shy boy for a long time after those first days. He cried
easily and withdrew at the slightest provocation. He hid food in his
pillowcase and foraged in garbage cans. I wondered then if he would ever
get over the wounds of neglect that the orphanage had beaten into him.
It
has been four years. Luke is a smart, funny, happy fourth-grader. He is
loaded with charm and is a natural athlete. His teachers say he is well
behaved and works very hard. Our neighbor says she has never seen a
happier kid.
When
I think back, I am amazed at what transformed this abused, terrified
little creature. It was not therapy, counselors or medications. It did
not cost money, require connections or great privilege. It was love:
just simple, plain, easy to give. Love is primal. It is comprised of
compassion, care, security, and a leap of faith. I believe in the power
of love to transform. I believe in the power of love to heal.
Published by NPR 2005
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took his bread baking class last week with my mom & a friend & I thought we were in heaven-what a place & what really nice people this talented couple are! bread was beyond delicious-:)
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