Island variations
Islesford doesn’t have a grocery store. In the summer the post office offers some emergency rations: eggs, milk and beer being chief among them. So when you come, you come laden with food, giving thanks for the new reusable bags, sturdy enough to be filled to the brim, tied closed, hurled on to the top of the mail boat/ferry, and tossed down to the dock when you arrive. Note of warning - take the eggs on board with you, along with your laptop and anything else that might not withstand the hurling and tossing.
It’s tricky to gauge just how much food you will need. On the one hand, you know you’ll share your table and provisions with friends, because that’s the joy of easy summertime socializing. On the other, there will be nights when you’re sharing someone else’s table and provisions, or when the Islesford Dock Restaurant (the only one on the island) beckons. House guests will come, bringing their own offerings. Potlucks will get put together, depending on who’s got what left in the refrigerator. You may have brought enough flour to make a summer’s worth of bread, but gradually you find yourself calling around to see if someone can spare a sprig or a tablespoon or even a cup of that missing final ingredient.
And then, eventually, you’ll wake up one morning and realize that a trip to the mainland can no longer be postponed. If you take the eight o’clock boat to Northeast Harbor you might be able to make it to the Hannaford’s in Ellsworth and back in time to catch the return boat at noon - if your list is well organized, and if there aren’t other pressing errands to fit into the morning. So you gather up the reusable bags, remind yourself of what you’ve ‘borrowed’ and need to replace, call around to see if anyone else needs just one or two things you could pick up for them, and head off, hoping that the mist that has been cooling the island won’t give way to sweltering heat on the mainland. Hoping too that the crowded parking lot that houses the abandoned vehicles of the island summer dwellers will still have a more-or-less legal spot left when you come back to it.
All of which is a prelude to saying two things about island cooking: first, that it is a very good idea to have recipes based on the kind of staples that will happily live in an inert state for a whole summer: lentils, beans, grains, etc., and second that it is essential to rise to the challenge of adapting your recipes according to what’s available. For some people I know this just comes naturally, for me, it’s been a good learning experience!
