August 2010

Customer Amy Putnam Poses with Woodworker Marc McCabe at the Picnic

By Carol McCracken (Post # 563)

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Yesterday was perfrect for the 3rd annual Picnic (Arts & Musical Festival) on the grounds of Lincoln Park in downtown Portland. Young familes and the older crowd moved from booth to booth under bright blue skies admiring a myriad of hand-mades appropriate for gift giving or better yet for keeping.

One happy picnicker, among many, was Marc McCabe, a 28 year old resident of the Greater Munjoy Hill area. McCabe, a woodworker, offered a variety of wooden spoons and cutting boards from under his white tent. Every spoon was different, there were no two alike; all made from a variety of woods he has found in the woods. It takes McCabe about 1 to 3 hours to hand-craft each spoon. He begins with a chunk of wood on which he draws circles of different sizes in a bunch of places. This produces a good symmetry that would otherwise be difficult to produce. From there he uses a band saw and them moves on to a series of Stanley tools. Then comes lots of sanding and applying the finish coat – three times. He says: “It’s great to take a chunk of wood and turn it into a work of beauty.”

This is the first show McCabe’s ever been in and he plans on returning next year. It’s a hobby and he plans on keeping it that way. His items are fairly priced. “I need to get new prescription glasses and an eye exam. I have more than enough for that now,” he said grinning. Originally from Ohio, McCabe studied eco-tourism there. He found a job online at the Chewonki Foundation, Wiscasset, where he worked in the boatshop for five years. A friend there taught him to make the wooden spoons and he’s been making them ever since. McCabe works for Thompson Johnson Woodworks, based on Peaks Island.

Diane Toepfer, one of the organizers of the Picnic and owner of the popular Ferdinand shop on the Hill, said this was the best Picnic yet. 101 vendors participated and 100 had to be turned away. Toepfer said the Picnic is getting more competitive every year. She was already talking about where the Picnic could be expanded in Lincoln Park to accommodate more vendors next year. The group is making plans for the holiday counterpart.

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Rare Calico Lobster Temporarily Residng at Portland Lobster Co.

JACK’S BACK: And this time Austin J. Decoster, made the front page of the “New York Times” today. That’s not easy to do. Jack is either a hero or a villan or maybe just a curiousity because of a long history of violations in Maine’s egg industry; well-documented abuses of chickens as well as farm workers. That’s what it takes to get on the front page of this national newspaper.

The Decoster egg company was linked to the salmonella outbreak in an egg farm in Clarion, Iowa – which has resulted in a major egg recall previously reported in post # 561 herein, earlier today. One of Decoster’s companies, Quality Egg Supp., is one of two companies that sells young chickens and feed to one of the farms to which the salmonella outbreak has been linked. This is the same Decoster who currently is one of the owners of a 1,400 acre egg farm in Turner. Mainers know that Jack often made the late 70′s- 80′s local news because of the violations in the managment of the egg farm. The farm has a long litany of serious violations for which the company has been mildly fined.

Fortunately, it was reported in “The Boston Globe” that no signs of salmonella were found at the Maine farm. MHN.com was unable to determine today under what brand name eggs from the Turner farm are sold here in Maine. Jack sells eggs in Maine under a company called – Maine Contract Farming. He was considered the largest producer of brown eggs in the world. At one time, his Turner operation did about $60 million in business a year.

For many years the egg and chicken business was a major industry in Maine. At one time, Maine’s $88 million poultry industry ranked Tenth in the country. It brought in more money than lobstering and fishing combined. Back in the 60′s there were more than 400 Maine egg producers in Maine. High transportation costs and heating costs were among the reasons that brought the business to a standstill in the late 70′s. Jack has thrived. He moved on to Iowa – where laws were more relaxed and officials looked the other way cause they needed the tax revenues. Because of Jack, laws in Maine have become much more stringent than they once were.

The US government has called for a hearing on September 14 to which Decoster has been invited, although he need not attend. Maybe we will learn more then.

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By Carol McCracken (Post # 561)

The culprit in the recent recall of eggs from two major egg farms in Iowa may be contaminated chicken feed. The contaminated chicken feed is most likely responsible for a salmonella outbreak that has already sickened some 1,700 people, said federal health officials.

This news just received from a report in todays “Sustainable Food News”, quoted Jeff Farrar, the associate commissioner for food protection at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as saying: “We don’t know if the feeding ingredients came to the facility containimated or if the feed got contaminated at the facility.” Farrar went on to say that the questionable chicken feed only went to two Iowa farms – Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms – and has not been distributed elsewhere in the country.

Such a contamination can come through numerous routes – including rodents, shared equipment, workers, so the FDA is looking into all possibilities. Health experts say salmonella is most often spread by the consumption of food contaminated by animal fecal matter.

The “News” went on to say that: “An estimated 400,000 people are infected with food-borne salmonella each year in the US….can be deadly to vulnerable populations such as the young, elderly or those with compromised immune systems.” In recent years, there have been “massive food recalls in the US – amid criticism that America’s food regulation regime is under-staffed.”

For more information on “Sustainable Food News,” the largest daily on-line news service to the sustainable food industry, please call Dan McGovern, Publisher at 207 – 749-5249. McGovern is a resident of the Hill.

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By Carol McCracken (Post # 560)

Working its way through a full agenda last night, the Peaks Island Council members gave few hints that its days are numbered. The atmosphere was mellow while the group addressed issues such as increased crime on the Island, parking problems, the current flap over the taxi service on the Island and more. The PIC expects to meet again in September and October; beyond that it is assumed there will be no advisory commitee on Peaks to make recommendations to the Portland City Council on the needs of the Islanders. The regular meeting of the PIC took place last night at the MacVane Community Center at 6:30 pm.

Michael Richards, chair of the PIC said when asked by MHN.com: “The deadline for filing papers to run for the PIC was August 23rd. No one has submitted the necessary papers. That’s a natural and logical result of a powerless and impecunious PIC.” Richards said he was “relieved to be off of it. We were asked to do too much with too little.”

The only agenda item that signaled the end of the PIC was a discussion of the village corporation model for the Island’s future. Lynne Richard, who served as chair for the meeting, has researched this option. Richard said that no one from the Island has approached the city about this option and Michael Richards agreed to contact the city to set up a meeting on this option with city officials and PIC members. It’s necessary to have the city’s approval on this option and the state legislature would have to give its approval as well. “It wouldn’t be as bad as the secession effort,” said Lynne Richard rolling her eyes at the memory of that polarizing battle several years ago. “I don’t want to go through that again.” It was not the first attempt of Peaks Island to cede from the city of Portland.

“We are concerned about leaving Islanders with a way to communicate with city leaders. That’s why we’ve prepared a list of phone numbers for city officials that individuals will have to contact in order to register their concerns,” said Michael Richards. (see above photo) “This is Peaks. It’s important to us.”

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