the shopkeeper.

Yesterday I "catered" a meeting at TIMA, just sandwiches for 30. They wanted local food though... and local food is what they got! Harvest Wheat from Leanne at the bakery downtown, grilled Tide Mill chicken breasts with massaged greens and Rayes mustard for the meat eaters and grilled zucchini, pesto and a white bean spread for the veggies. As I prepared this food and felt the crunch of 4:30 coming along and wrapped each sandwich in wax paper I thought of how I would plate this, with which local salad greens or carrot sticks, if I were the owner and operator of a small downtown eatery. I think about the ceramics I would use, the limited menu, the other products I would sell to ease peoples lives... olives, a few fine cheeses, some nice oils, vinegars made in house; a small Local Market, with carefully sourced import items.

I imagine the hours this shop/eatery would be open... limited and somehow convenient at the same time. I think of the atmosphere, who else would work there, what other services we would provide, I think of this space as a studio, a cooperative, a friendship with the community. I think of it as a place you could wile away a few hours, in a book, laptop or conversation. The kitchen would be open of course, and you could get a beer or a lovely french-press coffee and sit at the counter to pass the time. I've seen this space in my head for years, the big wooden table, the shelves on the walls, the pleasant color, the benches outside, the windows. The ever-changing chalkboard menu, and the old stand-by recipes.

I want to cook for more people than my family ultimately, I know that, I know how to do that... I want to provide a gathering space for healthy and delicious foods. I want to have a place in town that serves food that was grown in-town...Come on Eastport Farmers! Start growing! This is what I fantasize about as I cook dinner, as I walk down Water Street, as I send out weekly Eat Local Eastport emails, being a shopkeeper.