the field
snippets from the farming landscape food: a recipe for farm comfort Gloria Varney is the co-owner of Nezinscot Farm & Cafe, which received the 2023 James Beard America’s Classics Award: Northeast “I will start by saying that what people come here for is not always the food, which, of course, is always pleasurable for them, but also for the atmosphere that has been created here by this farm. The sense of place was created when Gregg and I decided to open the doors of our farm to the community, giving them all a sense of what it feels and tastes like to be on a working farm and tasting the food that is grown right outside the doors, literally. Using a wide variety of local and on-farm food ingredients is very pleasing to the eye and offers great nutrition. These two factors, along with the friendly farm atmosphere, help drive the direction that I want my cooks to bear in mind when creating dishes in our cafe. I asked my cook and family if there was a dish that most represents Nezinscot. Our BBQ chicken melt was one, our farm cheese and microgreens quiche was another, the tomato apple relish that is served on the side of each being of importance, and lastly, our poutine hash. The poutine begins with pre-roasted herbed red and gold potatoes (either from our farm or neighboring Maine organic growers) that are tossed in a cast iron pan. A bone broth herb gravy is added, along with a handful of our house-made squeaky curds (made from both our cows’ and goats’ milk), a handful of microgreens from our friends at Fryewood Farms, and topped with a dollop of our housemade beet horseradish jam. A biscuit and bread and butter pickles are added on the side. Should you want meat, you would have the choice of our farm-grown chicken, ham, sausage, or BBQ beef. If you are really hungry, you can then top it all with an over-easy egg.” Visit Nezinscot Farm & Cafe: 284 Turner Center Road, Turner, Maine Open Wednesday–Sunday Cafe: 7 am–3 p.m Farm Store: 7 am–5 pm
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Haying by Julia Bouwsma
There is no poetry in this work. Sweat flows spine like a river, drowns blackflies in my waistband and chaff splinters fissure skin, arms, and chest until my whole body is a burning barn. Words thicken a blanket of storm clouds, a silence that hangs above our running limbs until it smothers thought. The bales lie in the field waiting. The sky opens its mouth to let its darkness out, and we know this moment only as now: a counting off: one bale passed between six sets of hands, one bale pressed into place beneath the eaves, one truckload and another, our bodies which cannot stop moving even as rain begins to beat its fists against the barn roof, even as thunder sounds the pocketknife thrown to the pile of sheet metal, even as bales spoil in the field until our bodies lost the language for pain—until there is no before us and no after us. The cat’s eyes perch in the blackened barn, two kerosene flares waiting: only the one more bale the cat needs to reach the swallow’s nest. — from Work by Bloodlight (Cider Press Review, 2017) Julia Bouwsma lives off-the-grid in the mountains of western Maine, where she is a poet, homesteader, editor, teacher, and small-town librarian. Bouwsma is Maine’s sixth Poet Laureate and the author of two poetry collections: Midden (Fordham University Press, 2018) and Work by Bloodlight (Cider Press Review, 2017), both of which received Maine Literary Awards for Poetry Book. She is the Library Director for Webster Library in Kingfield, ME.
