Freeport Maine

Freeport Maine July 17, 2021

Maine Lobstah Roast!

Gary’s older brother, Glenn, and his wife Donna live in Freeport, Maine just outside Portland with their 4-year-old pup, Theo, a Tibetan Terrier. Gary and I try and make it to their house every year for Glenn’s fabulous Maine lobster roast (lobstah in a New England twang!). Donna’s, Glenn’s and my Birthday are within a few weeks of one another so we like using that as an excuse to do it up right!

The weather was making our plans a bit challenging with two inches of rain falling last night. The lobster roast is best done outside. It’s more fun spending the roughly two-hour prep and cooking time overlooking the stream, in sight of lovely wild flowers and herb gardens, enjoying the lush green foliage, blue jays and cardinals at the feeder and watching the dogs running free all over Glenn’s acreage. Most importantly…cooking outside is best when you’re steaming seafood. The smell is great wafting in the breeze but not so pleasurable in a confined space. The rain stopped just in time for us to enjoy the afternoon out of doors!

The day began with me driving the just under four miles to L.L. Bean. We grew up in New England and have been using L.L. Bean products just about all our lives. Freeport, Maine is the original location of this 1912 sporting, camping, clothing, boot, canvas bag and lots more store. Their rubber bottomed, leather top boot was first made in 1912 by Leon Leonwood Bean. In 1951 the Freeport store opened 24 hours a day. 2020’s Global pandemic forced Bean’s to close their door and lock them for periods of time for the first time since 1951. The store is back to being open 24/7 and I enjoyed a quiet, almost empty store walk through the historic “complex” at 8am on a Sunday. They were getting quite packed by 10am when I left the L.L. Bean Outlet Store across the street. The main store has a coffee shop, dog products area and practical clothing and shoes to name just a few departments – two hours flew by! I had very important things to do today…it’s lobstah roast day!

Gary, Rangeley, Glenn, Theo and I headed out to Day’s Crabmeat and Lobster, in nearby Yarmouth, ME at about 11:30AM. We bought 2 lbs of live steamers (clams) and six, 1 ¼ lb. freshly caught live Maine lobsters.

We proceeded to drive to Winslow State Park to retrieve seaweed out of the ocean to cook the food in. We needed to walk over lots of slippery rocks and many different types of seaweed as the tide was out and the fresh seaweed is way out at the sea’s edge.

Rangeley was in his element running all over the pools of calm water. After placing the seaweed in a cooler and scooping salt water over the marine algae we carefully made our way back to Glenn’s truck for the next steps of the fun feast!

The large lobster roasting pot and propane stove were set up in Glenn’s backyard. The seaweed is placed into the ocean water, the lid placed a top and the first stage of waiting begins…the water needs to boil.  The locally grown onions are peeled, new Maine potatoes washed, neighbor’s fresh picked corn is shucked and the claims rinsed. Donna popped open a few beers, the dogs played in the large yard and Rangeley repeatedly ran down to the stream and back to porch making sure he was not missing anything important.

With quite some time in between each food item being placed in the 5-6 gallon sized pot, the small whole potatoes go in the pot first, whole onions are added next, the steamers after that, the whole corn on the cobs and lastly the lobsters. The butter is placed in a small pan, on the pot’s lid, to melt. When everything is done you arrange it all in a bowl for presentation!

I always eat more than a whole lobster, several clams, a bit of potato and onion – like the hiking moto:  leave no trace! I eat a lot of the whole lobster. The tail and claws, of course, I don’t stop there. I get the meat out of the body and legs and enjoy some of the innards.

My family has been offering me Maine lobster since I was a little girl and I love the taste, the process of preparing, the anticipation of cooking and the social interaction with all involved equally!

The buttery seafood shell’s make for a tough clean up but Donna places as much as she can in the compost pile and we washed the dishes really well. The large outdoor pot gets a soapy water filled soak till morning and the cloth napkins and tablecloth get placed in the washer right away : ) We all put our feet up and signed a very grateful and relaxing ahhhh!

It’s been a very quick trip but we love the warm, homey and loving hospitality at Glenn and Donna’s. We always feel welcome.

Today (7/19/21) we headed to Peak’s Island via a 20-minute ferry ride across Casco Bay from Portland. We had lunch with my brother and his wife. They have rented a house for a week overlooking the ocean. It was beautiful. We sat on the large wraparound porch and Rangeley took full advantage of any accessible shoreline to jump into the salty Atlantic and get his ocean fill!

Our next Roaming Rangeley journal will about us doing Trail Magic on the Appalachian Trail for several days. Stay tuned!

We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us!

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