Down East Magazine

During a swing down east on areporting trip for this magazine, I made an unexpected pit stop. I’d stayed overnight near Machias, close to where Maine sticks its pointy nose into the Atlantic, and was planning a morning drive to Deer Isle, 80 miles to the west. That was until I happened to hear about a farm-to-table restaurant on a 55-acre produce farm overlooking Little Kennebec Bay, on the outskirts of Machias.

A canopy of fading orange, punctuated by the dark silhouettes of evergreens, rolled past as Steve Tatko steered his pickup along dirt roads in the 100 Mile Wilderness, a remote stretch south of Baxter State Park. In the truck’s cab were various useful items, from a tape measure to shotgun shells, and Carolyn Ziegra, a research forester with the Appalachian Mountain Club.

SponsoredRenys Here in Maine, procrastinators take comfort knowing there’s a hometown store where they can cross off half their shopping list in one stop. It’s the kind of place where you go in search of slippers for your sister and leave with something for your daughter’s kitchen, a toy for the dog, a few Maine-made treats to tuck into a gift basket for your neighbor, and stocking stuffers for everyone.

SponsoredHighland Green Judy O’Keefe and her husband, Steve, moved from Chevy Chase, Maryland, to Highland Green in Topsham in 2016. Soon after joining the 55+ community, O’Keefe accompanied a new neighbor to a yoga class, realized she enjoyed the physical challenge, and started attending weekly. When the class lost its space following pandemic-related closures, O’Keefe invited its instructor, Anne Flannery, to teach at Highland Green. “I had no idea how many people would sign up,” O’Keefe says.

For more than 20 years, Sean Callahan has nurtured a forest full of eccentrics. Tucked away at the end of a Brunswick cul-de-sac, his nearly two-acre lot hosts a weeping Alaskan cedar with foliage that drapes from its bowed branches like Spanish moss and a weeping European larch that has been given a shaggy mullet haircut.

Every year, thousands of readers nominate and vote for their favorites in dining, shopping, entertainment, outdoors, and travel in Down East’s Best of Maine poll. Here we present the five finalists for Best New Restaurant to have opened within the last year or so. Previously a food truck, the Salsa Shack offers a unique twist to tacos, burgers, and family fun at its new brick-and-mortar location in Bucksport.

A massive 19th-century Jacquard loom rises a story and a half through the center of Lewiston’s newly reopened Maine MILL museum. Hundreds of taut threads cascade from the top of the machine through a series of rollers at its base. Reams of punched cards that would have been fed into the loom to create intricate woven patterns dangle from one side of the apparatus.

SponsoredUniversity of Maine at Augusta Busy mother of four Sommer Pettus never thought it would be possible to earn a bachelor’s degree. But thanks to the flexibility of the University of Maine at Augusta’s nursing program, she achieved her BSN in May and is now employed as a medical-surgical and oncology nurse at MaineGeneral Health. “Nothing feels more amazing than bringing competence, genuine empathy, and a little bit of sunshine to those I care for every day,” she says.

Somewhere between the mouth and blowhole of a massive whale etched into a cornfield at Treworgy Family Orchards, I started heading down the wrong path. Last October, I was on a quest to find six signposts hidden inside a maze modeled on the whale in Robert McCloskey’s Burt Dow: Deep-Water Man. Attached to each signpost were laminated placards with trivia questions about McCloskey and his famous children’s book, which tells the story of a Maine fisherman who gets swallowed by a whale.

Camden’s harbor in early autumn is worth the trip all by itself, but the Harbor Arts Fair makes the afternoon even more visually rich with a thoughtfully curated collection of fine art and handcrafted goods. Crafty folks around Maine are opening doors, with featured towns Ellsworth and Freeport leading the fun. It’s a chance to peek behind the scenes, meet the makers, and get a closer look at the artists and small businesses that make Maine’s craft scene so special.