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An enchanting bed and breakfast in the heart of Camden village that Fodor’s considers “An elegant and sophisticated retreat and culinary destination,” this Mansard style Victorian built in 1835 offers a unique experience in pampered luxury.
Archive for the ‘Garden’ Category
Thursday, July 29th, 2010
I have always loved raspberries-all kinds. When we purchased the house on Free St, I mentioned to Mary Jo that I would finally have the space to plant some. One day, to my surprise, Mary Jo returned from the nursery with one small black raspberry plant. Three years later, the plant has spread and taken over much of the back yard!
I feature the berries in the restaurant during July and they appear in everything from salad dressings and sorbet to breakfast trifles and muffins. Perhaps the most popular recipe is our Black Raspberry Mojito, perfect on a hot summer evening and equally popular during our evening cocktail hour. I have included the recipe below. If you don’t have your own black raspberry bush growing in your back yard, you can substitute either red raspberries, boysenberries or blackberries.
 
Black Raspberry Mojito
1/2 cup of fresh mint leaves
4 teaspoons granulated sugar (or 2 packets Splenda)
2 limes
1/4 cup fresh black raspberries (or red )
3/4 cup light rum
1 cup club soda
2 sprigs of fresh mint for garnish
1. Place the mint and sugar in a mortar and “muddle” it with the pestle. Squeeze in the lime juice and add half of the blackberries. Lightly crush the berries.
2. Pour the mixture into a cocktail shaker and add the light rum and club soda. Shake to mix.
3. Place 4 large cubes of ice in two rocks glasses and divide the drink equally between them.
4. Garnish each glass with the remaining black raspberries and a sprig of fresh mint.
Posted in Chef Michael Salmon, Cocktails, Garden, Recipe | 1 Comment »
Friday, May 8th, 2009
Mary Jo and I just picked up our new dahlia bulbs from Phil Clark at Endless Summer Flower Farm which is located right here in the coastal community of Camden, Maine (Zone5), two and a half miles inland from the Hartstone Inn and Hideaway (village center). The flower farm specializes in dahlias and they currently grow over 225 varieties of these breathtaking flowers, with names like: Santa Claus, Spartacus, Seduction, Flashy Lady and I’m a Hotty. All of the tubers listed in their on-line catalog produce excellent cut flowers. Mary Jo displays them throughout the Inn all summer-long.
They are open by chance or by appointment and we highly recommend a visit when the Dahlias are in blossom, August 1st through till the first frost. For their online catalog, dahlia planting tips or directions visit the Endless Summer Flower Farm Website.
Tags: dahlia, flowers
Posted in Garden, Mary Jo, Things to do in Camden | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
We are very excited about our new upcoming gardening series here at the Hartstone Inn and Hideaway featuring our vegetable garden guru, Shelley Johnson. Shelley tends all of the culinary gardens at the Inn and also grows produce on her farm for the Hartstone kitchen. She has a great wealth of knowledge when it comes to vegetable gardening and loves to teach, so this series is perfect for her. Each class includes 1 1/2 hours in the gardens with Shelley and 30 minutes in the kitchen with Chef Michael to cook and taste some of the bounty from the gardens.
Hartstone’s Vegetable Garden Guru – Shelley Johnson
Some of my earliest memories are of the rich smell of soil in my Grandfather’s greenhouse and of helping my Dad transplant the hundreds of azaleas that dotted the landscape around our house. While I always dabbled in vegetable and container gardening, it was the move to Maine in 1985 that allowed me to begin pursuing my gardening interests in a more expansive way. After completing the Master Gardener course of study and becoming active in Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA), my interest in intensive and organic vegetable gardening blossomed. I now tend my own vegetable gardens here at Breatheasy Farm as well as those of others. I am also a commercial grower for Fedco Trees, a growers’ co-op based in Waterville, Maine.
Planting a Spring Garden
May 23-24, 2009 1-3 pm – cost: $50/person
We’ll discuss how to ready your garden for spring planting and make the best use of whatever space you have available. Since it all starts with the soil you’ll learn how to create and keep soil fertile (hint: it doesn’t come from a bag) in the vegetable and herb garden and techniques for creating raised beds that are simple and low maintenance. We’ll discuss how to choose the proper plants, plan the garden layout, and get a jump on the season with row covers and mulches. We’ll harvest a variety of greens, lettuces, and herbs from the Hartstone Inn gardens before heading into the kitchen to cook and taste with Chef Michael for 30 minutes. Recipes will highlight the early Spring harvest and include Michael’s fruit salad dressings and various tossed salads.
Intensive Plantings in the Vegetable and Herb Garden
June 13-14, 2009 1-3 pm – cost: $50/person
The highly productive garden beds at the Hartstone Inn will serve as a hands-on classroom for tips and advice on how to intensively plant and maintain a vegetable and herb garden. We’ll discuss succession sowing, companion planting and choosing the right plants for a given site. Low maintenance raised beds are capable of producing copious amounts of vegetables and herbs if you know how to make the best use of your location and how to give your plants what they need for robust growth. We’ll be able to view the results of our spring sowings and the new growth on our early summer seedlings like tomato, basil, and pumpkin. We’ll harvest a variety of herbs, greens and young root vegetables and join Chef Michael in the kitchen for a 30 minute cooking class and tasting.
The Late Summer Harvest
September 19-20, 2009 1-3 pm – cost: $50/person
After a full season of growing, the gardens at the Hartstone Inn will offer up a great variety of herbs and vegetables and lessons learned from another season of growing. This is the perfect time to review what went right and what went wrong and begin planning for the next year. We’ll learn proper harvesting techniques to maximize the garden’s yield, look at the many heirloom vegetable varieties available for the best in taste and beauty, and discuss how to extend the season through the first frosts of autumn. After harvesting and gleaning the garden’s bounty, we’ll head to the kitchen at the Hartstone Inn to spend 30 minutes with Chef Michael as he uses the summer harvest in some of his favorite recipes.
Posted in Chef Michael Salmon, Cooking School, Fun for Foodies, Garden, Things to do in Camden | No Comments »
Sunday, April 5th, 2009
 Merryspring is a non-profit, privately-owned 66-acre park and education center in Camden and Rockport, Maine, with nature trails and gardens open to the public every day free of charge. http://www.merryspring.org
WORKSHOPS & CLASSES - Space is limited. Call 207-236-2239 to pre-register.
Drawing with Lynn Travis – Thursdays, 1:30-3:30 p.m., April 23 & 30, May 7 & 14, $90 members/$100 non-members. Work in pencil and charcoal with guidance from an acclaimed local artist.
Watercolor with Lesia Sochor – Thursdays 9:00a.m.-noon, April 30 – May 21, $135 members/$150 non-members. Study watercolor with a noted watercolorist and illustrator.
Passamaquoddy Medicine Walk & Talk with Fredda Paul and Leslie Wood – Talk, Saturday, April 25, 2-4:00 p.m., $ 15 members/$ 20 non-members (arrive at 1:30 to view displays and ask questions) Walk, Sunday, April 26, 1:30-4:00 p.m. rain or shine, $ 20 members/$25 non-members. Explore native medicine traditions, focusing on spring-gathered medicinal plants, with a Passamaquoddy healer and historian of traditional medicine.
Preserving the Harvest with Kathy Savoie of the Maine Extension Service – Saturday, April 25, 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., Home Economics Room of CHRHS, $15 members/$18 non-members. Get ready for the summer’s bounty by learning how can and freeze your fruits and vegetables.
Dividing Daylilies and Iris w/ Susan Shaw – Saturday, May 2, 10:00 – 12:00 a.m. Rain Date: Saturday, May 9, $5 members/$10 non-members
Learn to make divisions from a renowned hybridizer and former president of the Maine Daylily Society. Take home a division from Merryspring’s own gardens.
Posted in Art and Galleries, Garden, Things to do in Camden | No Comments »
Friday, February 20th, 2009
 Carrot Soup On December 11, 2008 I blogged about my final vegetable harvest of the season. I had just pulled my last carrots out of my raised beds the day before and went on to promise a recipe for my carrot soup. So here it is:
2 Tablespoons canola oil
2 medium-sized yellow onions, peeled and roughly cut
1 stalk celery, roughly cut
3 pounds carrots, peeled and roughly cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 1/2 quarts chicken stock
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon thyme leaves
kosher salt and white pepper to taste
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 dash freshly grated nutmeg
kosher salt and white pepper to taste
2 teaspoons chopped dill
1/4 cup crisp nutmeg croutons
8 dill sprigs for garnish
1. Heat the oil in a large (4-quart) saucepan. Add the onions and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in carrots, celery, chicken stock, bay leaf and thyme. Bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer for about 30 minutes.
2. Remove from the heat and discard the bay leaf. Blend the soup with either a handheld immersion blender or in a regular household blender until smooth. Season with salt and white pepper.
3. To serve, whip the cream to stiff peaks and season with nutmeg, salt, white pepper and chopped dill. Ladle soup into serving bowls and top with a spoon of whipped cream. Sprinkle with nutmeg croutons and top with a dill sprig. Serve immediately.
Posted in Garden, Recipe | No Comments »
Thursday, December 11th, 2008
 After weeks of cold weather, snow and ice, the ground has thawed enough for me to get my final harvest of carrots out of my raised bed garden. If you recall from my May 12, 2008 blog article titled “New Herb & Vegetable Garden Beds” I planted the carrot seeds on April 15th, harvesting most of the vegetables throughout the summer, and left a few patches of carrots to mature in the ground until yesterday (December 10, 2008.) With numb fingers, I returned to the kitchen and washed the dirt from the carrots. They were sweet and delicious. I have a carrot soup on the menu this Sunday, December 14, 2008 and they will be the star attraction. Watch for the carrot soup recipe in an upcoming blog.
Posted in Chef Michael Salmon, Dining at the Inn, Fun for Foodies, Garden | No Comments »
Monday, May 12th, 2008
This Spring I completely updated all of my kitchen garden beds here at the Hartstone Inn. I planted my early spring seeds (red oak lettuce, lolla rossa, mache, mesclun, radish, beets, carrots, chervil, chives and Italian parsley) on April 15th in new raised beds, using the “Square Foot Garden” technique. I made the beds using small tree saplings, weaving the thinner trees in and out of stakes made from the larger saplings. The design for the planters came from some beds I encountered in the Loire region of France this past winter. The plants seem very happy in their new home and the comments from the guests have been pouring in. Last week I planted my garden bed behind the barn and sowed pumpkins, fennel, nasturtiums, bachelor buttons and dill seeds in addition to more of the seeds listed above. My first harvest of rhubarb took place last week, chives have been making their way to the dinner plates all week and the first batch of radishes should be ready in 3-4 days. The joys we get from our Spring gardens!
Posted in Chef Michael Salmon, Fun for Foodies, Garden | 3 Comments »
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