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Greetings from the Harraseeket Inn and Happy New Year! By now most of us have broken or severely bent our resolutions, but for those who haven't, good for you. We recently hosted the Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing and here's an interesting story to share. One of the faculty spent her 25th anniversary here this past year, and in the guest room, on top of the armoire, she found a book. (We keep several books in each guest room for reading material.) She was astonished to discover that it had been written by her deceased grandfather. It was a book she didn't have and hadn't yet read. Needless to say, we gifted her the book and this past week she stopped by the desk to relay this story. We like to think it was her grandfather's way of wishing her a happy anniversary. Having an inn full of talented writers is certainly a creative way to bring in the new year. We thank all the particpants and wish them long, satisfying and successful writing careers.
Our new fire pit on the Tavern terrace is up and running! We are working on a Pit Drink Menu and will be offering "U- Pop Popcorn" (we provide the seasoned buttered kernels and the popper, you pop the popcorn. I gave this a trial run and every kernel popped!) So far the fire pit has proven to be a very popular gathering place after dark but we have yet to have any real Maine cold snaps. That's when our legendary hot buttered rum will rocket to the top of the best seller list. (Disregard those wild rumors being spread around that in the Broad Arrow's past, hot buttered rums were served with whisky. Ronda knows the recipe, honest!)
LLBean is offering up to forty percent off on its annual Winter Sale, and if that's not reason enough to visit their Flagship Store, they have all sorts of fun activities throughout January and February, everything from ski waxing to snow shoeing and including archery and fly tying clinics featuring (drum roll) the gold ribbed hare's ear, the Adams, the wooly bugger and the mickey finn! Check out their schedule of events and plan your winter get-away.
 Winter is a great time for catching up on reading, keeping warm by the fire and making home made soups and breads. This is the time of year when I take the pot of sourdough starter out of the ice box and get it working again, thereby creatively associating bread baking with extremely vigorous excercise. This particular starter came from my dad's side of the family back in the late 1800's, originating with a prospector in Skagway who carried it up and over the Chilkoot Pass,(this is where the vigorous excercise comes in) down the Yukon River (ditto) and ended up in Fort Yukon where (and this is the part of the story that stumbles) a native woman gave it to one of my great uncles who was apparently a missionary there. The idea of anyone on the Gray side of the family being a missionary is enough to us give pause. The starter came with this relative back to Bar Harbor, where my Great Aunt Inez put it to good use and passed it on to my dad. My dad used it often and was the only one in the family who liked sourdough, other than myself. My enchantment with its puckery tang might have been due to its colorful history, but one thing's for sure, this starter is lively stuff. It can sit in the refrigerator unused for months on end, but empty the pot into a bowl, add two and a half cups of flour and two cups of water and stand back. It's like a volcano erupting. The more you use it, the sweeter the starter gets. After it sets a while in the refrigerator a layer of liquid forms on top. This is called "hooch" and is quite alcoholic in content. The prospectors put this to good use when whisky was hard to come by, yet another reason why they were called sourdoughs.
 Anyway, back to bread making. Genuine sourdough bread is not for everyone. It's dense and sour to sometimes an extreme degree, unless supplemental yeast and sweeteners are added. No matter what you do, prospector-style sourdough bread isn't going to taste like fresh baked ciabatta bread, though the loaf on the right actually came pretty close. My best experience with this legendary starter is with Aunt Inez' sourdough biscuits and pancakes. Those recipes are posted on web site. If any of you would like some of this genuine starter from the late 1800's gold rush years, give us a heads up before you arrive and we'll set you up. You don't have to go all the way to Alaska to get a taste of the real thing.
Seed catalogs crowd the mail box this time of year, and what wonderful therapy it is to thumb through them when the temp dips below zero. FEDCO is one of my favorites hands down, butJohnny's Selected Seeds and Pine Tree Seeds are right up there, all solid gold Maine seed companies.  What, aside from visiting a greenhouse, would lure me away from the warmth of the fireplace this time of year? Organic gardening lectures featuring our stellar growers, cooking classes with our talented Chef Eric Flynn and Company, landscaping and floral design lectures delivered by our own Master Gardener Ruby McDermott who happens to be teaching a three credit floral design course at Southern Maine Community College this spring semester. We have great talent here at the inn and spring is coming. Winter's a wonderful season and we're not trying to hurry the white magic along, but it's good to have something to look forward to after the skiing, snow shoeing, dog sledding and winter camping. Let's plan our vegetable and flower gardens and learn some new cooking skills! Let us know if you'd be interested in a weekend or two or three of gardening/cooking/ floral design activities and if there's enough interest we'll put together a spring fever "Culinary Gardening and Getaway" package.
 Sometimes alleviating cabin fever is as simple as getting outdoors for a walk. I had the pleasure of sharing such a walk recently with Debra from the Front Desk. We took a sunset hike after work over at Wolfe's Neck State Park. It was a full moon low tide, which is about as low tide as it ever gets here in Maine. We could have walked right across the mud flats to the island where the ospreys nest, and by the footprints left in the mud, some people did. We found many big barnacle-encrusted mussels tucked beneath great beards of seaweed and wondered how old these giants were. Some were almost four inches in length and looked quite ancient. The different types of seaweed and their colors, shapes and sizes were as diverse as the trees in our land based forests. Those mysterious mud flat midden heaps were caused by clammers? Animals? Our walk lasted less than an hour but it was a great winter tonic and a highly recommended anecdote to cabin fever. One word of advice; dress warm and pull on a pair of Bean boots or Wellies for those low tide walks across the mud flats to check out the mysterious midden heaps...
Here's a late breaking Bowdoin/Bates/Colby parent alert: In 2013, Bowdoin commencement is scheduled for Saturday, May 25th, and both Colby and Bates are scheduled for Sunday., May 26th. This may seem like a long ways off, but there will be a mad scramble for rooms on these dates. Mark your calendar and make your plans well in advance. Another occasion to plan for is Tim Sample Night coming up on March 17th of THIS year, 2012. Proceeds to benefit Friends of Maine's Mountains, a group dedicated to protecting Maine's mountains and highlands from industrial development. Green beer and lots of laughs guaranteed!
 Upcoming events: Our 21st annual Wild Game Festival menu will be posted online soon. This menu will be featured in our Maine Dining Room throughout the month of February and over the years has become extremely popular. We'll also be serving wild game specials in the Broad Arrow Tavern as well. Don't forget your sweetheart this Valentines Day! What better way to celebrate romance than over a fireside dinner? We have a lovely selection of fireplace guest rooms and packages for those looking to treat their valentine to an overnight getaway. Who was the genius that thought up a romantic holiday in the dead of winter? Actually Valentines Day didn't start out very romantically at all, at least not for a priest named Valentine. On February 14, 270 A.D. : Roman Emperor Claudius II, dubbed "Claudius the Cruel," had Valentine beheaded for performing marriage ceremonies. Which brings us to this month's trivia question. Why did Claudius II behead Father Valentine for performing marriages? First correct answer wins dinner for two in the Maine Dining Room or Broad Arrow Tavern. All the rest who come up with the correct answer win a voucher worth $5. toward food or lodging on your next visit. A reminder: you can combine vouchers when you come, up to 12 months worth, but only one voucher per household per month.
Good luck and we hope to see you soon!
Penny Gray
The Gray family
Harraseeket Inn 1-800-342-6423
Below, several friends of our Piano Playing Polar Bear enjoy our new fire pit. Come join the fun!
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