By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
No doubt dedicated gardeners have already started hacking, digging out and poisoning the weeds and highly-prolific plants that stubbornly refuse to yield to the modern landscape, but many of those same plants were sought out once upon a time by Aroostook County’s historic residents. 
Coltsfoot can currently be found springing up around the county; while the plant is a weed to many, Aroostook’s ancestors used the flower and leaves of Coltsfoot to calm respiratory illnesses. This Coltsfoot was found growing heartily in a St. John ditch last week.
Dandelions, plantain and Queen Anne’s lace (not to be confused with highly-poisonous hemlock) were three of many, many plants used traditionally by Acadians and the indigenous Mi’kmaq and Maliseet population for various functions.
Dandelion flowers were used to make homemade wine, and young dandelion leaves were eaten as a spring green, according to the USDA publication “Culturally and Economically Important Non-Timber Forest Products of Northern Maine,” written by Michelle Baumblek, Marla Emery and Ginger Clare in 2010 — a book Director of the Acadian Archives Lise Pelletier says everyone in the St. John Valley should have on their shelf.
Many “weeds” utilized medicinally by northern Maine’s original habitants are still readily used by some in the region, as cited in the USDA book. (The book clearly states it does not serve to provide comprehensive information about uses, harvesting and safety of the plants included within its pages).
Plantain, for instance, is currently well known for its ability to exist where lawn-care buffs don’t want it to; some still seek the plant to treat cuts, scrapes and sprains.
Coltsfoot is another undesirable that seems resolute never to leave a lawn, but the county’s ancestral residents used the flower and the leaves of the “weed” in different ways to treat respiratory ailments — even the roots of raspberry and strawberry bushes were used medicinally by the region’s settlers.
As the 2014 World Acadian Congress inches ever closer, interest is also increasing as to the early pioneering days.
The Acadian Archives of the University of Maine at Fort Kent are a wealth of knowledge about life in the earliest days of northern Aroostook, including what Acadians grew in their gardens and why.
Carrots, potatoes, onions, radishes, cabbage, turnips, green beans and cucumbers just begin the list of what northern Maine’s Francophones grew.
“Cucumbers would be transformed into pickles, relish and any kind of condiment — that’s how they would be saved,” explained Pelletier. “Tiny onions would be kept in vinegar, chives would be cut into little snippets and used fresh to season all kinds of dishes or marinated in salty water and then canned to be preserved— and you can still buy them in the stores preserved the same way.”
Turnips, potatoes, carrots and cabbage would often be buried in a root cellar, to be dug up for dinner when needed.
Pelletier said that carrots often stayed in the ground even for a while after the snow fell, as they wouldn’t freeze right away.
Larger onions were dried, but what happened to the greens varied; either it was dried and pulled off to preserve the onion in a bag, “or they dried the green parts and then braided them together to hang [the vegetable] from the rafters,” Pelletier described, adding that any vegetables and fruits that couldn’t be preserved any other way were canned.
“It meant they were blanched and then boiled under pressure, vacuum packed, just like we do today … except of course, we have these big Presto canners. For them, it would boil for like a day,” Pelletier said, “it was unreal.”
Meat that wasn’t smoked or salted would also be preserved in cans as well, along with fruits that had been made into jams and jellies.
“Often [fruits] were preserved in salt water, like apples for example,” Pelletier described. “You can peel them and preserve them in salt water and then, if you need to use them during the winter, you rinse them off and put them in a pie or whatever they needed.”
Of course, fresh fruits, vegetables and meats needed no preserving — but canned fiddleheads are still a staple in many county pantries.
Viewing a list of vegetables historically grown by settlers of the St. John Valley, one specific Acadian dish came to Pelletier’s mind: a Boiled Dinner.
“It’s typically with a piece of pork and not corned beef, and you have turnips, carrots, onions, potatoes — you boil all of that in a big, big pot,” she said, adding that gardens grew most of the ingredients found in chicken stew. “Served always with ployes, of course,” Pelletier added.
Though ployes were a staple in northern Maine domiciles, both buckwheat flour and white flour was purchased.
Aroostook County still loves ployes, and chicken stew, and of course fiddleheads — but somehow the relationship between County residents and plants like goldenrod, sasparilla and red clover has long since grown cold.
The Acadian Archives at Fort Kent can be reached by calling 834-7535 or visiting www.umfk.edu/archives.
Aroostook County businesses go green
From optimizing existing systems to designing never-before-seen custom systems, Aroostook County businesses are utilizing energy efficiency services in a variety of ways, including the following examples designed by Mechanical Services.
Graves Shop n’ Save in Presque Isle recently received an Environmental Leader designation from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection for efforts it made toward making the store a more environmentally friendly location. One effort in particular has had a significant impact on reducing the store’s carbon emissions and lowering electricity costs.
Chris Green, owner and president of Mechanical Services, said an upgrade of the refrigeration system at Graves’ Main Street store resulted in significant savings for the business.
“Mechanical Services replaced inefficient refrigeration compressors and controls with variable-speed compressors that run only when cooling is needed. This one improvement is projected to keep more than 350,000 cubic tons of greenhouse gas out of the air and save the store almost $40,000 each year in electricity and maintenance costs,” said Green.
The Caribou weather office, a federal agency made upgrades to its heating system, eliminating technical problems at the site.
“The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a federal weather agency, hired Mechanical Services to revamp the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system at the Caribou office — maximizing energy efficiency and prolonging equipment life,” said Green.
The existing geothermal system was inadequate and consistently plagued with technical problems, according to Green.
“We modified the building’s heating system and installed state-of-the-art air-to-air heat pumps, air-sourced free-cooling equipment and updated the existing geothermal well,” said Green, noting, “those modifications allowed the facility to maintain its federal ‘green’ status and made this NOAA facility one of the most energy-efficient facilities in the country.”
“It’s a completely carbon-free facility with zero emissions,” he said.
Green believes these types of capital improvements are not only the trend here in Maine but a necessary means for helping Maine businesses thrive.
“We’ve installed energy-efficient HVAC equipment and controls all over Aroostook County. Business owners understand the costs and benefits of implementing new technologies to reduce fuel and electricity expenses,” said Green.
For more information on Mechanical Services and developments in energy-efficient HVAC technologies, visit www.mechanicalservices.com or call 774-1531.
Get swept up in container gardening, not swept away by high rains
By Natalie Bazinet, Staff Writer
CARIBOU — Last year’s weather didn’t just wash away the all-time record for high precipitation, it indiscriminately drowned small scale vegetable gardens along with large scale potato fields despite the best efforts of expert growers.
While small scale gardeners can’t control the weather, they can control plants’ exposure to the elements by using container gardens.
“Container gardens are mobile — if you know it’s going to rain for a week, you can haul your plants under cover,” explained director of the Caribou Area Chamber of Commerce and owner of Farmhouse Greenhouse in Caribou Jenny Coon.
Citing popular veggie plants like tomatoes, cucumbers and peas, she added that the plants flowering blossoms add an aesthetic quality to a yard (or patio) of any size.
“Don’t think you have to live out in the country and have tracts of land to grow your own veggies, because you don’t,” Coon said. “People get creative and plant their herbs in old coffee cans. I saw one woman plant her broccoli and cauliflower around her mailbox and it looked really cool — so don’t think you have to plow up your front yard in order to have a garden.”
Dispelling another gardening axiom, Coon assures that plants don’t need pristine brand-new pots in order to grow.
“Recycle!” she emphasized. “So what if it has a few holes in it, that’s drainage!”
