Norway's winter market one-stop source for holiday gifts, food

NORWAY – In the spirit of promoting support for local businesses, Norway’s Saturday Winter Market at the Grange offers quality, variety, and reasonable prices from local farmers and artisans. The market, on Whitman Street, is held Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., until December 18.

Candi Rousseau, market manager, stated that 24 vendors a week are expected to participate throughout the season. “Some piggy-back, sharing space with another vendor so shoppers will have a larger selection of goods,” she said.

“The market is a good place to find good food for holiday cooking, satisfy Christmas wish lists and, by supporting it, shoppers are helping the community too,” Rousseau said. “Even when more than one vendor offers a product in the same category, say baking for instance, each vendor offers something different, with competitive pricing.”

Baked goods from LolliPapa Farm, Bread & More Bakery, and Beep’s Bakery are just three sources sure to satisfy every baked-good taste bud.

LolliPapa Farm, of West Paris, offers homemade bread, pizza dough and pizzas, soups, baked beans, and a variety of other prepared foods.

Bread & More Bakery specializes in homemade quick breads, cupcakes, doughnuts, pies, and made-to-order cakes. It also carries pre-packaged beans for bean suppers, and sells a complete take-home meal which includes baked beans, coleslaw, and bread.

Beep’s Bakery offers yeast breads, muffins, pies, fruit bars and squares, and doughnuts.

Carol Segal, of Auburn’s Mount Apatite Farm, offers a wide variety of products that include baked goods, in-season organic vegetables, herbs, dried flowers, jellies, jams, homemade canned goods, and warm vegetable turnovers.

Squash of every shape, pumpkins, potatoes, and greens will be abundant throughout the market season.

For meat products, shoppers may choose from Thunder Hill farm, in Waterford, which offers beef steaks, fillets, and jerky from grass-fed Scottish Highland beef; Oak Meadow Farm, in Harrison, sells chicken and beef; and Crestholm Farm, in Oxford, offers turkey, chicken, beef, and pork.

Handmade cutting boards, clip boards, bread boards, and mantle clocks crafted from native and exotic woods are available from Treeworks; a wide selection of pottery dishes and housewares are offered by Lindsey Tomlinson-Peck’s Mudroom Pottery Studio; Streaked Mountain Herbs & Crafts will offer medicinal extracts, individual gift items such as comfort herbal pillows, and specialized gift baskets containing either herbal teas, cooking herbs, or cosmetics; The Kidd’s Hillbilly Farm will have goat milk soaps; and A Wrinkle in Thyme Farm offers everything fiber art, including needle felting kits, yarn, knitting patterns, and knitted items such as hats and mittens. They will also have schedules available for upcoming workshops.

Bill Fitch, of Fitch Farms, in Stoneham, furnishes an impressive array of bottled sauces, pestos, and hummus, and homemade jams and jellies.

Special for the holiday season are a number of guest vendors including: Mahoosuc Guide Service, on November 27, to answer questions and offer brochures on its wilderness canoe and Northwoods dog-sledding trips; the Maine Primitive Skills School, on December 4, to introduce its schedule of classes on earth and wilderness survival skills; Anita Pottle, December 11, with her specialty items of handsewn aprons and oven mitts; and Benched, with Bill Koch and his rustic furniture renderings from rescued lumber and logs, on December 18.

A number of the vendors will offer special decorating and gift items for the holiday season such as wreaths and kissing balls.

Being actively involved in your community is a sure way to keep it economically alive. The Saturday Winter Market at the Grange is one lively means toward that end; an opportunity to socialize, support, and experience the handmade, homemade, homegrown abundance of local farmers and artisans.

Crafted Photo: Becky Wheeler

Lindsey Tomlinson-Peck, from The Mudroom Pottery Studio, holds a handmade, wheel-thrown yarn bowl. This unusual piece will hold one or more skeins of yarn, making knitting and crocheting projects easier.

Fresh Photo: Becky Wheeler

Carol Segal’s vegetables, herbs, cookies, and breads are a familiar sight at the Grange. She goes by the moniker Cookin' Carol, and owns Mount Apatite Farm, in Auburn.

Beauty Photo: Becky Wheeler

By Donna Perry,
Sun Media Wire

OQUOSSOC -Firefighters were able to contain a fire Sunday morning,July 8, at a residence on Judkins Road in Oquossoc to the living room area with some help from their own.
The fire started after a young teenager at the house accidentally set off a flare gun inside the log cabin owned by Pat Fairbanks, Rangeley's new fire Chief Tim Pellerin said. Monday was Pellerin's first day on the job in Rangeley and he used reports and information from acting fire Chief Steve Grant and retired fire Chief Rudy Davis who were on the scene to give the details of the fire.
The call came in about 8:30 a.m.
Fairbanks, retired fire chief of Yarmouth Fire Department, and his son, Chris Fairbanks, a captain with the Brunswick Fire Department, donned their safety gear and fought the fire with a garden hose until more firefighters could arrive, Pellerin said.
Pat Fairbanks is on the Rangeley Fire Department's roster, Pellerin said.
About 13 firefighters and five trucks responded to the fire.
“Pat and Chris did a really good job keeping the fire contained,” Pellerin said.
The teenager was checked at the scene by NorthStar Emergency Medical Services personnel for minor burns on a hand. He did not need to be taken to the hospital, Pellerin said.
Damage is estimated at more than $75,000.
The fire damage was contained to the living area of the one-story house and there was heat and smoke damage throughout the rest of the home, he said.
The property is insured.
RFA, Pic