The Farm at the Head of Pitcher Pond: A hundred years ago most Lincolnville families lived on subsistence farms; that is, they raised just enough to feed themselves the basics — milk, vegetables, eggs, meat, some fruits, as well as hay and grain for their animals. Flour, coffee, sugar, molasses, perhaps some spices were either bartered for (with eggs or butter) or bought with hard-earned cash at one of the local stores. Each farm family had its own means to earn that cash, depending on the talents of the farmer or maybe, a fortuitous location.

In the case of Asa and Florence Pitcher, location was a big factor; they were farming and raising their family at 2994 Belfast Road (the last house in Lincolnville) on the hill overlooking Pitcher Pond in the first decades of the 1900s. Ever since the 1880s, rusticators from, first Belfast, and later further away, had been building summer places on its shores. The earliest ones were elaborate houses with many rooms; these cottagers dined much as they did at home, complete with finger bowls and bone dishes, often requiring cooks and serving maids.

Asa and Florence, perhaps their parents before them, and certainly their children after them, took on these tasks and more, opening the “cottages” in the spring — airing bedding, turning mattresses, sweeping out pine needles, cleaning mouse droppings out of drawers. The Pond People, as the Pitchers thought of them, relied on the farm at the head of the pond for their milk, eggs, and butter, fresh vegetables, a Sunday chicken. Florence cooked for their dinner parties, bringing along her young daughters to help out. Asa and son, Philomen, supplied the firewood for those cool summer evenings, set out their docks, fixed broken shingles and cleaned the chimneys.

A cherished Pitcher family relic is an old-fashioned ice cream scoop, and the story that comes with it. On hot summer Sundays, Florence would mix up a batch of ice cream using her own cream, eggs, and berries. Asa would turn the crank on the freezer until it was firm; the two of them would wrap the freezer in old newspapers, haul it down to the pond in the horse-drawn wagon, and set it in a rowboat they kept there. He rowed while she tended the tub of ice cream; as they set out along the shore, the cottagers would come out on their docks, carrying bowls and spoons. Florence would fill them with that homemade ice cream, five cents a scoop. Children would watch out for them as they made their way around the pond, turning back only when the freezer tub was empty.

After a long, hard week on the farm, the afternoon Asa and Florence spent rowing around the pond that carried their name must have felt a little bit like a vacation.

Thank you to the late Dorothy Miller Overlock, their granddaughter, and to Nancy Miller Heald, their great-granddaughter for this story, and for the loan of the ice cream scoop for the drawing. Read more about Lincolnville’s farmers in Staying Put in Lincolnville, Maine: 1900-1950 (Available at Western Auto, Schoolhouse Museum or Sleepy Hollow Rag Rugs) 

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Learn more about your ancestors at a free lecture titled “But they were ‘only’ farmers…” by genealogist Ted Steele at the Belfast Free Library, Wednesday August 20, 2 p.m.

That same evening, Wednesday the 20, at 7 p.m., the Lincolnville Historical Society will present a free talk by Skip Brack, an expert on old tools, the Director of the Davistown Museum  and owner of Liberty Tool.  His subject will be the bog iron quarrying tools recently discovered at a forgotten granite quarry on Slab City Road in Lincolnville. Tools made of bog iron are rare, and often quite primitive, as bog iron is a form of iron ore used during Colonial times, and smelted with crude methods. That these tools were found here at the site of a quarry long ago abandoned is intriguing, as there are no known records of this activity. Randy Harvey, who discovered them, has since identified “his” granite in the foundations of several of Lincolnville’s oldest houses.

The Lincolnville Improvement Association’s August meeting will be held Thursday the 21st, 5:30 p.m. at the L.I.A. building, 33 Beach Road. Bring a dish for the pot luck supper, and stay for the program, Jay Foster’s wonderful slide presentation that connects the building of Camden Hills State Park with the Statue of Liberty. It’s a great story!

This coming Friday, the 22nd, at theLincolnville Community Library, Nanci Kendall (of African Mask-making) will be showing children and their parents how to make “upcycled” art. After reading some stories and talking about recycling, Nanci will get everyone busy making characters out of old plastic bottles, fabric, buttons, egg cartons and other odds and ends. All ages are welcome, but the program is recommended for children 5-10 years old. Call 763-4343 or email to sign up.

Bayleaf Cottages, 2372 Atlantic Highway, holds its free monthly community picnic next Monday the 25th, 6-8 p.m. Bring a covered dish, salad or dessert; Bayleaf provides the meat, beans, mac n cheese, and beverages.

Starting this September Spindlewood has a new lead teacher, Elisa K. Olds. The school is now enrolling 3-6 year olds in their three-day multi-age kindergarten, more information available. 

The Lincolnville Historical Society’s Community Birthday Calendars are in and will be available at Western Auto and Drake’s Corner Store by Friday of this week, and the Schoolhouse Museum, which is open M-W-F, 1-4 p.m. Pick yours up if you pre-ordered, or if you forgot to order, you can buy them, $8 apiece.

Searsmont painter Nancy Glassman has an exhibit at the Community Building this month, the fourth artist in the CB’s Summer Art Series. See it on Sunday mornings, 9-11 a.m., on Thursdays, 11 a.m.-1p.m., or by appointment: 785-3521.

Congratulations to Lincolnville native Tim Boetsch on winning his match at Saturday’s UFC competition. This was the first-ever UFC Fight Night in Maine, held in Bangor, and Tim’s first fight in Maine since his high school wrestling years.

  Calendar

Gene Stinson, who does a great job with publicity for the Camden High School Alumni Association, reports that the 2014 banquet, held August 8 at Point Lookout, was the best one yet with 219 alumni present. Two of last year's Scholarship recipients, Emily Lopez and Cade Pattern, were guests at the banquet, and each gave a brief summary of their first year college experiences. All CHRHS students are encouraged to apply for the CHS Scholarship fund regardless of the town they live in. Alumni members Nellie Ames, Pat Ayers, and Frank Morong were each recognized for their outstanding service to Camden and surrounding communities over the years. Next year’s reunion classes will be ’45, ’50, ’55, ’60, and ’65.

Early morning beach goers saw an odd sight at the edge of the sandbar one recent day: a sailboat lying on its side. According to Harbormaster Mike Hutchings, a couple of boats had been sailing together, coming up from Florida, and decided to anchor for the night off Lincolnville Beach. Apparently, our ten-foot tides weren’t on their minds. One boat moored further out, but the near one grounded when the tide went out. It was one of those situations where just waiting around would resolve things, and sure enough, as the tide came back in, the boat righted without damage. “No worries,” the guy said. “We’ve done this before.”  Happy sailing!

I never know what I’ll find on the Beach just at sun-up when we arrive to start our daily clean-up chores. Beside the tipped-over sailboat, that same morning a guy was sound asleep, lying on his back, propped up by a driftwood log, his backpack and cardboard sign nearby. I was tempted to take his picture for this column, but was afraid he’d wake up and be mad! The best sight of the week, though, was this miniature Mayan-like temple built of sticks and shells and sand. In fact, as you can see, there were two of them side by side, and just like a real archeologist, I puzzled over who built them. Children? Maybe, but just as likely a couple of adults, frustrated by their air-conditioned, paper shuffling, desk jobs, fulfilling a natural urge to make something neat.

The garden’s coming in fast now: the garlic’s spread out in the barn, drying, ditto the onions, and every day there are more tomatoes. Our favorite, the Paul Robson (ask me why the name!), is the first to ripen here, and we eat them as fast as they’re ready. And we have 10-foot-tall popcorn.

Our long-time neighbor, Ben Mikutajcis, was a great gardener. He made these pickles every summer, just the way his Polish mother made them.

Ben’s Pickles

Fill a gallon glass jar with whole cucumbers, several garlic cloves, & lots of dill. Fill the jar with water, then pour it off into a saucepan. Add ½ C pickling salt, 2/3 C sugar, ½ C vinegar, 1 teaspoon dry mustard, and a handful of pickling spice. Bring to a boil. Meanwhile, have the jar of cucumbers standing in a deep pan of very hot water (so the jar doesn’t break); pour the boiling liquid over the cucumbers. Cover and, when it’s cool, refrigerate. The pickles will be ready to eat in a week to ten days. They keep for a long time in the fridge. We slice off spears and return the remaining pickle to the jar.

To be included in This Week in Lincolnville, contact Diane, ragrugs@midcoast.com with events, family milestones, wildlife sightings, anything to do with our town.