"Maine Food and Lifestyle - Connecting People to Local Resources."

Your Scribe recently picked up a copy of this glossy, colorful magazine. I was about to say "new magazine" but evidently it was titled "Edible Coastal Maine" before a name change. I like the new name much better.

Anyway, it focuses on Maine land and water - and how to harvest good food from the earth and sea. It champions natural foods, and it's cover story was on fiddleheads. (I picked up the spring copy).

They also write about foodstuffs not so often covered by the statewide media: sea vegetables and farm-raised salmon, for instance.

Several things about the magazine: It is artifully photographed with lush, colorful layouts. I didn't think a semi-anonymous artist (Eric Hopkins) or an obscure chef (Josh DeGroot) were worth five or six pages, but there it is.

There are very few ads, though, so we shall see how long it can fight the good fight.

Editor and publisher is Merrill Williams, who looks a little like Martha Stewart. She appears to be heading her career in the same direction except she is trying to link farmers and consumers in Maine, rather than monied stay-at-home fashion mavens with overpriced retailers in the big cities.

The interest in natural foods is growing steadily, though I don't pay much attention unless I am at the Common Ground Fare. But producers and consumers of fresh, locally grown food would benefit from an ally, and "Maine Food and Lifestyle" looks like it could be that friend.

Based in Rockland, it can be found at www.mainefoodandlifestyle.com.

Now get out and sell those ads, Merrill!

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