ORONO, Maine — University of Maine Cooperative Extension offers information and workshops to help consumers find, grow, use, preserve and store in-season fruits and vegetables in Maine. Seasonal foods for May are featured in several online bulletins and fact sheets, including:
Facts on Edible Wild Greens in Maine
Extension educator Kathy Savoie demonstrates new techniques for cooking, freezing and pickling fiddleheads in an easy-to-follow video. Fiddleheads in particular require exact cooking methods — boiling for at least 15 minutes or steaming for 10–12 minutes — to reduce risk for food-borne illness associated with raw and undercooked fiddleheads. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has investigated a number of outbreaks of food-borne illness associated with fiddleheads. The implicated ferns were eaten either raw or lightly cooked (sautéed, parboiled or microwaved).
Get ready for the arrival of Maine’s seasonal foods by attending an upcoming food preservation workshop. Read the Spoonful Blog to get bite-sized food and nutrition information that is science-based and applicable to everyday life.
Updated information, and bulletins to download or order, are available on the Extension website or by contacting 207.581.3188, 800.287.0274 (in Maine); [email protected].
University of Maine Cooperative Extension: As a trusted resource for over 100 years, University of Maine Cooperative Extension has supported UMaine’s land and sea grant public education role by conducting community-driven, research-based programs in every Maine county. UMaine Extension helps support, sustain and grow the food-based economy. It is the only entity in our state that touches every aspect of the Maine Food System, where policy, research, production, processing, commerce, nutrition, and food security and safety are integral and interrelated. UMaine Extension also conducts the most successful out-of-school youth educational program in Maine through 4-H.
About the University of Maine: The University of Maine, founded in Orono in 1865, is the state’s land grant, sea grant and space grant university, with a regional campus at the University of Maine at Machias. UMaine is located on Marsh Island in the homeland of the Penobscot Nation. UMaine Machias is located in the homeland of the Passamaquoddy Nation. As Maine’s flagship public university, UMaine has a statewide mission of teaching, research and economic development, and community service. UMaine is the state’s public research university and a Carnegie R1 top-tier research institution. It attracts students from all 50 states and 86 countries. UMaine currently enrolls 11,571 undergraduate and graduate students, and UMaine Machias enrolls 763 undergraduates. Our students have opportunities to participate in groundbreaking research with world-class scholars. UMaine offers 77 bachelor’s degrees and six undergraduate certificates, as well as more than 100 degree programs through which students can earn doctoral or master’s degrees, professional master’s degrees, and graduate certificates. UMaine Machias offers 18 associate and bachelor’s degrees, and 14 undergraduate certificates. The university promotes environmental stewardship, with substantial efforts campuswide to conserve energy, recycle and adhere to green building standards in new construction. For more information about UMaine and UMaine Machias, visit umaine.edu and machias.edu.
–University of Maine
