Slow food, heirloom, pastured and artisanal - these days the buzz is full of catch words that can best be summed up to indicate, well... good food. Fresh and in season, prepared with passion and creativity, but with a minimum of fuss. Ingredient is key. Preparation flows from what you find. Now, when it comes to finding foodstuffs, it doesn't get much better than right here, in Midcoast Maine. The growing season may be a tad short, but our summer days are long and bathed in shunshine and our gardens thank us with abundance. We are surrounded by small family farms tending happy livestock, vineyards, beekeepers, cheesemakers, salumerias and butchers, there's even an organic tofu-kitchen down the coast! And then, there are the fishermen...

Allow us to introduce you to the unmitigated joy that is seasonal cooking on the coast of Maine! We’ve teamed up with Laura Cabot, local food creator extraordinaire. Laura is a French trained chef and a graduate of La Varenne, in Burgundy France. As the founder of the Pine Cone Cafe, the first "farm to fork" restaurant in our region, she's a bit of a local celebrity, having introduced the notion of eating seasonally and locally to Waldoboro some thirty years ago. Since, Laura has scouted Maine locations for shoots for Anthony Bourdain’s TV show No Reservations and fed the team that put together HG TV’s Dream Home Giveaway. She has the rare distinction of being featured in a Superman comic as well as Ladies Home Journal and in Continental Airlines' In Flight Magazine. Now, Laura is the owner of a thriving catering business, teaches cooking classes and refers to herself as a “recovering restauranteur”. She's also a blogger at www.mainefoodandlifestyle.com and a regular columnist at Maine Food and Lifestyle Magazine.

With Laura as your personal guide, each morning you will go on a field trip of your choice to first procure ingredients. Could be as simple as a stroll through her extensive gardens, could be a visit to her favorite cheese maker, a trip to a blueberry barren or to the nearest lobster pound. Touch, smell and sample and find out what goes into producing wholesome food. Then, when you're done hunting and gathering, it's time for your seasonal cooking lesson in Laura's fabulous kitchen. This is were the magic happens, the composition of a meal wholly inspired by its ingredients and the interplay between them. Of course, you'll get to eat the fruits of all that labor afterwards and we know you'll savor every bite. But what is most important is that you will take home memories to help you re-create, well... good food.

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Preparing food that is seasonal, delicious, satisfying and beautiful... that I find fulfilling

— Laura Cabot