PORTLAND, Maine — In 2020, as the state was celebrating its 200th birthday, Margaret Hathaway and Karl Schatz edited the “Maine Bicentennial Community Cookbook,” a collection of recipes, stories, and photos that provided a history of how generations of Mainers have shared food with their families and friends. The book struck a chord, often making readers feel as if they were reading about their own grandmother’s favorite muffins or a chowder recipe that had been in the family for decades.
“I think the last eighteen months have been such a time of disconnection for so many people that to have more than 200 stories of families in your own kitchen, it really connected with people,” Hathway says. “It connected with us while we were working on it and made us feel like Maine is our community and we’re all in this together.”
The book was such a success that Hathaway, Schatz, and collaborator Don Lindgren felt it deserved a sequel, and they’re now working on “Maine Community Cookbook—200 More Recipes.” The hope is it will attract recipes and more from people who didn’t know about the first book until it was too late to submit them. “We just really felt like there’s an endless supply of terrific family stories and family recipes that we could continue to tap into,” Schatz says.
It’s worth noting that $2 from each copy of the first volume went to a non-profit fighting hunger in Maine—more than $15,000 so far—and the second volume will follow suit.
Got a recipe or story or photo that you’d like to submit? Click here or mail your submission to Maine Community Cookbook, c/o Rabelais Books, 2 Main St., Suite 18-214, Biddeford, ME 04005. Submissions have to be in by October 15, 2021.