Camden Maine’s Harbor And Its

Surroundings

Cedarholm Garden Bay Inn with its private and quite oceanfront accommodations is ideally located for exploring the Maine Coastal Villages of Camden, Rockport and Lincolnville. Being passionate about our Inn that we built from the ground up, naturally we gravitate towards others that share the same commitment and dedication.

Camden Hills Mount Battie And Camden Harbor

Dining Out

The harbors of Camden and Rockport are quaint and unquestionably picturesque. Camden Harbor with its dramatic backdrop of  Mount Battie is certainly an eye catcher and claims a few passionate, talented chef owned restaurants to boot. For years our guests have consistently raved about the food and service at Atlantica Restaurant ,  Francine Bistro, and one of New England’s finest,  Primo Restaurant in nearby Rockland.  And for good reason, each focusing on fresh, local and sustainable practices.

Chef Ken Paquin and wife Del own and operate Atlantica a bustling seafood bistro. Its harbor side deck provides beautiful up close waterfront views and is ideal for dining al fresco. They have a fantastic seafood menu and some of the best-prepared in the area.

Waterside Table At Atlantica

Perfectly Grilled Swordfish

Halibut, Lobster And Chanterelles

A couple of footsteps away, on a backstreet, Francine Bistro remains highly memorable for its steak and garlic herbed frites. Chef Brain Hill creates amazing dishes from mainly organic local sources and has a wonderfully diverse menu. His passion for food is quite obvious and has received media attention.

Rockport Harbor

Just around the corner, less than a five minutes drive, from Camden Harbor is the quiet and charming Rockport Harbor. This is the homeport of the family built, owned and operated Schooner Yacht Heron. Nigel (Twig) and Bonnie offer various sail packages that may include viewing both Rockport Harbor (Indian Island Lighthouse), Camden Harbor (Curtis Island Lighthouse) and beyond.

Beautiful Rockport Harbor

A Spectacular View Of The Mountains Aboard The Heron

Lincolnville Beach

1 mile North of Cedarholm Garden Bay Inn is a small strip of sand beach, the Maine State Ferry terminal to the  Island of Islesboro (20 minutes ride) and a handful of shops and restaurants.  Chez Michel is a favorite dining spot serving up a myriad of well-prepared dishes.

Lincolnville Beach

The Ferry Terminal At Lincolnville Beach

Our Inn is overflowing with vases and Mason jars of these georgeous blooms and we continually create colorful bouquets in all of our accommodations as an additional amenity for our guests.

Our Dahlia Patch

Our dahlia garden is filled with vivid colors and bountiful blooms from these show-stopping non-stop performers. We grow over 1oo plants and hope to expand our collection for the 2010 season.

We begin potting our tubers in early April and come July, they have loads of buds and promise.

Healthy Buds

Buds Soon Transform Into Blossoms

As the season progresses the blossoms create a sea of color which is particularly striking on a foggy morning.

Beautiful Colors

We cut flowers daily to keep the plants fresh looking and continually update our vases of floral arrangements. These incredible plants continue to bloom until the first frost.

Sorting For Arrangements

Our serious interest for dahlia’s started 4 years ago after visiting Phil and Karen Clark who own and operate Endless Summer Flower Farm in Camden, Maine.  From there a kinship ensued each swapping stories on plant performances.

Posted are images of some 2009 season favorites.

Mingus Tracy Lynn

Tartan

Karma-Sangria

Show And Tell

Pop Talk

Bald Rock Mountain has an elevation of 1200 ft and is visible from our oceanfront Inn. With less than a 10 minute drive from here this mountain offers incredible views of the island studded coast of Maine and is just a small part of the Camden Hills State Park system. The hike to the summit is easy yet invigorating.

Entrance Sign

Gravel Road

After  walking a gravel road for 1.25 miles you reach the trail head that leads through the woodlands.

Bald Rock Trail Head

We walk through the peaceful woods and observe the nature that surrounds us. Lush greenery such as ferns and mosses abound, the scent of pine wafts through the air and the songs of melodious birds are the predominant sounds. The trail has a convenient set of granite steps and many tree root systems that wind there way along the path.

Granite Steps

Interesting Tree Roots

We reach the summit and take in the scenery.

Background-Mt. Desert Island, Acadia National Park

A Southeasterly View From The Summit

A Southerly View, Camden Harbor First Harbor In Sight

We maintained a semi-brisk pace along the trail and complete the round trip journey in approx. 1hr. 45min. The views are breathtaking and especially extraordinary during the fall with all the magnificent colors in place.

Each year at this time we ask each other with pure excitement the same question, “Is it ready yet?” There is nothing difficult to growing or harvesting garlic and sometimes the more information you read can only make the process seem involved when it is not. However, you do want to harvest your garlic at the proper time to ensure increased storage life. 

We currently grow a variety of 300 garlic plants that will last us for a glorious 9 months, originally we started with a few dozen. There are preferences to harvesting, curing and storing garlic (we’ve tried many) but here on the coast in Mid Coast Maine we have found the following techniques to prove successful for us each year. First in order; pick a dry day.

Our garlic patch

We wait for the bottom 2 or 3 fronds to die off before we harvest as shown above. Don’t wait any longer unless your garlic is for immediate use otherwise the cloves will expand, open up and force the protective skin to separate and expose the clove inside the bulb. This will result in a shorter shelf life.

Digging up garlic

“Treat them like tomatoes not potatoes” is what should come to mind at this point. We use a shovel and carefully dig under the roots to loosen the soil before removing the bulb. Be attentive and do not to bruise or nick the bulbs.

Occasionally we get twins

We harvest the garlic 10 at a time, carefully twist the roots to remove the bulk of the soil and then immediately bring them to a shaded area to be very quickly rinsed (bulb only DO NOT saturate). There is much debate over whether to rinse the garlic before curing. Our soil is rarely dry and as shown above the bulb comes up with too much earth. Even after we carefully remove the bulk, there is far too much left for curing and creates a ridiculous mess for storing and use. Grit in my cooking is not an option and we have yet to have an adverse affect to rinsing.

Drying rack

Here in the shade the garlic is left to dry. Normally we would leave them out overnight however the forecast was for possible evening showers so we transfered the drying racks into our shed.

Tying up garlic

The following day we tie up the garlic 10 to a bunch and prepare to hang them.

Curing the garlic

Here the garlic will cure for 3 to 4 weeks after which we will cut the stalks and leave a 1/2″ stem. The garlic will get transferred to onion bags and remain in our basement for use.

There is nothing like the taste and health benefits of your own fresh garlic and we encourage you to start a patch of your own. Our original garlic purchase was made from Johnny Seeds here in Maine, however there are countless resources available. We usually plant our garlic the last week in Oct. or the first week in Nov. and will be posting our methods then.

Whether thoughtfully placed, dappled about, or planted en masse, daylilies can bring a fireworks display of color to a garden. We love daylilies for their beauty and endurance.

Guest Registration Entrance

One simple pleasure for us is to visit daylily farms in July; they are at peak and an opportune time to view these beautiful masses of color. Some farms are larger than others offering hundreds to even thousands of cultivars, and with 10’s of thousands available and I am told over 1500+ new ones annually, one is sure to find something special.

For the first time visitor one will suddenly become aware of the challenge that awaits.  Selecting is not an easy task even for the seasoned buyer. Just picture yourself among 600+ cultivars like we were at Ellie’s Daylilies in Unity,  Maine. Crimson reds, bold oranges, bright yellows, deep pinks, strong lavenders, soft peaches, near whites, ruffled edges, single or double bloom, time of bloom and lets not forget size of the bloom! And there’s more.

My husband and I have an agreement, each of us choose one (near impossible) to come home with us. We walk the small farm together, unawarely drift apart, each intensely studying and making a mental note of contenders. After what seems like minutes turns into over an hour. At this point we press ourselves into making a decision and were able to select 2 that would be a unique fit in our garden.

Tuscawilla Tigress

Margaret McWhorter

A favorite and entertaining experience for us was open farm day years ago at hybridizer Nick Barth’s farm in Alna, ME. We knew we were in for some excitement when we had trouble finding a place to park on this quiet and narrow densely wooded back road. We could not help but notice all of the out of state tags and wondered, “what’s going on”. There were people scattered throughout the field, standing around sentry like, guarding lily clumps and giving the evil eye to anyone who even came close to there find. The “fools rush in” expression comes to mind.

We had never witnessed anything like this; it was a civilized madhouse with an eclectic crowd. There were ladies wearing fine clothing with dainty open toed shoes and gold jewelry among dirt and dust at a lily farm on a hot summers day among us. I couldn’t help but ask one of these ladies why she was so protective of her clump.  “You see”, she said in her proper southern accent “ I’ve come all the way here from Texas for this day because I simply must have this cultivar in my garden.” We thought wow, and quickly realized that Barth’s Daylilies are unique and highly sought after.

Even with all the darting and dashing about in addition to directing the “digging staff” to satisfy anxious customers, hybridizer Nick Barth was friendly and engaging. He was kind enough to take a moment to answer our questions and even demonstrated hybridizing techniques. He spoke of his farther the late Dr. Joseph Barth a hybridizer and pioneer from whom he took the farm over with his wife Sandy. It was quite an experience for us, and one I’ll never forget. The farm was sold to Fieldview Farms in 2004 and they relocated over 4000 Barth clumps to Dresden Me, an incredible undertaking.

On that day we came home with the 2-lily allotment, and to this day they remain our favorite daylilies choices with intriguing names and distinctive beauty.

Bittersweet Holiday

"Not Forgotten" J. Barth - N. Barth