Post Move to Maine - What surprised you as you adjusted?

[moughie]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

Cheese.

You are so right!
However, I cannot for the life of me find SHARP fresh cheddar cheese out here in the wild, wild west in the deli section. All the Hannafords have that tasty extra sharp from Vermont!!!

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

Cheese.

Seriously. Everywhere else we lived, you went to the dairy aisle in the store, and you had a variety of cheeses. Cheddar in sharp, medium, and mild, then mozzarella, Monterrey Jack, swiss, and maybe a few others. To get the gourmet stuff you went to the gourment aisle.

In Maine, you go to the dairy aisle in the story, and there are three dozen types of cheddar, then more cheddar, then some more cheddar, then American. If you're lucky, there might be a little mozzarella or Monterrey Jack, if you really, really look hard.

To find things like Swiss, Monterrey Jack, most of the mozzarrella, you have to search over in the deli.

What store do you go to? Hannaford's in Topsham or Yarmouth has literally dozens of different cheeses, Shaws too!
There are cheese shops and delis all over the place!

[island mermaid]

Also try a gourmet / wine store like Provisions, they carry some different types of cheese. I'm a smoked Gouda girl myself but have always been able to find it in any grocery store cheese section.

[Boomerang]

If you love extra sharp cheese and want a taste of heaven, look in Hannaford's individually packed cheese chunk section for Aged Gouda. I think it's the "Old Amsterdam" brand. You don't want any of that soft or young Gouda stuff. It's gotta be aged, the older the better. Pinch the package, it should feel like a brick, not a piece of cream cheese. I assume you can find it in specialty cheese shops as well, and it's certainly available online.
Anyway, just try it if you haven't already.

I'm not wholly qualified to answer the OP's core question as I've lived in Maine for a long time, just off and on in-between various life changes and am now back agaiin, hopefully to STAY this time. The moving's killing me for one thing, too much stuff and for another I'm not happier anywhere else on earth. Well.......to be totally honest, if I won a billion-dollar lottery I might be persuaded to consider Paris, Provence, or Alsace, but outside of that, nah, nowhere else

The one thing I found startling the last time I moved back 'home' was how darned expensive the real estate has gotten in the southeastern part of the state, and how little real farmland there is anymore, compared to my previous digs in the western mountains. But it's all in your perspective. People from MA think they've died and gone to Country Living Magazine heaven when they find an affordable home on an acre, while people like me think hey, only an acre? what's up with the creeping suburban lifestyle thing? And the wider use of lawn care products is a bit disconcerting. Why in God's name would I want to kill dandelions on my lawn? They're beautiful, they have a nice smell, they're fun to blow on when they go to seed, and I'm definitely not interested in living in a biological monoculture.

Outside of these minor details, Maine is still as beautiful and the people still as friendly and helpful as always.

[elston]

Originally Posted by Boomerang

And the wider use of lawn care products is a bit disconcerting. Why in God's name would I want to kill dandelions on my lawn? They're beautiful, they have a nice smell, they're fun to blow on when they go to seed, and I'm definitely not interested in living in a biological monoculture.

I feel that way about the white violets that can "take over" a lawn....I wish they would take over a good portion of mine......I dug some at a friends house and set them in a section of my "lawn" and am in hopes that they will grow and prosper. The house where I dug them looks like a story book cottage in the woods in the spring when they are blooming! I love them.