Our ultimate destination for the day, Cadillac Mountain, is over 300 miles from Plymouth, so we got out to an early start at 7am. We stopped very briefly at the Bow Street Market in Freeport to get a bottle of Back River Gin, then we made our way over scenic back roads to the Farmers' Market, arriving by 10am. It's a great market, and it was already mobbed.

One reason for the crowds might have been Spring Day Creamery. Sarah Spring's La Vie en Rose just won the first place prize at the American Cheese Society annual meeting in Raleigh, NC, in the crowded field of Original Recipe - Cow's Milk Cheeses. She beat Cowgirl Creamery - how 'bout that! We got three of her cheeses that we will sample soon. We also got some of the excellent Capriano dry-aged goat's milk cheese from York Hill Farm.

I also very much enjoyed an iced coffee from Moses Dyer Coffee Roasters, another roaster to add to my Artisanal Coffee Roasters of New England page on delicious.com! 

But the Brunswick Farmers' Market was just the start of the day. One of my goals was to explore the independent craft brewers of coastal Maine; wouldn't you know it we lucked into an Oxbow Farmhouse Pale Ale at Le Garage!  I had it with a Maine shrimp, mushroom, and bacon omelet with a bit of Lorna's Newburg sauce. The beer was perfectly summery and refreshing, and everything a flavorful Belgian-American farmhouse ale should be. Just right for an August afternoon!

So between the new artisanal gin, the national award-winning cheese, and the independent craft brewer, we had already had a very successful day, and we were just finishing lunch.  We pressed on toward Bar Harbor.

To be continued...