After our old-fashioned fun at the Windsor Fair, we followed scenic Rte 105 out to Camden. We did not know that it was the day of the Camden Windjammer Days festival. The waterfront was full of exhibits relating to the sailing ships that built Camden. We parked in one of the lots behind the main street shops and explored.

Camden is a pretty tourist town even in the dead of winter, with a great rocky waterfall leading into a picturesque harbor often populated by sloops and schooners in addition to the usual fishing boats and pleasure craft. In the summer there are flowers everywhere, and on this day it was sunflowers that made the show.

Of all the exhibits, naturally the one I like best had to do with cooking. Bridget Qualey has cooked on a number of sailing ships over a long career starting 40 years ago. On this day she was cooking apple pie in a woodstove.

I have always been fascinated by woodstoves. Mu grandmother had one in her summer place in the Catskills when I was a boy, I remember boiling water on it, but nothing as fancy as an apple pie!

Bridget explained that sailing ships had no electrical power for an electric range, and compressed gas had its own risks; a woodstove was relatively safe and easy to use. The dry, split, seasoned  wood that fired the stove for a day of baking fit in one tote bag. The fire was in one corner and she could control the heat by placing the food near or far from the fire as needed. As for the pie, she simply turned the pie plate several times during the baking to ensure even heat. It certainly was delicious, and the watching crowd ensured there was none left for the seagulls!