You could fill many libraries with things that Mainers make by their own hands. Around here, you’d be hard pressed to find a person here who doesn’t grow or craft or build or cook or paint…or otherwise create. In a new fundraising series, Downeast with SPL, Stonington Public Library is showcasing local makers, producers, and artists. These small, intimate gatherings are a chance to meet the people and businesses behind the tastes and beauty and moments that we love about Downeast Maine. Our partners are generously donating their time and services and handmade goods to support Stonington Public Library’s mission, because pitching in and helping our neighbors is another trademark of our island and the peninsula.
SPL is deeply grateful to collaborate with Adell Donaghue, Deer Isle Oyster Company, 44 North Coffee, Isle au Haut Mail Boat, Modernmaine, Oceanville Flowers, and Northern Bay Organics in our first Downeast with SPL series. Read more about each tour below, and continue to follow SPL’s newsletter and social media (@stoningtonpubliclibrary) for updates, new tours, and other library news and events.
Downeast with SPL tours have limited space and will be filled on a first come, first serve basis. To make reservations and for payment information, email stonington.public.library@gmail.com with the tour(s) and number of spaces.
44 North Coffee
Thursday, June 6, 12-2pm
44 North Coffee Roastery, 56 Church Street, Deer Isle
Get hands on roasting experience. Taste amazing coffee. And go home with a freshly roasted bag of coffee of your choosing.
See behind the scenes of 44 North Coffee. Join Alix, Head Roaster and Production Manager, during an active roast day. Learn about how 44 North sources coffee, how coffee travels all the way from origin to Deer Isle, and how coffee is transformed “from bean to cup.” See the coffee roasting process in action. Participate in a coffee cupping, a system of evaluation via sniffing, slurping, swishing a sample of coffee. Learn how to apply language to your tastebuds.
44 North Coffee was born in 2010 on a small island off the coast of Maine by Megan Dewey-Wood and Melissa Raftery. Founded on the principle that fresh and ethically sourced coffee sips best, we custom roast organic Arabica coffee beans in Deer Isle. We honor the hard work of the farmers who grow our coffee by fairly purchasing seasonal organic beans and roasting to levels that highlight the best tasting notes in each cup. Enjoy at your own line of latitude!
Alix has been the head roaster for 6 years and has a deep love and respect for coffee. Come feel and learn from her enthusiasm for these magical beans.
Learn more about 44 North Coffee here.
Limited to 10 people
$75 minimum donation
Northern Bay Organics
Saturday, June 15, 10am-12pm
58 Western County Road, Penobscot
Tour a small-scale, no-till, no-spray market garden—and go home with fresh veggies.
During the farm tour participants will learn about our farm, operation model and growing methods, such as no-till agriculture, cover cropping, composting, crop rotation and animal husbandry. Participants will have the opportunity to stroll through the woods on our newly established nature trail and visit our farmstand.
Established in 2020, Northern Bay Organics is a small-scale, no-till, no-spray market garden in Penobscot on the Blue Hill Peninsula growing mixed vegetables using regenerative / no-till farming methods. In 2024 our farm transitioned from commercial production to a fully not-for-profit operation model.
Learn more about Northern Bay Organics here.
Limited to 20 people
$75 minimum donation
Modernmaine
Saturday, July 13, 1:30-3:30pm
Modernmaine Studio, 10 Memorial Lane, Stonington
Visit the studio where inspiration is transformed into contemporary artist-made lighting. Take home a Modernmaine votive holder.
Studio visit with Modernmaine founder and designer Julie Morringello. Learn how she creates unique light fixtures for homes and businesses. Her work crosses traditional boundaries, in that it is both functional and sculptural, and created from a combination of digital and handmade processes. Most pieces are made from a very thin, translucent wood veneer, to which color and pattern may be applied. Take home an original Modernmaine votive holder.
Learn more about Modernmaine here.
Limited to 12 people
$75 minimum donation
Oceanville Flowers
Thursday, August 15, 3-5pm
Oceanville Flowers Studio, 10 Church Street, Stonington
Flowers, tea, and refreshments all while taking in a panoramic view of Stonington Harbor. Take home a bud vase with garden flowers.
Join farmer/florist Alicia Condon in the Oceanville Flowers studio for a floral arranging demonstration and tour of the garden. Then enjoy the view of Stonington Harbor with tea and light refreshments among the flowers. Take home a bud vase with flowers from the garden.
Alicia Condon moved to Deer Isle five years ago to pursue her dream of becoming a farmer/florist. Her small town garden produces an incredible number of flowers, which she arranges for local customers, a CSA subscription and weddings.
Learn more about Oceanville Flowers here.
Limited to 12 people
$75 minimum donation
Deer Isle Oyster Company
Thursday, August 22, 4-6pm
Mariners Park, Sunshine Road, Deer Isle
Slurp, sip, bask: freshly shucked oysters, wine pairings, and a view of Long Cove.
Learn about small-scale oyster and kelp farming on the coast of Maine, enjoy a half dozen freshly shucked oysters with wine pairings presented by Deer Isle Oyster Company founders Abby Barrows & Ben Jackson.
“Our oysters grow in the productive and cold waters of Long Cove, Deer Isle, Maine. Located in Penobscot Bay, the cove has a longstanding history of seafood harvesting, and today supports a community of lobstermen and clam diggers. The farm floats above a soft seafloor, catching nutrient-rich tides while remaining sheltered by the surrounding islands.”
Learn more about Deer Isle Oyster Company here.
Limited to 10 people
$75 minimum donation
Adell Donaghue Studio
Sunday, October 6, 2-5pm
Old School, 53 School Street, Stonington
Inspiration, creation, illumination: inside the artist studio. Take home an Adell Donaghue tiny print.
Studio visit with artist Adell Donaghue. Take a behind-the-scenes tour of her creative process from tools and techniques to inspiration and application. Adell has worked as a painter and printmaker, a teacher and mentor, a graphic designer, art director, interior designer and set designer. She exhibited her artwork, 40 Years in Maine: Drawings, Paintings & Prints, at SPL in summer 2022. Take home an Adell Donaghue tiny print.
“I use light to illuminate our shared humanity. I believe the highest achievement for an artist is the transformation of physical materials into light, be it graphite or charcoal on paper, paint on canvas or the projection of images through film onto or through a surface. For me, this transformation of materials is a deeply spiritual experience because it suggests that both singularly and collectively, we are made of the same materials as stars. This idea is central to my work. I create art by funneling the world through my psyche in peculiar ways. The secret for me is to remain open to exploration, allowing the soul of a place to reveal its magic.”
Learn more about Adell Donaghue here.
Limited to 10 people
$75 minimum donation
Coming Soon!
Isle au Haut Mail Boat Tours
Details to be announced soon
27 Seabreeze Avenue, Stonington
Isle au Haut Boat Services will partner with Stonington Public Library this summer to offer two Downeast with SPL tours. Captain Garret Aldrich generously volunteered to charter fundraising trips for the library. For the past three years, Captain Aldrich has collaborated with SPL to offer Story Time Aboard the Otter as a Wings, Waves, and Woods activity for kids and their families. This year we were lucky enough to see several pairs of seals with their pups.
Learn more about Isle au Haut Boat Services here.