Every year the Maine Lobster Promotion Council and the Maine Lobsterman's Association ask Mainers and their friends and families around the country to consider eating lobster for Thanksgiving. But this year, the idea has taken on new urgency. Hannah Pingree is the presumptive speaker of the Maine House. "We're here really today to ask everybody in the state of Maine and really around the country to do one favor for us, and that is eat more lobsters."

 

Patrice McCarron of the Maine Lobsterman's Association says lobster prices have reached the lowest levels she's seen in eight years and the industry is in jeopardy. "This week lobstermen fishing on a straight price, so that's everything you catch goes for a singular price is ranging from $2.40 up to a high of $3 - averaging about $2.75 - per pound."

 

With that in mind, Bangor public relations specialist Julia Munsey had an idea. Munsey doesn't work in the lobster business. But she says she grew up digging clams in Lemoine, watching lobstermen go out in their boats every morning to pull their traps and listening to the sounds of squawking gulls following closely behind them. "Those are truly Maine sounds; they're truly Maine activities and they're things I don't ever want to go away."

 

So Munsey says she came up with an idea to promote Maine lobsters on a website: lobstercelebrations.com.  On it, you can find out where to buy lobsters, how to cook them (steam, don't boil) and how to properly eat them without embarrassing yourself or causing harm to others. Once the website had been launched, Munsey joined forces with Maine legislative leaders. And they held a news conference at the Statehouse.

 

"I've always found that good food is a terrific uniter and here in Maine if there is anything that can bring people together across party lines it's lobstah." Republican Senator Kevin Raye is the incoming state Senate Minority Leader. Raye says he's lending his support to the initiative to get more people to eat Maine lobster as a main dish or a side dish at Thanksgiving. This, he says, will add authenticity to the meal. "You may be surprised to learn that the food historian for Plymouth Plantation tells us that some foods that we think of as virtually synonymous with Thanksgiving like sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie were not on that menu for the first Thanksgiving. But one item that was on the menu is an item we seldom associate with this holiday and that's lobster."

 

In fact, roasted venison, fish, dried fruit and stewed or boiled fowl were also likely on the pilgrims' menu. But nothing brightens a table like red and white meat. And if you're dining with presumptive Speaker of the House Hannah Pingree and members of her family - you might find this dish on the table. It's a recipe for lobster stew. "And it is not to be messed up with anything like potatoes or other fish. It is just butter, salt, pepper, lobsters, cream, milk. Probably more cream than milk."

 

But who's counting calories? Pingree, who probably represents more lobstermen than any other member of the Maine Legislature, says lobster is traditionally associated with summers in Maine. But lobsters are actually available year-round. And right now they're affordable and there are plenty of them.