“First Person” shares the stories of people who make a life here, in their words. Conversations are edited for clarity and length.
Nothing says summer like the smell of fresh-baked scones and the sight of customers streaming into Salt Cod Cafe on Orr’s Island. Owner Alison Prince is the fifth generation to operate a business in the historic red clapboard building at the Cribstone Bridge.
My great-great-grandfather, Sylvanus Cushing Prince, established a business here around 1845, and in this building in 1865. There was a very active cod fishery at that time and they outfitted vessels and salted and cured their catch.
The cod was cleaned, put in barrels, layered with salt and then dried out on wooden flakes in the yard before being packaged and sent down to Gloucester, Massachusetts, for distribution all over.
It was also a general store that had all means of provisions, from hardware to fabric and food — whatever you needed. They used to have a horse team to do deliveries. I read in an old journal entry, “It’s snowing hard, so the team went out today.”
It was definitely a community hub. People used to sit around the woodstove and visit and tell stories. I would hope that we’ve continued that tradition; I think it’s an important part of community to have a place where people can gather and talk.
I’m the fifth generation operating a business here. I grew up in Farmingdale, up near Augusta, but I spent pretty much every summer here as a kid, working at the store with my grandparents. My grandmother was the one who showed me how to make change. You had to add everything up on a piece of paper. It was a great introduction to math.
In the early ’90s, we rented part of the building to the H2Outfitters kayak company and part to the Orr’s Island Chowder Co. The chowder company left in 2003 and, at that point, I was ready for a change. So I decided to start Salt Cod Cafe. I have a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and a master’s degree in food science and had been working in a research lab for a biotech company.
Back here on Orr’s Island, I wanted to keep the building, its history and the family business going. In my first year, 2004, I followed the footprint of the chowder company, offering chowder and lobster rolls. The second year I added other sandwiches, and later, baked goods. The first year I actually bought muffins from elsewhere to sell — and I thought, this is crazy. Why should I drive someplace to get them when I could make them right here?
I found out that I could get my home kitchen license. It started out with just muffins, but then I was talking with one of my employees, Terry York, about other baked goods, and she said, “Maybe you can do scones.” I came up with the recipe and took it from there. They’re different from many other scones in that they’re not dry — a lot of people refer to traditional scones as “stones.” My idea is to make them soft and moist and filled with ample amounts of berries or whatever.
Now I begin baking each morning around 4. I begin by myself but then helpers come in to keep up with the demand. We have blueberry, raspberry, apple cinnamon, lemon, cranberry orange, chocolate, strawberry rhubarb, ginger, blackberry, peach nutmeg. I might be missing some! We have done some savory scones on occasion — bacon cheddar chive, Parmesan black pepper. But those aren’t making a regular appearance yet. We make at least 100 a day and a lot of days they do sell out.
Ella Gustafson, of Brunswick, slices cranberries for scones as Alison Prince looks on in Prince’s home kitchen on Orr’s Island. Prince used to bake scones solo for her Salt Cod Cafe, but she now needs help to keep up with demand. Gustafson, a 20-year-old physical therapy student at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, is one of many young people who work for Prince summer after summer. (Jeffrey Good photo)
Alison Prince bakes scones in her home kitchen on Orr’s Island. She and her helpers make at least 100 scones each day to sell at Salt Cod Cafe, and they usually sell out. (Jeffrey Good photo)
Alison Prince forms a scone in her home kitchen. While traditional scones are often called “stones,” Prince makes hers moist and full of fresh fruit and other goodness. (Jeffrey Good photo)
A historical photograph shows the Prince family’s cod-salting business in the 1800s. The wooden racks on the lawn, called flakes, were used for drying cod. (Jeffrey Good photo)
A vintage box for boneless codfish from S.J. Prince & Son. To serve the bustling cod industry in Harpswell, Sylvanus Cushing Prince provisioned the fishermen and packed their catch in barrels with layers of salt. Once the weather permitted, he and his helpers spread the salted fish on wooden platforms called “flakes” to dry, then shipped them off in small paper boxes. (Jeffrey Good photo)
I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of really great employees, most of them college or high school students. Mostly they come from Harpswell, Brunswick and Topsham, but I also hire some who are visiting for the summer. Many of them spend more than one season and it’s always nice to see them go from high school to college and into their careers.
I try to train them to be able to do all the tasks. I believe in giving employees leeway; they’re certainly smart enough to handle situations and figure things out. They learn about working with customers and with their teammates. They experience the value of hard work. I want them to be happy here and want to come to work. So, yeah, I try to create that environment.
It can be challenging to find enough folks to staff the cafe, and it’s gotten more challenging in recent years. I’ve used local advertising and word of mouth, and often siblings will follow their older brother or sister into the job. I have put ads online, on Craigslist and Indeed, but in recent years, those don’t seem to generate much.
The college students head back to school in mid-August, so that leaves us short of people. I’ve tried to stay open, at least on weekends, through October. But in the last two years, we’ve only made it into September.
It’s a lot longer hours than I used to work, but it’s very rewarding. The history and the building itself are important to me, and I think they have significance for the community as well. Long days on my feet baking and cooking take their toll, but I’d like to keep it going as long as possible. I don’t want to be a huge business. I just want to keep it small.
