>> NARRATOR: Come along for a once-in-a-lifetime journey through New England as you've never experienced it before.

A true insider's guide from the editors of Yankee magazine.

Join explorer, adventurer, and traveler Richard Wiese and his co-host, Yankee senior food editor Amy Traverso, for behind-the-scenes access to the unique attractions that define this region, and uncover the hidden New England that only locals know.

It's the ultimate travel guide from the people who know it best.

This week, we're off to Rockport, Maine, where lobsterman and photographer Joel Woods gives us a view of deep-sea fishing that few people ever get to see.

>> That camera let something out inside of me that was very strong and very powerful.

>> NARRATOR: Then we head to the rocky coast just outside Acadia National Park to experience an authentic seaside clambake with some of Portland, Maine's hottest chefs.

>> Traditionally, clambakes are dug into the ground in sand beaches.

We're not digging into this rock.

>> NARRATOR: From there, we're off to New Hampshire's Lake Winnipesaukee aboard the Sophie C. mail boat, the oldest floating post office in the country.

>> People come down to greet Sophie, not only to pick up the mail, but to see their neighbors.

>> NARRATOR: Back in the test kitchen, Amy brings the clambake home as she creates a stovetop version of this classic New England meal.

It's all coming up on Weekends with Yankee.

>> Funding provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> The Vermont Country Store, the purveyors of the practical and hard-to-find since 1946.

>> NARRATOR: Rockport is one of the Maine coast's hidden gems.

A small working town nestled between the better-known destinations of Rockland and Camden, it has one of the most picturesque harbors in the state-- a rich scene of lobster boats and sailboats, even kayaks.

Here we meet up with lobsterman Joel Woods, a self-taught photographer whose stunning images reveal the beauty and rigors of life at sea.

>> Hey.

>> WIESE: Richard.

>> Ken.

>> WIESE: Hey, Ken.

>> How you doing?

>> WIESE: Nice to meet you.

>> Ralph, nice to meet you.

>> WIESE: Hey, Ralph.

Hey, Joel, good to see you.

>> Hey, man, good to see you.

>> WIESE: Yeah.

Wow, this is the real deal.

>> It is.

>> WIESE: You know, Rockport, Maine, this is, like, the epicenter of lobstering, huh?

>> Ready to see it?

>> WIESE: Yeah, absolutely.

>> Well, we'll get fired up.

♪ ♪ >> Tell you, if nothing else, man, this is a beautiful part of the planet.

♪ ♪ >> WIESE: Hey, Joel-- so a lot of the lobster guys I've met are multi-generational.

Multi-generational?

>> Absolutely not.

I'm the first-generation fisherman that I know of, anyway.

First generation outside of Massachusetts since they immigrated from Ireland.

>> WIESE: And what brought you to do lobstering?

>> Being offshore, not knowing what you're making, being away from your family, being away from life, I mean, all of that combined, it's something that I can't live without.

Sometimes I hate it.

Sometimes I want to be as far away from it as possible, but this is what I do-- this is all I know how to do.

>> Ready, man?

Get dirty.

>> WIESE: Okay.

>> All right, so you put these on first.

That way they'll be on top.

>> WIESE: Yep.

>> Through, give it a little twist.

>> WIESE: Right.

>> Back through like that.

>> WIESE: Okay.

I could see that lobstering is not for everybody.

What kind of breed of men are these?

>> A hard breed.

As a whole, they're good people.

As much as they carry grudges and hold feuds, or even as territorial as they may get, you know, they look out for each other.

Fishermen whose ancestors had chosen this say they're born into it.

There's something about it that drew them to it, and it's not a life for everybody.

Put it back on the trap?

>> No, we'll save it and we'll repack it next time.

>> Bait's so expensive now... >> I hear you, Ken, I hear you.

>> WIESE: It's a rough business.

>> It's a rowdy racket, man, for sure.

I mean, there's... Not last year, but the year before, I had three friends, or people I knew personally, die, out to sea, you know?

And that's just me personally-- never mind up and down the coast, people I don't know.

There's something about that freedom and that risk that is attractive.

The boredom of sitting in a cubicle, like, I would just shrivel up and die.

♪ ♪ What you have is, each one of these buoys that you see has one to three traps on it, and three's the limit within state waters, which is up... from land up to three miles.

And usually you go through your string, and then you move on to another area.

Usually, a string is ten traps.

We've got five buoys.

So you'll haul a pair or a triple or a single, and then when you're done, you set it back.

>> Make sure you watch that.

>> WIESE: How many of these are you going to do a day?

>> Usually 300, 350.

>> WIESE: That's a lot.

>> It is a lot.

I mean, guys who go hard will do four.

I fished with a guy for almost three seasons.

It's not uncommon to do all 800 in a day, you know?

>> WIESE: That's amazing.

>> You hear that hauler and the trap gets in front of you, and it's just, been doing it for so long that you just go fast.

>> WIESE: I know you do photography.

So while you may give the appearance of being, you know, like, a tough guy, offshore lobsterman, there's got to be a side of you that's very aesthetic.

You know, you see things that are of beauty or of interest to the eye.

How did that come about?

>> It's always been there.

I grew up a very hard life.

I was on the streets when I was a kid.

I kind of raised myself in a lot of ways.

And that sensitive side, that gentle side, you learn to bury, because you have to be hard.

You have to have that rough exterior.

That's why I chose fishing.

It was the biggest, baddest thing.

I had a huge chip on my shoulder.

And I tell you, these boats, everybody else on the boat's got a huge chip on their shoulder, too, so you don't show that sensitive side, that gentle side, you know?

But the reason being drawn to alcohol and violence and fighting, street fighting, was not having an outlet.

When I was angry, I would get in a fight.

When I was sad, I would get in a fight.

When I was, you know, confused, I didn't know what to do, I'd get,... You know what I'm saying?

So that was the outlet.

Once you learn that there's, you know, another outlet, that camera became a very, very quick way to let something out inside of me that was very strong and very powerful, you know?

I mean, it took a lot of work to bury that.

Once I got good at it and I could actually get the shot that I saw...

I could see shots for years, and couldn't get my camera to do what I wanted it to do, to get what I saw in my head.

People see you in snippets, snapshots of your life.

It went from the alcohol abuse and getting arrested and going to jail to not doing that anymore.

And then to see the transition, the amount of energy that was being wasted on that now being put towards something that was positive and healthy in my life.

People could see the transition.

I'm scared to death of changing this, you know what I'm saying?

I don't want to come home and have to send out prints and then have to go to art shows or gallery openings.

I want to go take pictures, man.

This is the only thing I have in my life that is pure and untouched.

I don't want to change it.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Just outside Acadia National Park lies a natural wonder known as the Ovens, a series of shallow caves carved into rocky cliffs by the sea.

They're accessible only by kayak unless you happen to own property nearby.

Lucky for us, chef Andrew Taylor's family has a house here called Eventide-- the same name that he and his partners, chef Mike Wiley and Arlin Smith, chose for their award-winning Portland oyster bar.

>> TRAVERSO: So Eventide is one of my favorite restaurants in Portland, which is really my favorite food town in New England, and they are making us the classic New England clambake.

>> WIESE: Hey, guys.

>> TRAVERSO: Hey.

>> Welcome.

>> Hi, guys.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh, my gosh, thank you so much for having us.

This is so exciting.

>> WIESE: Hi, I'm Richard Wiese.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh, excuse me.

Hi, I'm Amy.

>> Andrew-- nice to meet you.

>> Amy?

Nice to meet you-- Mike Wiley.

>> Pleasure.

>> WIESE: Richard Wiese.

>> Richard, a pleasure.

>> WIESE: I love it you've got the hard work already done here-- made a fire.

>> TRAVERSO: Ah, feels so good.

I understand these are called the Ovens.

>> The Ovens.

>> TRAVERSO: So what is this?

>> It's a sort of interesting geological formation that sort of has a long history here on MDI, Mount Desert Island.

>> WIESE: As many clambakes or lobster bakes as I've ever been to, I've never done something at a place called the Ovens.

>> TRAVERSO: I know.

>> WIESE: You know, which is kind of neat in itself.

>> Traditionally, clambakes are dug into the ground in sand beaches.

We're not digging into this rock.

We have this steel pan that we had fabricated for this purpose.

>> It's almost like a crawfish boil.

We're just looking to try to get a whole lot of stuff cooking away in seaweed and seawater steam, and you end up with, I don't know, a nice amalgamation of flavors.

>> Yeah, we got to get to that seaweed picking because we are under the gun.

The tide is coming in, about to here, and we are going to be washed away.

>> TRAVERSO: All right, well, then, let's get moving.

>> All right, so this is rockweed, found all along the coast of Maine.

>> WIESE: Wow, it's tough.

>> Yeah-- I mean, it's edible.

It's not particularly delicious, but it makes for a great cooking vessel.

>> Oh, a little green crab, look at that guy.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh, how beautiful.

Okay.

>> I got another load.

>> TRAVERSO: Got enough?

>> Hey.

>> WIESE: Hello.

Hi, I'm Richard.

>> Arlin, nice to meet you.

>> WIESE: Hey, Arlin, nice to meet you, too.

>> TRAVERSO: So Arlin is the classically trained chef in the group, but he actually manages the restaurants.

>> I'm babying the fire right now.

Once this bed is satisfied, then that's when we build the clambake.

♪ ♪ >> Don't drop the potatoes.

>> No, I won't drop the potatoes.

♪ ♪ >> We've got mussels.

>> Do you want to put it over here?

>> Absolutely.

We've got the tray of accompaniments here.

>> WIESE: Yes, and you know... All right, I'm already seeing some variations on the traditional clambake.

>> It's not too far from it.

There's almost always a pork product included.

Potatoes, eggs, shellfish, lobster.

>> TRAVERSO: You know, the eggs are new to me, actually.

I have not seen eggs in a clambake before.

>> WIESE: I haven't, either.

>> Time is of the essence.

We got to grab some seawater.

>> All right.

>> WIESE: Okay, why don't you pass that one to me?

Got it.

>> Beautiful.

>> The tide is a-coming.

We got a good hot fire going.

That's what we need to see.

So now, layering seaweed on the bottom.

>> TRAVERSO: Smells so good.

>> I hear the crackle of burning sea vegetables.

>> WIESE: Could be the screaming little green crab.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh, no!

Poor little guy.

A spa would charge a lot of money just to, like, stick your face right here.

>> Yeah, exactly.

>> Absolutely.

>> All right, potatoes.

>> We can run with that.

>> Yeah, we'll go pork and hot dogs.

>> TRAVERSO: What's the tradition of those red hot dogs?

>> It is red dye three now.

>> These are specific to Maine.

Apparently, there used to be one guy that, when he made the hotdogs, they turned red due to some sort of bacterial... (all laugh) But they tasted great and everybody loved them.

>> At our restaurant, at Eventide, we serve a New England-style clambake in a steamer basket, pack it in seaweed, so you get all that really nice briny aromatic stuff going on.

We've had cooks who are, like, "You're a coward if you're not removing those rubber bands beforehand."

But I think there's...

I don't know.

There's a certain amount of showboating involved there.

And you shifted it that one more time.

>> WIESE: I mean, I love... this is sort of like dinner theater.

>> And that's that.

>> TRAVERSO: So how much time do we need for this to cook?

>> Should take about an hour and a half.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay!

>> So we can go and enjoy the day here for a little bit.

>> TRAVERSO: All right, great.

>> WIESE: All right, great.

♪ ♪ >> WIESE: I've noticed the tide has come up quite a bit.

>> Oh, yeah, absolutely.

I think it's lunch time.

If we don't get over there pretty quickly, the ocean's going to take back its lunch.

>> WIESE: Oh, boy, okay.

>> All right, one, two, three.

Everyone feeling good?

>> All right, you can go down.

>> WIESE: Oh, wow.

>> Look at those guys.

>> TRAVERSO: Gorgeous.

It smells like happiness.

It smells a lot like lobster and kind of smoked seaweed.

>> Throw the mussels in?

>> TRAVERSO: Gosh, you don't want to miss a steamer or a mussel.

>> WIESE: You know, guys, I think the timing was perfect.

The water's about to put the fire out, and now... uh-oh, there it goes.

>> TRAVERSO: It's about to go out.

>> WIESE: Almost on cue.

>> TRAVERSO: Wow, look at that!

>> All right, and here comes the soot.

>> WIESE: It's like Hawaii.

Wow.

>> TRAVERSO: Look at that!

>> WIESE: Look at that-- that is neat.

Very good presentation, guys.

>> TRAVERSO: Wow.

>> So I think we should take our cue.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh, my gosh, this is so good.

Look how beautiful.

>> WIESE: This is five stars-- this is six stars.

>> TRAVERSO: Yeah, absolutely.

>> WIESE: No, really.

I can't think of a place...

I love eating outdoors.

>> TRAVERSO: A more beautiful setting, more delicious food.

Yeah, let's do it.

This is unbelievable-- this is so good.

>> WIESE: Ready?

Want to eat some food?

>> So if you guys are interested, we brought some steamed buns from the restaurant.

Throw some clams in there, throw a little hot dog in there.

Man, we have some big lobsters here.

These guys are not messing around.

>> TRAVERSO: I have never had a better clambake.

This is incredible.

>> WIESE: It's an honor for us to have such a great meal with such a beautiful setting, so thank you very much for this.

>> TRAVERSO: Thank you so much.

>> It's our pleasure.

>> Cheers!

>> WIESE: Let's have some more lobstahs!

>> TRAVERSO: To Eventide!

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: More than 270 ponds and lakes can be found in the beautiful Lakes Region of New Hampshire, but the star is unquestionably Lake Winnipesaukee.

Winnie, as the locals call it, is the state's largest lake, and it's here the U.S. mail boat Sophie C. carries on a tradition of delivering mail to island residents that goes back to 1892.

♪ ♪ >> I've been a mail clerk on the Motor Vessel Sophie C. for 17 seasons.

This is the startup of my 18th season delivering mail on Lake Winnipesaukee.

It's a unique experience.

It's more than just a mail delivery boat.

It is a boat that brings the islands together as a community.

When you go out to the different islands, the people come down to greet Sophie, not only to pick up their mail, but to see their neighbors, because we all have such busy lives these days, and we don't stop to take time to just enjoy our friends and our family.

Hi, guys.

>> Yes, sir.

>> Oh, great, that's one.

(laughing) >> See you later, Annie.

(dogs barking) >> It is just a gorgeous lake.

The scenery changes from day to day, depending on the casting of the light or just the boats that pass us when we're traveling about the lake.

But you can't experience anything more lovely than just looking at the scenic beauty of New Hampshire.

It's just a beautiful, beautiful lake.

♪ ♪ (exclaiming) >> Sophie was built in 1945 for Lake Winnipesaukee.

Though she operated for many years as a passenger-carrying vessel, she didn't get the contract until 1969 to actually deliver mail.

And so she's been delivering mail since 1969 continuously, every summer.

She is named after the owner's mother, and that would be Sophie C. Hedblom, or Sophie Caroline.

We love to brag about the Sophie C. being the oldest floating post office in America.

And we hold that right because in 1916, by an act of Congress, the mail boat on Lake Winnipesaukee back then was granted the right to cancel mail, making it a full-fledged post office.

It is a right that we hold today.

We still sell stamps, we have our own cancellation stamp, and she is literally the oldest floating post office in America.

And this is a summer route that started back in 1892, mainly because the Camp Idlewild... for getting mail out to the kids during the summer camps.

Starting out at Loon Island, going over to Bear Island, and then on to Three Mile Island, home for the Appalachian Mountain Club.

She then goes to East Bear Island, and then comes back in to the Weirs, goes out on an afternoon trip, where she will go to to the south end of Bear Island to deliver to the boys' and girls' camp, Camp Nokomis and Camp Lawrence.

Each run is about two hours.

♪ ♪ >> The regular individuals that are on the island for the full summer, I know them by name, they know me by name, and every year when we start up Sophie, it's just exciting to see them and to see what's happened in their lives over the winter, and talk about looking forward to having another summer on the lake.

♪ ♪ Thank you!

>> Bye.

Have a good one!

>> NARRATOR: Back in the test kitchen, Amy cooks up a stovetop version of a New England clambake that's easy to make at home.

>> TRAVERSO: Doing a real, authentic New England clambake on the coast of Maine was one of those experiences that I'll always remember.

And it's something that everyone should do, but it can be a little bit hard if you don't have access to a private beach.

So we've come up with this recipe-- actually, our friend chef Matt Tropiano came up with this recipe-- and it's a stovetop clambake.

And we love it, because it allows you to take that experience of a clambake and bring it into your own kitchen.

Now, because we don't have the advantage of cooking over a live fire with salt air all around us, we have to add a little extra flavor in here to compensate.

So we're going to make what's called a bouillon.

It's just a flavored broth that we're going to cook our seafood in.

So I'm going to start my bouillon with a little bit of fennel, which adds, like, a sweetness and a little bit of licorice flavor.

Now, these ingredients are going in, but the seafood is actually going to be steaming in this broth-- it's not boiling in it-- so anything I add in here is really going to just perfume the seafood, it's not going to dominate it.

It's not going to be, like, overwhelming the flavor of the seafood.

So I have a couple of celery stalks that go in here.

And I have a leek here.

These are just the pale green and white parts, which have the best flavor.

And then I have one lemon.

I've sliced this.

I'm just going to put that right in there.

And some garlic-- this is half a head of garlic.

You don't have to peel it.

You can just throw those cloves right inside.

And a half a bottle of white wine.

Now, for cooking, I'd usually go with pinot grigio.

It's a nice kind of lighter white, it's not heavy and oaky like a chardonnay, and it has a nice, bright acidity, so that's my go-to white wine.

And you don't need anything expensive.

You don't want to buy anything terrible, but, you know, you could get a good bottle for ten bucks that will be fine for cooking.

I've got a tablespoon of salt.

Got to kind of mimic the seawater effect.

And then I've got a half a teaspoon of chili powder, and a half-teaspoon of smoked paprika.

Now, we chose smoked paprika since most traditional clambakes are cooked over a fire, and that permeates everything with some smoke.

This adds a little bit of smoky flavor to the mix.

And lastly, a tiny bit of cayenne pepper.

If you're really sensitive to spice, you don't have to use it, but this is really more of a warming effect than a spicy effect.

So I'm just going to give this a quick stir, get everything combined.

And now I'm going to bring it to a nice rolling boil.

Now, Mainers will tell you that if you cook a lobster with those little bands, it will alter the flavor of the meat, and give it a rubber band flavor.

I can't say I've really ever noticed that myself, and I've seen plenty of restaurants cooking with the bands, but ever since I heard that, I take them off.

I've got four lobsters, and on top of those, I'm going to put seaweed here I got at my local fish shop.

They are very happy to give it to you-- they have tons of it.

It's called rockweed.

It grows on all the beaches in New England.

It adds a little bit of extra sea flavor to your clambake here.

So I'm going to put the littlenecks on top of that, and then I'm going to cover those with the rest of the seaweed.

And I'm going to let this cook for six minutes.

So I'm going to cover it back up and let it cook.

Okay, it's been six minutes, so it's time to add the mussels.

I'm going to open this up.

And you can see things have cooked down a little bit.

The seaweed kind of cooks down a bit.

And now the mussels are ready to go in.

Now, these are going to cook for another six minutes, and when these are cooked, it's done-- everything will be ready.

If any of your shellfish are already open and don't close when you tap the shell, that means they're not good-- they've expired.

And the way you know they're cooked is when they open up.

So we're going to let this go for six minutes, all the shellfish should be opened up, the lobsters will be bright red, and we'll be ready to serve.

So it's been six minutes, and everything is cooked.

All the mussels are fully open, and if those are done, then everything else below it's going to be done, too.

So now is the challenge of sort of taking this thing apart and plating it.

I'm going to pull out my mussels.

Just have to have a little patience here as you grab them.

If you find any that did not open during cooking, you want to throw those out.

Those are not safe to eat.

Okay, I'm going to start to grab seaweed as I get to it now.

There we go.

It makes a really pretty base.

And again, a lot of seafood markets or fishmongers, they have this stuff in abundance, and they'll be happy to give it to you for free.

So we're getting to the lobsters.

I'm going to take this one out and lay it down there.

It's very pretty.

Getting ready to serve this.

I'll set these on another plate, a little extra plate on the table with extra shellfish.

And I'll get my butter and my broth ready to serve.

Okay, so this is a lot of food.

This could easily feed four to six people.

If you break down the lobsters, you could even probably feed eight.

So I've got here in front of me some butter, which obviously is delicious.

And this is the broth.

this is, like, gorgeous and briny and aromatic.

Tastes like the ocean, but with seasoning.

It's as if you threw some leeks and fennel and things into the ocean.

Mmm.

Mmm.

Wow.

That is really sweet meat, really delicious.

This is just such a treat, and, you know, you don't need a private beach to enjoy it.

So for this recipe and all the other delicious recipes we make on the show, you can visit weekendswithyankee.com.

>> NARRATOR: For exclusive video, recipes, travel ideas, tips from the editors, and access to the Weekends With Yankee digital magazine, go to weekendswithyankee.com and follow us on social media, @yankeemagazine.

Yankee magazine, the inspiration for the television series, provides recipes, feature articles, and the best of New England from the people who know it best.

Six issues for $10.

Call 1-800-221-8154. Credit cards accepted.

>> Major funding provided by... ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> The Vermont Country Store, the purveyors of the practical and hard-to-find since 1946.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪