Meredith Goad

Staff Writer

Many people tell Meredith Goad that she has the best job in Maine, and most of the time she agrees.

Maine has a crazy appetite for food stories, and it’s Meredith’s job to satisfy those cravings with juicy tales from chefs, food producers, local farms, and the state’s fast-growing restaurant scene. Her work appears in Wednesday’s Business section and the Sunday Food & Dining section, and occasionally, but not as often as she’d like, on the front page.

A native of Memphis, Tenn., Meredith shamelessly flaunts her knowledge of good barbecue in front of her Yankee friends. She earned a bachelor of science degree in wildlife biology from Colorado State University, then studied science writing at the University of Missouri, where she received a master’s degree in journalism. She spent the first 20 years of her career covering science and environmental news, then switched to features in 2004, just as Portland’s food scene was taking off.

Her own most memorable meal? Back in the 1980s, on assignment in Finland, she shared a dinner of reindeer and Russian vodka with Maryland’s governor and a bunch of hungry scientists.

Meredith lives in Portland, but spends much of her time off back in Tennessee - either visiting family, or in online archives, researching her family’s history.

Food, Life & Culture

Soup to Nuts: Portland restaurants ramp up for summer tourist season

by Meredith Goad May 21, 2014

Portland’s food and drink purveyors are ready and waiting for summer crowds.

Business, Source

From farms to tables, a shopper disconnect in Maine

by Meredith Goad May 20, 2014October 10, 2014

A survey finds most Mainers want to buy local foods, but need more help finding them through clear labeling and source information.

Food, Life & Culture, Source

Carthage woman wrote the book on keeping a family cow

by Meredith Goad May 18, 2014

Joann Grohman’s homesteading classic, first published in 1975, has been revised and updated for a new generation.

Food, Life & Culture

Soup to Nuts: Dining (way) out

by Meredith Goad May 14, 2014

Twelve miles out to sea on Vinalhaven, the new restaurant Salt focuses on local ingredients because it wants to and it has to.

Food

Dressin’ up the dog

by Meredith Goad May 14, 2014

The Blue Rooster in Portland unveils a lineup of inspired wieners created by Maine chefs.

Meet, Source

Brenda Erickson turns favorite recipes into watercolor art

by Meredith Goad May 11, 2014September 26, 2016

The Round Pond resident brings fresh, local foods to (still) life.

Source

You say farmer’s, and I say farmers

by Meredith Goad May 11, 2014September 29, 2015

If you say farmers’, let’s call the whole thing off: The apostrophe apostasy, market style.

Food

Food Dispatches

by Meredith Goad May 7, 2014

PORTLAND Sweetgrass gives moms taste of treats and wines Sweetgrass Winery & Distillery in Union is bringing its annual Mother’s Day event to its new Old Port shop on Sunday. The event pairs chocolates made by Maine chocolatiers with this year’s vintage wines and spirits from Sweetgrass. The tasting will run from 11 a.m. to […]