Carol Segal has cooked professionally for more than 35 years, from Australia to Florida to Presque Isle, Maine. She spent a couple of years cooking on Great Diamond Island in Casco Bay, where she earned her nickname “Cookin Carol.” And she cooked and crewed on sailing vessels: “If you can cook in a little galley on rough seas, you can cook anywhere,” she says.

These days, Cookin Carol’s favorite place to cook is the well-equipped and ever-growing country kitchen of her circa-1878 farmhouse on Hatch Road in Auburn. Segal moved to Mount Apatite Farm with her two young sons in 1990, and about 10 years later she purchased the farm and immediately began expanding the size of her garden. Currently, her garden covers about two acres on the sunny hillside in back of the farmhouse.

In her garden, Segal grows organic lettuce, Swiss chard, broccoli, kale and several varieties of eggplant, which she uses to make her newest dish, “Simply Elegant Eggplant.” She has 60 rhubarb plants, kiwi vines and grapes for her organic grape jelly, as well as beets for pickling, tomatilla plants for salsa, several types of beans and lots of herbs, including sweet green basil, cinnamon basil, cilantro, mint and more!

Plans for her farm include pumpkins that will be ripe for picking this fall, cooking classes at the farm and planting a couple acres of various, versatile beans.

“Four years ago I started a co-op,” says Segal, “and now I have 14 people on my list!” Segal’s cooperative works like other traditional co-ops: Members spend time working, in this case weeding and harvesting, and keep track of their hours. They are then “paid” in vegetables, herbs and other farm products that they can “purchase” while they are at the farm or at one of the farmers markets where Cookin Carol sells her wares.

Although Segal has a summer intern who will be with her for a few weeks, “I don’t have any paid help,” she says, so members of her cooperative are integral to keeping up with the chores on the farm. “I would love to have more people join (the co-op),” she adds.

Families are welcome to visit, and the gardens at Mount Apatite Farm are all “kid friendly,” with hay spread to indicate where it’s safe to walk. Members of the co-op often bring their children to help in the garden or to play while the adults work.

True to her name, Cookin Carol devotes a significant amount of her time to preparing healthy and fresh meals and specialty items. “I try to use as much organic as I can, and when I make something I go out to the garden and pick it,” she says, “so it can’t get any fresher than that.”

Unfortunately, she doesn’t grow everything that she needs, nor does she raise livestock on Mount Apatite Farm, so she supplements her stock of ingredients by shopping locally. She picked the blueberries that she uses in her wholesome Blueberry Lemon Muffins at Just A Mere Farm in New Gloucester.

Every Sunday through mid-October, from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m., you will find Cookin Carol at the Lewiston Farmer’s Market. In addition to her seasonal vegetables, herbs and flowers, she also stocks jars of homegrown mint tea sweetened with natural sugars, sandwiches made on pretzel bread (in collaboration with Pretzel Logic, a vendor at the market), and fresh garden salads. She also carries quarts and pints of frozen soups and other seasonal and specialty items.

Recently, a customer shared: “I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoy your farm stand. It is the essence of summer to me.”

Segal enjoys educating people about food. “Why buy local?” she says rhetorically. “What better way to know what you’re eating than to buy it from your local farmer. Buying local helps to preserve the environment and strengthens our community by investing food dollars close to home and fostering local job creation.”

She adds, “The main reason to buy local, is you will not find a fresher-tasting vegetable; one that hasn’t traveled across the continent or sat on a store shelf for days.”

Cookin Carol caters both small and large gatherings, although she said she particularly enjoys preparing “intimate dinners for 10 to 12 people. . . . I can go into anyone’s kitchen and make a meal.”

In addition, Segal offers “E-Meals.” The concept is simple: “E-Meals sends out a menu, the customer places an order and I deliver the meals,” she explains. Cookin Carol will deliver soups and entrees (always with a vegetarian alternative) as well as delicious snacks and desserts anywhere from the Lewiston-Auburn area to Portland, and delivery is free for orders over $20.

Mount Apatite Farm sits on 24 acres of land. In addition to the garden and farmhouse, it is also the site of a popular quarry where gem and mineral enthusiasts from all over the world come to mine smokey quartz, beryl, feldspar and apatite, the mineral for which Mount Apatite Farm is named. The fee for a day of “rockhounding” in the Hatch Ledge quarry is $5 for adults (children are always free), making a trip to the farm a nutritious, educational, affordable and unique adventure for families.

Also, Mount Apatite Farm will be hosting two “Family Fun Days” on Sept. 15 and Oct. 20. Activities for kids of all ages will include pick your own pumpkins and other veggies, a scavenger hunt in the garden, Cookin Carol’s all-you-can eat barbecue and a big salad bar, as well as rockhounding in the quarry and other adventures. Segal says she plans to keep the cost of her Family Fun Days low so they’re family affordable.

For more information about Mount Apatite Farmm, Segal can be reached at 795-6376 or at [email protected]. You can also visit her at the farm or on her website: www.cookincarol.com.

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

Ingredients:

2 cups sifted flour

1/3 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, beaten

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup oil

1 lemon (juice and rind)

1 cup blueberries

Directions:

Combine flour, salt, sugar and baking powder.

In small bowl, beat 2 eggs; add milk and oil. Add the juice of one lemon (remove seeds). Add pureed lemon rind.

Fold the wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Stir no more than 15 to 20 strokes.

Fold in blueberries.

Spoon into well-greased muffin tin.

Bake in a 400-degree pre-heated oven for 25 minutes or until golden on top.

Makes 12 muffins.

Simple Elegant Eggplant

4 medium eggplants (any variety — Cookin Carol uses organic Black Beauty)

2 large ripe tomatoes, cut in half and then sliced

2 medium size onions, cut in half and then sliced

1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated

1 cup cheddar cheese, grated

1/3 cup cinnamon basil (1 small bunch — can substitute with sweet green basil)

Small bunch of parsley

Lemon pepper to taste

Organic canola oil

Coat glass pie dish with oil. Peel eggplant and slice into thin slices. If using a plump eggplant cut slices in half.

Put slices in bowl and lightly drizzle with canola oil. Sprinkle with lemon pepper. Mix together.

Spread out half the mixture in the bottom of dish. Then layer with all the tomato slices, all the chopped basil and about half your onion slices. Then sprinkle over that half of your cheese mixture.

Repeat layering with the remaining eggplant, onions and cheese.

Bake in a 350-degree oven for 40 to 50 minutes. Cheese should be golden brown. Insert fork to make sure eggplant is tender.

Sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley and enjoy healthy eating!