In 1974, we packed everything that we owned onto a 1954 flatbed Ford, and trekked to one of the most beautiful pieces of land in the world, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. We landed, in the middle of a blinding spring snowstorm, in a tiny town named Meat Cove. It was there that we began our love for cooking and having people in and around our table. We ate freshly caught salmon from Angus’ salmon berth, brook trout caught from the clear cold stream behind our house, salt cod and potatoes, bread made from hand ground flour, wild strawberry tartlets, mint for our tea that grew by the local stream, our source for water, and home brewed beer. Whenever there was bounty, there were family, friends, and neighbors to share it with.

After our two little girls were born, we had a yearning for going home to Maine. I became an elementary school teacher, and Glenn bought and restored a seventy foot wooden herring carrier, named The Double Eagle. We owned a tiny cape in Eliot, and we were always feeding people, and breaking bread with folks that we cared about, all in our tiny kitchen.

I grew up in Rockland, and Glenn fished here, so in 2000, we bought a house in Owls Head. We have a very large kitchen and a seventeen foot long table where we have hosted many dinners of lobster, soups, stews, roasts, and countless desserts. Always good beer and wine alongside and plenty of cheer. So when somebody once asked us if we went to culinary school our answer was “no”, but I would say that we are accomplished home cooks that love hosting guests.

We are the Lawrences, a Scottish-Canadian immigrant family and descendants from the Scottish Clan of MacLaren. Our food names commemorate family members, Blanche, Eric, Nan + Pa, and dear little Lorelei, as well as pets, Maxwood and Breton, and boats such as The Double Eagle, and of course friends like John Henry and Jan, and places that are meaningful to us, like Victoria, York, and Eliot.

We love welcoming you to our table, at Clan MacLaren, and we love to hear your stories!

Jackie and Glenn