A Maine Couple's Fabulous First Thanksgiving Menu

Stalks of wheat, figs, and wild rosehip berries garnish the regal roasted turkey holding court at the gathering. A Dijon-and-maple syrup glaze yields a super-flavorful bird with golden, perfectly burnished skin. Sweet-tart wild Maine blueberries amp up the cranberry sauce served alongside, as do the fresh ginger, orange, and sage.

Pickled red onion, sautéed shiitake mushrooms, and toasted sesame seeds lend color and texture to a warm spinach salad. Potatoes are baked until tender, then mashed with butter, sour cream, cream cheese, milk, and in a fondue-inspired twist, raclette, then baked again under another layer of cheese. Roasted potato skins and snipped chives top off the indulgent casserole.

For the meal’s finale, Storms offers a deep-dish apple-and-wild-blueberry pie and a flourless chocolate-almond cake, served with whipped crème fraîche and raspberries. “Greg’s a chocolate fanatic, so I always like to have a chocolate dessert for him,” she says.

As newly minted Mainers, Sarah Storms and Greg Greenwald experienced a real rite of passage this year: picking a freezerful of blueberries while batting away ferocious mosquitoes in August, then putting the hard-won fruit to delicious use on their Thanksgiving table three months later. The sweet possibilities of smalltown life were exactly what spurred Storms, an interiors stylist and writer; and Greenwald, a construction manager, to pull up stakes from Brooklyn in 2016 and move to this former flower farm on eight forested acres, 20 miles south of Portland.

“We love the outdoors and the quiet, and we both grew up worshipping the woods and the ocean,” says Greenwald. An avid outdoorsman, he often hunts for a few hours before heading to work; Storms tends to her garden or explores local flea markets when she isn’t focusing on SGBMade, the digital brand consultancy she recently launched. This year’s Thanksgiving—a small gathering of dear friends and Storms’s younger sister, Meg—is a celebration of their new surroundings. “Buying this house felt like the first really adult thing we’ve ever done,” says Storms, whose 2015 wedding was featured in Martha Stewart Weddings. “It gave us the courage to start our own traditions.”

Storms chose a palette of brick red, scarlet, and rust to contrast with her blue walls. She put out her own glasses and vintage silverware and inaugurated new plates that she’d been eyeing for years.