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Portland's grand and beautiful Union Station was demolished in 1961, eventually replaced by a featureless strip mall. Progress? While too late to save the railroad station, the city's preservation movement did arise from the loss. (Now Portland is considering its replacement.)
A note from Monte's Fine Food owner Steve Quattrucci brought the station to mind as well as another victim of so-called "urban renewal." I'd left a message asking Quattrucci about canning tomatoes. Did he can them? Had his parents or grandparents? He sent a melancholy email in response:
"Your message got me thinking about my Nana Q — my father's mother, who raised a family of 9 kids on Middle Street near India Street. Most of the houses in 'Little Italy' had gardens — and my grandmother and aunts did can tomatoes and other vegetables and fruits. Unfortunately, by the time I knew her, Nana Q was in her 60s, and her neighborhood had been torn down by the City of Portland — its kitchen gardens lost to make way for parking."
Peggy Grodinsky, Food Editor
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