Protein has become America’s nutritional obsession, and protein bars have become a $2 billion/year business.

            The World Health Organization and the American National Academy of Medicine recommend that we get 0.8 grams/kg body weight daily. For a 180 lb. person, that would translate to about 65 grams of protein daily. At least 85% of Americans already get that much.

            For reference, 6 ounces of chicken give you 53 grams of protein while 6 ounces of salmon or lean hamburger give you 44. A 6 oz container of Greek yogurt supplies about 14 grams.

            Vegans must be more careful, but an ounce of almonds supply 6 gm, 8 oz of soy milk give 7 and 6 oz of tofu contain 14 gm protein.

            Does anyone need more protein? If you are working out vigorously trying to build muscle, upping your protein intake probably helps, but only up to double the recommended 0.8 gm/kg intake, with no added benefit no matter how much more protein you consume.

            Older adults often lose muscle mass. The greatest way to avoid this is with resistance training (lifting weights). There is some evidence that modest increase of protein intake, to about 1.2 gm/kg/day may help, but the key is exercise, not diet.

            What about protein bars?

            They can be an easy way to get calories and protein if you cannot eat a normal meal. Think long hikes or gym workouts squeezed in at lunch hour. They are certainly easy to carry.

            Be careful to read the ingredients. Manufacturers can slap a “high protein” label on anything, and the majority of “energy bars” are glorified candy bars, loaded with sugar and ultra-processed. Some of the better options are Clif Bars, RxBars and Rise protein bars, but even the better bars are not as good as a balanced meal with natural protein.

            Excess protein can be harmful to the kidneys, so keep your protein intake to no more than 1.6 gm/kg/day (130 gm for a 180 lb. person – proportionally more or less depending on your weight).

            Edward Hoffer MD is Associate Professor of Medicine, part-time, at Harvard.

What Does The Doctor Say?

By Dr. Edward Hoffer

Ask just about anyone, and they will most-fondly remember particular schoolteachers and principals who went out of their way to know them.

            In his decade of administration that followed his 20 classroom years, former Principal Kevin Tavares made it a mission to know each and every student that walked the halls of Old Hammondtown School. The culture that Tavares helped Rose Bowman instill in Mattapoisett Schools over their many years working together makes Tavares, a 2024 retiree, an ideal recipient of the 2025 Keel Award for the Town of Mattapoisett.

            Together, the two educators forged an identity and a platform upon which current principals Linda Ashley (Center School) and Stephanie Wells (Old Hammondtown) can build.

            “You just have to treat everyone as individuals. Each student that’s in front of you is different, and you have to realize that early on because there isn’t a one size fits all. …You have to meet every kid where they are, and the only way you can do that is to build a relationship with them,” said Tavares, who was moved by the news of his selection as the Mattapoisett recipient for The Wanderer’s annual Keel Award. “When I see students that I had in the past, they remember those small things, those little projects that we did, that weren’t just reading a book.”

            Tavares’ journey to Old Hammondtown wasn’t always on his radar, but a young man from Dartmouth who didn’t necessarily see himself following in his father’s 33-years-in-education footsteps discovered during his college years that education was where he belonged.

            A 1983 graduate Bridgewater State College (now University), Tavares’ association with Old Hammondtown began with a student-teaching placement in the fall of 1982.

            “I already had a connection with the school,” he said.

            His career in Mattapoisett Schools didn’t begin in earnest, however, until 1994, when his grandmother was perusing the “want ads” in late summer and spotted a small help-wanted to fill a teaching position at Old Hammondtown.

            “She saw that little ad in the paper,” Tavares recalls.

            Until then, the lack of teaching jobs had led him toward private-sector opportunities, and Tavares had a job working for a transportation company until it shut down, leaving him out of work. Education-related jobs were not growing on trees, and now his fallback in the business world was failing him. Things changed when a newly installed principal at Old Hammondtown interviewed Tavares, then called him back on Labor Day weekend, offering him his first job in education.

            “I knew that I always wanted to work with kids in some capacity, but it really was by chance,” said Tavares, still not realizing that his return to Old Hammondtown for his first teaching job would be the last move of his career. “I thought I was going to take a business track, but when it came down to it, I really was kind of called toward teaching and doing something with kids. …I ended up majoring in Elementary (Education), and that’s when I knew that I was really on the right path.”

            As Union President over 18 of his first 20 (classroom) years at Old Hammondtown, Tavares felt he had “a great relationship” with school committees.

            “Was it perfect? No. There were times when we agreed to disagree, but for the most part we have always had supportive school committees,” he said. “They don’t get enough credit in my opinion because we had a great working relationship. It wasn’t contentious… they were respectful of the teachers that we had.”

            Regarding his own path, Tavares said that, sometimes to a fault, his lens as an administrator was always through the eyes of the teacher.

            “Because it’s a hard job,” he said.

            Seeing the job from both sides, he developed his skills under the watchful eye of Bowman, the principal of Mattapoisett Schools. Tavares, when he moved to administration, was the visible leader of Old Rochester Regional Administration on the Old Hammondtown campus, but for eight of those years he had the benefit of Bowman’s experience. He said he learned from Bowman how to lead so that “teachers were able to do their job.”

            The Town of Mattapoisett had two principles (Center and Old Hammondtown elementary schools) in the 1980s but altered that plan during Bowman’s tenure to better connect the schools from a learning standpoint. With her retirement, the town restored the dual-principal structure, while ORR builds synergy via its district-wide learning plans under Superintendent Mike Nelson’s direction.

            While the student population at Old Hammondtown has decreased during Tavares’ 30-year career there from over 300 students in 1994 to 174 by the time he retired in 2024, the building has become far more adequate. Tavares began teaching in one of three “portable” classrooms (trailers), but the heart of the job, he says, doesn’t really change.

            “First and foremost, kids need to know that you care about them, that what they say matters. Then building relationships from there,” he said. “The most important thing to me was building the relationship early on, gaining trust, and to listen – because you can learn a lot when you listen.”

            Tavares built his career around the belief that a student that feels heard is more likely to engage, learn, remember, and become educated.

            “One of the things I learned earlier was you have to build relationships before you can do anything else because, if they don’t trust you, they’re not going to learn,” he said.

            In acknowledging that the culture of a school starts with its principal, Tavares looks up to Bowman for instilling and supporting those values.

            “I think that’s one of the things that Rose was able to do. To a certain extent what I was able to do in working with Rose was create a culture where teachers felt safe and trusted and were able to do their job. …Because of that, teachers tended to stay,” he said. “I had tremendous support from families over the years, and an amazing staff. I think one of the things that Mattapoisett should be most proud of is, when teachers start working there, they don’t leave.

            “If you look at the staff (at Center and Old Hammondtown schools), the teachers that are there have been there for a long time. They come, they stay. When they’re fortunate enough to get the job, they stay. I would imagine three quarters of the staff’s been there at least 20 years. …It’s a great place to teach.”

2025 Mattapoisett Keel Award

By Mick Colageo

            I suppose I’ve come to accept the arrival of fall. As I listen to the persistent hum of crickets and a Blue Jay’s distinctive jeer, I feel that familiar shift. I don’t mind the 70s temps, but the early morning dips do seem abrupt. By the calendar, fall doesn’t really happen until September 22, marking the astronomical autumnal equinox. As we know, seasonal changes don’t heed dates and calendars. Wind changes, temperature drops, and a new season is suddenly here.

            In the waning days of sunshine, we have enjoyed the fruits of our labors in the garden – the plentiful yield of tomatoes brought us gazpacho and tomato sauce and many variations on the tomato theme. Eggplant, peppers, cucumbers, and string beans did moderately well, and the blackberries were phenomenally productive. I hope there will be a good potato crop in spite of the dry summer, and being away didn’t help.

            It’s always hard to balance a full life with a garden in summer, because it’s a full-time job. Yet I managed to get out on the bike and sailboat and even took up golf again after a 30-year hiatus thanks to a friend. Back in the day, my priorities were gardening first with everything else trailing in importance. But that has shifted slightly as I strive for a more balanced way of living.

            I have to admit that fall (and the season that follows) are good, as they give us gardeners a chance to slow down. There is plenty of time yet to accomplish any unfinished tasks left from summer, and now is the best time for reorganizing and thinking ahead so that, for once, spring’s workload will be more manageable.

            Depending on the scale of your garden, fall can be fairly work-intensive. British garden writer Penelope Hobhouse stresses the importance of fall tasks in her book “On Gardening.”

            “Autumn work is vital: moving shrubs as necessary and as they become dormant, and cutting down perennials – but leaving those such as sedums and grasses, with flowers and leaves which continue to look handsome through the autumn months. Spent annuals must be pulled out and the last seed gathered and stored.”

            Following her advice, I started to cut down several tall perennials (shasta daisies and phlox amongst them) that look pretty ghastly once they are done. It brought instant results, with other plants standing out without interference, refreshing the scene anew.

            Ms. Hobhouse also recommends effective sterilization of garden beds (to get rid of diseases or weed seed) while the soil is still warm. I see I have my work cut out for me here, as the porcelain-berry vines have run riot in my yard. I used to think they were pretty with their Delft colored berries adorning the vigorous heart-shaped vines – but these are considered the most pervasive of invasives. Their appearance on our backyard gazebo is quite lovely, but then I see them popping up through other areas of the garden (they can be spread by birds and small mammals) and realize it’s out of control. There are ways to remove them and that is one of my top priorities this fall.

            I’m fine with leaving the common violet that serves as a kind of ground cover in parts of my garden. Who can resist a tiny bouquet of violets? So, a lot of what you remove is personal. In previous years, I have been overzealous in removing such plants as lemon balm, coreopsis, honesty, cosmos and datura to the point that they’re extinct in my patch. My advice is to save a few plants if you can, unless utterly rampant.

            Here is a checklist of chores to be done in fall:

            – Reseed bare spots in the lawn.

            – Collect seed heads from purple coneflowers, zinnias, marigolds, hollyhocks – whatever you reseed each year. Use airtight containers labelled with plant name and date of collection.

            – Get a truckload of manure. Harvest compost pile. Combine and spread on graded beds. These simple ingredients are the key to healthy soil and, in turn, a good garden.

            – Shop for bargains – ornamentation, peat moss, plants. Look at local nurseries offering seasonal discounts.

            – Move shrubs and plants now. Both establish better while soil retains some warmth.

            – Continue dividing perennials.

            – Plant fall window boxes and planters if you haven’t yet.

            – Take cuttings of shrubs, using half-ripe wood in early autumn, hard wood in late autumn. An excellent source is “Plant Propagation” by Alan Toogood for the American Horticultural Society.

            – Clear leaves from herbaceous plants to minimize damage by slugs. These include hostas, asters, and euphorbias.

            – Rake and gather leaves from paths, lawns, and borders and let them rot into leaf mold. If you own a shredder, use it for reducing plant stems and shrub prunings into a chaff-like material. Use in alternate layers with kitchen waste and grass clippings in the compost bin.

            – Scratch bone meal into the peony and iris beds.

            – Fall’s a great time for picking bouquets, along with ripe vegetables and fruit.

            – Pot up tender herbs and start to gradually bring in potted plants, the same way you put them out – a few hours at a time.

            – Don’t forget to check and clean your tools, machinery and watering systems.

            – Last but very important: Clean out the shed before winter.

            I’ll follow nature’s lead… the gradual diminishing of sound, the cooling temperatures and fewer flowers – the quiet beauty and unhurried pacing that is fall.

            “Lord: it is time. The summer was immense. Lay your shadow on the sundials and let loose the wind in the fields.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

By Laura McLean