Category Archives: Community

Tis The Season

Posted on December 10, 2014 by AnnieRie

Christmas season is well underway around here. The tree is finally trimmed.

The Christmas cards are done.

I picked up the poinsettias from Greenway. I need to stop there again when they get in some garland so I can decorate the front doors.

Lovely, aren’t they?

More into the season? How about a horse parade? In Lisbon on Saturday. I finally get to go this year. I have to remember to bring a bag of canned goods for the food bank. Get there early to find a parking space.

Or, how about the Geminids? What are the Geminids? One fantastic meteor shower, peaking every December. At the Howard County Conservancy beginning at 10 pm on the 13th. With Joel Goodman and Alex Storrs, our favorite leaders for our meteor watching events. The weather may actually cooperate this year, as it should be mostly clear, but a bit cold. Never fear. There will be hot cider served. Bring a comfy chair (lounge chairs work well) and blankets or a sleeping bag to put around you. See you there?

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Posted in Community, Farms, Howard County, Local Businesses, Weather, West HoCo and tagged community, holidays, Howard County, howard county conservancy, local businesses, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Shop ‘Til You Drop

Posted on December 4, 2014 by AnnieRie

In our area this weekend. Without ever entering a big box store. How?

Midnight Madness in Ellicott City Friday night.

Plus, two holiday markets. One at the Howard County Conservancy. Vendors such as the Howard County Beekeepers. Greenbridge Pottery. Breezy Willow Farms. Those I know will be in attendance at the Conservancy. Lots more, too. Artists. Photographers. Jewelry makers.

Another at the Glenwood Community Center. I hear my friend Ned Tillman will be selling and signing his new book “Saving the Places We Love”.

Sunday the holiday market out at Olney.They even have an online shopping site to help you decide the great gifts you can purchase.

Get all sorts of gifts and support local artisans. Local businesses. Local authors.

As for those great stores in Ellicott City. My favorites. Like the Wine Bin and the Forget Me Not Factory.

We will be at the Conservancy helping out Saturday morning. Feeding the vendors and volunteers.

Mini pumpkin muffins for the treats table.

Maybe we will get to Ellicott City tomorrow night.

Seriously. You could do all your shopping by supporting small businesses in the area.

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Posted in Community, Howard County, Local Businesses and tagged community, hoco loco, holidays, Howard County, howard county conservancy, local businesses. Bookmark the permalink.

Giving Tuesdays

Posted on December 2, 2014 by AnnieRie

Today isn’t the only day we consider giving to the community where we live. These One Day “opportunities” may raise awareness, but the need for giving back is year round.

From my little corner of the world, a few suggestions for today, and for the rest of the year.

Howard County Community Action Council has many ways to make a difference. Beyond the Food Bank. There is the One Months Rent program. The Prepare for Success. Many other smaller ways to help.

For those of us who have a community plot at Howard County Conservancy, our “Giving Tuesdays” span six months of the year. May until November.

Even after our giving of fresh produce along with other sources like local farms and other community gardeners has ended, the food bank still collects non perishables, and also non food items like infant care or personal care items. Helping them outside of the holiday giving season is greatly appreciated.

And, of course, in my circle of giving, the non profit (non county-affiliated) Howard County Conservancy has many ways to donate. My current favorite “Critter Champions”.

You can donate to feed the critters for a week or a month. You even get your picture on the turtle tank if you wish.

I mean, who can resist keeping Ranger fed with his daily ration of mice?

Along with the goats, chickens, turtle, snake, and tree fox (did I miss any of the critters?), Ranger gets fed by volunteers who give their time, and donations for the assorted food items necessary to keep them healthy and happy.

One more suggestion that is easy to do. And will benefit a local charity, just a few miles down the road in Baltimore. Check through your closets. Look for unused scarves, gloves, sweaters, mittens, and other clothing. Take them to Boarman’s or Kendall’s. Both sites have St. Vincent de Paul collection bins. Here, your contribution will stay in the area and help those in need.

Lots of ways to help Howard County’s nonprofits. These are just a small sample. Check out The Volunteer Center guide to Holiday Giving on their web page.

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Posted in Commentary, Community, Howard County, Volunteering and tagged commentary, community, hoco loco, Howard County, howard county conservancy, volunteering. Bookmark the permalink.

Small Business Christmas Trees

Posted on November 23, 2014 by AnnieRie

All this week and next, I will be focusing on small business shopping for Christmas. After all, the locavore in me spills over into other aspects of my shopping habits.

Let’s start with Christmas trees. To support your local farmers, you can get a tree at many sites in or close to Howard County. Some are “U-Cut”. Others like Gorman Farms work with farmers to bring in fresh trees for sale.

The U-Cut sites include Greenway in Woodbine and Cooksville, Pine Valley in Carroll County just north of I-70 off Rte. 97, TLV Tree Farm in Glenelg, Gaver Farm west of Mt. Airy, Feezers in Marriottsville, and Browning Farms on Penn Shop Rd near Mt. Airy (no web site).

For those in other parts of Maryland, here is the Maryland Christmas Tree Association’s list of U-Cut farms.

We have cut trees at Greenway, TLV and Pine Valley. Where you go depends on what kind of tree you want. What size. We now tend to look for smaller trees so will pick a site that has graduated prices depending on tree size.

All of these sites will be open next weekend, and what better way to commemorate small business Saturday than to buy a local tree. Most of the sites also have pre-cut trees, wreaths, roping, and my personal favorite for my house, poinsettias are sold in the greenhouses at Greenway.

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Posted in Community, Farms, Howard County, Local Businesses, West HoCo and tagged community, farms, holidays, Howard County, local businesses, traditions, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

CSA’d Out

Posted on November 18, 2014 by AnnieRie

I can understand it. Our first year we were overwhelmed at the end of the CSA season. But, we hung in there and learned from it, and drastically changed how we approached the weekly deluge of veggies.

I say this because at our first pick up last Thursday for our fall CSA, we heard that about 5 of our summer CSA members never picked up their last week of veggies, or fruit, or meat, or eggs. The food bank did well, as did our site host’s friends, who benefited from things the food bank doesn’t want. Like all that chicken and meat.

We are down to 30 members, from close to 50 in the summer. Enough to keep us going. Those fortunate enough to join us got new and exciting things, like these.

Watermelon radishes. I roasted mine.

Salanova lettuce. A red multileaf variety. So sweet. So flavorful. Devoured in a lunch mix with some poached chicken breast on top.

Baby Hakurei turnips. Thanks to Elizabeth at Three Beans on a String these will be honey glazed with Larriland apples and served for dinner in a few days.

The whole haul.

Napa cabbage. Will be a slaw soon, with apples. The beets. Already roasted and eaten. The potatoes. Made their way into a potato leek soup today, thanks to Friends and Farms having extra leeks for me to pick up this morning. Sweet peppers. Sliced in salad. Put into a frittata for tonight’s dinner. A couple of them are left.

As for that glorious cheese share.

Biweekly in the fall. That stinky funky six year aged cheddar. The “Lanchego”, which is simply awesome. A Colby. New to us, from this supplier. Creamy and delicate.

I can honestly say I am not CSA’d out. I am really enjoying the variety, and of course, the freshness. You don’t have to rush and eat it all in one week. With food this fresh, in two weeks, I swear it is still better than grocery store produce.

Tomorrow is my husband’s 64th birthday. Stand by to see what I put together to celebrate. Will I still need him? Will I still feed him?

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Posted in Commentary, Community, CSA, Food, Friends and Farms, LFFC, Remember When and tagged commentary, community, cooking, CSA, family, Food, foodie, real food, value of CSA. Bookmark the permalink.

Autumn in West County

Posted on November 9, 2014 by AnnieRie

Sure signs that autumn has arrived in western Howard County.

Boarman’s changes their signs from beer specials to ordering meats for the holidays. I was there today to order my Maple Lawn turkey, some of their homemade pork sausage for stuffing, and oysters to make an oyster stew. To be picked up for Thanksgiving weekend. Also to get a BotaBox to use for cooking. One stop shopping, including wine, beer and spirits. Gotta love the place.

WSSC has their signs up, telling us when deer management hunts will take place at Pigtail and Big Branch (on our side of the reservoir). The water level is low. Not sure how easy it is right now to get canoes or kayaks in at either of these sites.

Further up the road, TLV has their tree sign next to their pumpkin bale.

As for hay bales, it looks like many of the farms have their hay cut and baled for collection.

And then there are the last of the leaves coming down, and the sound of leaf blowers and vacuums. Like here at home.

Over 100 bags already done this season, with our rake and take partners picking them up regularly to use in their compost piles. We have a small one behind the shed, but trees this big and this old put out one heck of a mountain of leaves.

It is pretty, though, isn’t it?

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Posted in Community, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Nature, Weather, West HoCo and tagged community, Food, Howard County, local businesses, nature, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Three Years Old

Posted on November 2, 2014 by AnnieRie

My blogaversary is today. Three years ago, I started it to record my retirement journey. I took a few CSA pictures and started posting, inspired by a couple of local bloggers who recorded what they got from their Breezy Willow CSAs. I added my fall CSA bounty into that mix.

Kitchen Scribble and Allura. Kat at Kitchen Scribble still blogs, but Allura is no longer active.

Between howchow, the biggest local food blog, and the hocoblogs pages, I pretty much learned what was interesting to others, to get them to read my blog, and to find topics to keep it going.

And, somewhere between the Old “Dark Days” challenge, where I began that locavore journey in earnest, and today, I turned my focus from unconscious consumer of whatever was on sale or looked good, to a proponent of small businesses/farms/local purveyors and much more. I honestly think I became that advocate because of the blogging. I didn’t start out to write a food blog. More like a “here is what interests me where I live” blog.

What interests me the most these days is my community. Which includes most of Central Maryland. Still a pretty decent place to live. Even when the weather is awful. I haven’t tired of exploring it. Or of writing about it.

Stay tuned for a winter of exploration. Going to places brand new to us, rediscovering some old haunts that we haven’t visited in a long time. Winter isn’t a time for hibernation.

It’s also a time to really enjoy the outdoors. Want to join us for a hike this coming Saturday? A family hike out at the Mt. Pleasant site of the Howard County Conservancy. Groups of different ages, and paces, who will explore the grasslands and woodlands with volunteer naturalists leading the way. Free. 10am, November 8. The long term weather forecast looks good.

The pot people are waiting to greet us.

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Posted in Adventures, Commentary, Community, Day Trips, Farms, Hobbies, Howard County, Locavore, Retirement, Volunteering, Weather, West HoCo and tagged commentary, community, day trips, fall foliage, farms, hobbies, hoco loco, hocoblogging, Howard County, howard county conservancy, Locavore, retirement, volunteering, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Sunday Drives

Posted on November 1, 2014 by AnnieRie

It’s the height of leaf peeping season here in Central Maryland. That cool couple of nights really made a difference in the depth of the colors. Sunday drives will be rewarded with stunning views like these.

This was Larriland, but today I want to recommend heading farther afield. So to speak. Like to Sugarloaf Mountain, to visit the winery, maybe hike a few of the trails and check out the artisans in the Dickerson area.

Wineries have tremendous views in the fall, when the vines turn color to match the scenery.

Some grape leaves on the vines turn red. Others yellow or orange.

If you want other close options that include time spent driving on back roads filled with color. Consider Black Ankle, just out Liberty Road. Or maybe Breaux just south of Harpers Ferry. Breaux now sits on a road with at least a half dozen other wineries. We haven’t tried any of them yet, except for Notaviva. We may have to plan a trip soon. Besides, Harpers Ferry alone is worth the drive.

If you want a new place to find pumpkins and apples, check out Baughers in Westminster.

Besides the farm, just west of the city off of Rte. 140, the restaurant near McDaniels College has some of the best ice cream, and lots more at the farm stand.

This is also the last weekend for the Fall Festival at Gaver Farm, outside of Mt. Airy.

Any of these local farms have their final weekend events, too. Like Larriland for their straw maze for the little ones, Sharps, Mullinix, for those maze enthusiasts and apple/pumpkin pickers.

Who needs to drive all the way to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, when there are all sorts of events in Howard, Carroll and Frederick Counties.

Before autumn leaves us, it’s a great weekend to enjoy the local colors. All of them.

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Posted in Community, Day Trips, Family, Farms, Food, Local Businesses, Nature, Travel, Weather, Wine and tagged community, day trips, fall foliage, farms, Food, local businesses, MD Wine, VA wine, weather, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Mama Needs a Brand New Wok

Posted on October 30, 2014 by AnnieRie

Courtesy of the modern day equivalent of the Sears catalog. It’s greens season and my wok started chipping. Not good for a non stick surface.

Out here Amazon seems to be the new Sears or Spiegel. When I can’t easily get something locally or from a small business, Amazon is the simplest. Better than that 35 mile round trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond. Especially if I can cobble together enough to get free shipping.

A simple stainless steel wok. To deal with all the greens coming from the CSA. This week and last week.

Today I picked up eight items in our next to last week of our summer CSA. Looking quite a bit like fall in that basket. Greens galore. Broccoli. Spinach. Tatsoi. Arugula. Add to that some large Beauregard sweet potatoes. A red butterhead lettuce. Butternut squash. Green and yellow peppers.

Last week’s basket was pretty fall like also. I never got around to posting about it. Here is what we got then.

Red bok choy. Spinach. Radishes with greens (I did a swap to get two of them). Eggplant. Green beans. Celery root. Tuscan kale and broccoli.

So many of these items make perfect stir fry ingredients, so I am glad my wok arrived this morning.

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Posted in Community, CSA, Food, LFFC, Local Businesses, Real Food, West HoCo and tagged community, cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, real food, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

ABC’s

Posted on October 24, 2014 by AnnieRie

As in apples, beets and cider. What I did today at Larriland.

I have not been to Larriland since strawberry season this year. We just had too much in the garden and too many berries in our CSA fruit share.

But, I can’t resist picking apples.

Or at least trying to pick apples. I think there were more on the ground than in the trees. People obviously don’t read the instructions. Unfortunately, in no time at all, little critters chomp on the ground fruit, or people step on them.

And, don’t let me get started about beet etiquette.

Ever try walking in the rows, where people just dump beets they don’t want. Or, trying to step through all the greens that were cut off, in order to make a lower weight. People do amaze me with how they waste good food.

I harvested eight pounds of beets. About five were beets. Two were greens, and one pound of waste. Yep, I paid for a pound of things I culled out while cleaning the beets. Does it bother me? NO!

I also picked 25 pounds of apples.

Four different varieties. Mostly enterprise. A few pounds each of Braeburn, Fuji, and Suncrisp. There will be crockpot spiced apples made this weekend. This time, though, I will be putting it in ice cube trays to freeze. I like this method of making yogurt ready sizes.

I also picked up a few gourds and baby pumpkins to decorate our dining room table.

One more week to go. I may be out there buying more apple cider. I like their version of it, and they say we can freeze it. I may be freezing ice cube sized cider cubes to use in cooking. It works wonders with cabbage, or in soups, or with chicken or sausage. Or, as a dressing base.

A lovely weekend ahead. If you get a chance, visit the farm. It’s a beautiful location.

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