Category Archives: Howard County

Football Weather

Posted on September 15, 2013 by AnnieRie

Clear, sunny, perfect day for the Ravens to open in Baltimore. Good to see that they won.

We did lots of things outdoors today before and after the game. Some wire maintenance for my husband.

Me, checking out the lone squash in the garden, and bringing in almost all the remaining tomatoes. This year, they seem to be slowing down a bit early.

I only have about eight green tomatoes left on the vine.

The freezer is almost full. Today, between games, I cut up the habaneros and the jalapenos for the jelly. Found all the material to do the canning. Tomorrow will be canning day. I have to decide how hot I want this jelly to be. I got about 10 habaneros from the CSA. The recipe calls for 6-15 depending on what level of heat you want.

I also roasted the remaining paste tomatoes and put them away in the freezer. Took all the pesto out of the ice cube trays and divided the cubes up into small containers to keep.

Roasted three more heads of garlic, resulting in a full jar of soft tasty garlic to use in recipes.

Tomorrow there may be showers. That will be good as we are crossing our fingers that there will be no restrictions for the Equinox Twilight Hikes at the Conservancy, next Sunday night, the 22nd.

They should be fun, if the weather stays this lovely. Family hiking ending at the campfire for stories and s’mores. Followed at twilight by the adult hike.

It’s a “bring your own” hike. Musical instruments to play. A few snacks to supplement the s’mores for the adult crowd.

Check out the details on the Conservancy web page. If you want to enjoy the changing of the seasons.

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Posted in Food, Gardening, Howard County, Nature, Volunteering, Weather, West HoCo and tagged community, Food, foodie, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, Howard County, howard county conservancy, nature, tomatoes, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

A Picture Perfect Fall Day

Posted on September 14, 2013 by AnnieRie

That’s what about 70-80 people decided who came out to the Conservancy to join our family hikes.

We had four hike leaders and each one of us had 15-35 people. The largest group was with our preschool leader. She had at least 35 people on the short tour around the farmhouse and down to the play areas.

I took about 15-20 people on a couple of loops to show them all the cool things we teach the children on the field trips. Almost 90 minutes out there.

Then, we found dozens of families down in the nature center checking out Maize, our corn snake, or reading books, or looking at all the exhibits. Into the midst of the chaos, a family showed up to tour the facilities for a possible wedding in 2014. I got to take them for a tour and show them the grounds, as Alison was out and about with all the visitors and handling the snake. We didn’t think the mother of the bride was into snakes.

I finally left there at 1:00. Too late to hit Breezy Willow or Larriland so I ran over to Harris Teeter to get pectin, pineapple juice, sugar and a few boxes of cereal for my better half. I missed my chance to pick up my favorite yogurt at Breezy Willow so it will have to wait until next week.

Turf Valley is coming along quickly. The outdoor seating at Facci is there. Looks like they are very close to opening, and you could smell wood smoke (maybe the pizza ovens?) and someone in a chef’s cap was out in back, taking a break, talking on his phone. They look to be the first to open.

Petite Cellars and Grille 620 are hiring, if anyone is looking for a job.

Mimi’s was being worked too. The cleaners have opened.

We may finally have another fully occupied shopping center in northwest HocCo, with new restaurants. Woo Hoo!

Tomorrow is pineapple habanero jelly making day. Stand by for the report on how well it goes. If I don’t seriously hurt myself handling the habaneros I will have 6 jars of jelly to use for appetizers, glazing, and I think, to make some killer chicken wings.

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Posted in Community, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Nature, Volunteering, Weather, West HoCo and tagged community, Food, hoco loco, Howard County, howard county conservancy, local businesses, Locavore, nature, volunteering, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Take A Hike

Posted on September 11, 2013 by AnnieRie

Not just any hike. A hike that has one of the volunteer naturalists at the Howard County Conservancy leading it. A family hike.

Or maybe, a hike with friends. Or your little ones, like the grandchildren.

This Saturday at 10 am, we are putting on one of our semi annual family hikes. It is leader’s choice. We take age appropriate groups out on the various trails.

If you have little ones, the hike leader for that age group, a retired preschool teacher, enthralls them with stories, games, visits to the chickens and goats, on a hike that won’t tire out short legs.

Other hike leaders may wander off down to the streams, and look for wildflowers, birds, black walnuts, maybe take you to see our chestnut trees. Maybe identify trees or flowers, who knows.

Black Walnuts

This is one of our popular free second Saturday programs at the conservancy grounds, a farm just up the road from the Snowball Stand (a great place to recover from all this walking).

You don’t need to preregister for the free events on the web page, if you don’t want to, but it does let us know roughly how many volunteers we need.

This farm is my favorite place to volunteer. It gives me so much pleasure to hike the trails, look for birds and other little critters. Feed the goats. Visit the barred owl.

There are over four miles of trails on the property. They are open from dawn to dusk every day. These guided hikes give you insight into what is hidden in the fields, or the woods. Or the theme gardens.

The weather forecast is looking wonderful. A high of 70 degrees. Clear, sunny. The introduction to those lovely fall days.

Come join us.

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Posted in Birds, Howard County, Nature, Volunteering, West HoCo and tagged birds, community, hoco loco, Howard County, howard county conservancy, nature, volunteering, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Mostly Local

Posted on September 8, 2013 by AnnieRie

Back when I first started writing this blog, I used participation in food challenges as a way to increase my awareness of local foods. I did the Dark Days Challenge, the Southern SOLE Food Challenge, another winter challenge, the Buy Local Challenges and found out how easy it is to cook with local ingredients here. I need to update my local challenge page to reflect the current status, but it is a great link to some sources of local foods, as is my local resource page.

My first dark days luncheon in 2011. Locally sourced items for a salad.

Somewhere along the way, I stopped doing weekly challenges, as my refrigerator, freezer and pantry had quite a bit of local ingredients stashed in them. Almost every meal had something local in it.

Meat and dairy is simple here. So are vegetables from all the CSAs in the county.

Yesterday I didn’t even think about it. I took two dishes to the reunion. Both had local ingredients. I also took a few bottles of Big Cork wine. A winery just outside of Frederick. A Traminette. Perfect for those who loved the shrimp and the crabs, and the pulled pork. A spicy wine, similar to Gewurztraminer.

My contributions were tomatoes, goat cheese, basil over a bed of arugula. To be accompanied by McCutcheon’s dressing. Tomatoes. Mine. Basil. Mine. All the plants from Sharp’s Farm. Goat cheese. Cherry Glen. Just west of us in Montgomery County. Arugula. Love Dove Farm. Howard County.

My other dish. A four bean salad. Using wax beans from TLV, and green beans from my CSA. Yeah, the cannellini and garbanzo beans were canned, bought at Roots the other day.

Breakfast today. Love Dove eggs. Lunch today. Leftover salads from yesterday.

Dinner tonight. One incredibly awesome sirloin lamb roast from England Acres, one of the packages from the half of lamb we bought in April. Potatoes, from the CSA. Peaches from Lewis Orchards. Love Dove arugula. Catoctin Mountain Orchards Peach Vinaigrette over the salad.

My latest batch of ajvar on the side with some pita. Using CSA eggplant. My garlic, roasted. Yeah, I bought the red peppers at Harris Teeter, as we haven’t seen many nice red peppers. Hasn’t been hot enough this summer.

I really am thankful that we have our markets. We have many local farms open year round. We have year round CSAs. Making our meals that much fresher, that much better.

Thanks to our local farmers. They make it easy to eat locally and seasonally.

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Posted in CSA, Dark Days, Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Wine and tagged cooking, CSA, Dark Days, Dark Days Challenge, farmer's markets, farms, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Picking Fruits and Veggies

Posted on September 6, 2013 by AnnieRie

The end of the peach season is upon us. Soon, the rest of the 15 varieties of apples will be ripening at Larriland. We need to get back out there and pick some white peaches for the freezer. You can’t beat a day with this view.

I have also never picked grapes out there. Or, quite a few other veggies. This lovely weather makes me want to hit the farm and get a few more good items to put away.

The web site also tells us that the tomatoes will be good through October. I may go there and get a large quantity of romas, just to finish the sauce processing.

This year, my romas and paste were way down from previous years. Even with more plants. I know it is time to move the garden out to the field even if it means twice the length of hose to irrigate it. We are now down to seven hours of sun a day, maximum, on the current garden site.

I do have quite a harvest of heirlooms still ripening. Most get picked before I get stink bug or something chewing on them. I think it’s the squirrels. I need to get a dog. Seriously.

Not only are the squirrels getting into my plants, they are chewing on the cedar siding around our doors.

All in all, though, I did get, and I am still getting quite a haul of heirlooms. Finally, pineapple tomatoes, hillbilly tomatoes, and Amana orange, all producing fruit almost every day. Another full windowsill.

I do love this mild, low humidity weather that we are experiencing. I could get used to working outside without that heat and humidity.

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Posted in Farms, Food, Gardening, Howard County, Local Businesses, Weather, West HoCo and tagged cooking, farms, Food, foodie, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, tomatoes, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Back to School …

Posted on September 4, 2013 by AnnieRie

… for volunteer training.

Next Tuesday is the beginning of the naturalist training, for those of us interested in leading field trip hikes at the Howard County Conservancy.

I call it back to school, as I learn something new every time I attend the training sessions.

Fall programs for elementary and middle school children, as well as the opportunity to volunteer to chaperon service learning for middle and high school students, will be on our plate for the dozens of volunteers who attend part of or all the training sessions.

On Tuesdays, the middle school programs are discussed. The 10th, the topic will be Erosion in the STEM cycle. On the 17th, they are going to be offering more information about current and “pilot” programs for the middle schools.

On Thursdays, starting the 12th, we will be covering elementary school programs. 1st and 2nd grade on the 10th. third grade on the 17th, and 4th grade on the 26th. The 26th concludes with our traditional pot luck luncheon attended by almost all of the volunteers. Even those who don’t make it to the refresher training will come to visit and get ready for the October kick off of field trips and hikes.

I volunteer for at least five or six hikes. The requested commitment is for three hikes. You can even shadow the experienced volunteers before trying to lead a small group of students yourself.

The really fun part of this volunteer effort is the freedom we have to present material in a way that is comfortable for us. The goal is primarily to get the children engaged in the outdoors, using the earth science curriculum as the base,but allowing us to showcase nature. I tend to add a little math to the mix, to get the students more comfortable with measurements, or amounts, maybe some area or volume examples.

For example, how big is an acre? We tell the students about the size of the property but concepts new to the youngest students are best described using examples they can relate to. Like how many football fields they would have to mow to take care of 240 acres, the size of the farm.

Or how hard it was to build the barn, with no power tools. How big are those beams? How heavy do they think they are?

The first graders learn about rocks. Why are rocks good for a foundation? How hard is it to build a wall of rocks? How bad are rocks in your field? What kind of rocks are around here?

In the fall, we use the grasslands. In the spring, the woodlands. I like being in the grasslands, watching the leaves change. Looking for walnuts, beechnuts, acorns. Explaining how the animals prepare for winter. Opening milkweed cones to show them the seeds. Talking about the butterflies. So much to see and do and the children really get into it.

Honestly. Can you think of a better place to spend a crisp fall morning?

Can’t wait for our morning sessions and our refresher hikes to begin.

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Posted in Farms, Howard County, Nature, Volunteering, Weather and tagged farms, Howard County, howard county conservancy, nature, volunteering, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Fall Sneaking Up on Us

Posted on September 3, 2013 by AnnieRie

Signs that we are heading towards that change of season.

My first Thelma Sanders squash, hidden under the leaves in a corner of the garden.

Berries on the crab apples. A bumper crop of berries. Here’s hoping we get the cedar waxwings who love to feast on the berries.

Rhododendron buds are really plentiful this year as well. Last year there was lots of growth but not that many blooms. This year, all the rain was good to them and they put out huge amounts of buds, which means lots of flowers next May.

Morning glories completely out of control. I didn’t prune them back this year. A friend who grows grapes told us in rainy seasons to let the flowers and weeds get close to your garden. In the case of a very wet summer, their competition for the moisture will be beneficial to keeping your veggies and fruit from diseases caused by too much water.

A basil plant that decided to rise from the ruins of the bunny devastation of last spring. I have no idea how it came back from its puny little nub left after the rabbits got to it.

Newly mowed meadow. Ready to be baled. Driving my sinuses nuts, but it really looks forlorn, where once there was all this tall lovely grass.

Lots of green tomatoes still out there, hiding and in plain sight. I figure we have about four or five more weeks before the weather changes for good, and I have to bring them in if they don’t ripen. Right now I am still getting lots of slicing tomatoes, but all the paste tomatoes are about finished for the year.

Weather is lovely, isn’t it? Temps in the low eighties and high seventies. Cool nights.

The blue basil is going to seed. Time to do the last big harvest and make another boatload of pesto.

Enjoy this weather while we can!

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Posted in Food, Gardening, Hobbies, Howard County, Nature, Weather, West HoCo and tagged Food, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, hobbies, Howard County, tomatoes, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Garden Update

Posted on August 30, 2013 by AnnieRie

The garden is hanging in there but the stink bugs are out in force, so I have resorted to picking the tomatoes just before they get ripe and sweet. Cuts down on the damage.

The one on the top left is an Amana orange heirloom. It will turn orange on the windowsill. The other larger heirloom is a mortgage lifter. This year they are not getting huge. The weather hasn’t been hot enough. A couple of orange romas, one Polish linguisa, a handful of cherry tomatoes, and one lonely sun sugar.

The supersweet 100s are done. I have yet to get a ripe pineapple tomato, even though right now there are dozens of green ones on the vines. Got what looks to be the last Paul Robeson yesterday. The hillbillies and the boxcar willie plants also have dozens of green tomatoes on them. Hope we continue to have nice days, in order to ripen them.

I am glad I put in 48 plants, as many of them are underachieving this year.

I have gotten my share of weird plants too. Like this one.

I could have put it in the fair for strange looking plants.

The CSA has also given us some winners. Like this eggplant with a “nose”.

Garden and CSA veggies played well tonight for dinner, where I made my ratatouille pie. Using Breezy Willow bacon and feta, England Acres eggs, Trickling Springs milk, and a combination of CSA squash, eggplant and onion, and my tomatoes for the ratatouille base. I really love this pie. Like a quiche.

I used store bought pie crust this time. Being lazy. Bake the pie crust until almost done. I used two crusts for this. One on the base, and one hand torn and placed around the top of the deep dish.

Mix two cups of ratatouille with 1/4 cup grated cheese and about 6 strips of crisp bacon, torn into pieces. Dump on top the crust. Mix together four large eggs with 2 tablespoons of milk and 2 tablespoons of flour. Dump on top the ratatouille. Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.

Great with a Cabernet. Enough left for lunch this weekend.

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Posted in CSA, Food, Gardening, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Weather and tagged CSA, Food, foodie, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, tomatoes, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Lake Woebegone

Posted on August 27, 2013 by AnnieRie

If you remember the news from Lake Woebegone, where all the women are strong, the men are good looking and the children are above average, you have to chuckle at the latest list of the “wealthiest zip codes in the Baltimore area”.

Patch Report from the Baltimore Business Journal shows nine of the ten in Howard County. But, what does it really mean? All this data. Statistics. Lies, damn lies and statistics, as they say.

We live at the boundary of number one and three in their list. I still have to stop and remember that median and mean are two very different measures.

So, number one is Dayton, 21036 with a median household income of $166,007, an average net worth of $1.85 million, and median home value of $732,222.

Number three, which is Glenelg, 21737 has a median income of $159,570, average net worth of $1.86 million, and median home value of $720,833.

Number two on their list is West Friendship, number four is Cooksville and number five is Fulton (including Maple Lawn). All of them surround us. Lower down the list were Glenwood, Highland, Clarksville and Ellicott City.

OK, I look at these lists and think of the Lake Woebegone quote, and say to myself, wow, we are so below average in our house.

And, then I remember the McMansions, which drive that median number way up. There are dozens of McMansions being built here. Where it used to be a three acre minimum for building, and land prices used to be cheap, now they are cramming huge houses on an acre. I can’t figure how they get wells, septic fields, driveways, massive homes and roads all squished together without interference in the newer neighborhoods. These homes start at $700,000 and keep going into the stratosphere. They line Triadelphia, and Ten Oaks, and Howard Roads.

We don’t feel like this is the wealthiest part of the world. My neighbors are teachers, firemen, bus drivers, people who bought here decades ago when land was cheap, relative to Columbia. But then, we don’t live in those new expensive developments either.

Every time I see references to the “rich rural west”, I cringe. It’s only the influx of the mansions that is driving these numbers higher. Back 15 or so years ago, there were less than 1000 homes in the entire zip code of Dayton. Still some small farms, too.

Hundreds of new homes have been built during the boom years, and even now three new developments are adding more and more large homes on relatively small lots.

It is weird to see the changes that have occurred just in the nine years we have been here.

Oh well, being below average has its benefits. Less taxes, but still the “distinction” of living in one of the richest zip codes out there.

Here’s to those “damn lies”.

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Posted in Commentary, Community, Howard County, West HoCo and tagged commentary, community, hoco loco, Howard County, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Rush Hour

Posted on August 26, 2013 by AnnieRie

Something we really try to avoid, now that we are retired. Particularly on the first day of school. Today unfortunately we needed to take my husband’s car into the dealer for a recall and some “triage”. For the second time, a mouse crawled into the blower motor box and became mincemeat last Saturday.

You need to take it in, fast, before it really smells. The hazards of living in the country. Animals in unlikely places. So, at least we avoided Rte. 32 and all the commuter traffic, using the back roads to get to Clarksville.

The west county ICC. Triadelphia, Folly Quarter and Sheppard’s Lane to Rte. 108. At least we didn’t hit the long lines waiting to turn into Glenelg Country School.

This is one of the worst commuting days, of all those that we used to have the longest delays when we worked. The absolute worst, though, was always the day before Thanksgiving.

I-70 just after noon last year. After I ran the back roads to England Acres for Thanksgiving items, and to Boarman’s to get my turkey. I was reminded of Maple Lawn today, as we went past the farm on our way home from our errands. A visit to the new copying place in Maple Lawn, and a stop at Harris Teeter for a few staples I needed.

We use the back roads as much as we can. Guilford Road. Hall Shop and Brown’s Bridge. Highland Road. Since retiring, we really do try not to schedule things for that 7-9am or 3-6pm time frame.

Or, we just use the scenic routes. Today we caught a glimpse of the turkeys “free ranging” under the solar panels. That certainly is not something you will see on an interstate.