Tag Archives: community

Checking Out Greenfest

Posted on April 13, 2013 by AnnieRie

Another of those spring rituals. Going to the Greenfrest at Howard Community College. Looking for plants, and picking up a few items of interest from the displays. As usual, there was a large enthusiastic crowd there this morning, and lots of greenery for sale.

The fest takes over the quad, the parking area, and two floors inside the Burrell Galleria. Lots for families to do, outside and inside. The Howard Astronomical League was outside with scopes, there were family activities outside, and food for sale.

I only had an hour there today as we had a conflict with a dinner engagement and I needed to get food ready to take to it. Still time to pick up another reusable bag (like I need more shopping bags!). A few brochures, and then out to the Master Gardeners area.

They were doing a brisk business in native plants, but I was looking for heirloom veggies. I will have to wait until Earth Day at the Conservancy to get those. Great to find out from them that our master gardeners have so many places for us to find really good starter plants.

I then headed off to see TLV where I wanted some greens and some short ribs. A request from my husband for me to do short ribs over the collard greens from this week’s CSA. TLV did not disappoint. I came home with short ribs.

They were doing a very good business, already sold out of all the basil plants they brought. Many more herbs available. I will be heading out to the farm in two weeks to get mine. Just in time to plant.

Many of their customers were commenting on how good it was to see them, and how we all can’t wait for the Howard County Farmers Markets to start in just 3 1/2 weeks. Keep checking their website and facebook pages to see the lists of vendors when they get posted.

Notice all those lovely containers of greens. Quite a few of those were sold as I was there talking to them. This is a great way to have fresh microgreens on the table. I use window boxes outside my kitchen, but these tubs would do great on a porch, or a deck, keeping leafy goodness out of the reach of bunnies and deer.

On my way out, I saw that a number of bikes were being loaded onto the trailers for the bike collection.

It was a beautiful breezy spring day, and it looked like another successful event in this, its sixth year. Driving home through Columbia and across Folly Quarter, I couldn’t miss all the flowering trees and shrubs. At home, the cherry tree is in full bloom. I need to pop out tomorrow and see how the azaleas are coming at Brighton Dam. It should be a sunny but cool day, perfect for a ride.

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Posted in Community, Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Gardening, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Nature, Weather and tagged community, crock pot cooking, farmer's markets, farms, Food, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, nature, spring flowers, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Breezy Willow Farm, In West Friendship

Posted on April 11, 2013 by AnnieRie

I know I first encountered Breezy Willow at the Glenwood Farmer’s Market, but I don’t remember when. The market was small when we first moved out here, but as a Saturday market it was easy to attend while we still had day jobs in DC. I buy quite a few veggies from them on Saturday mornings and still do much of my purchases of items I don’t grow in my garden from their stand. Things like the sweet corn, the radishes, the summer squash, peppers, and more. And, of course, their lovely free range eggs.

market closing day 2012

Breezy Willow offers all sorts of items, including eggs, honey, breads, soap, herbs, rare veggies, and fruit. They are a certified organic farm. Here is a very detailed description from their website.

Besides, who can resist the alpacas? And, the sheep, the chickens, the dog, any or all of them will greet you when you pick up your Community Supported Agriculture “basket” in the farm store. Visits weekly to the farm really do create that connection between us and the source of our food.

They also make and sell other goodies, like handmade jewelry, alpaca scarves and socks, felted soap balls, scented soaps, the list goes on. It is truly a labor of love on a family run farm. I love to buy the soaps to give as Christmas gifts.

RJ, Ken, Casey and Jason are all out and about. You may run into them at the markets, on the farm, and CSA pick up points beyond the farm. The farm does offer work for your CSA options, for those who staff the CSA pick up points, or the market. They work for their share, instead of paying for it.

This is an incredibly popular CSA in the county, one that has been adding pick up sites every season, and now has more than 700 members.

For the summer and fall CSA, which runs 24 weeks, starting in June, the vast majority of your items come from surrounding farms and from Breezy Willow. They do bring in goodies like mushrooms from PA and a few farms are outside of the county. To me, that is a good thing.

The success or failure of CSAs depends on happy customers. Some people are leery of taking risk if weather could wipe out part of a harvest, and the only source of their veggies is one farm. By diversification, and use of a cooperative venture among small regional farms, CSAs like Breezy Willow are a very good value for those looking for healthy foods to serve themselves and their families. The diversification mitigates some of the risk, and by paying up front for your future “shares”, you assist the farm in getting cash flow in spring when they need it for planting. It is a good thing for both sides of the transaction.

In the early spring, Breezy Willow added an “early bird CSA” a few years ago. It runs 12 weeks from March through May, and supplements cold storage fruit and vegetables with greenhouse grown, high tunnel grown, and some shipped in items from the South. Items like fresh Florida citrus at the height of the Florida growing season. For those of us weary of winter and ready for spring, this CSA gives us really fresh outstanding veggies and fruit from small farms along the coast. I can’t wait to see if we get some early berries from Carolina or Virginia.

Breezy Willow also works with the other farms in the area to offer their dairy products, and meats out at the farm. I am partial to the yogurt, and if they have Bowling Green Farm feta in the fridge, I grab it. The farm store was open on Saturdays this spring from 10-2, and is open for CSA members on CSA pick up days.

Now that they have added an extension to the farm store building, we were told that the CSA will pick up in the extension and the farm store will take over the entire original section.

If you want a real treat find out what flavors of ice cream are in the cooler. My personal favorites, salted caramel, honey graham and maple bacon. Yes, maple bacon ice cream. The sweetness of maple with the saltiness of tiny pieces of bacon.

If you get the chance, check out the farm on one of their open days. Call ahead if there isn’t a notice on the web site. You can see what they offer by browsing on the site, and if you want to order, they will arrange a convenient pick up time.

You can’t miss them on Old Frederick Road (Rte 99), just west of Rte. 32 and the West Friendship fire station.

Or, stop by when they begin their participation in the Glenwood Saturday market at the library and community center parking lot. Last year, they started selling in early June, once they had a good supply of veggies to bring to market.

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Posted in Community, CSA, Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, West HoCo and tagged community, CSA, farmer's markets, farms, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

England Acres

Posted on April 5, 2013 by AnnieRie

One of my favorite farms to visit. I am going to profile local farms, why I shop at them and what they offer. I first found England Acres during a visit to South Mountain Creamery and Wegmans in Frederick. Driving home the back way I ended up going through New Market on Rt. 144 and found a sign.

I never got back to check it out until June 2012. It was love at first sight. The house is one of those very old farm places that kept expanding as the family grew, and the market was just next to it. I fell in love with the house.

Judy runs an amazing business. Partners with lots of local farms and artisans. If you want really good farm raised meat, or free range eggs, this is the place to go. How about duck eggs? They just starting selling those for a local farm. They have all sorts of sources. Cheese, yogurt, spelt flour, homemade baked goods. You name it. She works to bring it in and make it available. I love the fact that they are open year round, and that they really do support small local farms.

In February, Super Bowl weekend, I found.

Popcorn and cookies.

Salad mix and mushrooms.

The meat is amazing. Chicken soup from their chickens. Awesome.

Eggs, I can’t begin to describe. Between Breezy Willow and England Acres, the eggs from free range chickens have spoiled me, and I won’t ever have to buy grocery store eggs again.

The size of these eggs. If you love sunny side up eggs, this is the only way to go. How about a double yolk egg?

We just ordered a side of lamb from them, to be picked up in two weeks. I have to admit, their meat is by far some of the tastiest we have found. A half a lamb. 20 or so pounds, at a price that makes it so worth it. You get to customize your cuts, specify how you want it, boneless or not, and you have a ready source of food not tainted with hormones or antibiotics.

Tomorrow they are having a crafts swap at the farm. I will probably pop out there to leave my stained glass equipment and supplies for swap or barter. If I can find them tonight.

The farm does lots of fun things. Feed the chickens. Picnic on the property. Come to a corn freezing party in late summer. Local farms are the life of our area. Check them out.

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Posted in Community, Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, West HoCo and tagged community, cooking, farmer's markets, farms, Food, local businesses, Locavore, real food, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

National Mom and Pop Business Day

Posted on March 30, 2013 by AnnieRie

Yesterday was National Mom and Pop Business Day. It is always the 29th of March. I forgot to post about it but we certainly do our part in supporting family owned businesses.

If you didn’t know it, but want to show support there are lots of ways around here to do so this weekend, and to say thank you to family run businesses by giving them sales on a holiday weekend.

How about Easter egg hunts? Clarks Farm opened today. Martha Clark and Nora Crist run the farm. They would love to see you on their opening weekend.

Brunch? How about taking your family to one of the small locally owned businesses, like Iron Bridge, Victoria’s, Tersiquel’s, Shanty Grill, Elkridge Furnace, to name a few. Any others family owned and operated?

Last minute meat purchases? Boarman’s.

Wine? Elk Run. Black Ankle. Both nearby wineries run by husband and wife owners.

I certainly did enough damage getting ready for Easter. Wine from Linden. I have to take Vidal Riesling. It is a family favorite. Also, some sauvignon blanc from Glen Manor, another family owned small winery in Virginia.

The lamb for my dinner. England Acres. The veggies. The eggs for my Easter brunch. Breezy Willow. Two local farms.

Can you think of other places in and around Howard County that are family owned and operated? Besides food and wine and restaurants, there are small stores like Kendall and Clark’s hardware.

Shopping locally owned businesses keeps more of our money close to home. More and more, I buy items from individually owned businesses, and I am eliminating or minimizing national chains.

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Posted in Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Restaurants, Wine and tagged community, Food, hoco loco, local businesses, Locavore, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Water, Water, Everywhere!

Posted on March 25, 2013 by AnnieRie

Only this morning it was snow. RIMPO Dayton weather shows us having 0.43 inches of precipitation already today, but currently that is four inches of snow.

I finally did go out and put peanuts and mixed seeds under the table to keep the birds happy. By sometime tomorrow, it will probably all be melted again. At least the garlic and the herbs don’t need watering, and the rest of my greens are still indoors. Today over at hocoblogs I saw that JessieX had a post about all the salt dumped on the roads and the impact on our waterways as it heads down into our streams and rivers. We do use way too much salt around here but precip plus freezing temps at night mean black ice. Can’t seem to win.

This Wednesday night there will be another information session in Hickory Ridge, sponsored by four organizations in the county, to discuss stormwater management.

March27Flyer-final

This would be a good place to learn more about how to minimize the impact on the Bay and our local rivers, from all this runoff, at least it is beautiful out there for today.

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Reading That Forested Landscape

Posted on March 15, 2013 by AnnieRie

And trying to find a sense of place. Our place. Our property. Our community. Our county. Next weekend, the 22nd through the 24th, at the Howard County Conservancy Tom Wessels is coming down to read the landscape at two different sites in Howard County. There will be a stand alone lecture Friday night, and two lecture/hikes, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. Each day’s event is $20 to attend. A bundle of two, Friday and either Saturday or Sunday is available for $35.

Master gardeners, master naturalists, historians, science teachers, environmentalists, lifetime residents of Howard County, and more — all would find something interesting and educational in his talks, walks and teaching us to read our landscapes.

I downloaded his latest book, Forest Forensics. I already learned more about my property by toggling between the plates, the evidence and the key to reading our property here in west Howard County.

We were told our land was once a horse pasture. This barbed wire is evidence. The book explains how to read it. The wire is on our side of the fence, the common technique to string wire enclosing a pasture. It is barbed. If it was smooth twisted there would have been sheep in the pasture. It was constructed sometime after 1874 which was when wire first started showing up as fencing.

Tom will be leading hikes that will show us these types of details. Following him through the forests and grasslands, the Saturday and Sunday events will combine a 90 minute lecture to prepare for the hike, followed by a two hour hike looking for clues around Elkridge in the Patapsco State Park on Saturday, and all across the Conservancy properties, maybe even down to the river if he finds good evidence to share.

Anyone who wants to know more about this area, and wants to be able to use these tips while walking the trails in the parks, or even searching the development’s open spaces in the county to learn the history of our land would enjoy these events.

There is still some room on both hikes, and lots of room for the Friday night lecture for those who may not be able to hike. The Friday night lecture: The Myth of Progress is a totally different topic than the weekend lectures and hikes.

More on that topic is found here. It is another of Tom’s books.

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A Perfect Spring Saturday

Posted on March 9, 2013 by AnnieRie

Hopefully the next two weekends have weather this great. Today’s geocaching event at the Conservancy attracted almost three dozen people who wanted to enjoy the scenery and learn to use the Etrex units.

Six caches were hidden on the property. Lots of fun learning to use the units, and to wander around the farm and the grasslands. The fun was watching all the adults learn to use them. The children pick it up quite quickly.

The Conservancy has a couple of dozen units used mostly in middle and senior high school programs, on and off site. Today was a chance for families to chase stickers and treats in the boxes hidden by the goats, near the bluebird boxes, in the garden and down in the soil pit.

Nothing like perfect weather to bring out all ages.

Next weekend there will be a family hike at 10 am. Age appropriate trails with leaders knowledgeable about the farm and what you can find there. Maybe the wood frogs will still be around to serenade everyone. There were certainly enough of them there today. You could hear them all over the geocache course even when you were hundreds of yards away from the pond in the garden.

I can find fifteen of them in this picture. Thanks to all the volunteers this was another great day. Come hike with us next Saturday the 16th, or maybe come do forest forensics the following weekend.

And, just so I don’t get bored, we have a training session with a potluck luncheon this coming Thursday, and the art exhibit will open for the Art of Stewardship. Then, the following Tuesday, we are learning about the new pilot training session on Civil War History on the Farm.

What’s not to love about being outside as spring arrives in Howard County?

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Spring Flings

Posted on March 5, 2013 by AnnieRie

March, April and May are always the busiest months in this area. You can’t turn around without seeing events every weekend. Sort of like September and October have become. People seem to want to cram everything in before it gets too hot or too cold.

Looking at potential things to put on the calendar. Suffering from sensory overload. Add Easter to this month and I could fill up every weekend, and most weekdays to things to do if I wish.

Events at the Conservancy are ramping up. We have events there three of the four weekends. Some weekends have more than one. Take this weekend for example. I can work with the family geocaching event on Saturday. There are already three dozen people signed up to do a search for hidden boxes of little gems for the successful hunters using the compass function and learning to navigate around obstacles. While all this is going on, the artists are coming to drop off their art for hanging and judging in the Art of Stewardship juried art show. The following five weeks there will be opportunities for people to come see the art in this year’s show, and buy something that strikes their fancy, before it hits the auction day next month. Last year I ended up with a lovely painting at the auction, even if I couldn’t afford the winning piece. Later next week I will get pictures of some of the best pieces entered this year.

Next weekend on the 16th, there are two events. One a family hike, and the other event, the third in a series of workshops for educators, called Project WET. Some of our naturalists will be taking the training as well as teachers looking to receive professional development credit in the green school application. Family hikes are very popular, with age appropriate groups going out with different volunteer naturalists.

The weekend of the 22-24th, Tom Wessels is coming in from New England to read the natural landscapes around the Conservancy and in Patapsco State Park. This event, with an attendance limit on the hikes, is being sponsored by the Conservancy, the Nature Conservancy and the Sierra Club. Bringing Tom in here is a real treat. I can’t wait to learn more about what was done on the land around the farmhouse at the Conservancy. Forest forensics. Pretty interesting topics. The Friday night lecture is about The Myth of Progress and sustainability.

If you head over to the Conservancy webpage, you will see the sign up forms.

If that doesn’t give us enough to do, there is volunteer training, and the opportunity to participate as a naturalist at the “weather event” for secondary schools, five of them coming next Wednesday the 13th. It will even be featured on WBAL news that morning, with their meteorologist Ava Marie coming out at 5 am, yes, 5 AM (daylight savings time), so really really early to do some reporting on the event.

Being a volunteer naturalist there can certainly keep you busy. Nice that we can do as much or as little as we can fit in our schedules.

Today in training we were using handheld recorders to register weather data. We will be leading activities in the spring field trips for secondary schools, having teams of students measuring wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, humidity and temperature, in all sorts of different locations on the property.

In two weeks, our final secondary training is a pilot program for History during the Civil War on the farm here in Howard County. I find this activity fascinating and have already signed up to lead one of the trips in April.

Lots of new faces at the training sessions this month for elementary and secondary training. Volunteering is just one way to make a difference here in the county. Time spent is just as important to the nonprofits as donations can be.

Nothing like a lovely spring day outside in the forest, enjoying the scenery and helping out. I even signed up to lead service learning, which is always fun. Particularly in making sure shovels, clippers, tree and brush cutters are used properly by high school students. They do really get into it.

trail clean up

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Social Butterflies

Posted on February 27, 2013 by AnnieRie

In more ways than one.

Last night the 50+ bloggers and readers gathered at Union Jack’s in Columbia to reconnect. We haven’t had a get together since last spring, so it was great to see everyone. It is amazing that we have a local group, close to 300 blogs written by county residents, that gets together and networks. I like Tales of Two Cities blog about the event.

Our hosts last night were from The 53 and ukdesperatehousewife, Bill from the former, and Claire, from the latter.

My husband came with me, and really enjoyed the conversations. Lots of fun, even on a really rainy evening. It looks like we will be doing more of these in the future.

As for the second way to be a social butterfly, I am about to do my refresher training for the spring field trips at the Conservancy. One of the spring topics, for second graders, is Wings, Stings and Leggy Things. I love the butterfly part of this activity. The Conservancy has huge amounts of milkweed, which attracts monarchs. We will even rescue, nurture and tag emerging butterflies to track their journeys. It was a highlight of my first fall there. Tagging butterflies and releasing them. In the spring we talk about how they return here for the summers, and how we have created a welcoming habitat for them to thrive.

I like our training sessions. A one hour refresher course, a hike to rehearse what we do with the school children, and then, of course, the social part of it, we have a potluck on the last Thursday of training. I blogged yesterday about the training. Come out and be a social butterfly with those of us who love the outdoors, enjoy teaching the little ones all about the earth science around them, and who want to make a difference in our own small way.

My third reference to social butterfly today, that of home gardener, getting ready for the 2013 season. We pruned the butterfly bushes. I am learning how to find and rescue monarchs from the milkweed in the meadow. I blogged last fall about finding it out there. I intend to rescue as many larvae as I can, in order to protect them from predators.

This is a tiger swallowtail. We have lots of those every year. I know my butterfly bush isn’t native, but it certainly attracts a large number of them.

Spring has sprung, at least for most of what I am doing. Tomorrow, I will be starting my spring greens planting and putting together a salad table. All that, after my social butterfly attendance at Conservancy training.

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Volunteer Season

Posted on February 26, 2013 by AnnieRie

Spring is coming. Lots of opportunities to volunteer. And, lots of opportunities to learn about Howard County in depth, plus how and where you could make a difference.

Let’s start with the volunteer naturalist programs. At the Howard County Conservancy where I volunteer, they are always on the lookout for new faces to help. Not just leading children’s hikes, but also some behind the scenes work. I, for one, love the opportunity to get outside and lead the children’s hikes. If that isn’t your thing, they also need office help, and gardening help.

Training for elementary school programs starts this Thursday. The secondary program training started today. For some reason, I had my calendar wrong and missed it. Never fear. Two more sessions if you would like to try your hand at something really new. Like, what happened on the farm during the Civil War. The training for this new pilot and the other training details are here.

When I first started volunteering I shadowed current leaders to learn. It is an easy way to see how much fun the hikes are. I also signed up that first fall to take the Howard Legacy Leadership Institute for the Environment program training, and to give back hours to the Conservancy. The Conservancy is one of many county partners in this program.

The program has been revamped. There is no requirement to volunteer if you want to attend the training. The option to become a “HoLLIE” grad is still there, but if you are interested in continuous learning, there is a noncredit course being given that includes material we learned in HoLLIE. The visits to NASA to see the satellite data and hear world renowned scientists speak of their experience, tracking global climate events. Other lecturers on regional and local programs, like stormwater management. The training will be held on Thursdays in April and May. Info here.

last year’s class on a discovery hike

Greenfest is coming. April 13th at the community college. Earth Day activities including river clean up, twenty minute clean up, tree plantings are all being advertised. I hope to keep locals informed as I hear of new opportunities in the area.