Tag Archives: howard county conservancy

Fall Festivals

Posted on September 29, 2014 by AnnieRie

It’s festival season. The changing of the seasons and the leaves brings out the best of this area. The best weather and views in Howard County.

The leaves are already starting to turn color. The month of October is full of festivals, and mazes, and pumpkin picking, and more.

My favorite, of course. The fall festival at the Howard County Conservancy.

Hay rides. Pony rides. Crafts. Animals. Story telling. Basket weaving. And so much more.

Definitely something to do this coming Sunday.

As for other festivals. There are certainly many of them out there. Highland Days. The corn maze at Sharp’s Farm. Pumpkin picking and more at Larriland.

I am certainly looking forward to many fun days out and about. Enjoying the weather and the colorful leaves.

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Posted in Community, Day Trips, Farms, Howard County, Nature, Weather, West HoCo and tagged community, day trips, fall foliage, farms, Howard County, howard county conservancy, nature, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Printing My Own Money

Posted on September 23, 2014 by AnnieRie

If you have the time, watch this video.

If you come away with a desire to start a garden, it is a WIN.

This year I put in a 500 square foot garden at the Howard County Conservancy. A community garden. The results are in. I must have harvested at least $500 worth of food. Already getting back my entrance fee and dwarfing my yearly $45 maintenance fee.

How did I do? Would you believe 139 POUNDS of tomatoes.

The largest producer in terms of pounds were those yellow plum tomatoes. These three plants, the puniest I put in the ground, gave me 271 tomatoes, totaling 27 pounds. There’s quite a bit of oven roasted tomatoes in my freezer from this harvest. I did get 54 pounds of my heirlooms. The pineapple, hillbilly and German Johnson varieties.

What is astounding is the amount of tomatoes harvested from six plants. Over a 1000 supersweet 100’s and almost 900 sun gold, both varieties of cherry tomatoes. There were 31 pounds total from those plants.

As for zucchini, my four plants yielded 28 pounds of zucchini. Lots of fritters, bread, grilled or sautéed zucchinis on the table this year.

Cucumbers. Thirty four of them from six plants. Not the best year for them, but not bad.

My winners, though. The onion, leek, shallot plantings. I will definitely do them again next year.

Greens did well too. Lots of kale and chard. The chard is still producing.

I also planted arugula and Bibb lettuce for the fall. The garden is alive and well.

So much satisfaction in growing your own food.

Now, I do need to whack out all the basil and put the pesto away for the winter. My last task before planting next year’s garlic, and putting in a bit of ground cover.

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Posted in Food, Gardening, Real Food and tagged cooking, farms, Food, foodie, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, howard county conservancy, Locavore, real food, tomatoes. Bookmark the permalink.

Tidbit Tuesday Again

Posted on September 16, 2014 by AnnieRie

Lots of random small talk today.

How about housekeeping? As in cleaning out the garden, getting ready for fall, and cleaning up my web pages.

The Malabar spinach is going to seed. The big question is whether I will save seeds and replant in the spring. I didn’t use much of it. It did act as a very strong pollinator attracter though. Well, so did the basil.

I imagine that the Conservancy bees got lots of pollen from the basil in the garden. Some days it was covered in honey bees.

Sometime this weekend I will be harvesting all the basil and there will be a pesto making marathon in my kitchen. I hit Whole Foods Sunday morning to get almonds and Parmigiano Reggiano for my pesto. Go early before the breakfast crowd shows up.

It is almost time to plant the garlic. I have about two dozen cloves ready to go into my back yard garden. Once the trees start dropping leaves, they will get enough sun all winter and spring to grow and be harvested in early summer.

We are completely reconfiguring the Conservancy community garden plot. There will be four large squares instead of four rows. One for herbs. One for tomatoes. One for peppers, leeks, shallots and onions. And, one for everything else. I did plant some arugula and lettuce for fall. We learned quite a bit this year.

Keep the onions away from the corner where the hoses are. The excess water rotted a few of my onions.

Put paths around the outside. It keeps down on weed infiltration.

More on gardening in the near future. Let’s now turn to the other trivial things I have done. I updated a few items on my pages. Adding a couple of blogs I read. Making sure the farm page is up to date. Checking that I didn’t forget anything on my food preservation page. I still need to update my local resources, and to add my new page, still in draft, on HOCOBIZ. This will be my page that highlights small businesses in the area where I find really good service. These businesses are mostly family owned, but aren’t my food sources. Places like Kendalls, Clarks Hardware, British American. Oh, and restaurants. I will be putting a restaurant category on that page.

Yep, it’s time to do that fall cleaning. Like leaf raking. And weed removal. And, putting those wintery things in the cars. Where are those stupid ice scrapers anyway? Just hoping not to find too many days like this.

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Posted in Farms, Food, Gardening, Local Businesses, Restaurants and tagged cooking, farms, Food, foodie, gardening, howard county conservancy, local businesses. Bookmark the permalink.

So Far This Week

Posted on September 9, 2014 by AnnieRie

Not even halfway through, and already we’ve had our share of exciting times. Right here in the heart of Howard County.

Tonight, it was a blog party at Nottingham’s. When we lived in Columbia we used to enjoy going there and relaxing at their Tiki Bar.

Even though they are located in an office complex, they hid the bar quite well so you don’t get the parking lot/storm water management pond views.

I like their pool tables, their Wii system, the laid back, kick you shoes off and enjoy yourself atmosphere. We were in the Event Room tonight. About 40-50 of us, talking, enjoying the Happy Hour and doing our networking thing that the local bloggers do.

Thanks to Nottingham’s for the hospitality. It was a good “Hump Day-eve” event.

Earlier this week also saw me doing major time in the gardens, for the Conservancy auction basket collection, and the Food Bank harvesting. Still I had time to check out the bee interest in my garden.

It does remind me however that I need to whack back the basil and get the pesto done for the winter. I spent time harvesting, cleaning and doing a little bit of planting. I put in arugula and lettuce. And pulled out the last of the peppers.

Next on my agenda is the removal of the spent tomato vines.

As for my other wanderings this week, I did food delivery to my better half who was ground crew for tower maintenance. He spent Monday at W3LPL’s helping him on one of the towers.

For the record, he says he can see Dulles Airport from up there. We’ll take his word on it.

It’s only Tuesday and we’ve just scratched the surface of things going on around here. I still have naturalist training later this week at the Conservancy, and my husband has more antenna support work plus some tower procurement and a radio contest weekend.

Oh yeah, I’m helping my mom move in my “spare” time.

I need to go back to work. I could use the rest.

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Posted in Adventures, Community, Food, Gardening, Hobbies, Howard County, Local Businesses, Restaurants, Retirement, Volunteering and tagged amateur radio, community, cooking, Food, gardening, hobbies, hoco loco, hocoblogging, Howard County, howard county conservancy, local businesses, retirement, volunteering. Bookmark the permalink.

Picture Perfect

Posted on August 22, 2014 by AnnieRie

That was dinner tonight.

A trio of food. One from my garden. One from my CSA. And one from Friends and Farms.

My pineapple tomatoes are finally kicking in there and producing. The heirloom carrots from last week’s CSA were oven roasted. The arctic char from this week’s Friends and Farms basket was quick baked at 400 degrees with some honey mustard and lemon pepper on top.

Here’s the rest of the Friends and Farms basket. I need to get creative with some of the items.

Cilantro. Lettuce. Eggplant. Blueberries. Nectarines. An onion. Elephant garlic. Poblanos. Jalapenos. Red Beans.

As for protein.

One dozen eggs. Ground beef. That lovely Arctic char.

And, a loaf of bread. Not pictured.

Thoughts for dinner. Tacos. This basket screams TACOS.

Well, after tomorrow’s Food Preserving program, there will be lots of goodies to eat, or freeze. And, I am seriously considering a major pickled pepper frenzy. Plus, a couple of hot pepper jellies.

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Posted in Food, Friends and Farms, Gardening and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, howard county conservancy, Locavore, tomatoes, volunteering. Bookmark the permalink.

Home Grown and Home Made

Posted on August 19, 2014 by AnnieRie

With the upcoming Putting Food Away program on the 23rd at the Conservancy Mt Pleasant site, where I am showcasing some of my recipes, my techniques, my lessons learned, and even giving a few things away (I promise, no zucchini), I have been a cooking, cleaning, freezing, drying and pickling fool.

Did you know you could pickle chard stems? They are pretty interesting. Would make great swizzle sticks for Bloody Marys. I also just pickled zucchini chips. Who needs to spend the $8 or $9 a pound for that Mediterranean bar at the store when you can put out a good antipasto platter right from your fridge.

My other big accomplishment today, besides the zucchini fritters to freeze, was using my first eggplants I ever grew, and two of my red peppers and some of my garlic to make my own flatbread spread.

They may not be the cutest eggplants out there, but I grew them. I took the eggplants and the peppers and roasted them. Mixed them with some vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and three cloves of roasted garlic. To be served on flatbread for dinner tomorrow. No pictures, as they kind of remind you of baby food, but really taste wonderful.

I also roasted three large CSA eggplants today. Scraped them out. Added two cans of chickpeas. Four cloves of garlic. Lemon juice. Olive oil. Garam masala. Salt. Pepper. Amazing hummus. And, yes, you can freeze hummus. Not that this batch will last that long. It will be going to a picnic with us this weekend.

Come check out these and other recipes at my program. And, next week, there will be recipes and pictures up on my Food Preservation page. Can’t put everything there in advance, or no one will come see my program.

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Posted in Food, Gardening, Hobbies, Locavore, Volunteering and tagged cooking, Food, gardening, hobbies, howard county conservancy, Locavore, real food, volunteering. Bookmark the permalink.

The Value of a Garden

Posted on August 17, 2014 by AnnieRie

Sometimes when it is hot and humid, and it seems the weeds are winning, I question my sanity in expanding my garden. But then, I get to enjoy the fruits of my labor and it makes it all worthwhile.

Like when the heirloom tomato plants start producing. And when I get my first white eggplants.

This week I met a major milestone. Four ounces shy of 100 pounds of tomatoes harvested.

Yellow plums are one of the latest mass producers. But, I have harvested 36 pounds of heirloom tomatoes. All told, if I were buying tomatoes at markets and organic food stores, I would have spent way more than the investment in this garden plot.

Yes, my labor counts for something. But I rationalize it as a substitute for paying for a gym membership. Weeding, watering, weeding, harvesting, weeding (did I mention weeding?), all contribute to feeling like I just came home from a workout. Particularly after crawling around on the ground wrestling with crab grass.

Today I put up another four pints of sauce for the freezer. Tomorrow roasting the 90 yellow plums still on the counter.

Add to that, the work I am doing to get ready for my Conservancy event next Saturday. Things like making herb butters. And, preserving mint.

Ice cube trays. One of my favorite techniques to put away the right sized portions to use in future recipes.

The garden was definitely worth the time and effort. Now, I would just like it to slow down a bit.

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Posted in Food, Gardening, Hobbies, Volunteering and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, hobbies, howard county conservancy, tomatoes, volunteering. Bookmark the permalink.

My Out of Control Garden

Posted on August 11, 2014 by AnnieRie

To go along with the out of control kitchen. I should have known. Doubling the size of my garden, and doubling the amount of sunlight daily would result in a quadrupling of the amount of tomatoes we harvest.

The ten pounds of tomatoes harvested yesterday. To join that ten pounds from Friday. All told, more than 76 pounds of tomatoes so far this year.

The zucchinis are still producing. So are the cucumbers.

And I really should have entered that big one in the fair. At 1 3/4 pounds I think it would have gotten second place. The winner, I believe, was 1.9 pounds.

We have tomatoes for at least two meals a day. The oven roasting, oven drying, tomato sauce, salad making, gifts, etc. are hardly making a dent in it. I had more plants last year with less than half this harvest.

Note to self. Do NOT plant this many tomatoes next year.

I have been busy. Pickling. Canning. Cooking. I even slow cooked a dozen onions to make caramelized onions to freeze.

Since I am doing the event at the Howard County Conservancy next week, I am creating a page to use as my “handout”, for participants to use for referral after coming to the event.

The page, which you can see above the posts, will include recipes and technique posts. The focus of my blog posts for the next ten days will be the advice I am providing relative to the “Putting Food Away” event.

After all, when your garden goes nuts, you need to find something to do with all this food.

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Posted in Food, Gardening, Howard County, Volunteering and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, howard county conservancy, tomatoes, volunteering. Bookmark the permalink.

Putting Food Away

Posted on August 6, 2014 by AnnieRie

As in “What Do I Do With All These Tomatoes?”

My preserving food program is under construction. Due to be presented at the Howard County Conservancy Mt Pleasant, on August 23rd. Details here.

I have been dealing with excess CSA veggies and fruit for a number of years. Plus, I do a number of pick your own excursions, looking for those staples, like tomatoes, berries, apples. I do many techniques, other than canning, that are simple to use to prolong the local goodness well into the winter.

I have been creating a new page for my site. It will be the go-to page for recipes and tips and places to find affordable fruits, veggies and herbs to put away for the winter.

All this is taking time. Time I have being retired. But, simple techniques like ice cube trays used to make individual fruit or pesto portions, or maybe my blanch and freeze technique for tomatoes and peaches, will inspire people to keep a few special favorites on hand. To make peach pops in the winter. Or add strawberry ice cubes to a glass of wine to make sangria. Or defrost a pesto cube to make summer tasting pasta.

Keep checking here to see when my new page goes live. And, come see what fun we can have with the fruits of our labor (for all us gardeners out there). August 23rd, 10AM at the Conservancy Mt Pleasant. Free program.

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Posted in CSA, Food, Gardening, Real Food and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, howard county conservancy, real food, tomatoes. Bookmark the permalink.

A Very Productive Day

Posted on July 29, 2014 by AnnieRie

At least in the gardening world that is the center of my days.

Bright and early today I was out for my last week as food bank coordinator. Getting all the wheelbarrows ready for collecting the harvest. Additionally we were clearing out beds to ready for fall planting. Add to that the collection of vegetables for the lucky winner of the Wine in the Garden auction. They got a basket full of fresh vegetables again.

We had a large group there today. Probably ten of us. Maybe even a dozen. We harvested all the beets, carrots, cabbage and leeks. Then pulled the plants from the beds and readied them for planting. Weeded quite a bit too.

Our donation today was 110 pounds. I think this entire month we had at least 100 pounds of vegetables each week to take to the Howard County Food Bank. Today’s volunteer driver met some of the people waiting for the food bank to open, who expressed their thanks for what we donate.

We heard that our vegetables are greatly appreciated, as they are fresh and pesticide free.

Hats off to our volunteers today. We put in two to three hours of work each today. The gardens are flourishing in this lovely weather.

After my time in the food bank plots, I headed off to bring home my last leeks and a boatload of tomatoes.

This is part of it. My “audition” tray for my county fair decisions. Which cherry tomatoes do I choose? Will I get enough medium tomatoes to enter? What are my best plum tomatoes?

And, hooray, I got my first ripe heirlooms today. Two each of two different varieties. With a half dozen more close to ripening on the vines. Friday I have to decide which ones to enter.

Now, off to process those other tomatoes. The ones not pretty enough to enter.