Tag Archives: Howard County

Fair Weather

Posted on August 4, 2015 by AnnieRie

Today let’s talk about the weather. The weather that impacts gardeners and farmers. The weather that influences what we harvest. And whether, for me, it’s good enough to give me flavorful heirloom tomatoes.

Growing these tomatoes was on my bucket list. My 50 things I wanted to do before I die. Back 12 years ago when I turned 50 I wrote that list. Before we bought this house in the country. Before I ever tilled and weeded and suffered through our awful summers.

This year our county fair is a week later than the past. Giving me more time to get those heirlooms ripe. Except all that rain has made them a mess.

They are cracked. They aren’t as full of flavor. Still, I try and pick the best ones to submit.

Submissions are due by Saturday morning, although I try to get mine in on Friday night. Today, I harvested all my leeks. I picked one of my unusual vegetables, hoping I may get a better one Thursday. I still haven’t chosen my herbs.

If you have never made it to the county fair, you really ought to come out.

Come see what our traffic jams look like. Ride a few rides. Have some unhealthy foods. The fair runs from Saturday to Saturday. We like heading over there early before the crowds. And we buy a season pass.

See you at the fair?

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Posted in Community, Farms, Food, Gardening, Howard County and tagged community, farms, Food, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, Howard County, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Fair Trade

Posted on August 2, 2015 by AnnieRie

Getting ready for the county fair. The next few posts will highlight things that we are interested in doing, and show some of the preparations that I make in order to enter items for ribbons.

This year, I am literally drowning in heirloom tomatoes, compared to previous years. Unfortunately many of them will be past their prime on submission days. Still, I found a solution to my problem.

Thanks to Bistro Blanc.

What does ginger beer and peaches have to do with the fair? Not much, but we were drinking a peach ginger mule at the bar Friday night when Chef Janny came out to visit with a few regulars. It was past prime dining time, so he was done service.

I mentioned to him that I had an overabundance of herbs and veggies. In the past, I had given Chef Marc some of my rosemary and basil, when I was deluged with them.

We made a simple deal. I would bring him what I had available. We would work out a “trade”.

That’s how I became a local supplier to a local restaurant.

Here’s some of the vegetables I put together. The hot peppers. I have a serious overabundance of them. I did keep back six that are almost all perfectly straight and uniform in size. Hopefully they will hang in there to be submitted as fair entries.

Shallots. Lots and lots of shallots. I have all sorts of shapes and sizes.

Heirlooms. In the above picture, there are Black Prince, Amana Orange, Abe Lincoln, German Johnson, Goliath and Box Car Willie. I am doing the taste testing to determine which ones would do best at the fair. I still can’t decide, and there are dozens of them on the vine up at the garden.

Not shown in my pictures are my lavender, chives and basil. Or a container full of teeny cherry tomatoes.

Next weekend after my submissions, I will probably deliver another batch. So, if you eat at Bistro Blanc, you may be getting “farm to table” from my little part of the world.

As for that lovely drink up there, it’s simple. Get a bottle of ginger beer. A lime. A peach. Some ice. Good vodka. I used Absolut. Muddle the peach, after removing the skin and pit. If it isn’t really sweet (ours was), add a pinch of sugar. Pour in 1/2 cup of vodka, crushed ice, juice of the lime. Divide between two glasses and pour the bottle of ginger beer into the glasses, evenly dividing it.

I found Crabbie’s up at Old Tyme Liquor. It can be used to make Dark and Stormies, if you have dark rum. What is it about summertime and cocktails?

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Posted in Food, Gardening, Hobbies, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore and tagged Food, foodie, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, hobbies, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore. Bookmark the permalink.

HALO

Posted on July 26, 2015 by AnnieRie

The Howard Astronomical League Observatory. Officially opened last night at Alpha Ridge.

The long awaited observatory that Joel Goodman has been talking about at every opportunity we see him, finally is done and open. It was a lovely night. Many, many people of all ages came out for the ribbon cutting followed by tours followed by a star party.

I love going out there for any reason. I also enjoy every event that “HAL” puts on. Like the transit of Venus a few years back, at the Conservancy. Where hundreds (we think 500-600 based just on the cars) came out to watch the last transit for 104 years.

The sheer volume of people interested in watching the heavens is to me a sign that we in this area really do love science and nature and discovery. Yes, I know, a run on sentence. But, it does feel like we seek opportunities to learn more, and see more.

There were many speeches last night. Lots of people who made this happen. Still, I love to see the children get into it.

My vantage point didn’t let you see the children doing the ribbon cutting. Not the adults. Not the politicians. The children.

Thanks, Star Doc, for your vision. For your leadership. For helping us out at the Conservancy in setting up our “star parties”, like the upcoming Perseids meteor event on August 12th. For all us night owls.

For those looking for the HAL star parties in the new observatory, the next one is August 22nd. Check out the HAL web page for details.

Come on in. The viewing is awesome.

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Posted in Community, Hobbies, Howard County, West HoCo and tagged astronomy, community, hobbies, hoco loco, Howard County, photography, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Portalli’s in Old Ellicott City

Posted on July 24, 2015 by AnnieRie

The scene of a farewell party for a fellow local blogger.

My first visit to their upstairs outdoor dining area. Real Al Fresco dining without looking at a parking lot or storm water management pond.

Overall, impressive. And the food is good. I judge a restaurant sometimes by how well they execute calamari. Theirs was lovely. Lightly battered. Not greasy. Good marinara. Enjoyed with some blogging friends, and a very nice glass of pinot grigio with it.

We were sending off Claire, our UK Desperate Housewife, who is headed back across the pond after three years here in Howard County.

She probably has seen more in Howard County than many permanent residents, as she definitely gets involved and has loved the experience.

This was a hocoblogs party. Our local blogging “newspaper”. I love going to the parties to meet fellow writers, and to catch up on what is happening around the county.

I was impressed with Portalli’s. It, along with Pure Wine, are now two more destinations on my somewhat small list of restaurants I like. Just don’t make me go to a chain restaurant. I love these individually owned places.

Thanks again to Portalli’s for hosting a party for the community. Ellicott City is one of our treasures. The feel of small town Main Street. Nice place with a view.

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Posted in Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Restaurants and tagged Food, foodie, hoco loco, Howard County. Bookmark the permalink.

Code Red Days

Posted on July 21, 2015 by AnnieRie

The temperatures are soaring. It was supposed to rain today and cool it off, but so far, no such luck. Sunday and Monday the temperatures were in the high nineties and the heat index in triple digits.

Just think how hard the farmers have it, dealing with heat while trying to harvest, feed the animals and do all those other chores. If your days are spent going from A/C home to A/C car to A/C job to A/C car to A/C restaurant to A/C home, you have it easy.

We spent part of Sunday (early) dealing with some yard things. Not too long. Monday I had to go weed, harvest and water my garden. That hour and a half was brutal, so I can’t imagine having to spend hours getting things ready for CSAs, markets and deliveries.

Not to mention working in steamy kitchens in the restaurants. My hat is off to those who have to work outside in this weather, and to those working the line making your farm to table meals.

If you hit any of the markets this week during the Buy Local Challenge, or go out for Restaurant week, take the time to thank those who make it possible. They aren’t sitting in front of an A/C vent. Also, take time to vote for your favorite adult beverage, and go try a few at the local restaurants. They have a “Garden to Glass” competition going on.

No matter what, keep supporting our local small businesses. And let them know you appreciate them.

Remember the saying, If You Can Read This, Thank a Teacher.

How about —- Before you eat that, thank a farmer.

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Posted in Commentary, Community, Farms, Food, Gardening, Howard County, Local Businesses, Restaurants, Weather and tagged farms, Food, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Healthier Eating

Posted on July 11, 2015 by AnnieRie

There’s been this debate in our county about “nutritional standards” and now we seem to be legislating it. I suppose in my world, healthier eating means removing as much artificially flavored, overly processed foods from my diet. To others, it may mean gluten free, or vegan, or paleo, or any combination that fits a person’s wants, needs and possible allergies.

I thought we lived in a highly educated, motivated, discerning, well informed corner of the universe. I seem to be somewhat naïve since now we need the government to choose what is “healthy” for us.

I read the county council passed bill, with its exceptions, convoluted language, and even its confusing parts that make me shake my head. Low fat milk is full of sugar. Diet sodas have lots of sodium. Which wins? I thought healthy now included fats? According to this bill, it doesn’t. And that 25 cent thing? Really? OK, I’m a vendor. I put a four ounce healthy snack in my machine for 25 cents less than an eight ounce “unhealthy” snack. Which would you buy?

Why don’t we just ban vending machines if we are worried people won’t make the right choices? While we are at it, can we get rid of those annoying Girl Scout and Cub Scout fundraisers that push sugar laden foods on us as we try to get to the library? And, why aren’t the schools included in this “purge” of unhealthy choices?

Make it simple. Stop selling packaged stuff. Period. Whether it’s the sugar, or the fat, or the artificial flavorings and colorings. They are all bad for us in excess.

The people who live here do a pretty good job of thinking for themselves.

For example. Our annual Field Day. Where we once went through cases of soda.

Now, we ended up turning back most of the sodas. We go through large amounts of water, and not quite as much Gatorade. In the extreme heat, the crews drink more Gatorade to rehydrate, but even that is changing. They didn’t need bans or legislation to change their habits.

Heck, this year, they ate almost all my tzatziki and veggies, and all my salad I brought. Seven years ago, they wouldn’t have made a dent in it. The first pizza to be finished. The veggie one.

Seriously, people. Give our fellow residents some credit. We are one of the healthiest counties in our state. We don’t need all this legislation to tell us what to eat. If we don’t want processed food in county buildings, ban the vending machines.

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Posted in Commentary, Food, Howard County and tagged commentary, Food, Howard County, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Ready for the Fourth?

Posted on July 2, 2015 by AnnieRie

The locavore way. Berries from Larriland. Chardonnay from Big Cork. Using Maryland’s best to celebrate the holiday.

I am getting ready for this weekend. Lots of good stuff from the garden, the CSA, Friends and Farms and other local farms for grilling, chilling and just kicking back. If only the weather would cooperate.

As for things to do, here is what is high on our list.

Lisbon.

You could go pick berries at Larriland, as they are open 9-1 on Saturday. Have a hot dog at Alex’s snowball stand. Watch the parade. Listen to the music.

For us, we are seriously considering heading out to Rohrersville to Big Cork to join in their celebration at the winery. The events page has the details. I mean, River House Pizza from Eillicott City is heading out there.

As for the grilling sometime this weekend, if it ever stops raining, I am looking forward to those goodies from my Friends and Farms basket.

I am thinking bratwurst with German mustard.

As for fireworks, not a fan. I know they are all around the area, but we just stay out here in west county and watch the neighbors’ fireworks. Someone, somewhere out here will set off a few.

Happy Independence Day to Howard County.

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Posted in Community, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, West HoCo and tagged cooking, Food, holidays, Howard County, Locavore, MD Wine, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Field Day Part Two W3AO

Posted on June 29, 2015 by AnnieRie

Wind and rain can not stop us from broadcasting. Even a “little” rain, like close to four inches on Saturday. Our annual weekend emergency ops practice, aka Field Day, went on as planned. Well, not quite as planned. There were quite a few adjustments being made just as we were ready to start.

This was Saturday before the second deluge arrived, and after the first. Everything battened down.

As usual the club members managed to think ahead and make things work.

A quick trip to Home Depot for 4’X8′ plywood and 2″X4″ boards to make platforms for under all the tables.

Not the most comfortable conditions to cut wood, but you do what you have to do.

They did keep the tables and chairs from sinking into the ground. Emergency preparedness is one goal of this weekend exercise. We certainly seemed to test that goal this weekend.

We had many people watching our operation. We had our contacts over at the County Emergency Operations Center prepared to let us know if high winds or thunderstorms were heading our direction. If they did, we would have to lower the antennas, disconnect the cables and hunker down in our cars and trucks. Thankfully, no thunder or lightning, and the winds weren’t severe. We had more wind on Sunday, but the towers did OK.

This year we used more of the heavier, more secure screw in anchors for the guy wires to the towers. Anyplace we thought the ground could saturate, and where we had the largest heaviest antennas mounted, we used those anchors.

Above is what I am talking about. This picture is from our tower in our yard. We use these stronger, longer anchors.

This anchor is what we usually put in for the 24 hour Field Day event. It can be installed in less time. The screw in anchors take more time and are definitely what you want in soft earth when you are putting up one of these.

The twenty meter beams, two of them, are the heaviest antennas out in the field. All the work done by the set up crews in advance lowers the probability of failures during bad weather.

We had visitors on Saturday during some of the bad weather. Some Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) MD Joint Operations Center (MJOC) crew. How’s that for acronyms? Many county Emergency Ops Center employees, who all know the club members who volunteer supporting them.

A few special ones, too. Like our county executive, Allan Kittleman.

He’s talking here to Dave Prestel, who leads our RACES efforts. They were talking about the ways our volunteers can get even more involved in supporting the emergency ops center and the fire department.

We even got him on our Get On The Air station.

Since this event is somewhat competitive, as well as a public service event, we get bonus points for things such as attendance by elected officials, and attendance by those MEMA MJOC employees.

This picture is a favorite of mine because it shows how Rich KE3Q is instructing the county executive in how to make contacts with other stations, while we have an OEM employee looking on.

Sometime soon I will get the email that was sent out with the final tally of how many stations we contacted. Even in some really awful weather conditions, the club hangs in there and searches for stations all across the country and north into the Canadian provinces.

We may be “amateur” in name but our volunteers are professional in their dedication to excellence in what they do. Plus, we have a good time doing that.

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Posted in Commentary, Community, Hobbies, Howard County, Volunteering, Weather and tagged amateur radio, community, Howard County, volunteering, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Field Day Part One W3AO

Posted on June 28, 2015 by AnnieRie

Set up time. At least the weather cooperated and it didn’t rain at all on us Friday as we put together another yearly effort in emergency management communications. The two local amateur radio clubs here in Howard County pair up. A first class public service and emergency support club, and an elite group of “contesters”, i.e. radio operators who try to make the most contacts in a fixed amount of time.

The two skill sets can be important when we encounter real life emergencies that require additional communication support.

These are our real unsung “heroes”. They come out in all sorts of weather to erect portable communications towers and antennas, unroll miles (two to be exact) of coaxial cables, install computers, three generators, sleeping, eating and operating tents, and so much more.

I think this sums it up quite well. If we didn’t have awesome volunteers to do this work on their own time, we couldn’t operate a successful “Field Day”.

We always know we are ready to go when the flags go up. Which they did Saturday morning just before the deluge.

I will be writing a second part about how this talented, quick thinking group of “hams” managed to continue operating in what could be considered emergency conditions. Like three inches of rain in a few hours.

Until then, after I go help make the grilled burgers and dogs, and we tear down our support tents while the volunteers take down the towers, here’s my interim “Thank You” again from all of us who appreciate the help.

Thirty four people from Columbia Amateur Radio Club and Potomac Valley Radio Club worked on Friday to make this weekend happen.

The operation ends at 2 PM today. We hope the weather stays nice while we disassemble all this stuff and put it away again until next year, or until we need some of it, and the skilled operators, to support the county Office of Emergency Management, the fire department, and various bike races, foot races and other community activities.

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Posted in Community, Hobbies, Howard County and tagged amateur radio, community, hobbies, Howard County, volunteering, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Don’t Forget to Relax

Posted on June 25, 2015 by AnnieRie

I need to keep repeating that mantra this week. There were (and are) so many events and activities in my life this week, I needed today to relax and get ready for Round Two, so to speak.

It’s the beginning of my harvest season. It’s the annual Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) emergency preparedness activity, otherwise known as Field Day this weekend. There were blogger parties, which I missed. A crab feast on Kent Island, that I did get to attend. CSA pick up. Friends and Farms pick up.

Making pickles. Making salads and sides for Field Day. Ordering ten pizzas for set up day tomorrow. Getting to Costco for my part of the provisions (oh, and add to that the fact the car broke down in their parking lot).

I also missed a Conservancy event, Fiddlers and Fireflies. Just too tired to get there.

I can’t believe how many things there are to do around here. This is such an active area. Lots of outdoor things to do. Today we got a note for volunteers to help with a Columbia Families in Nature event this Sunday out at Mt. Pleasant. I will still be tearing down our makeshift kitchen at our Field Day site.

Plus. Squeezing in a visit to Lisa, a fellow volunteer and blogger, who is embarking on a trip around the world with her family, for a year. Bon Voyage to Lisa. Can’t wait to follow your web page with your journal.

By the way, we love visitors to our Field Day site. Have you ever wanted to contact someone from Canada, or Hawaii, or Alaska or any of the other states? We put up a fun station for those not licensed to try out their communication skills. Children love to come talk to people on the other side of the USA.

The Field Day event runs from Saturday 2 PM until Sunday 2 PM. We are at Triadelphia Ridge Elementary School. Our GOTA (get on the air) station is always a big hit with local families. Come see us. Maybe you will also see our satellite capability operators contact the International Space Station. They have done it almost every year.