Tag Archives: West HoCo

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.

A Peek at the Week

Posted on December 8, 2014 by AnnieRie

In food. From my two local, seasonal, regional food sources here in Howard County. It may be December but with the advent of high tunnels and the use of greenhouses, you can still get very tasty fresh foods without them being flown from all over the globe.

A basket of vegetables and fruit from Amish country, for example. Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative, delivered to our pick up site.

This is what $30 a week got me for a half share and a fruit share. Last Thursday’s delivery. A salad spinner’s worth of young arugula. Three small heads of specialty lettuces. One large leek. Three parsnips. A small stalk of Brussels sprouts. Two yellow onions and a bag of white potatoes. The fruit share was a mix of apples and two humongous Asian pears.

As for Friends and Farms individual share. Also picked up on Thursday.

One large pork chop. One small whole chicken. One half pound of hickory smoked bacon. A dozen eggs. Thyme. Hydroponic tomatoes. Four Bosc pears. One red onion. Four potatoes. Fresh curly kale. One small hydroponic leaf lettuce. The pumpkin ravioli was an add on. From the always stocked refrigerator on site.

All the meat from Friends and Farms has been used. Half the eggs too. This was the last week for free range pastured eggs from Miller Farms. We will get Nature’s Yolk eggs in the winter.

Lots of soups on the menu these days. All the fixings that go easily into the crockpot.

That chicken? Became dinner Friday night with the leftover breast meat being part of a cream based soup today. Soup was a perfect dinner after getting that perfect tree from Greenway.

Now, I have to go decorate a tree.

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Posted in CSA, Farms, Food, Friends and Farms, Howard County, LFFC, Local Businesses, Locavore, West HoCo, Winter Eat Local and tagged community, cooking, crock pot cooking, crockpot soups, CSA, farms, Food, holidays, local businesses, Locavore, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

The Eagle Has Landed

Posted on November 29, 2014 by AnnieRie

Literally.

In the back yard. Less than 100 yards from the kitchen window where I took this really awful picture, but I rushed it hoping he wouldn’t fly away. Which he did, about 10 seconds after the picture. The crows went nuts and he flew down the side of the property and hung around for a few minutes high in my neighbor’s tree. Then, tired of the crows circling and yammering at him, he headed off back towards Triadelphia Reservoir.

What brought him here? The dead deer out there. Probably a car-deer casualty. Which is now mostly hide, hoofs, head and chest cavity. The third one we know of, in our almost ten years here. Usually, we only know about them because of the turkey vultures.

But this morning at 7 am, my husband yelled up the stairs. EAGLE!!! In the back yard.

I’ll have to get up early tomorrow and see if he’s returned.

Just another Saturday in the rural western part of our little Central Maryland county.

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Posted in Birds, Howard County, Nature, West HoCo and tagged birds, community, eagles, Howard County, nature, photography, West HoCo. 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.

Ethanol Free

Posted on November 17, 2014 by AnnieRie

We finally gave up and had to find an ethanol free gas station. I swear that ethanol is doing us more harm than high fructose corn syrup. Neither one of them is good for us.

The closest place for us to buy it is in Littlestown PA. Full serve. In the rain today we drove up to fill up the gas cans for the snow blower, the lawn mower and the leaf vacuum. So far, in the past year, the string trimmer, snow blower and lawn mower all had carburetor work, because of the E10 gas gumming them up.

Other than the Eastern shore of MD, where the marinas are located, there are few choices near us. Charles Town WV. Front Royal VA. The one above in Littlestown. All on our short list are sources when we go on other trips in those areas.

We were really careful with our small engine equipment, draining when not in use. Using the additives. This has been the year we had major issues, including losing the lawn mower for 10 days while it was fixed. Thankfully, the tractor is diesel powered.

So, on a rainy Monday we drove 40 miles to get gas. Decided to stop on the way back at Baughers in Westminster to get a few items. Like my husbands favorite ice cream. Pumpkin.

The last quart in the case. Perfect for his birthday dinner this week.

As for Littlestown, it is just up Rte. 97 a few miles north of the Mason Dixon Line. On the way to Gettysburg.

Downtown is already decorated for Christmas. It reminds us so much of my husband’s home town in PA.

As for finding ethanol free gas, here is a great website.

And if you aren’t using ethanol free gas in your 2 cycle engines, it’s only a matter of time before it bites you too. Now, back to our regularly scheduled leaf removal.

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Posted in Commentary, Day Trips, Nature, Weather, West HoCo and tagged commentary, day trips, fall foliage, weather, West HoCo. 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.

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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Posted in Community, Farms, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Weather, West HoCo and tagged community, day trips, farms, Food, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

What to Do?

Posted on October 23, 2014 by AnnieRie

This weekend. There are so many things happening around here. Almost too much to write about. It is the height of fall foliage season.

This is the view from the farm right next to the Living Farm Heritage Museum. They are across the road from the Howard County Fairgrounds.

The museum has hayrides Sunday. With costumed characters and treats for the children.

How about apple picking? Or pumpkins? Or a corn maze? Larriland is still open until next weekend. I will probably be there tomorrow stocking up on cider, and picking some apples, and maybe some beets to pickle for the winter.

Maybe my own personal favorite farm in the area. Sharps at Waterford. They have a huge corn maze. Pumpkins. Their fall fun day open house is on the 1st of November, but they are open this weekend too.

Have you ever done a corn maze? This is the time of year we have them all over the county.

While you visit our local farms, pick up some cooking pumpkins. Or some apples and cider. Or jams, jellies and apple butters.