Bumper Crop

Despite the fact that it was raining lightly, Margie Satterlee set out for the Mount Airy Farmers Market. Satterlee has sold her fresh produce at the market since its start five years ago. A little rain wasn't going to stop her from attending the market's opening day on May 18. "Rain or shine, once you got the stuff picked, you have to show up," Satterlee said of her collection of onions, strawberries, tomatoes, asparagus and more. "It takes a few weeks once we do open for people to really pour in. " While it wasn't crowded, a steady stream of families did attend the market.

Former Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold stands alone among Maryland's recent crop of disgraced politicians in that he actually appears to feel disgraced by the recent airing of his misdeeds at trial. In one case after another — Sheila Dixon, Janet Johnson, Daryl Jones, Tiffany Alston, Ulysses Currie — elected officials have displayed precious little shame and regret for their illegal or unethical behavior. Upon his conviction for offenses related to the misuse of his executive protection detail and his scheduler for political and/or scatological purposes, Mr. Leopold not only resigned but acknowledged "serious errors in judgment.

The vegetable gardens planted around the city's War Memorial Plaza in front of City Hall have produced more than 1,500 pounds of vegetables for the kitchens of Our Daily Bread, which feeds the homeless. But perhaps just as important is this news: "The garden has been respected," said Melissa Grim, acting chief horticulturist for the city's Departments of Recration and Parks. Except for the odd head of cabbage or sage plant going missing, there has been no theft or vandalism in the multiple beds that surround the plaza.

Who's been seeing mushrooms? Mary Carole McCauley has this story on the 2011 bumper crop of super-creepy mushrooms that have been sprouting up everywhere, both in alarming numbers and in sick-making variety. Seems like there's a "scientific" "reason" for them, scientists say. I asked around, and my friend Thomas Dunn sent me this photograph of mushrooms he and some of his friends hiking around his family cabin in Pennsylvania. Gross!! I labeled a few of these nauseous things.

Summertime, and the living is easy - and it's generously colored: bright, like a Gerbera daisy; pastel, like sorbets; or shaded in hues as cool as a lake or pool.Summer entertaining - indoors or out - is less formal than in years past. Still, the season inspires us to create romantic moods with picnic-like spreads that evoke images of Tuscany or Provence. Some floral and fruit themes are so luscious that you won't be able to resist using them year-round.This year, there's a bumper crop of new designs, many of them on melamine, a rugged plastic hybrid.

Who's been seeing mushrooms? Mary Carole McCauley has this story on the 2011 bumper crop of super-creepy mushrooms that have been sprouting up everywhere, both in alarming numbers and in sick-making variety. Seems like there's a "scientific" "reason" for them, scientists say. I asked around, and my friend Thomas Dunn sent me this photograph of mushrooms he and some of his friends hiking around his family cabin in Pennsylvania. Gross!! I labeled a few of these nauseous things.

THE OTHER SATURDAY my father and I were heading off to Rehoboth Beach, expecting to find nothing but traffic. But it turned out to be one of those rare Memorial Day Saturdays when the backups evaporated and the weather was warm and perfect.There, as we cruised along Maryland Route 404, just outside Denton, we encountered roadside fields of billowing poppies, the red, orange and white blossoms as light as tissue paper.It was just the look I wanted for my own garden -- a patch of seed-sown poppies blooming away on a fine late spring day.Guess what?

This spring our lilacs weren’t spectacular, but the peonies outnumber any year in our garden’s history. Planted in 1922 and 1926, a sea of peonies, single pale and magenta pink to frilly pink (plain or with cream centers), deep magenta, peppermint, cream, white and white with flecks of magenta, cascade over borders and tips of triangular beds. Normally, my husband and I tie them up the Friday afternoon before the Preakness. Because of steady rain this week, we did not do it until Preakness Day. Everything was too wet on Friday to wade through the beds.

PALM BEACH, Fla. - It's almost shocking to hear good news about the Everglades, but here goes: For many of the marsh's wading birds, last year was the best nesting year in six decades. Not since the 1940s have the Everglades' imperiled white ibises enjoyed such a great year to raise families. For the endangered wood stork, it was the best nesting season since 1967. And the snowy egret didn't do too badly, either. The phenomenal year appeared to come from a combination of wet and dry years that proved nearly ideal for many species.

Despite an apparent die-off of adult crabs last winter, the Chesapeake Bay's crab population is at its highest level in seven years, thanks to a bumper crop of babies, federal fisheries officials say.A survey last winter of 1,200 locations in Maryland and Virginia found almost twice as many slumbering crabs as were found the year before.The number of crabs collected by dragging a 6-foot dredge across the bay and river bottoms was 49 percent higher than the average result from the previous six years of surveys.

A Halloween without pumpkins? Good grief! But before you race to the grocery store for canned pumpkin to mold into fall's favorite orange orb, consider this: While the soggy residents of Pennsylvania, New York and Vermont are facing a shortage of jack-o-lanterns, Maryland's trick-or-treaters will be spared the trauma. "We definitely lost some, but pumpkins will be around," said Dwight Baugher, who has started harvesting more than 70 acres of oversized squash at Baugher's Orchard and Farm inWestminster.

Despite the fact that it was raining lightly, Margie Satterlee set out for the Mount Airy Farmers Market. Satterlee has sold her fresh produce at the market since its start five years ago. A little rain wasn't going to stop her from attending the market's opening day on May 18. "Rain or shine, once you got the stuff picked, you have to show up," Satterlee said of her collection of onions, strawberries, tomatoes, asparagus and more. "It takes a few weeks once we do open for people to really pour in. " While it wasn't crowded, a steady stream of families did attend the market.

This spring our lilacs weren’t spectacular, but the peonies outnumber any year in our garden’s history. Planted in 1922 and 1926, a sea of peonies, single pale and magenta pink to frilly pink (plain or with cream centers), deep magenta, peppermint, cream, white and white with flecks of magenta, cascade over borders and tips of triangular beds. Normally, my husband and I tie them up the Friday afternoon before the Preakness. Because of steady rain this week, we did not do it until Preakness Day. Everything was too wet on Friday to wade through the beds.

In the beginning of "In the Loop" is the word, and the word is "unforeseeable." This British movie, set in London, Northampton and Washington, is an incredibly busy, erratically brilliant satire about the devious ways democratic governments can ramp up toward war. Its funniest joke comes right at the start and doesn't lose its snap after a dozen repetitions. A minor British official, Simon Foster (Tom Hollander), "Minister for International Development," hastens a trans-Atlantic rush to action simply by telling a radio talk-show host that an American war in the Middle East is "unforeseeable."

The vegetable gardens planted around the city's War Memorial Plaza in front of City Hall have produced more than 1,500 pounds of vegetables for the kitchens of Our Daily Bread, which feeds the homeless. But perhaps just as important is this news: "The garden has been respected," said Melissa Grim, acting chief horticulturist for the city's Departments of Recration and Parks. Except for the odd head of cabbage or sage plant going missing, there has been no theft or vandalism in the multiple beds that surround the plaza.

The GOTCORN license tag on his pickup greatly understates what Brad Milton offers on his Harford County farm. The store at Brad's Produce in Churchville is stocked with fresh vegetables, herbs and fruits, all manner of flowers and Brad's special fertilizer and potting soil. It also carries honey, jellies, pickles, relish and tomato sauce, all made with items grown in the surrounding fields and greenhouses. The man just named Harford County's most innovative farmer does not come from generations of those who till the land for a living.

A Halloween without pumpkins? Good grief! But before you race to the grocery store for canned pumpkin to mold into fall's favorite orange orb, consider this: While the soggy residents of Pennsylvania, New York and Vermont are facing a shortage of jack-o-lanterns, Maryland's trick-or-treaters will be spared the trauma. "We definitely lost some, but pumpkins will be around," said Dwight Baugher, who has started harvesting more than 70 acres of oversized squash at Baugher's Orchard and Farm inWestminster.

Farmers live with a lot of uncertainty. They never know what Mother Nature will do, and they're never sure what price their crops will bring.But despite the unknowns, one thing is for sure -- if it's spring, farmers brim with optimism."

Ever hear the mantra, "Too many books, not enough space?" Book editors now have a new complaint: "Too many political screeds, enough already." "I have become very selective when it comes to political books," said Frank Wilson, book editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, in a recent post on Critical Mass, the new blog created by the National Book Critics Circle, the country's premier organization for newspaper and magazine book critics. "I look for the one that has something different to say - they're certainly rare enough - and is likely to be overlooked.

Severna Park High School's National Merit finalists credit their teachers, parents and school administrators. They even credit block scheduling and their school's wide selection of AP classes. But Severna Park High School teacher Richard Haas thinks the credit for their success belongs elsewhere - with the nine students themselves. "They're naturally smart to begin with. All they needed was a little push," said Haas, who helped prepare the students to take the PSAT, the qualifying test for the National Merit competition, in their junior year.