Bushel

TILGHMAN -- Watermen in three Eastern Shore counties have returned to work, ending a five-day strike that failed to raise the price of oysters.After several informal meetings with buyers, the oystermen from Queen Anne's, Talbot and Dorchester counties said they had been promised up to $20 a bushel for their catch, but yesterday some received $16, less than the $18 they had been getting before the work stoppage.The watermen say the prices they are getting lag behind bushel rates being paid by seafood packers in the northern part of the bay."

Auditions The Theatre at AACC will hold auditions for its spring production of "The Underpants" at 7 p.m. Monday-Tuesday, Feb. 11-12, in the Robert E. Kauffman Theater in the Pascal Center for Performing Arts, 101 College Parkway in Arnold. The play has roles for seven actors — four or five male and two or three female — ages 18-50. Information: 410-777-7125. Theater performance Theatre at AACC will perform the comedy, "The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged)," through Feb. 16 in the Humanities Building Room 112, 101 College Parkway in Arnold.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening challenged his Republican counterpart in New York yesterday to put up or clam up over the outcome of the Orioles-Yankee series.New York Gov. George E. Pataki did both.Glendening, he of the baseball ties, wagered a bushel of Maryland blue crabs that the Orioles will win the best-of-seven series against the Yankees for the American League championship.Pataki wasted no time in agreeing to the bet, backing it with the promise of a bushel of Long Island hard-shell clams -- "steam-ehs" in New York parlance -- that the Yanks will prevail.

Independence Day means steamed crabs for many Marylanders, but the outlook for celebrating the nation's birthday with a heaping tableful of locally caught crustaceans is as iffy as the weather of late. Despite a bumper crop of crabs tallied in the Chesapeake Bay during last winter's survey, that bounty has yet to show up at local docks or seafood outlets, watermen and dealers report. The big crab houses and restaurants always stock their coolers with crabs shipped up from Louisiana or Texas, and some seafood businesses have augmented the local catch with crabs trucked in from down the bay or North Carolina.

SOMETIMES YOU win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes you end up as bait. That's what I told my crab Thursday after the 11th annual Crab Derby came to a water-soaked end. I was one of the sore losers. The contest was simple: Crabs scooted across a makeshift track set up on the floor of the Lexington Market. About 15 of us so-called "crab jockeys" were allowed to pick either a male or female crab for the race. I picked a male who turned out to be as lively as a guy stretched out in a La-Z-Boy on a Saturday afternoon.

The sound of snapping fresh green beans broke through the din of the television, turned up high enough for the hardest of hearing at Lookabout Manor senior home.At a table behind the couches that face the television, a half-dozen residents of the home worked through a bushel of beans that Jeanie Meeks brought in from her husband's farm, and asked for more. It sure beat watching reruns on the large-screen TV."They kept asking me, `When are you going to bring some more beans?' It brings back all the things they used to do," said Meeks, a former nanny who one year ago was a daily visitor to the home, where her mother was living.

An Illinois company said yesterday that it wants to build an organic grain processing plant in the mid-Atlantic area that could open the door to Maryland farmers getting paid three times as much for their soybeans."

TILGHMAN ISLAND -- Watermen whose boats have been docked in this historic fishing town for three days are vowing to continue "sitting ashore" until they get more money for the oysters that provide the bulk of their incomes during the fall and winter.Angry that seafood buyers and packers in the Bay Hundred area in Talbot County, from St. Michael's to Tilghman Island, are paying $18 a bushel when the going rate in other parts of the Eastern Shore is $22 to $24, the watermen say striking is their only option.

Ah, hot steamed crabs - so spicy, so tasty. So expensive. Crustacean lovers can expect to fork out as much as $200 for a bushel of large No. 1 crabs, a favorite summer backyard treat. "I'm sure I've got customers who look at my prices and say, `Man, he's making a killing,'" Brian Moore, general manager of Gibby's Seafood Market in Timonium, said as he sorted through bushels upon bushels of crabs, separating them by size. But that's not the case, he said, insisting that he's making no more money this year selling a bushel of large crabs for $189 than last year when the price was $169.

On a recent weekend, I set off on a very simple mission: to find the cheapest crabs in Ocean City. What I discovered is that crab prices are more complicated than I thought. Prices are difficult to pin down because they can change depending on the cost the restaurant pays for the crabs on a given day. Also, no two restaurants have to same definitions for crab sizes. Some sell mediums, larges, extra larges and jumbos. Some offer smalls. Some offer only jumbos, but no extra larges.

On a recent weekend, I set off on a very simple mission: to find the cheapest crabs in Ocean City. What I discovered is that crab prices are more complicated than I thought. Prices are difficult to pin down because they can change depending on the cost the restaurant pays for the crabs on a given day. Also, no two restaurants have to same definitions for crab sizes. Some sell mediums, larges, extra larges and jumbos. Some offer smalls. Some offer only jumbos, but no extra larges.

You could drive to a fish market or stop at a roadside stand to pick up a few dozen steamed crabs, or maybe a bushel. But then you'd miss the tranquility that comes from bobbing in silky-smooth back waters, the sound of bass leaping to catch low-flying bugs, the sight of great blue herons and bald eagles sweeping the sky to begin their search for the first meal of the day. And you'd miss the satisfaction that comes from baiting a line and...

Greens and apples were sold by the bushel Sunday as shoppers stuffed their bags and carts at the Baltimore Farmers' Market in preparation for Thanksgiving. "This is our best market of the year. Next week will probably be the worst - everybody will be too full," said Bryan Kerney, owner of Truck Patch Farms in Carroll and Frederick counties. He'd sold more than 100 turkeys in less than 3 1/2 hours at the market, which is tucked under the Jones Falls Expressway. By 11:30, he had sold out of Steve Anderson's favorite pork sausage, before the Catonsville man could get there to buy a few pounds of it. Anderson was toting two trash bags that held a bushel each of kale and collards - enough for the first shift of the 50 to 60 guests expected at his home on Thursday.

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.

Muhammad Ali fought with his hands lowered. In doing so, he broke a cardinal rule of boxing. He also did the Ali Shuffle. Again, it went against all logic. He's crazy, people said about him (among other things). Doing that unnecessary showboating, taking those pointless risks - he'll never get away with it. For the first 17 years or so, he did. Yes, it's borderline blasphemous to mention Ali and Ed Reed in the same sentence. But how much longer are we going to wait for that moment of Armageddon when one of his laterals lands in the hands of an opposing player, who turns it into a touchdown in the final seconds to beat the Ravens and destroy their season?

State fund, Annapolis join in tree plantings As part of a reforestation and beautification program, the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund joined with Annapolis Mayor Ellen O. Moyer and the Annapolis city council to plant more than two dozen trees around Annapolis Walk Community Center, near MAIF's Forest Drive headquarters. MAIF Deputy Executive Director John Banghart said of Friday's planting: "MAIF has been and remains committed to working toward a greener, more environmentally friendly business model."

CHICAGO -- Soybean futures rallied to a four-year high after Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy indicated crop damage caused by flooding in the Midwest might be more extensive than previously thought.Mr. Espy said at least 20 million acres of crop land has been "adversely affected" by the flooding. He made his remarks before the Senate Agriculture Committee.Trading on the Chicago Board of Trade was volatile as traders tried to discern which commodities were going to be most affected while private reports suggested damage was not as extensive as the latest account.

Maybe it's time to cover the picnic table with newspapers, invite the family over and have that crab feast you couldn't afford over Memorial Day weekend.Crab prices have dropped in recent weeks -- by as much as $68 a bushel in at least one case -- according to a spot check of retailers and wholesalers around the state.Al Strzegowski of Al's Seafood on Eastern Boulevard in Middle River perhaps best summed up the current crab market yesterday when he said:"They're not cheap, but they are at least affordable."

This could be the year that state grain farmers buy that flashy new pickup truck they have been eyeing for a couple of years. Due primarily to recent floods in the Midwest, "Maryland grain farmers are looking at a huge payday this year," says Kevin McNew, a managing partner of Go Grain LLC, a commodity research firm in Bozeman, Mont., and an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland. "For Maryland farmers, things look great," he said. "It could be their best year ever. "They are sitting on a corn crop that looks to be valued at $7 or $8 a bushel," said McNew.

This could be the year that state grain farmers buy that flashy new pickup truck they have been eyeing for a couple of years. Because of recent floods in the Midwest, "Maryland grain farmers are looking at a huge pay day this year," says Kevin McNew, a managing partner of Go Grain LLC, a commodity research firm in Bozeman, Mont., and an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland. "For Maryland farmers, things look great," he said. "It could be their best year ever. "They are sitting on a corn crop that looks to be valued at $7 or $8 a bushel," said McNew.