Farm

Janet Hirsch says she has always been an adventurous eater, willing to try new things. But the Catonsville resident never ate pork ribs, Delmonico steaks or even turnips -- until last year. That's when Hirsch joined Friends & Farms, a Columbia-based company that connects consumers and farmers through weekly food shares. “The quality of the meat we get is fantastic,” she says. “And it turns out turnips are really good. I like them.” Hirsch, who picks up her stocked $51 food basket weekly, says she started with Friends & Farms in September to eat more local, sustainable foods and find new inspiration for mealtime.

Home cooking, indeed. Just a few miles northeast of the My Lady's Manor steeplechase course sits Bonita Farm, the long-running operation by the Boniface family that produced the last Maryland-based winner of the Preakness, Deputed Testamony. Saturday, those same connections motored down Route 1 to capture the 103rd edition of the My Lady's Manor steeplechase with Moonsox, a 7-year-old chestnut gelding whose grandsire was, coincidentally, Deputed Testamony Jockey Amelia McGuirk scored big in her first sanctioned race with an impressive stretch run that left five rivals convincingly beaten.

The 90-day legislative session in Annapolis wrapped up at midnight Monday to mixed reviews among environmental advocates, who hailed the passage of a bill promoting offshore wind development but had little else to celebrate. Gov. Martin O'Malley, who had pushed for the bill offering state incentives to put turbines off the Maryland coast, was scheduled to sign it Tuesday.  Karla Raettig, executive director of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, called its passage "a great day for democracy," while Tommy Landers of Environment Mary land praised it as a "landmark victory for our climate and for our children and grandchildren.

Orioles right-hander Chris Tillman had a rough go of it at Camden Yards on Saturday night, not making it out of the fourth inning. But down on the farm, the Orioles got mixed results from a pair of noteworthy starters. Kevin Gausman, the team's first-round pick in 2012, allowed eight hits and six runs, four of them earned, in his first start of the season for Double-A Bowie. He struck out eight batters and walked none in four innings. He allowed two runs in each of the second, third and fourth innings.

The House of Delegates gave preliminary approval Friday to a bill that would give Maryland farmers a 10-year reprieve from new Chesapeake Bay cleanup requirements, in return for their voluntarily doing more to reduce polluted runoff from their fields. Lawmakers overwhelmingly rejected a series of amendments to SB1029 , including ones that would have limited the scope of the program to 50 farms for now, and that would have required participating farmers to disclose some information about their farms.

Supporters and critics of legislation that would grant farmers a 10-year reprieve from new environmental regulations squared off before a House committee Tuesday, with much of the debate focused on provisions in the bill barring any public disclosure of those granted the deferral. Farm group representatives, O'Malley administration officials and others told members of the House Environmental Matters Committee that offering state farmers a shield from new environmental cleanup requirements could boost efforts to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.  Farmers would voluntarily agree to reduce polluted runoff of soil and fertilizer from their farms beyond what they're now required to do, proponents say. Sen. Thomas M. Middleton, the bill's chief sponsor, said many farmers are having to invest in new equipment and facilities now to comply with recently adopted state regulations on how, when and where fertilizer can be spread on the ground.

We live in an age that glorifies home cooking. Accomplished chefs across the region strive to recreate the flavors, smells and experiences of their grandmothers' kitchens. "Comfort food" is an haute cuisine buzzword. Though it's been open for more than five decades, with capable home-style cooking and kindly service, Friendly Farm is a restaurant for these times. Jack and Dorothy Wilhelm opened the restaurant in 1959, after an accident left Jack unable to work their 200-acre Upperco farm.

Officials in Worcester County are investigating the cause of a fire at a Perdue Farms research facility that destroyed two poultry houses and killed 8,000 chicks. The fire broke out at 3:15 p.m. Wednesday, more than an hour after the four workers on duty to care for the birds had ended their day and left the farm in Pocomoke City, said Julie DeYoung, a Perdue spokeswoman. The fire in the 8-year-old, 22,500-square-foot buildings — two of 15 poultry houses on site — is being investigated by the Worcester County Fire Marshal, DeYoung said.

The Harford County Sheriff's Office says it is looking for a man in connection with two armed robberies that occurred seven hours apart late Wednesday and early Thursday at a Subway sandwich shop and a Royal Farms store east of Bel Air. The latest of the two holdups occurred around 4 a.m. Thursday at the Royal Farms in the 1600 block of Churchville Road, the Sheriff's Office said in a news release Friday morning. Deputies responded to the convenience store, which is at the Fountain Green intersection of Routes 22 and 533, where the cashier told them they had been robbed at gunpoint.

Nobody asked me, but here are my six recommendations in the matter of the highly publicized, closely watched, widely criticized, rift-causing lawsuit brought by the Waterkeeper Alliance against the Hudson family poultry farm over alleged pollution in a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay on Maryland's Eastern Shore: •Everybody calm down, starting with the Maryland General Assembly. Already, the House of Delegates has authorized $300,000 — taxpayer dollars — for the legal fees of Alan Hudson, the farmer.