Farmers

There have been Mullinixes farming in western Howard County for more than a century. Nearly three decades ago, as a mark of their commitment to working the land, the family sold the development rights on their farms to the state of Maryland. Now, though, brothers Mike, Stephen and Mark Mullinix say they want out. Not out of farming, necessarily, but out from under a state program that limits how they can use their land - a move that worries preservationists. "We're trying to generate income from other things, and [state officials are]

Oden Bowie, the former secretary of the Maryland Senate and grandson of Maryland Gov. Oden Bowie, died Oct. 23 at the Arbor at Baywoods in Annapolis of complications from a fall he suffered at his home last month. He was 97. His daughter, Ambler Bowie Slabe, said he had spent his entire life at Fairview, the Bowie home in Prince George's County. She said he was the sixth generation of his family to reside there. "He was respected and admired by everyone," said Maryland Senate President Mike Miller.

Alan Hudson, the farmer at the center of a environmental law case that could shake up the Eastern Shore chicken business, took the stand in federal court Wednesday to tell his side of the story. Hudson testified that as a 19-year-old, he built the chicken houses at issue in the case, on the Berlin-area farm that has been in his family for at least a century. "That was going to be my contribution to getting my foot in the door farming with them," the 37-year-old Hudson said, adding that the farm needed a new stream of revenue after its dairy closed down a few years before.

Radishes are lucky to be at any American table. Used in salads as filler and crudités plates for color they are always the last to be eaten (if they're eaten at all). It's understandable, though, because the varieties we buy from the supermarket are extremely bitter and rather unpleasant by themselves. The varieties of radish at the farmers market are more varied, but even the milder English versions are peppery and conducive to eating by themselves. The way to bite back at these is to roast them.

A dispute that started three years ago when environmentalists accused an Eastern Shore chicken farm and one of the nation's largest poultry companies of polluting a stream that ultimately flows to the Chesapeake Bay comes to a head Tuesday in a Baltimore federal courtroom. The trial, expected to last up to three weeks, begins in the Waterkeeper Alliance's lawsuit against Berlin farmers Alan and Kristin Hudson and Perdue Farms, the Salisbury-based company for whom the Hudsons raised birds.

— In a challenge to the Obama administration's efforts to jump-start the lagging restoration of the Chesapeake Bay, lawyers for farmers and homebuilders argued in federal court here Thursday that the Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its legal authority and relied on a flawed computer model in setting a pollution "diet" for the ailing estuary. Lawyers for the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Association of Home Builders, poultry and pork producers, and other farming groups argued that states in the Chesapeake watershed, not the federal government, should be in charge of deciding how and where to reduce pollution fouling the bay. They also complained that the far-reaching "diet" was rushed into place despite gaps and errors and without giving the public enough time to review and comment on it. "It will affect urban growth; it affects how agriculture land will be used," said Richard E. Schwartz, one of the industry groups' lawyers.

Natalina J. Mozingo, a former farmer and world traveler, died Friday from complications of dementia at her daughter's Dover, Del., home. She was 88. The former Natalina Josephine Tringali was born and raised in Northwest Baltimore. After she graduated from Forest Park High School, she worked as a secretary for the Baltimore Paint Co. In 1942, she married Harry L. Mozingo, a machinist. The couple later purchased Green Ridge Farm in Emmitsburg, which they turned into a poultry farm raising laying hens and thoroughbred horses.

I strongly object to letter writer Rick Berman's views regarding the "humane" treatment of pregnant pigs ("Pregnant pigs treated humanely," Sept. 22). No reasonable person objects to pregnant pigs being kept in separate pens, but you don't need to be a pig farmer to realize that the gestation crates used by big agribusiness (euphemistically called "maternity pens" in Mr. Berman's letter) are cruel, no question about it. These iron-barred crates are so small they do not permit the pig to lie down or turn around, and the animals are confined inside them for months on end. Many pigs confined in these crates become so stressed that they resort to self-destructive behaviors.

More than 200 years into the life of their family farm, Tim and Mitzi Jones decided their future should include cheese.  Bowling Green Farm has been producing milk from about 100 Holsteins and has been in the milk business since the 1920s. A few years ago, however, they realized milk wasn't enough. "There is no money in milk at this point," says Mitzi Jones, whose husband's family has owned the farm since the late 1700s. Sitting on 400 acres in the Sykesville area, Bowling Green Farm is one of three dairy farms still in business in Howard County, compared with about 300 in the 1960s, according to the county's economic development agency.

Peace be with you, dear readers, Today marks the International Day of Peace, established by a United Nations resolution in 1982. Tomorrow, happy autumn! Officially, Sept. 22 is the first day of autumn. It's time to enjoy colorful leaves, pumpkins, fall harvests and turkeys, among other things. Acquire your fall harvest at Havre de Grace Farmers Market, 450 Pennington Ave., Saturdays through October, 9 a.m. to noon. September is National Honey Month. Celebrate with your honey and buy fresh honey at the farmers market.