Harvest

I wanted to add fresh herbs to a salad and so while stretching across our herb garden for some sprigs that were just beyond my reach, I fell face first into our oregano patch. Typically, I would have been annoyed. But instead, I was all smiles, no doubt because I had fallen into what the ancient Greeks knew as "happiness plants. " "Oregano" means "joy of the mountains" in Greek, and Greece's mountainsides are where oregano is native and where it's been used as a culinary and medicinal herb for centuries.

Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler says he's considering going to court if the interstate panel that regulates Atlantic coast fishing for menhaden doesn't cut back enough the catch of a Virginia-based fleet that takes the lion's share of the forage fish. Speaking at a Chesapeake Bay scientific symposium in Baltimore on Monday, Gansler said he was "working with" the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission as it ponders tightening harvest limits on menhaden. Called by some "the most important fish in the sea," menhaden are a food source for many other fish and wildlife, including ospreys and striped bass, Maryland's state fish.

There is a statewide moratorium on the harvest of river herring, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The halt includes blueback and alewife herring, according to a DNR statement Friday. The moratorium has been in effect since Dec. 26. The Atlantic Coast river herring stock is managed by a multi-state commission. Each state from Maine to Florida was required to institute a fishing stop for herring by Jan. 1 unless a state-specific management plan demonstrated sustainability.

State banking regulators closed two Maryland banks Friday, the first two bank failures in the state since 2010. The Maryland Commissioner of Financial Regulation shut down the Bank of the Eastern Shore in Cambridge and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as receiver. The FDIC created the Deposit Insurance National Bank of Eastern Shore to allow customers to access their deposits until May 25. The state financial commissioner also closed HarVest Bank of Maryland in Gaithersburg, whose deposits and other assets were acquired by Sonabank in McLean, Va. HarVest's four branches will reopen during normal business hours as Sonabank's branches.

Harford County Executive David R. Craig and Harford County Government are partnering with the Postal Service to support the Harvest for the Hungry campaign. The local campaign is coordinated through the Harford Community Action Agency. "The annual Harvest for the Hungry campaign is a great opportunity for county employees, their families and friends to help support members of our community," Craig said in a press release. "The Harford Community Action Agency and the Harvest for the Hungry campaign do an outstanding job gathering food to support those in our community who turn to us for help in time of need.

In his Feb. 7 op-ed "Oysters vs. Watermen," Christopher White claims the State's proposed Oyster Restoration and Aquaculture Development plan will broaden aquaculture "to the exclusion of a wild harvest." This is absolutely not true; in fact, the plan maintains 75 percent of the bay's most productive oyster bottom for the wild fishery. The new plan, developed under the leadership of Gov. Martin O'Malley sets a course of action that will rebuild oyster populations for the bay, protect current jobs, and set a more sustainable course for both oysters and our oyster industry.

Harford County government employees collected more than eight tons of food to help less fortunate residents of the county and the region in conjunction with the annual Harvest for the Hungry campaign. The food collected last week was delivered to the parking lot of the county office building at 220 S. Main St. in Bel Air Friday morning where Harford County Executive David Craig and other county officials and the staff of the Harford Community Action Agency were by joined by Harvest for the Hungry founder and Harford resident Larry Adam.

The Chesapeake Bay's disease-battered oyster industry continues its downward slide, with record-low harvests this season in Maryland and Virginia.Landings of oysters reported in Maryland for the season that ends today are expected to be only 70,000 bushels, down 40 percent from the previous year's record poor catch, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.In Virginia, meanwhile, the harvest of market-size oysters from publicly owned river bottom has fallen to about 6,000 bushels, from 40,000 the year before, according to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.

After a year of great sickness and little food, the Pilgrims who had settled in New England were rescued by a good harvest in the fall of 1621. Fifty-two English settlers celebrated the harvest with more than 90 of their Wampanoag Indian neighbors. In later years, the feast would be called the new country's first Thanksgiving, even though the Pilgrims did not have a regular Thanksgiving themselves. Today, their colony in Plymouth, Mass., is commemorated with Plimoth Plantation, a re-creation of the original settlement as it would have been in 1627.

Maryland watermen have experienced five years in a row of meager oyster harvests. And this season, which ended late last month, proved no exception. The yield remains in the vicinity of 400,000 bushels. Twenty years ago, the harvests each year ran in excess of 3 million bushels.Parasitic disease has taken a dreadful toll on the oyster. Two persistent infections, MSX and Dermo, have made their way up the bay in recent years, greatly affecting Chesapeake oysters. These bivalves also seem to be adversely affected by the bay's declining health caused by pollution and overfishing.

A new nonprofit organization aims to turn the fruits of its labors into fresh food for the hungry. The Baltimore Orchard Project will glean gather otherwise unwanted fruit from trees on public and private land and donate the harvest to food banks, congregations and soup kitchens, says founder and director Nina Beth Cardin, a rabbi and community activist. The group's founding team has 25 members from such agencies as the Johns Hopkins University Center for a Livable Future, Tree Baltimore and Baltimore Green Space.

Harford County government employees collected more than eight tons of food to help less fortunate residents of the county and the region in conjunction with the annual Harvest for the Hungry campaign. The food collected last week was delivered to the parking lot of the county office building at 220 S. Main St. in Bel Air Friday morning where Harford County Executive David Craig and other county officials and the staff of the Harford Community Action Agency were by joined by Harvest for the Hungry founder and Harford resident Larry Adam.

Parts of three waterways have been opened to shellfish harvesting after tests showed declines in bacteria there, the Maryland Department of the Environment announced Monday. An area of the Wicomico River on the Eastern Shore, at the border between Wicomico and Somerset counties, is now approved for commercial harvests. Waters below Bay Point had been closed because of high bacteria levels in the water. The headwaters of Broad Creek in Talbot County have been conditionally approved, meaning that oysters and clams can be harvested there except after a heavy rainfall.

Harford County Executive David R. Craig and Harford County Government are partnering with the Postal Service to support the Harvest for the Hungry campaign. The local campaign is coordinated through the Harford Community Action Agency. "The annual Harvest for the Hungry campaign is a great opportunity for county employees, their families and friends to help support members of our community," Craig said in a press release. "The Harford Community Action Agency and the Harvest for the Hungry campaign do an outstanding job gathering food to support those in our community who turn to us for help in time of need.

The United Way's 28th annual Haverst for the Hungry campaign is underway. The food-collection drive continues through Saturday. It's simple. You just leave non-perishable goods by your own mailbox and your letter carrier will pick up your donation and get it to the right folks. For more information and guidelines about what to donate, go to Harvest for the Hungry website . You can also donate money through Give Corps , and if you do you'll be eligible for a $20-off deal from Tapas Teatro . Other partners for the Harvest for the Hungry include Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, the United States Postal Service, WBAL-TV 11, The Baltimore Sun Media Group, Safeway and Girl Scouts of Central Maryland.

There is a statewide moratorium on the harvest of river herring, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The halt includes blueback and alewife herring, according to a DNR statement Friday. The moratorium has been in effect since Dec. 26. The Atlantic Coast river herring stock is managed by a multi-state commission. Each state from Maine to Florida was required to institute a fishing stop for herring by Jan. 1 unless a state-specific management plan demonstrated sustainability.

In all but four counties in Maryland, the harvest of deer during the muzzleloader season that ended Jan. 5 was up over the totals posted by black powder hunters during the previous season."

LAST YEAR'S bin-busting harvest is not going to be repeated in Maryland this year. Based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's first estimate of the size of this year's grain crops, state farmers can expect a good harvest, but it won't set any records. "Overall, we are going to have a reasonable good crop," said state Agriculture Secretary Lewis R. Riley. "It's not going to be a great harvest, but in all honesty, the outlook for yields is pretty good." Corn yields, the best measure of how well the crop is progressing, are expected to be off 13 percent this year, according to the USDA's projection based on field conditions Aug. 1. Soybean production is expected to fare only slightly better.

What happens when The Rapture hits suburbia? What happens to those left behind when God appears to randomly harvest members of the human race? A mother here, a daughter there, a husband and both children there. Suddenly gone. Snap! That is the subject of Tom Perrotta's book "The Leftovers. " It is three years after what is being called "the sudden departure," and Mapleton, an upper-middle-class small town in New Jersey, is trying to find its way back to normal. Meanwhile, a handful of cults materialize — some benign, some evil — as people awaken to the fact that they might not have much time left on Earth.

And so another Thanksgiving approaches, the day officially set aside for the taking of personal inventory, and for expressions of gratitude for another year of life, for a steady income, for a place to live, for decent health (maybe even health insurance), for good food, clean water, heating and air conditioning, gas and electricity, cable and WiFi, and perhaps even happiness. Also, be sure to give thanks if you haven't had to call 211 this year. If you never once had to dial those three digits, then you probably are employed or have a steady retirement income; you can probably afford a house or apartment, too. If you never had to call United Way of Central Maryland's 24-7 help center, then you've probably managed to avoid suicidal thoughts, or at least be treated for trauma and depression through your health plan.